Effective recruiting is not just about filling slots; it’s about building a strong, committed, and capable officiating workforce that can drive our mission forward. By investing in strategic and thoughtful recruiting practices, we can ensure our long-term success and growth.
The Recruiting Toolkit is designed to help you promote how to become a Certified USATF Official in your Association.
With downloadable materials promoting how to become an Official, USATF Associations and Certification Chairs can customize their approach to communication – whether that is to athletes, parents, or officials of another sport.
Please follow these links to the various assets:
2025 National Meet Application
Before beginning your application, please have the following information available: your 10-digit USATF membership number (not your officials certification number); a listing of your meet resume from the past four (4) years – 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 – of work that supports your application. For example, if you apply for a position as a clerk, your resume should reflect your experience over the past three years serving as a clerk. Meet experience prior to 2019 will not be accepted. You will be able to add up to 16 meets on your application. NCAA national championship and regional championship meets are already included in the list of meets to choose from, and you can include non-USATF meets such as Texas Relays, Drake Relays or Penn Relays by selecting “Other” from the end of the list, and then entering the name of the meet.
We are also requesting that you supply (if possible) a current photograph. This can be done with either a webcam or by uploading a file. Please make it a head shot, with a solid color (preferably white) background. This will greatly assist the Selection Committee in their work. We do not have access to your photo in USATF Connect.
Race Walk Officials:
The Race Walk Committee has created a new application for racewalk events. This application is seperate from the regular officials application. If you are applying for any race walk position at any race walk competition, you must complete the race walk application. If you are ALSO applying for a track position at any of the Big Three meets, you must also complete the officials application.
Please review the form before beginning work on it. Note the names of the fields, such as LAST name, FIRST name, etc. Please do not use all caps or all lower case. Also note that no information has been carried over from last year, as this is a new database.
At the bottom of the form you will see a list of 5 other meets. The National Officials Committee (NOC) conducts evaluations of officials at these meets as well as the aforementioned national championships. If you are interested in having your contact information forwarded to the official’s coordinators for those meets, please check the “Yes” box and we will do so. Since each meet will be collecting additional information from you, we are only passing along your name, association, certfication level and contact email information.
Please note: If you have not been evaluated at a national meet, you can request an outside evaluation/recommendation from a Master official in support of your application. See that section of the application form.
If you are an Apprentice or Association level official, you are not eligible to apply for the USATF Indoor, U20 or Senior Outdoor championship. However, if you are interested in having your information forwarded to the official’s coordinators for any of the following meets, you are encouraged to complete the application:
• USATF Master’s Indoor Championships - Gainsville, FL
• USATF Master’s Outdoor Championships - To be announced
• USATF Youth Indoor Championship - To be announced
• USATF National Youth Outdoor Championship - To be announced
• USATF National Junior Olympic Track and Field Championship - To be announced
Please note that the application window will close at 3AM Eastern/12 midnight Pacific time on October 16th.
2025 Officials Meet Application Form
These are the requirements for recertification:
Evaluators are e-mailed a notice of their responsibilities, instructions for completion and submission, an explanation of the evaluation instrument, and a deadline for submission. The deadline for submitting evaluations is 7 days after the conclusion of a meet. If the deadline is not met, actions are taken as described in the Evaluations section of the NOC webpages.
When an evaluation is submitted, both the official who has been evaluated and the evaluator are notified of completion.
The consequence for officials who fail to complete evaluations by a final deadline is that they are not eligible to be selected for the major championships during the following calendar year. Full details on this are provided in the notice to evaluators from the NOC Chair.
See details regarding the handling of disputes in the Evaluations section of the NOC webpages.
This section is the evaluator’s recommendation (a numerical rating plus comments) to the USATF Selection Committee regarding the rated official’s suitability for selection for future major USATF championship meets. The information in this section is seen by the Selection Committee members and the individual official who was evaluated.
This section provides feedback to the official being evaluated (a descriptive rating on multiple criteria, plus comments) regarding their performance at that meet. Raters provide comments on strengths, weaknesses, and areas for improvement. The information in this section is seen only by the individual official who was evaluated; it is not provided to the Selection Committee.
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All certified officials must complete the Basic Review
All National and Master level officials must complete the required number of questions for their certification level in the Advanced Review
Other specific disciplines with reviews are listed below
Each review specifies a required success rate (% correct or points) that must be achieved; if it is not, the review may be retaken
For your use and reference, a link to the 2024 USATF Competition Rules book is available here.
Basic Rules Review - All Officials, All Disciplines
Online Paper
National/Master Rules Review - All National and Master Level Officials
Online Paper
Specialty Reviews
Implement Inspector Review - All Inspectors
Online Paper
Combined Events
Online
Paper
WA Scoring Tables for Combined Events (PDF format)
Racewalk Reviews - All RW Officials
Apprentice/Association Level Review:
Online Paper
National/Master Level Review:
Online Paper
Referee Review:
Online Paper
Additional racewalk documents for completing rules reviews:
World Athletics Marathon Mixed Relay Regulations (PDF format)
USATF Racewalk Officials Training
Race Walk Summary Sheet
Track & Field Referee Review - All T&F Referees
Online Paper
LDR Referee Review - All LDR referees
Online Paper
Paralympic Track & Field - All Para Officials
This link redirects to the ATFUSA.org website
Online
NCAA Officials Endorsement Examination
Please follow this link.
Move your mouse over the button below to open the dropdown menu.
Please note that more study guides are in development. Please check back periodically.
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