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National Association of Women's Gymnastics Judges of Florida
National Association of Women's Gymnastics Judges of Florida
Who We Are
The mission of the National Association of Women's Gymnastics Judges (NAWGJ) is to provide professional development for women's gymnastics judges and to support and promote women’s gymnastics in the United States.
NAWGJ trains and assigns judges for all levels of competition sponsored by the USAG, NCAA, AAU, YMCA, and other organizations.
Every judge is required to fulfill educational requirements annually and to re-certify every four years following the Olympic Games. Certification is based on the outcome of written and practical exams.
This website provides information for individuals interested in becoming a judge as well as those who are experienced professionals.
We are proud to serve the judges, coaches, and athletes in our sunshine state.
PROFESSIONALISM
So...its that time of year for preparing for the upcoming judging season which will begin in a few weeks. It has been a busy summer with a variety of great clinics for judges. As your FL Ethics Chair I attended several lectures at NAWGJ Symposium on professionalism. I wanted to update myself, see what other judges talked about and what questions were asked. Professionalism related to social media, cell phones, being “overly officious” and uniforms were the hot topics.
Reviewing Rules and Policies and our judging canons before the season starts is NEVER a bad idea. The National NAWGJ Website under Official Documents has all our canons listed and some very good articles by judges in other states about professionalism and the canons. USAG also has a Code of Ethical Conduct for all members and is worth reviewing. Just for fun I asked a friend of mine who played major league baseball for 12 years about cell phones and social media while playing. He said that he never took his cell phone on the field or had it in the dugout as MLB had a “Zero Tolerance” for cell phones and encouraged players and officials to stay off social media.
If found with a cell phone you were fined and possibly suspended. I asked about umpires having cell phones and he laughed at me and said he never saw an official with a cell phone even during a TV time out. He got a real charge out of that question! I suspect cheating and gambling/betting are the real issues here which explains the heavy fines and suspensions. I understand that baseball games don’t last 12 hours like some of our meet days but baseball officials are on the field without real breaks for about 3 hours.
Of course they are being paid well but your level of professionalism should not be based on pay. Lastly I want to mention on the NAWGJ Website under Education is an article by Linda Thorberg (2019 RFP Winner) Judging Rodeo - Professionalism - It's important to pay attention to our behavior.
Great reminders for ALL of us. Have a GREAT season! Peace out!
Pam Sherwood
FL NAWGJ Ethics Chair