What does your local Official's Associations do for you?

Do you get games?

Do you get training?

Can you officiate in your area without joining an association?

Can you belong to more than one association?

Peace

Local Chapter
 

In PA, all certified officials are required to join a local chapter. This chapter takes care of local issues, local training, and is generally associated with multiple game assignors. Our local chapter has one game assignor for "bantam" (5th, 6th grade B/G), one for middle school and JV, one for Girls Varsity, and two for Boys Varsity. Four of the Five assignors are basketball referees in our chapter. The state of PA will revoke your certification if you do not belong to a local chapter.

Can you get games if you do not belong to a local chapter? You are not suppose to, but it has been done.

Can you belong to more than one chapter? No, but if you know assignors for other chapters, they may give you games. To get games here, it is more who you know and who's butt you have kissed. It shouldn't be that what, but it is reality.

In Massachusetts most basketball officials associations are IAABO, although there are a few not affiliated with IAABO (some "womens/girls" only boards). My board in southeast, MA does an excellent job of teaching new candidates and preparing them to pass the NFHS rules test. There are about 10 evening classes in October-November with the exam around Thanksgiving time. If you pass, you can start doing HS games that season. If you "almost pass" you can still be a provisional member and retake the exam in March for final certification (after passing). The machanics training is mininmal, and you are basically "on your own" for further training. That's why I attend clinics/camps. Older members can attend the new candidate classes any year, but few ever show up again.

The boards (at least mine) do not assign the officials. HS conferences hire a commissioner who assigns whoever he wants to, and draws from many boards. You are supposed to be a certified member of an association, however this could easily be overlooked. As far as getting games, I feel my board has little or no influence, and there is no rating, evaluation, or follow-up. It will be up to me to advance in the best way I can figure out. The board does have a few assignors for recreation/youth leagues, so there are usually plenty of games for refs who want to work. "Who you know" will often dictate quality of games and partners.

An official can have a "dual membership" in more that one IAABO board. All officials must attend a mandatory interpretation meeting in November and three following meetings (or pay fines, strictly enforced).

GEORGIA

Currently 26 seperate associations in the state...You must be a member of an association to officiate any GHSA contest.
The local association, though under the GHSA umbrella, has all local authority to train its members in any way it wishes. Each association has a scheduler and a board of directors to oversee scheduling. If you can officiate, you will get games. If not, you will still get some games with senior members to help out. Most training is on the floor in game settings, particularly early in the season when we can get the younger officials to work scimmages. No official may join more than 1 association. The state (GHSA) assigns the schools to the associations based on geography and the number of certified officials belonging to the association.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by JRutledge
What does your local Official's Associations do for you?

Do you get games?

No

Do you get training?

Limited

Can you officiate in your area without joining an association?

No, not high school ball.

Can you belong to more than one association?

Yes, and it's common because the big assoc. in town split about 4 years ago

Nevada-
Handled by 3 associations for the entire state. These are contracted associations with the NIAA (state High School Association). Each association has a board. Assignments are now handled by each association, either through a group assignment process or through a single assigner. Since Nevada is so spread out, each association covers a certain geographic area, so there is no need to join more than one association.

Games handled by the North association that I belong to, is middle school and high school. You cannot go out and get individual games for high school in this state, because by contract with the NIAA, the schools have to use the associations.

Training consists of meetings and a clinic and all officials are required to pass a recognized test. This will be the first year that we are going to an open book take home test. Officials get on the court here quickly and if you have some talent, you can move up.

Sounds like AZ is unique. If you want to officiate HS ball, you must pay your dues to the Az Interscholastic Assn, the state governing body for HS sports and activities. There are approx 10 area commissioners throughout the state that are responsible for conducting pre season meetings and administering the NFHS test.

The commissioners then schedule the officials in their areas for the season. Each area commissioner then has input to playoff assignments.

In Phoenix, there are several local associations that schedule JH ball and city/rec leagues. Most of them have no qualification requirements other than paying your dues.

Do you get games?
Yes, all games are assigned locally, exept university ball.

