The full reports of the Dressage Judges Working Group and Officials Working Group were presented at the 2017 FEI Sports Forum in Lausanne, Switzerland on 11 April 2017. They are now made public.
The Dressage Judges Working Group includes Frank Kemperman, Maribel Alonso, Kyra Kyrklund, Richard Davison and David Stickland. The goals of the group were twofold: the improvement of the current judging system for all FEI levels of Dressage, with a clear route forward to be applied at national level also should NFs wish; and aim to create a plausible project planning that could lead to deployment by 1st January 2019 - 18 months before the Tokyo Olympic Games.
They recommended a judging system based on a code of points and with the FEI Judges Handbook replaced by a Video Handbook. They also made three recommendations concerning education: new course material related to the video handbook, an increase of emphasis on the education of officials at all levels and increased support to course directors.
The full report of the Dressage Judges Working Group can be read here (pdf)
The full report of the Officials Working Group was also presented at the FEI Sports Forum and it made no less than 13 recommendations:
- the introduction of a single Code of Conduct for all FEI Officials; the introduction of job descriptions with evaluations for all FEI Officials
- to develop a competency-based evaluation system with the goal of replacing the age limit
- to have an education calendar available by the end of a year for the following year
- to improve the quality of education material and course delivery
- the FEI to establish a new Course Director education programme and funding
- all Disciplines should make extensive use of the new e-Learning platform FEI Campus.
- compulsory NF recommendation only upon entering first level of FEI qualification
- FEI to establish a common fund, to support Officials in getting more officiating experience
- FEI to introduce “rotation” for FEI Officials at FEI events
- FEI to create a “Development Pool” for FEI Officials
- FEI to extend the number of FEI Officials appointed to FEI Events in all disciplines
- FEI to create a top layer of FEI Officials for the professional sport
The full report of the Officials Working Group can be read here (pdf)
Photo © Astrid Appels
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