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CoachTex,
I ran the programs at a youth organization for a few years myself. I found that the best refs were refs that were always there. I was lucky because I'm in Austin and had some UT frat boys that stayed with us for about 3 years. Once they graduated, I too went the route of the local high school refs.
The problem I found was that these refs never quite understood the "league" rules. I couldn't have a ref's meeting because I didn't know who was reffing in a given week, since all I had was a contact with the local chapter assignor. I fielded many complaints from it.
My suggestion is that you find a core group of officials to call the younger groups that know the coaches and kids. Once your league begins to play "real" basketball, then it's easier to use the local chapter officials who can just call what they see.
Also, I always used high school or young college kids to ref anything up to 3rd grade. If a coach got out of line, it was my job to make sure it didn't happen again. If it did, bye bye coach - two year ban from coaching the league. The threat of the embarrasment involved in that punishment is enough to keep their mouths shut. Also, we had a zero tolerance rule and informed the coached of it at the coach's meeting. The coaches got their only warning before the season even started.
One last thing to remember, and some on here may disagree, but reffing rec league basketball isn't about knowing the finer points of the rule book discussed on many a thread in here . . . it's about safety and flow. Knowing when a travel shouldn't be called or what kid can take a little more contact and still continue or what kid is so clumsy that if you don't blow the whistle early s/he is gonna lay someone out or what kid hasn't scored all year and needs a phantom foul to get a chance on the free throw line.
Just some thoughts from someone once in your position.
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