Do you get training?
Yes, twice a week from september until november.

Can you officiate in your area without joining an association?
No, in order to do any high school, middle school, OBA sactioned and rec league game, you need to be a member, and all games are assigned by our assigners.

Can you belong to more than one association?
Yes.

Do you get games?
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Yes. All school games assigned by an assignor hired by the board of directors of the local association.
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Do you get training?
<BR><B>
Yes. The association provides training to apprentices (1st and 2nd year) and at the general meetings throughout the year (guest speakers etc.). The association also provides scholarships to send referees to camps each summer.
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Can you officiate in your area without joining an association?
<BR><B>
No. Not school ball anyway.
<BR></B>
Can you belong to more than one association?
<BR><B>
Only one in the state of Washington.

Z

Z...we have one association for Boys and one association for Girls...they both service the same schools. We can belong to one or both if we choose. This is in the Tri-City area in Washington State. Is this what you mean about only belonging to one association?
For example, I only belong to the Boys association but have friends that belong to both.

RD

My answers.
 

<b>Do you get games?</b>

Not directly from any association. Assignors work for the conferences, not the assignociations. And a huge effort has been made to make this clear in many constitutions to avoid a conflict with employee laws.

<b>Do you get training?</b>

Extensive training depending on the association. But our state requires officials to attend a camp every 3 years to keep our license. There are many basketball camps that are in no way associated with any Officials Association. So training depends largely on the individual. Because there is more than enough training to go around.

<b>Can you officiate in your area without joining an association?</b>

Happens all the time. I work in many conference and I am not close to the area. Again, assignors work for the the conferences and the assignors attend camps or many differnet Officials Associations to get officials to hire.

<b>Can you belong to more than one association?</b>

In Basketball I am a member in 4 different officials associations. I belong to 2 associations in other sports. It is common for officials to be a member of more than one officials associations.

Peace

In Utah
 

we are on the way to making all of the officials associations in the northern half of the state into one group. Previously the 3 groups have been semi-related. You cannot be assigned to a HS game without membership in a UHSAA approved officials association. The UHSAA has an arbiter who assigns all of the games and officals from the 3 different groups will work games together as assigned by the state. Training is provided by the individual groups, but the move to one group will streamline and consolidate the training. I sippose that someone could join more than one group, but it would not benefit them in any way.

RD,

You know what happens when a person makes an assumption right? I was assuming that the question had to do w/ a single sport and area. I belong to both the boys and the girls associations in my local area. I just meant that I can't belong to the boy's assoc here and also the boy's assoc in another area (like Seattle for instance).

Z

In northern VA, there are 3 or 4 associations. My association is the largest. The association has contracts with each district/region and they are usually for 2 years. We cannot obtain any scholastic games on our own. We have an assignor for rec ball and one for scholastic (boys & girls). Up until about 4 years ago, we had a "girls" commissioner and a "boys" commissioner and officials were assigned to each commissioner. If you were a girls official, you had to work at least 3 boys games and vice versa. We finally got smart and made it one position. The assignor has an assistant that handles most of the non-varsity stuff and reassigning any turn-back games. We receive training through the association, starting with an applicants class. We have association meetings every other week during the season and attendance is mandatory. We have 2 excused absences (other than working a game that night) and then we are fined $10 for each meeting missed. Some officials don't bother with the meetings and simply pay the fine.

You can belong to more than one association. However, since my association is the largest, we have most of the games in our area. If you belong to more than one, and you are assigned games by my association and you can't accept them because you are working for another association, you can bet you won't get any more of the "good" games. May not be fair, but that's the way it works.

Ohio
 

Each official is required to belong to (at least) one local association (approx. 30 total in OH) and is required to attend one state-sponsored clinic and four association-sponsored meetings. These meetings start next week and go once a week through late November. Rules (both new and previous) and mechanics comprise at least half of each association meeting.

We get our games through assigners, who in turn are employed by each league. The assigners aren't members of an association, per se, but they're often quite visible in association meetings. Generally each assigner assigns varsity and JV for both boys and girls games in their leagues.