The society hold a meeting to grade or regrade referees twice per year. These take place at the beginning of January and at the end of the season. The purpose is to grade each referee at level which indicates the level of game the referee can in the minds of the society referee appropriately at on a regular basis. The levels in this context are the levels defined by the RFU National League structure.
The numbers at any grade is not associated with the number of games available at that particular level but only with what is judged to be the level they are capable of refereeing at. Unfortunately this does mean that it is possible to have more referees at a level than games available to the society to appoint. The society does try to allocate fixtures as fairly and equitably as possible however referees on the development squad do get preferential treatment in terms of appointments.
The grading committee consider all the referee reports collected during the season and also any information provided through the videos which have been taken or other appropriate sources. The recommendations of the grading committee are put before the full referee general committee for approval before being published.
Members of the grading committee Society Chairman, Appointments Secretary, Adviser Secretary, T&D Group Manager.
Directors of the Society are Ex-Officio members of all committees
Due to CoVid no Grading was carried out in 2021