THE Guyana Netball Association (GNA) will be hosting a Regional Umpires Seminar and Workshop, beginning today at 17:00hrs at the Guyana Olympic Association’s (GOA) conference room, High Street, Kingston.

According to a GNA representative, the activity is the first major event on the Association’s calendar of events for the year 2014.
The seminar/workshop, which is being sponsored by The Americas Federation of Netball Association (AFNA) is open to prospective umpires.
The workshop will run from today to Sunday.
Today, the session will begine at 17:00hrs while tomorrow it will commence at 10:00hrs and Sunday at 16:30hrs, but on Sunday also, it will move from the GOA Conference Room to the Cliff Anderson Sports Hall’s Tarmac for practical and warm-up sessions.
The facilitator of the activity is Ms Veronica Harris of Barbados who is a qualified Umpire/Trainee tester and who is also a member of the Umpires Advisory Panel of the AFNA.
AFNA is an affiliate of the International Netball Federation (INF) formerly (IFNA) and it is responsible for netball development in the Americas and the Caribbean.
INF has five Regional Federations and was founded in 1960.
The other affiliates are: Oceania Netball Association, Confederation of African Netball Association, Federation of Europe Netball Association and Asian Association of Netball Association.
GOA vice-president Noel Adonis is expected to deliver the charge to the participants and declare the seminar open, while GNA president Lavern Fraser-Thomas is expected to make brief remarks.
The association’s secretary Warren Wilson will chair the proceedings.
According to the representative of the GNA, the purpose of the seminar is to hold a Regional seminar for beginners and ‘preliminary’ umpires who are interested in being trained as umpires or going on to their future development.
Some of the topics that will be dealt with are: Umpires Protocol on becoming an Umpire, Starting the Game, Footwork, Substitution and Team Changes, Throw-In and Short Passes, Discipline and Setting Penalties as well as Contact and Obstruction.