Referee Requirements

Fencing Victoria Referee Allocation Policy

Applicability

This policy will take effect from the start of the 2018 season.
This policy applies to all events where paid, non-competing referees are used. Currently:

Novice Events
B-Grade Events
Age based competitions (U9 thru U20) including Club Challenge and JD Cup.

Referee Allocation

Number of Individual Event Entries from a club	Required Referees from that club
1-4	0
5-10	1
11-20	2
21-30	3
31+	One additional referee for every 10 fencers or part thereof above 30.

Each club is required to make available referees based on that clubs total entry numbers across all events being held that day.
Entry numbers in the table above are based on individual event entries, not the number of competitors. An individual entering 2 events during the day counts as 2 entries.
Referees are to be provided for the full day, not solely while that club’s fencers are competing. The DT will schedule the referees as required for smooth running of the competition.
Clubs may provide a separate morning and afternoon referee to fill any given slot. This will enable fencers to compete in the morning and referee in the afternoon (or vice versa).
Referees must be qualified (state, national or FIE level). Referees should also be experienced at a level that suits the competition. (e.g. A inexperienced referee should not be scheduled to the U20 State Championships).
Referees are dedicated to the task. They may not coach or compete whilst on duty.
If the club competitors are solely foil or solely epee, then the referees provided can officiate in that weapon only. If both foil and epee entries are received from a club, then referees must be qualified in both foil and epee.
Victorian sabre events are generally small, and it is expected that FV will continue to schedule sabre referee(s) directly in conjunction with the sabre clubs/competitors.
The club any fencer is representing is based on their ‘Main Fencing Club’ as recorded in their SportingPulse record at the time of entry. It is the responsibility of fencers and clubs to keep this information current.
The referees do not need to be a member of that club, but a referee can only represent one club during any specific competition.
A club may fill one referee slot by providing the DT for the competition.

Payments

FV will continue to pay referees as per the current payment schedule.
Clubs may choose to supplement the FV payments, but such arrangements are directly between club and referee.

Process

Clubs and head coaches should generally have a good idea of the expected number of entries for any given event and plan accordingly.
When event entries close (generally 9pm Thursday), the FV competition manager will notify the nominated coach/co-ordinator at each club of:

The total number of entries from that club
The number of referees required.

Each club must ensure that a nominated responsible person, email address and mobile # for SMS are provided and maintained.
Each club with 5 or more entries must provide the list of referees by 9pm Friday.
The FV Competition Manager will then co-ordinate directly with each referee from that point onwards.

Remedies

If a club fails to respond by 9pm Friday or provides insufficient referees, competition entries from that club will be reduced to reflect the number of referees provided.

Entries will be removed last-in, first out.

If a nominated referee fails to attend the competition, the club will be fined an amount equal to the daily payment rate per referee. No future competition entries will be accepted from this club until the fine is paid.
Late entries (post 9pm Thursday) will only be accepted from any given club up to the entry count that matches the number of referees nominated.

E.g. A club has 7 entries at 9pm Thursday. Consequently, they will be asked to provide 1 referee. Up to 3 late entries will be accepted from that club as the maximum entries for one referee is 10.
Note: Not all competitions accept late entries due to piste or capacity constraints.