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I was in the same situation prior to the season. I knew that the crew I was on was not going to get better no matter what I tried, and I tried it all. Some might say that I immerse myself in it and other things are ignored for a couple of months. So while I do that myself I wouldn't ever ask that of the others I work with but I would ask that they know everything about their position and to try to get better every day. So before this season I had made a decision to at least try to work with other officials for the non-varsity schedule. I wanted to learn from others how things are done because how we were always doing things on Fridays didn't seem wrong but maybe there was a better way. Well in the effort to try to get work with other officials during the week I discovered a couple of openings. One was for 2006 and one was for 2005. I met and talked with the crew chiefs on both crews and discovered that there would be a solution here that would work for everybody. The crew that had the opening in 2005 had an old U who was coming back in 2006 so if they could work a 1-year assignment it would be best for them. So I was able to take both spots. This took me from being on a crew where we were fighting to get 8 games a year to a crew that easily gets 9 games and finally to a crew that gets 10 games.
I wasn't very optomistic about finding a new crew right before the season I wanted to get seen by many other officials and learn from them so that if an opening came up I would be in position to hear about it and be known well enough to be considered for it.
So I wouldn't throw away a season but I would try to increase the ammount of officials you work with and make sure, discretely, that they know you are looking. Continuously putting out the effort and not ever seeing the results can begin to burn you out. I found one of these openings through an email list our association has and the other I found when I was working the chains at an arena football game with other high school officials.
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