An open letter to the CQC or “Why CQC ref certification needs to go away forever” Last season, the Carolinas Quidditch Conference put into place a system in which the conference could certify head referees for it’s own use without the involvement of the IQA or it’s Referee Development Team. (aka RDT)Like the IQA certification process, this sytem consisted of both an electronic written test and a field test conducted by a senior referee. In theory, the function of this program should have been to train and assess head referees on the homefront and increase standards. I firmly believe that the CQC ref certification program failed at this initiative. Rather than raising standards, it lowered them even further and convinced sub-par refs that they were plenty good enough and had no reason to improve. The existence of CQC certification took away incentive for potential head referees to seek out any VALUABLE training or certification. Without naming names, I have seen individuals pass this program that I consider underqualified to even assistant ref. The professionalism, rulebook knowledge, assertiveness, and overall quality and integrity of the head referees within our conference is frankly embarassing, and it’s holding all of us back. The idea that the CQC has the resources to be self sufficient regarding referee training is laughable. We cannot train our own referees because we do not have quality referees to begin with. The only individual in the entirety of the Carolinas with any referee training whatsoever is Cameron Kim, and we’re losing him to graduate school very soon. If we are to continue this program, who exactly, is going to spearhead it? With Cameron gone, I think it’s fair to say that the most capable head referee in the Carolinas will be myself. While I’m happy to act as a resource in other ways, I do not consider myself in any way qualified to conduct field tests or award certification, and I certainly don’t consider anyone else in the CQC qualified either. Furthermore, why are we as a conference so fixated on being self sufficient even though we know very well it’s doing us no good? Why are we refusing the help of an organization that not only exists solely to train and certify referees , but is a hell of a lot better at it than we are? I am concerned. I am concerned as a referee. I am concerned as a player. I am concerned as a captain. I am concerned as a tournament director. CQC ref certification is a farce and a false sense of security. Quality gameplay is extremely dependent upon having a knowledgable authoritative head referee. Crappy refs means crappy gameplay and crappy gameplay means we’re a joke. Quidditch cannot continue to grow in the Carolinas until we acknowledge this.
Posted on: Wed, 23 Apr 2014 03:20:16 +0000
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