Every year Gateball Australia is obliged to hold a Referee Committee meeting. Our 5 International Referees and each state’s coordinator participate. This year’s meeting meeting has concluded. This is a summary of our deliberations. Establishing a preferred position by exchange of emails is a challenging task and in our 2020 meeting we resolved some issues by voting through Survey Monkey.

This year the Committee’s major decisions were as follows:

• GA will require teams entering the AGC to make every effort to include a referee or referee in training in their team.
• Bruce McAllister will work at the presentation of the level 1 Exam in consultation with Gilon Smith, Geoff Crook and Philip Brown. After some discussion, the committee indicated that it wished to ensure that the assessment of field position and the rotating roles of Referee A and B needed to be included in both the written and practical assessment. The Committee re-iterated that operating as a pair of referees, where Referee A decides on the stroker’s play and Referee B decides on the movement of the ball, is such a crucial element in refereeing that it needs to be assessed in the written, practical and annual re-accreditation cards.
• In some parts of the Gateball world, mainly China, laser pointers are used by captains to show players where to place  balls. The issues of extending their use has been raised at WGU meetings. Your Referee Committee decided that, although it was still opposed to their use, we would make efforts to discover exactly what is permissible in Australia. High powered pointers strong enough to make a mark on a lawn are currently not allowed in Australia.
• A default forfeit procedure  for for GA was revised and is posted on our website. This process should be used if you do not devise your own process for your competitions. This topic produced some lively debate around what is fair to all concerned. 
• There was some discussion about the referee re-accreditation process and  the format of the annual cards. The committee decided that if anyone wished to come up with an improved process, they were welcome to do the research and table improvements in advance of next year’s meeting. Re-accreditation cards, that all referees need to complete annually, are available on our website
• A number of referees have been deemed to be inactive. See the official list of GA’s on the page “Officiating, Rules and Refereeing” which can be found under “About Gateball” on our website. Players lose their accreditation when they cease to be members of the ACA or because they have not completed the necessary online course or annual re-accreditation cards. The Committee agreed to a new process by which inactive referees can become re-accredited. Check the details on our website or discuss with your State Coordinator of Refereeing. The full updated document describing our accreditation and reaccreditation process for Gateball referees is available on our website 
• An appeal for national consistency in calling player to start stroking was resolved by reference to the rule book and Q and A. At Start Stroking we should call “Player No 1” etc (p 92 Rules and Guide for Referees.) The Q&A book (eg p 29 & 30) indicates that during the game “Number 5” etc is appropriate.
• A challenge for some people who may wish to become referees is obtaining the necessary training. A Referee Course Workbook has been drafted and Bruce McAllister is adding some additional material. However, usual practice is for trainee referees to have a mentor to help them through the process. The workbook may be more valuable for those remote from the wider Gateball community.
• Gateball Australia armbands circulated to each state should now be available for use at all competitions – just contact your State Coordinator to ask to borrow them.

Documents related to refereeing can be found at any time  on the page  “Officiating, Rules and Refereeing” is nested  under “About Gateball” on our website.

Again, thanks to all those who continue to referee and those making the effort to become accredited.