[grunewar]

I live in NVA and am in a very large Association (I caveat my comments by stating I am not on the Board and am stating what I observe, not what I know as exact fact).

IMO, it's tough to crack then V ranks here as there are a great many seasoned HS/College Officials in our ranks and not many vacancies to fill annually. We have a good many eager, young, good officials waiting for their opportunity. It's competitive. No shortage of officials here.

We have an extensive evaluation process for the junior officials and a camp (based on evaluations) to allow the F/JV officials to work their way up the ranks. Once these officials move up, they become "swing officials" - getting a game here and there when an opening happens due to a lot of games, illness, turn-back, etc.

We do get transfers in who are evaluated in the annual scrimmages, and if capable, can move right on in. I don't know how often it happens though, depends on the amount of openings I suppose. One of my partners last Tues (opening night) was a transfer from Texas and he had a BV game right out of the shoot.

I believe our officials are brought along at a fair pace (I'm sure if you asked some jr officials they would say it's too slow), and are seldom over their heads or thrown to the dogs at the V level due to a lack of capable officials.