Figure Skating related jobs

[Debbie S]

A club near where I used to live pretty much told me that "if you aren't a parent and part of our inner circle you aren't welcome" (They had screwed up thier finances and I volunteered to redo the books. They said NO so I wound up doing it anyway with the poor mother who took the job and had not a clue what she was doing. There was no "theft" just "bookeeping in a box" From what the parents I knew told me that was the way the "inner circle" wanted it. Only thier "friends" could help! Plus that allowed them to play the "poor little me" syndrome to everyone when they talked about "how hard we work and no one will help us" LOL!) That attitude is unfortunate. However, as Isk8NYC noted, if a club doesn't know you, they're not going to give you a sensitive role right off the bat. I could see even the most open-to-volunteers club being hesitant to let someone they don't know handle their financial records.

Most clubs are very open to volunteers but you need to start out slowly - and that's true regardless of whether you skate (or have kids who skate) or not. And if you think about it, that's the case with any org - you're not going to be the chair of something your first day, lol. My club's VP (and test chair) has never skated and does not have kids who skate. Her involvement with the club predates mine, but I suspect she got involved via music coordinating/announcing, which is a certification done through the USFSA (just like becoming a judge). She does the music (and some announcing) for our annual comp, and at some point got on the board - she is extremely dedicated has the respect of everyone and no one cares if she's ever skated.

If you are interested in being involved with comps, you may want to consider becoming a music coordinator or accountant. The training and certification process is similar to that of judges, although I believe it takes less time to reach the nat'l level, depending on how much time you are willing to put into it. Even if you don't think you can reach that point, there is plenty of need and activity at the local and regional levels.

[Carolla5501]

That attitude is unfortunate. However, as Isk8NYC noted, if a club doesn't know you, they're not going to give you a sensitive role right off the bat. I could see even the most open-to-volunteers club being hesitant to let someone they don't know handle their financial records.

Most clubs are very open to volunteers but you need to start out slowly - and that's true regardless of whether you skate (or have kids who skate) or not. And if you think about it, that's the case with any org - you're not going to be the chair of something your first day, lol. My club's VP (and test chair) has never skated and does not have kids who skate. Her involvement with the club predates mine, but I suspect she got involved via music coordinating/announcing, which is a certification done through the USFSA (just like becoming a judge). She does the music (and some announcing) for our annual comp, and at some point got on the board - she is extremely dedicated has the respect of everyone and no one cares if she's ever skated.

If you are interested in being involved with comps, you may want to consider becoming a music coordinator or accountant. The training and certification process is similar to that of judges, although I believe it takes less time to reach the nat'l level, depending on how much time you are willing to put into it. Even if you don't think you can reach that point, there is plenty of need and activity at the local and regional levels.


Let me point out that this club would not let "strangers" do ANYTHING LOL! Seriously, they told a woman who was taking lessons with me that "we can't allow people we don't know to take up tickets for our 'show" (No money was involved, I guess they figured she would let in hordes of "freeloaders" LOL!) And I didn't ASK to do thier finanicals, some of the parents came to me because I am an accountant and I said "I would be glad to try to construct a finanical statement for you". I will be honest the "response" made me very curious and so when I helped my friend I looked for signs of "theft" etc.. didn't see any or any real concerns besides sloppy records.

There has been signficant turnover there from what I understand and I will never ever place the locations (and some of you who know where I used to live, it's not there. It was well before Nationals in Nashville :) )

Honestly, with my other committments while I enjoy skating it's not a top priority for volunteering.

[crzesk8dad]

No need to get snippy. Of course it's a job related to figure skating. I just wanted to be sure that everyone knew where the money was coming from, since there seems to be some misconception about competition job payments. No insult was intended.

(Although actually, the videographers I know are not skating-only; they do multiple sports, weddings, theatrical productions, etc. So technically for them, without skating, they would still have jobs.)

I appreciate your clarification and while I was a bit put off, I truly appreciate it. I stand corrected! :slinkaway

BTW-the videographer that I work with only does Figure Skating..between ISI, USFSA comps, Spring shows, Christmas shows, we work 43 of 52 weekends per year! I don't personally work all of them, but can have as many as I would like..he has several people on the crew and we work on-call, as able. I probably do around 20-25 of them.

[Jenna]

Back to paying the tech panel....my friend easily could have easily been wrong. I inquired about becoming a judge and she said to me: "Don't become a judge! Become a technical specialist, they get paid!" This looks to be disputed, and I really don't think anyone will know for sure unless they ask a technical panel member directly.

[zaphyre14]

No, USFS rules spell out clearly who gets what. Tech panel members are officials and don't get paid any differently from the judges, accountants, announcers, ice techs and music officials. Any club treasurer who's written the checks can tell you that.

They all get reimbursed for travel expenses. Period. In spite as some of the tech people would like think, they're not any different from the rest of the officials. :)

And unless you have extensive skating/coaching background, becoming a tech specialist isn't any faster than becoming a judge or an accountant. And, from what I've seen, it's way more stressful.

[Debbie S]

And unless you have extensive skating/coaching background, becoming a tech specialist isn't any faster than becoming a judge or an accountant. And, from what I've seen, it's way more stressful.Actually, unless the rules have recently changed, you can't become a tech specialist unless you competed at the nat'l level in Novice or above, or coached a skater at Nats at those levels. I don't think you need to have been a skater to do data/video on a tech panel, though.

[gkelly]

Actually, unless the rules have recently changed, you can't become a tech specialist unless you competed at the nat'l level in Novice or above, or coached a skater at Nats at those levels.

