Policy 1000: NARA Judges Program
Applicants must fill out the judge’s application form (download here) and submit it to the BOD for approval. Requirements for entering the program are as follows:
-Must be a NARA member in good standing
-Have titled one dog in all levels from BR-FR3(qualified as two excellent scores under 2 different judges in FR3)
Level 1 Qualified Judge
Once accepted into the program by a majority vote of the BOD of directors, the following requirements must be meet:
-5 apprentice judging under 4 different Formative/ LVL 3 Judges with favorable reports
-Passing of a written test administered by the NARA BOD with a minimum score of 80%
-2 parallel judging under 2 Formative/LVL 3 Judges with favorable reports
Apprentice judgeships can be done under SCC/GTR Formative Judges, CRA Formative Judges, RFM Formative Judges, and NARA LVL 3 Judges. You must apprentice under 4 different judges. It is required that there are FR3 dogs competing in 4 of the 5 apprenticeships and both parallels.
All apprentice and parallel judgeships must be done without interruption at trial. All levels and all dogs must be observed. Applicants can trial one dog during an apprenticeship. You are not allowed to trial a dog during parallel judgeships.
If an applicant fails to pass the written test, he or she must complete two additional apprentice judgeships. If an applicant fails the written test a second time they are dismissed from the program.
All reports from the apprenticeships and parallels must be sent to the NARA Secretary and entered into the applicants Judges Book(if available).
Applicants for the judge’s program may not have any lapse in membership during their time in the program. If a lapse occurs, all progress in the program will be void.
Only NARA Members that are a US citizen/Permanent Resident (qualified as having a valid green card) may enter the NARA Judges program.
All parallel judgeships must be done in the US, or have NARA BOD approval, and a NARA BOD member must be present at the trial.
Upon completion of all requirements and NARA Secretary approval or a majority vote of the BOD, applicant will be considered a Level 1 NARA judge and able to do all club trials, pre-regional trials, and judge internationally.
Level 2 Qualified Judge, Championship Events Judge, and Decoy Selector
To be able to advance to a Level 2 judge, the following requirements must be met:
-A 2nd dog titled through all levels by the applicant to LVL 2 or have been a NARA Decoy with a minimum of 10 trials officiated
-Must have judged 10 trials
-Test on decoy rules, work, and selection criteria
Upon completion of all requirements and NARA Secretary approval or a majority vote of the BOD, the judge will be advanced to a Level 2 judge and able to do all club trials, pre-regional trials, NARA Regionals, and the NARA Cup. A LVL 2 Judge is also able to do LVL 1 and LVL 2 decoy selections.
Level 3 Qualified Judge, Decoy Selector, and Teaching Judge
To be able to advance to a Level 3 judge, the following requirements must be met:
– Must have judged 15 trials since becoming a LVL 1 Judge
Upon completion of all requirements and NARA Secretary approval or a majority vote of the BOD, the judge will be advanced to a Level 3 judge and able to do all club trials, pre-regional trials, regionals trials, the NARA Cup, Decoy Selections (Level 1, Level 2, and NARA DSS), and act as a teaching judge for apprentice judges in the NARA Judges Program.
Continuing Education
Judges must officiate 1 trial every two years to maintain status. If a lapse occurs, the judge must requalify by taking a written test administered by the NARA BOD and doing one parallel judgeship with a formative Judge(French, RFM, CRA, or NARA LVL 3).
After 5 years of inactivity, judges must redo the entire program.
Revised May 08, 2018
Policy 1050: Selecting Judges for NARA Prestige Events
The judges for NARA’s prestige events will be selected without prejudice or bias from eligible judges from NARA, RFM, CRA, and the jury of the previous year’s French Coupe and Selectifs.
The current BoD will choose judges from the pool of available judges.
Priority will be given to qualified NARA judges for Regionals.
Priority will be give to the pool of nine French judges from the previous year’s Selectifs/Coupe. The French judge must be a HA Selector and Formative Judge. If no judge from that pool is available, it will be open to all qualified judges.
The same judge may not judge both the NARA Championship and the NARA Regional Championships
Revised Jul 29, 2018