Technical Director Update 1701

The Recycled TD- Randy Shafer

I hope everyone is enjoying a busy and enjoyable summer officiating around this wonderful country of ours.  I’m happy to share with you that I have accepted the position of Technical Director with USA Cycling and will be filling the very large leadership shoes that Chuck Hodge provided.  Chuck has been promoted to Vice-President of Operations, who will oversee the Technical Department. 

As the Technical Director, I’m recycling to the position after a (nearly) 20 year absence, however not from the sport.  For those of you that haven’t met me (which I am sure will be many of you), I look forward to meeting you, working with you and becoming a resource for questions you have in your growth in the sport and management of events as a USA Cycling Referee.  My work as a referee began in 1981, as a club referee.  I stayed local until about 1985 and began to work regionally after working my way up from a category 3 to category 2 (yes, those were the dark ages before stop watches were invented...).  In 1991, I took my category 1 class, in 1993 my UCI National Commissaire’s course and in 1997, I became a UCI  International Commissaire.  My career as a USA Cycling referee has literally taken me all over our great country and around the world. 

While I wasn’t looking for a chance to become Technical Director again, the position opened up and I began to think about what I am going to be able to pass on to the sport.  I also was keenly aware of significant changes in the organization’s positive leadership and I’m looking to capitalize on that.  That means I didn’t take this job with a large corporate vision, written out with time lines. That will develop over time.  That being said, I’d like to follow up with many of the good things that were developing;

• the category A official’s class and in race experiences for training,
• mentoring and evaluations,
• creating education to let people advance in their skill sets without having to climb a ladder and
• close to my heart, is fleshing out the Official’s Hall of Fame to recognize the history and involvement of officials in the leadership of the sport. 

Those are just a few items on my immediate radar, plus a lot of responsibilities that aren’t so evident.

I am looking forward to hearing from you, discussing the issues that concern you on any level of officiating and finding ways to create educated, motivated and satisfied USA Cycling Referees.  I look forward to your contacting me via phone, email, social media text, or best of all, face to face when we have the opportunity.

Finally, I’m very human and likely to fail someone’s expectations, so if you have a concern, please take it to the source.  I’m always happy to discuss your concerns.  As I like to say, there isn’t bad news or good news, just information.  The emotions we assign it are ours to deal with.

Looking forward to great progress in our efforts in managing USA Cycling races.

Randy Shafer
Technical Director
rshafer@usacycling.org
@TD_USAC