[Richard Ogg]

Clearly some people do not have the personality to be officials. It requires a lot of self-confidence in who you are while you develop the skill to have confidence in how your officiate.

The association makes a difference too. I've heard of associations where you get no help and games are assigned based on seniority. That would be pretty frustrating.

Our association works hard to welcome people, and develop them. We have classes, clinics, watch videos... But more importantly is the on-the-job-training (OJT) with skilled officials. We all work pre-season scrimmages for feedback. (These are non-paid.) Evaluators are there to offer critiques, encouragement, etc. A very critical difference is for the veterans to recognize that new officials grow only so fast. I'm sure there are a number of areas where I can still improve, and I get feedback to that effect. The feedback that best sticks, though, is that which comes with the praise for what I do that is good. Smart trainers know that encouragement does more for development than criticalness. (If nothing else, tell me what is working well so I can quit thinking about that and focus on the next step! Without any positive comments, I might still be wondering if the hand is up straight.) If I happen to do something better than usual, the good trainer will be quick to praise that behavior. (Yes, veterans varry in their ability to balance positive feedback with the critique.)

I recently worked with a newbie -- natuarlly he stunk. (Probably similar to me when I started. Maybe not much different than to me now!) Afterwards the evaluator had what seemed like an endless list of praise, then concluded with about 2 points for the guy to work on. He left motivated, and with an action list of probably all he can think about at once anyway.

Our new officials start in youth league games. The association is now asking veterans to work these low-paying youth games for at least one shift per month. The idea is to pair them with rookies and let them provide that OJT.

This year the association also negotiated with the schools and demanded 50% payment in advance of the season. I think the other 50% is due mid-season, adjusted for the changes in the first half. At the end additional adjustments are made. (I may be off in the details, the the basic situation is thus.) Since our association has the reputation of providing quality officials, we were successful at getting these concessions. Its looking like it will solve the delayed payment problems so many experience.