Revision as of 14:21, 30 November 2010

NASPA certifies directors as being qualified to direct sanctioned tournaments and clubs. The NSA stopped doing so on 2009-07-01.

Certification

Currently the same certification applies to both tournament and club directors. The certification criteria are set by the Tournament Committee and the Club/Director Committee jointly. You can be certified as a NASPA director in one of two ways:

• Current active tournament and/or club directors certified by the NSA who join NASPA are “grandfathered” in. I.e., they are automatically certified as tournament and club directors by NASPA.
• If you are not a past NSA director, you can take a test and undergo an apprenticeship, as explained in our director certification page. There are certain limitations based on age of apprentice.

The criteria for maintaining certified director status and for restoring a lapsed certification are also set by the Tournament Committee and the Club/Director Committee:

• A certified director must be a member in good standing of NASPA. A director can lose his/her good standing through a disciplinary process, or by having an overdue account with NASPA.
• When significant changes are made in Official Tournament Rules and/or Director’s Manual, directors may be required to retake the director test as a review at no charge. This can be done by email.

Director Reponsibilities

It is important for all NASPA directors to remember they are also NASPA's public representatives. NASPA is Hasbro's official organization to promote competitive club and tournament SCRABBLE play.

Accordingly, directors should only promote competitive SCRABBLE play through NASPA and no other organization. In exchange for these services, directors have been granted exclusive territorial rights for their clubs and tournaments by NASPA.

The first responsibility of NASPA directors is to represent NASPA in a professional, fair, welcoming and encouraging manner.

The second responsibility of a NASPA director is to perform the duties of a director in order to provide more, not fewer, opportunities for all players to participate, which is why entreating anyone to renounce his or her NASPA membership is unacceptable as it decreases the opportunities available to them to participate in competitive SCRABBLE.

While directors may belong to multiple organizations and play in events for multiple organizations, they may not become a club or tournament director of another organization, recruit members for an organization other than NASPA or entreat players to renounce their membership in NASPA.

Any director who does not abide by the policies can have his/her director's certification revoked by NASPA.

NASPA has no qualms with its directors...

(a) running or assisting with School SCRABBLE events because School SCRABBLE is the bailiwick of the NSA, and NASPA has a working relationship with the NSA.

(b) running or assisting with WESPA tourneys because NASPA has a working relationship with WESPA.

(c) running or assisting with any SCRABBLE-related fund-raisers for literacy or charities. (Note: anyone organizing such an event should contact the NSA for permission to use SCRABBLE's trademarked name. Also the NSA will happily provide materials and advertise the event on its list of casual club events. Email Theresa Bubb for information about this.)

(d) running or assisting with non-SCRABBLE events because, well,...they're non-SCRABBLE events.

Resources for directors

Here are some resources for directors to help them do their job. If you need something that isn’t listed below, please let us know and we’ll add it.

There is an online group (naspa-tcd) where sanctioned directors discuss questions and issues with other directors, including hearing what they have to say about all facets of organizing and running sanctioned NASPA clubs and tournaments. We encourage you to join it.

See also the Player Resources page for scoresheets and other player-related forms and links.

Tournament-related

• Services and software
  • Contact the Tournament Committee to add or update events on the Tournament Calendar (use the Tournament Listing Form as a guide when you submit your request).
  • Download Software for word adjudication and tournament management
  • Submitting tournament results
• Downloadable forms
  • Blank slips (posted 2010-09-20)
  • Blank/Challenge slips (older version)
  • Combined score/blank/challenge slips (posted 2010-09-21)
  • Incident Report Form
  • Contestant Scorecards (single-sided): 19 Rounds
  • Membership Application Form for gathering data offline to enter later into the online membership application system.
  • NASPA scoresheet
  • NASPA scoresheet, two-sided
  • NASPA scoresheet, two-up, two-sided
  • Word Judge Test
  • Downloadable forms not yet copied over from the NSA
• Key publications
  • Official Tournament Rules
  • Director's Manual
  • Official Tournament and Club Word List
  • Long List
• Newcomer's Handout ("Top Ten Things" from Mary Rhoades)
• Other informational notices
  • Tournament checklist
  • Accommodating players with special needs
  • How to implement a Friend of the director (FOTD) policy
  • How to pair a round-robin event
  • Which rating to use when assigning players to divisions

Membership-related

• Verify a player’s membership and/or rating (note that cross-tables only lists players who have played rated games; first-time players will be flagged as “Check with NASPA”):
  • Member search An interactive search for any NASPA members (does not currently include information about suspensions).
  • Rating search An interactive search for any rated players (shows rating and expiry; flags suspended players).
  • Member list A concise listing of all current NASPA members eligible to play in tournaments (with their ratings and membership numbers), in alphabetical order by last name (includes also new members who haven’t played in rated tournaments yet; excludes members who have not paid yet or whose membership has expired; excludes players currently under any level of suspension). Tip: save or print a copy of the output from this application so you can quickly verify any player’s eligibility even when you are not online.
  • Rating list A long listing of all living players (with their ratings, rankings and membership expiration dates) that have ever established a rating with NASPA or the NSA, in alphabetical order by last name (includes rated players only; includes also rated nonmembers and past members; indicates players who are suspended).
• To purchase a NASPA membership for a player, go to Member services and look for “Add New Members” in the Director section. If you need to collect membership information offline at a tournament or club, you can use our old Membership Application Form to record the data you will need to type into the online form.
• Players under suspension

Club-related

We are continuing to compile a director list and a Club roster. If you are a director who has not yet submitted information about yourself and/or your club, please download our director questionnaire and submit it to Mary Rhoades.

• Key publications
  • Official Tournament Rules
  • Director's Manual
  • Official Tournament and Club Word List
  • Long List
• Other informational notices
  • Newcomer's Handout ("Top Ten Things" for people new to Club play)