30 Member Federations were present at the European Athletics Technical Officials Management System Seminar organised with the support of the Portuguese Athletics Federation from 10-12 March in Lisbon, Portugal.
Led by Samuel Lopes (POR) with lectures delivered by Elena Orlova (RUS) and Jorge Salcedo (POR), the seminar was mainly attended by technical officials’ managers and coordinators as well as competition officials, judges and referees.
During the 3-day event, participants had the opportunity to share experiences and recognise best practises with regards to supporting technical officials.
They eventually developed strategies to improve the quality and effectiveness of management in order to better 1) recruit and select, 2) educate, certify and evaluate, 3) recognise, motivate and retain technical officials.
Three case studies were presented at the end of each day by Luca Verrascina (ITA), Ludmila Pudilová (CZE) and Malcolm Rodgers (GBR), describing the systems that are in place in their home countries.
Following the seminar, members have now been integrated into Working Groups tasked with delivering recommendations to the Events & Competition Commission.
They will try to find ways to facilitate non-officials’ systems of judges in schools and in clubs, balancing specialisation and versatility of officials and identifying long term threats to the systems.
Participants expressed their overall satisfaction with the delivery of the seminar and welcomed the opportunity to meet their counterparts from across Europe.