[The Roamin' Umpire]

One point to keep in mind: 'round here, our local associations only handle high school and youth games. The various college conferences (mostly the ECAC) do their own assignments and evaluation, and even though some guys work both college and lower level, there isn't (to my knowledge) a separate association of the college officials.

Originally Posted by bisonlj

1. Would officials in your area be interested in clinics developed by an outside company but largely using local officials for handlng the details and presentations?

Hmmm... possibly. We're getting a great deal out of a college training DVD - not sure where it's from, but it's our local assignor and interpreter and college guys who are presenting it.

2. Do you feel your local and/or state associations do a poor job of evaluating officials especially for determining playoff assignments?

Our system is based on a rating we get for each varsity game from each coach, plus one for the year from our assignor. The highest and lowest are thrown out. I think it needs a lot of work.

3. Do local associations provide training and mentoring programs to help new officials?

Yes - we do a pretty good job of getting our rookies up to speed and keeping an eye on them throughout the first year. Followup to that is a bit weak, though.

4. Do you feel local associations would find value in purchasing some of these products and services?

Depends on which association, and what the cost was. We might. Our neighbors immediately to the north have a much less... professional reputation. (Occasionally, there are games with mixed crews. The complaints from our guys are impressive.) From what I hear, they probably wouldn't.

5. What do you feel is the best development tool that could be offered in your area?

The two things that help me the most are film and field work. The former has been lacking, though we've gotten more in the last year. The latter we do OK with. (See below.)

6. Does your area already have clinics for officials? Are they well-attended? What do you like/not like about them?

Not as such. Here's what we've got:
* Monthly off-season rules meetings. Generally we pick a topic and beat it to death. Lately we've been looking at the aforementioned DVD, which has been very nice.
* Five major high-school scrimmages during the summer (dates overlap). There are usually at least six teams present at each, so we can get at least three full crews going, and extra officials usually pick up a newer guy to shadow and give tips to.
* One pre-season mechanics session. This really isn't very good - we break out by position, demonstrate some mechanics stuff, and go home. If anything needs improvement, this is it.
* In-season presentations. Last year, we had some veteran college guys from nearby come in and talk about tough judgements calls. One week was holding, another was pass interference.