I really need the multiquote button because I'm going to forget some stuff but here goes....
Yes judges judge on the weekend but I am willing to miss those days at my "real job" because I am being compensated financially for my time away, so if we are going to be asked to spend a weekend or two for training, which I'm all for if it can be done well BTW, then I will have to be compensated for that time as well or I can't very well justify missing work or being away from home or whatever
I totally agree with this. When I am at my day job and I have to go to training, I am compensate for it. Judging shouldn't be any different. And shall I say that in order to get QUALITY judges, they should be compensated VERY well!! :)
As far as compensation, I have heard of people making as little as $100 for a small event, and people making as much as $700 for a big one... In my own personal experience those numbers are both pretty extreme, AND it's highly likely that someone out there has made less than 100 or more than 700 at some point but just throwing out some numbers
This I find UNACCEPTABLE!! You get what you pay for. These event producers make a TON of money on these events.
Someone asked what type of qualifications you need other than passing the test, and the answer is none, and there is not test. There are tons of great judges out there but there are also plenty that are less than great because of this...
Again, NOT cool! NO TEST?? Really?? So Jo Schmoe that has NO cheer background whatsoever can go and get certified just because he paid the money to?? Really?? :x
McLovin you mentioned the USASF needing to take control of this but right now the USASF has no level of involvement with the judges or scoring systems used by the various competition companies and they have nothing to gain by training judges because the companies are free to hire whoever they choose. Now if ALL judges and legality officials were supplied by the USASF then they could also be trained by the USASF but that also brings up the problem of all the various scoring systems that they would need to be trained on, and then they would be getting trained by people who didn't develop the scoring system so who will train the trainers... I'm not saying it shouldn't happen but there is a lot to get ironed out in there I think
My answer to this is THEY SHOULD have involvement!! They SHOULD be the ONE entity that hires, trains, develops scoresheets, etc. I will say this till I'm blue in the face, but until this happens, our sport will continue to be laughable to the rest of the world. I can't tell you how frustrating it is for me to listen to "outsiders" talk about how cheer isn't a sport, and then go and watch how hard my girls train and how much of their lives are consumed by something that 90% of the world still thinks is pretty little girls running around in skimpy skirts and playing with pom pons.
There were some other things I wanted to comment on I think but I can't recall them now... I do know that the more I think about it the more I agree with wanting all the scores for every team to be made public
