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Yes, there are enough former refs (even more importantly, ones who have the respect of the current refs) to do this. The board is going to give them formal training to keep them current and to try to make sure they are consistent in their rating criteria.
All our members know who the observers are. The observers give an "observation sheet" to each ref when they are observed with helpful hints. We also have several VHS camcorders and each observer will take a few minutes of video of each ref and give them the tape. The tape is truly subjective. :-)
We will pay the observers $20 per game. They will watch both the JV and Varsity games in an attempt to make it worth their while (two games pay for one trip). All our schools are within a 40-mile radius so that helps.
We do a summer fundraising tournament (where our officials donate their time) to raise the funds to pay our evaluators.
The board and the assignor view all of our referees peer ratings at the end of each season. It is quite obvious if a referee is intentionally rating down his/her partners. In the two years that I've been on the board, I've only seen it once. Our officials have shown excellent integrity and the peer ratings have been very fair, IMHO. We're just trying to make it "even more fair" by adding observers.
One other thing I forgot to mention: We do not micromanage our assignor. The ratings are used to help him in assigning, but not to dictate his every move. He is an ex-referee (with the respect of everyone) and he observes a lot of games himself. He has the freedom to assign "lower-rated officials" to varsity games if he feels that the ratings system is not placing them in a spot which reflects their ability. It's always a work in progress. :-)
Z
[Edited by zebraman on Oct 23rd, 2002 at 10:50 AM]
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