Grades are based almost entirely on officiating skill, though territorial and national grades take account of one's ability to diplomatically represent the sponsoring union in other unions and out of the country. Over the course of a referee's career the assigned grade can go up or down. The requirements for each grade are discussed in the Formal Evaluation of Referees
The Society awards grades of D, C3, C2, C1, and P. The territorial unions, e.g. the ERRR, award grades of B3, B2, and B1. The national union awards grades of A2 and A1. In most other countries there are no territorial unions and the scheme is slightly different. Beginning referees start with a grade of D. As a referee improves grades go from C3 to C2 to C1. Referees at the C1 level may be recommended to the ERRR for further evaluation as they continue to improve.
The P grade, or President's Grade is unique to New England and is an honor bestowed by the President of the Society. This is usually given to mature referees who are no longer being evaluated. It is sometimes given to territorial and national panel referees who retire from travelling, rather than returning them to C1 status. It is also granted to referees who through age or injury are losing fleetness of foot but continue to actively referee without being competitvely evaluated. We are presently negotiating with several movie theater chains to obtain discounts for referees with P grades.
Evaluations are performed by a standing committee of evaluators. Additional evaluations are provided by the senior active referees. We attempt to have every referee formally evaluated at least once each season. Occassionally, New England referees are sent to other unions for evaluation and occassionally outside evaluators are brought in during tournaments. The grade list is usually updated once per year, just before the fall league season.
When you are being evaluated, try to call the same game you would without an evaluator. A game where you impress an evalutator with your knowledge of the laws, but leave the players frustrated, is a failure; a game where an evaluator takes you apart but players from both teams come up to you with compliments, is a success.
Prepared by Mark Handel, 6/92. Click for details on the formal evaluation process.
As a means of giving an idea of the relative numbers of referees at various grade levels we are including a national breakdown as of July 1990. Although the current exact numbers will be different, this provides a reasonable sense of the distribution. To the right of these numbers, we show the (atypical) current distribution in New England.
| Grade | In the USA | In New England |
|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 1996 | |
| A1 | 1 | 0 |
| A2 | 4 | 2 |
| B1 | 8 | 2 |
| B2 | 18 | 3 |
| B3 | 27 | 2 |
| C1 | 89 | 14 |
| C2 | 123 | 12 |
| C3 | 105 | 9 |
| D | ~300 | 6 |
In an effort to improve the overall level of refereeing in New England Rugby, the Society has implemented a system of referee grading by the clubs. The Society is asking each club to provide a written, graded assessment of the performance of the referee for that day's match. In order to provide some balance, both clubs in any match will be asked for their assessment of that referee.
To make the process as easy as possible, the Society has prepared stamped, addressed postcards with an easy grading system outlined. There is space for individual comments. These cards will be distributed to the referees. Before each match the referee should give one to each captain.
While the process allows for individual club discretion in deciding who will fill out the card, it is hoped that said individual will have watched the game he is grading, preferably without benefit of any mind-altering substances. It is also hoped that said individual will have a reasonable knowledge of both the game and the Laws, in order to differentiate between the rare ``bad call'' and the less rare ``bad for my team'' call. Certainly the Society hopes to get legitimate input into a referee's performance from one who has a serious interest in helping that referee to improve him or herself and to thereby improve the game overall in New England. No cards will be considered without the name of the grader in the allotted space. The grades received will not be part of each referee's formal evaluation, which will still be done by senior referees and evaluators. We hope to use the cards to spot weaknesses or strengths in a referee skills and to maximize the usefulness of the evaluators by providing a steady stream of comments and observations about referees, many of whom are watched formally by evaluators as infrequently as once a season.
Before giving the cards to the captains, referees should fill in their name, the date, and the names of the clubs playing.
Thanks in advance to all who participate. Please direct all questions to the President of the Society.
Prepared by Ron Tremper, 5/92.