[Nevadaref]

Chuck,
Please enforce the rules as you know them. If they are doing something improper, then either put a stop to it or penalize it. If you "let it slide", you are making it tougher for the next official who comes in there and does it right. The biggest gripe I have about my association is that most of them don't enforce the rules and this makes my job much harder.
I do have a rep for being rule booky, but I don't care. I do think that I can decide what is trivial and what is necessary for a better game.
The best compliment that I have ever had was from an official who had the game the night after I was at a school noted for being trouble. He told me that it was the easiest game he had ever worked, no one made a peep. When I told him that I was there last night he asked me, "Oh really, how did your game go?"
For the record, I had T'd the asst. coach, the head coach, removed the drummer from band, two fathers from the crowd, called 2 intentionals, and a flagrant.
2 Lessons:
1. The bad behavior can be fixed, if we are willing to do something about it.
2. If you take care of business, those that follow won't have to clean up your mess.

Here's a good story from earlier this year:
I had a senior-night game and the home management wanted to put 20 minutes on the clock for halftime. I was the R and told them that the most I could give them was 15. The opposing coach knew it was senior night and anticipated an extended halftime, but hadn't been specifically told how long. We went with 15.
Also this school's nickname is Railroaders, and they built a little train whistle which they blow after every basket they score. I knew about this before the game from watching an earlier game in this gym, and had the train whistle removed before the game even started. Of course, I got the response, "You are the first ref that's said anything all year."

Now here's the funny part. This school has a new principal this year and she is the wife of one of the veteran officials in our association. He is a good one too, and does care about the rules and getting it right. He worked the 4A boys state title game last year.
Well, she came home and complained to him about both of these things. She was terribly upset that the kids couldn't have 5 more minutes for their once-in-a-lifetime activities.
He said that I did the right thing with the train whistle and would have done the same himself, but didn't know what the rule was for halftime.
Then he asked her who the referee was. When she told him it was me, he replied that if I said that was the rule, then you can bet your last dollar it's the rule! He then fetched his rules book and looked it up, just so she could see it. He then made the case that with HS kids safety is primary and the purpose of the rule is to prevent injuries from muscle pulls, etc.
Who won the argument?

He didn't get dinner that night.