hrothgar Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 A few weeks back there was some discussion about a TD certification program. I threw a quick note to David Stevenson who confirmed that he did, indeed, create a certification test for Tournament Directors. To date, a grand total of two people have taken said test. He currently does not have a formal training program for said test. Its unclear to me whether the BBO membership (as opposed to members of this forum) actually put much weight on a formal certification programs for TDs. However, if there is a will, I may have found the path of least resistance... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pigpenz Posted November 3, 2006 Report Share Posted November 3, 2006 it would seem it would depend on weather the players want a certified TD?Someone of us are already certified by certain organizations like acbl. It could go under tourney description that the TD is certified by acbl bbo or whatever. One organizations certification may not mean anything to someone who is not of that organizations....say people from Europe may not like ACBL certified TD since the acbl put so many restrictions on conventions that the TD maybe unfamiliar with non acbl ones Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrTodd13 Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 Unless the certification is for "online tournaments" then the certificate is next to worthless. Most director calls in f2f tournaments relate to lead out of turn, failure to follow suit, insufficient bids, etc. What you need to focus on for online tourneys is hesitation, UI, MI issues. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Finch Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 Unless the certification is for "online tournaments" then the certificate is next to worthless. Most director calls in f2f tournaments relate to lead out of turn, failure to follow suit, insufficient bids, etc. What you need to focus on for online tourneys is hesitation, UI, MI issues. I, along with a great many other duly certified directors f2f tournaments would strongly disagree. To take one example, the EBU f2f certification is split into two halves: I can't remember the exact names, but they are 'lawbook rulings' and 'judgement rulings'. The first half may be mainly unnecessary for online bridge (covering revokes, etc) but the second half covers exactly hesitation, UI, MI issues etc. (In the days when I did that qualification you also had to show you knew how to score, but I don't think they bother with that any more) In addition, the EBU has a more advanced qualification which concentrates almost solely on judgement issues. If you've passed that, you are certainly qualified to deal with any hesitation, UI or MI issue that arises whether online or not. As it happens, I would guess - from seeing the rulings that appear here - that the most useful thing an online TD can have is some awareness of 'standard' bidding round the world. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helene_t Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 Unless the certification is for "online tournaments" then the certificate is next to worthless.[.....] I, along with a great many other duly certified directors f2f tournaments would strongly disagree.[......]I can't remember the exact names, but they are 'lawbook rulings' and 'judgement rulings'. Agree with Frances - "next to worthless" is a huge exageration. Ideally, a BBO director should have a certificate proving his knwoledge of online-specific issues such as self-alert, substitution, FD and chat, as well as the BBO TD interface. But most (if not all) of the complaints about TDs that I've seen on this forum have been about basic things that any certified TD would know. As for the terminology: technical ruling vs ethical ruling Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jillybean Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 Any move to help TD's and improve tournaments would be great. People have complained about free TD's and suggested training for years, lets do it! The biggest hurdle imo will be getting the TD's to complete it - the rest of BBO don't mind if they play bridge or a kind of look alike game. jb Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
golfacer Posted November 4, 2006 Report Share Posted November 4, 2006 I think the best approach for TD education is to start from the beginning; not have an 80-pair tournament with a playing TD, or a director who will remove someone who has been disconnected for only five seconds, and without visiting the table. Certainly it is important for the directors to know how to make reasonable rulings in complicated situations, but that ability will not appear overnight. :unsure: I agreed to present a TD lecture on BBO within the next week or two, based partly on the TD Class script that I posted here a few weeks ago. It will be more of a TD "common-sense" lecture, as opposed to a lecture of difficult rulings. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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