Judges,

Thank you for your continued patience with the NGA registration. We apologize for all the set backs. The program was originally up and going last weekend, and the test run appeared successful. However, the program stopped generating members numbers and confirmation emails. We are at the mercy of the IT folks to get this taken care of. For now, if you have registered and paid, please keep record of your bank statement so we can get you an assigned member number if you were charged but did not receive a confirmation email. If you have not registered yet, please hold off until we get the green light from IT. At that point we will send another announcement to the SJDs. Until then, if you are scheduled to judge an NGA session, we will have the necessary paperwork available at your meet. Please sign the paperwork, take a photo and send it to your SJD. You do not have to pay until the online system can take your payment and generate a member number. 

I know there are many questions surrounding when/how you can practice judge. Originally we were going to have these videos up earlier, but we will be getting them up in the same system as our live skill charts, as well as on the GotScored website. It is also taking a bit longer than expected to get sample videos. We hope to have those up with some score ranges in the near future. Until then, if you are headed into a gym to critique or doing some early competitions please keep in mind NGA feels the most important part of judging is the rank of the athletes. The athlete that performed their requirements with the best execution should get the highest score. As a new program we know there will be lots of questions from our judges as we know they want to do a great job for the athletes. We ask that you apply the deductions to the best of your ability using your educated opinion to make the tough calls. Please strive to be fair and reasonable, always giving the benefit to the athlete. If a tough question arises, consult the meet ref, note the decision that was made, and send your question to the NGA office so a clarification can be made and posted to the website, FB technical page, and sent to the SJDs. 

The virtual meet platform is still a work in progress. Like the registration, we are at the mercy of the developers, and it is a very large undertaking. We will make sure everyone has all the information needed to get started as soon as it is live. We are aiming for a practice event to be available so everyone can login and learn to navigate and judge within the program before a sanctioned competition. We will stay in communication with the SJDs to help up relay this information. 

Finally, we appreciate everyone’s patience as we navigate a new beginning during a difficult time. We need everyone to work together to help make NGA a great organization for our athletes. They are the reason we are here. Please remember to extend grace to those around you as we are all working towards the same goal. 

Rebecca Wissmiller