[BillyMac]

I hate to hijack ilyazhito's thread, but his post brings up so many questions that I've had ever since I joined the Forum.

I work in a 100% IAABO state, with well defined local board geographic boundaries. Unless one is an absolutely horrible official, everybody gets a full schedule of varsity, junior varsity, freshman, or middle school games from our local IAABO assigner.

We have a bunch of guys that also work college games, so they "formally" belong to another association/board.

We have lots of guys (I was once one of these guys) that "informally" work travel games, youth recreation games, mens recreation games, and middle school games (not serviced by our local IAABO board), on their "off nights". This is an "informal" setup, and guys work these games for a variety of reasons: money, experience, money, exercise, money, limited local travel (short trips), and no "formal" membership (no membership fees, no meetings, no "politics", etc.). These game have absolutely nothing to do with and are completely independent from our local IAABO board, other than town parks and recreation directors, and middle school site directors, usually want "IAABO patched" officials. There are dozens of "assigners" (our IAABO board assigner never assigns these games) out there, with games "assigned" on nothing more than a handshake.

Over the past thirteen years that I've been a Forum member, I've surmised that some Forum members appear to "formally" belong to more than one high school association/board/organization. This is a completely foreign concept to me.

Many years ago, we had a competing local association, we both covered the same local geographic area, some high schools went with them (mostly girls games) and many high schools went with us. I don't recall anybody working for both organizations, nor do I remember any rules against such. Originally this "Brand X" board, as we called it, worked all the girls games. When Title IX fully kicked in (that's when I became an official), my local IAABO board aggressively went after girls games (we had previously only worked boys games). We had a better product and this "Brand X" board received fewer and fewer games over time, until they eventually merged with us (it was really a hostile takeover) several years ago.

I do recall some "bad blood" between our competing organizations. Occasionally a principal, athletic director, or coach, would get pissed at us (bad call, lost game, etc.) and move to the "Brand X" board, even for some boys games. New principals, new athletic directors, or new coaches, would sometimes move, for various reasons, from one board to the other board. Usually these movements were a "net gain" for our local IAABO board. Some guys (rarely) would change organizations. We would get quite upset if we trained a new guy, who worked a few years under our IAABO training guidelines, and then moved over the "Brand X" board to become one of their top notch varsity officials. "Brand X" guys would move over to our board and would find themselves with lower level assignments than with their previous board. While our differences never became a really big problem to me personally, I do not recall anything positive about the competing boards.

Other than working college, or other than "informally" working youth games, why would anyone have the need to "formally" belong to a second high school organization? Does one not get enough games from one assigner? Wouldn't an assigner expect "loyalty" to him? Are game assignments "first come, first served"? Because we're supposedly "independent contractors", are there no rules in place to discourage such "double dipping"? If no such rules are place, does any informal, "unofficial" type of resentment (blackballing) take place? Aren't the logistics of working for multiple organizations difficult to deal with? What happens if two game assignments (maybe one postponed, maybe with one game being a much better assignment than the other game) are held at the same date and same time? As principals, athletic directors, and coaches (and maybe conference affiliations) change, do schools move from one organization to another?

Again, working in a 100% IAABO state with well defined local board geographic boundaries (a monopoly), this multiple organization concept is completely foreign to me. Why would anyone have the need to "formally" belong to a second high school organization?

Of course, I understand the usual caveat, "When in Rome ...". Different doesn't necessarily mean good, or bad; different just means different.