On page 242, USCF rules allow for Co-Chief TDs under rule #11.
It goes on to state that this is appropriate for “unusual circumstances.” Can anyone elaborate on what such circumstances would be?
Perhaps the intent is that TDs could share credit if one had to leave for part of an event, for example, in an emergency. Another notion is that credit could be split between the Chief Pairings TD and the Chief Floor TD in a large event.
Does anyone know how one gets Co-Chief TD credit? I have not seen this as an option when submitting events online.
Assistant Chief (or Co-Chief) TD for the entire tournament)
Other individuals working the tournament. Confusingly, this is also called being an ‘assistant TD’, though it does not imply any supervisory level activity or responsibility, just someone working as a TD at the tournament. (We have seen someone claim he was the ‘Assistant Chief TD’ of a major national event although in USCF records, and according to the Chief TD for that event, he was just a TD working on the floor, with no supervisory or oversight duties at all.)
The first two fields are all the USCF had prior to 2005. (The rating report upload format, which was created in 1991, only has fields for those as well.) The other three fields can be input using the online editing form in TD/A.
We don’t really differentiate on MSA between being an assistant chief or a co-chief, either at the tournament or section level. Whether the TD advancement criteria make such a distinction is a question for TDCC to answer.
We added fields 3, 4 and 5 in early 2005, though at the time some wanted a whole bunch of categories, to indicate the both the nature of the activities someone performed as well as the level of responsibility he or she had. We settled on these five.
For 67.7% of the tournament we have rated in the past year and a half, there is only one TD whose ID appears in our records of the event.
For another 26.9%, just two IDs appear in our records of the event as having worked as a TD at the event.
For 2.9% there are just 3 TDs listed.
That means that only 2.5% of the events we rate have more than three TDs listed.
The advice that the USCF has always given TDs is that they should maintain their own work history for advancement purposes, especially for events where their duties don’t fit neatly into the above categories, like at national scholastics. Getting a letter signed by the chief TD of the event outlining those duties is also helpful, especially in cases where the chief TD is no longer available to explain what someone did at the event some years later.
FWIW, this was of no benefit in my recent application to become a Senior. If it isn’t in MSA it didn’t happen, was the response I got. I was also told there’s no credit for being an assistant TD (although that’s what the requirements say for Sr.), only a “Chief” assistant TD (which is what requirements specify at higher levels).