That's necessary for a national tech specialist appointment . . . unless you got promoted from lower level tech specialist appointments or were already a national judge.

http://www.usfigureskating.org/Shell.asp?cat=10&id=284&sid=30912
http://www.usfigureskating.org/Content/Bylaws%20and%20Committee%20Rules.pdf
(See TCPR 3.00 and following)

For the lower levels, you have to have competed or coached or judged at novice/regional level or higher.

In other words, you can't just walk in off the street, or even from successful intermediate-level competition, and become a non-qual technical specialist and work your way up from there.

I don't think you need to have been a skater to do data/video on a tech panel, though.

It's not specified, but you do have to have "the highest" or "a high degree of" technical expertise in the relevant discipline. Computer knowledge is also necessary for an appointment.

See TPCR 3.04 I: You can just walk in off the street (more or less) and get assigned to run the video replay for a nonqualifying competition with brief training. It definitely helps to be able to recognize standard and not-so-standard approaches to elements so you don't miss the beginning of the element, or in the case of a jump possibly the whole thing, so that's where the high degree of technical knowledge comes in.

[Debbie S]

Oh, OK, thanks for clarifying. I knew there was some sort of skating/coaching requirement.

[zaphyre14]

See TPCR 3.04 I: You can just walk in off the street (more or less) and get assigned to run the video replay for a nonqualifying competition with brief training. .

:lol: I'd like to see someone "off the street" walk in and try it! Video operator is one of the most popular jobs on the panel. Officials beg, plead and whine for the opportunity to get their butts in that chair now. If some disaster managed to befall the panel to make hunting up a new data operator on the fly, I imagine that the off-duty judges and accountants would be tripping each other to fill the position, not to mention the trial judges, prospective accountants and tech-specialists-in-training.

[gkelly]

Oh, of course.

A stranger literally wandering in off the street would not be given that assignment; I was using the term figuratively. What I mean is that if someone who does not have the skating or coaching credentials to get a tech specialist appointment and is not close to getting a competition judging appointment can be asked to run video replay if not enough people with credentials are available and if they have enough knowledge.

Lots of officials who already have other appointments also get video appointments. And if it's necessary to find someone else for that position who doesn't already have some kind of appointment, the first people asked will be those who are present and who are working toward appointments. But in theory it could go to an experienced but not novice-competitive skater or coach as long as they have no conflicts of interest, or a parent or other non-skating club member who is known to be sufficiently knowledgeable.


Anyway, in more general terms I'm wondering what the original poster's interest was in starting this thread.

Looking for ways that low-level skaters or nonskaters can make a living attending high-level skating competitions? Better have some other relevant skill, at a high level if you want to get paid for it in relation to elite events.

Looking for ways to get involved with local and/or elite skating and willing to volunteer?
Lots of ways, but some require years of training and others won't get you any reimbursement for travel etc.

Just curious about what kind of skating-related jobs might be available beyond the obvious like coaching?

[Debbie S]

Just curious about what kind of skating-related jobs might be available beyond the obvious like coaching?Hmmm, well beyond working for the USFSA or other nat'l federation, I can't think of anything that will solely be about skating. You could start your own video, photography, or costume design business, but as others have said it's getting harder for a video or photog to profit these days, and to design costumes you need to have a lot of talent.

Someone could work in sports journalism, or athlete or event management/marketing and might occasionally get to work in the skating world, but they would have to be prepared to work in other sports, too.

[acraven]

The just-published ISU Communication 1631 on evaluation of officials includes an updated payment schedule for officials. See pages 11 and 12:

http://isu.sportcentric.net/db//files/serve.php?id=1951

The organizing federation pays each official (which includes judges, referees, and members of the technical panel as well as others) 300 Swiss francs for each Grand Prix event/final, 200 Swiss francs for each Junior Grand Prix event/final, and 40 Swiss francs per day for each ISU championship.

Then at the end of the season, the ISU pays officials who have worked at least three events of the above types 500 Swiss francs for the first three events and 100 Swiss francs for each additional event.

The Swiss franc is nearly at par with the US dollar these days, so we can think of those payments as if they were in US dollars.

Officials who are suspended or demoted must pay back payments received for the year.

So once you reach the level of working at ISU events, there is some modest compensation.

[sailornyanko]

If you really are ambitious, you could go into sports medicine.

Ambitious and not worried about living like a pauper indeed! Sports medicine is one of the most poorly paid medical subspecialties. You can train for it after finishing Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. That means another 2-3 years of being a resident with sucky pay while your school intuition debt keeps on going up just to find out in the end you'll be lucky if you earn 180,000 a year at the end while owing 500,000 dollars. You've gotta really love the specialty if you're seriously going for it.

As for the OP's question, does being a Zamboni driver count?

[carriecmu0503]

As a former health professions advisor at an Ivy League institution, I can tell you the post below is not entirely correct. People do NOT (and usually do not, unless they decide to re specialize) have to go through an internal or family medicine residency before completing an orthopedic (sports med) residency. As a surgical specialty, it is also definitely not one of the most poorly paid specialties. Of course, this information comes from the US system; I don't know the country the OP is from.





Ambitious and not worried about living like a pauper indeed! Sports medicine is one of the most poorly paid medical subspecialties. You can train for it after finishing Internal Medicine or Family Medicine. That means another 2-3 years of being a resident with sucky pay while your school intuition debt keeps on going up just to find out in the end you'll be lucky if you earn 180,000 a year at the end while owing 500,000 dollars. You've gotta really love the specialty if you're seriously going for it.

As for the OP's question, does being a Zamboni driver count?

[zaphyre14]

As far as I know, Zamboni driver isn't a profession. It's just one of the duties people who work at rinks have to do, along with sweeping floors and changing light bulbs. It' does take a little more skill than most of the tasks but it's not as if the rink hires someone to do nothing but drive the Zamboni.