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Mark - I think you may gain a tangible benefit from them because you are on some IAABO boards, but other than the educational materials (newsletter??)what will you gain from them if there are no meetings in your area? My guess is not much. Schedule C or not, I am not in the practice of spending money on stuff I do not see a good return on. I think "will it get me more games" is a fair question. It has nothing to do with cash, but the main reason we ref. Why do we ref? To work as many games a possible. Joining an organization should have a ROI of at least gaining knowledge, experience, and more games. If all I want out of an organization is a regular publication, I get that "other" magazine on the market. When I ask transplants what IAABO does for them now, the usual answer "is not much, I just wanted to keep my membership in case I move back". This was the same thing I did with my old association. I remained a member for a few years and when it was obvious I was not going back any time soon I quit.
I was not getting any benefit out of being a member. If you are a member of 4 associations but you participate minimally in all 4, I would ask is it worth it? I would rather devote 100% of my energy to one association that split that over multiple ones. You can say you belong to all of them, but do you grow spreading yourself around?
As far as being a member of a "respected" organization, I doubt half the coaches or officials in non IAABO states know what it is, what they do, or even care. So, being a member of an organization that pulls no local weight benefits one how?? Again educational materials is not a good enough reason. I also find it hard to believe they are the largest basketball officials association ( I never heard of the group until 3-4 years ago). I know some states make it mandatory, it is their version of the OHSAA, so maybe that is possible. But, I would love to ask all those who have no choice if they would still join if they did have the choice.
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