Race Officials Symposium - Who, What & Where of Officiating

Linda Ambrose, Regatta Manager

AYC’s inaugural Race Officials Symposium has garnered a lot of attention for bringing to the table an impressive list of speakers, including sailing industry leadership, race and protest officials, and media and communications gurus. The broad-based symposium that will cover all aspects of race management will be held in the Sailing Center on February 23 & 24, and attendees currently registered are coming from all over the Mid Atlantic region.

Key Note presentations include mid-day remarks on Saturday by US Sailing President Cory Sertl, with Saturday morning kicking off with Tucker Thompson, who will cover Developments in the America’s Cup and Other Major World Events. T2P Productions will welcome the audience on Sunday morning with a new presentation from their “bag of tricks," Reaching Sailors and the Media.

The sessions are divided into the following tracks:
- Innovation in officiating
- Raising the bar - training and improving race administration skills, techniques, and equipment
- Recruiting, training, and retaining new officials
- Connecting with sailors - promoting events through better communications and modern media
- Successes (and lessons learned) from recent events

A full agenda will be posted on the event site early next week, but an example of topics include:
- Cross-Club Collaboration
- The PRO Tool Kit – what every PRO needs to take on the water daily
- Introduction to Match Racing for Race Officers
- The Last 60 Seconds – YOU Make the Call
- Effective Use of Video in Race Officiating

If you are a Race Official, RC volunteer, or competitive racer, there’s something for everyone to take away from this event. For more information and to register, visit the official event site: bit.ly/ayc-rosymposium