[LarryS]

Being fairly new and not haveing the desire to advance to the college level admittedly influences my opinion. I can also completely understand the importance others who have D1 aspirations need to place on this area. There is probably no good way to do this and the problem of fair evaluations is not limited to basketball.

Our chapter is using evaluators this year to see how it works (don't know if they are paid). We are also experimenting with a rating system. A list of members was mailed to everyone and we were asked to select who we felt were the 50 best officials in the chapter, not rank them, just pick the top 50. Coaches/ADs were asked to do the same. Our assignment committee also consist of 3 people and make every effort to watch as many members as possible work in summer ball and camps. The process, as explained to me, uses the combination of the evaluators, Top 50, personal observations, coaches requests are what determines if you are ready for higher/bigger games. I was also told that if the assignment sec. feels you are "on the bubble" he will contact your partners for their input or will take a flyer and put you with someone he knows and gets their input.

The system must work fairly well as I have not, in my limited circle, heard anyone complaining vigorously and my schedule so far is better than I expected. It may be a case that I simply have not heard them. The way I look at it, when they think I'm ready they will give me a shot. If I think I'm ready, I just need to show it more in the camps we run or attend the better camps with board members and the assignment people. But then guys like me who happily take what we get probably make the assignment sec's job much easier.

By the way, if you can find a way to get personal bias out of an evaluation process please post it here. That is an area where I have always struggled.