Moving to RI
 

Story of my life. My Naval service is moving me yet again, this time to RI this coming summer. I'll be a student at the Naval War College. Professionally, this is awesome and I'm looking forward to it. Officiatingly, not so much. I'll miss Wisconsin greatly (except for maybe the tiny pay checks, but the basketball is still quite good and mostly makes up for that).

I have officiated in RI once before, eight seasons ago. I recall shot clocks, two-person crews at all levels in the regular season, and zero varsity games because the IAABO Board (I think it was 84) had no mechanism to accept move-in officials at that level. Assigning was highly controlled at the statewide level if I recall. For sub-varsity it was the exact opposite: 100 little assigning fiefdoms and everything was done by telephone calls and handwriting.

So....anyone out there in the Ocean State who can attest to what has changed in the last eight years? Does an 11th year official have a prayer of working any varsity games next year or should I just throw in the towel?

I've also considered looking into registering in MA and CT as well, though since CT is still the "Home of the Two-Person Game" as BillyMac likes to point out, I can't see myself getting too excited about CT basketball.

This will only be for a year....then if I'm lucky on to the DC area where I believe opportunities (on both the VA and MD side) are at least a little better and I know those are definitely 3-person places.

I don't know if references help, but...

Geographic Boundaries Of Each Local Board Enforced ...
 

I believe that the IAABO Connecticut State Board has become very intolerant of members residing outside the geographic boundary of each local board (usually separated by county lines). I know for sure that my local board no longer accepts "dual members" (residing in one local board while officiating in another local board). If you move your residence, or/or transfer your job, you must officiate in the local area (county) where you are a resident. No exceptions. We have some veterans grandfathered in, but it's a big fat no for new members.

Good news though. Mention my name, BillyMac, at any Connecticut Starbucks and they'll give you a tall freshly brewed coffee for $2.29. Just mention my name, guaranteed to work, anywhere in Connecticut, it's a small state, and everybody knows me.

How is such restraint of trade consistent with officials being independent contractors?


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That was what I was thinking.

I suppose they could say you couldn't be a member of two of their boards but I don't think they could require which one you could choose.

Don't Poke The Bear ...
 

Nobody is willing to poke the bear.

We've had a few border skirmishes over schools, but not over members.

We did recently have one of our local boards separate into two local boards. It was a large, very rural area, members believed that, in terms of mileage, the original geographic area was too large.

Connecticut has been 100% IAABO for about ten years. If you want to officiate high school basketball in Connecticut, you have to belong to IAABO.

Unless of course, you want to start your own independent officiating group. Nobody's stopping anybody from doing that. Knock yourself out.

It's Greek To Me ...
 

Maybe that's it? I'm not up on all the new restrictions because I both live in, and work in, the local board that I officiate in. With no plans to change my residence, and no plans to switch to another local board.

Transfers ...
 

Under the guidance of IAABO International, local IAABO boards are advised to try to assign transfer members (only IAABO transfers, not from other organizations) an assignment schedule similar to the one they had the previous season with their previous board. That's not necessarily the way it was always done in the past.

Also, on my local board, we have switched from peer ratings, and years of service, to "move up", to a system relying on an observation team. If you're a good official, you'll get a good schedule almost right away, even if you're transferring from a non-IAABO board, but that's just my local board, and it's a new system, can't say the same for other local boards.

You Can Look It Up, I Did ...
 

I looked it up. The policy below may only be for our local board. I don't know if other local boards in Connecticut have similar policies.

For assignment purposes, (the local board) will not grant Dual Member status for any new person who lives outside of (the local board) geographical territory.

Notes: "Dual Member" is an IAABO term for those residing in one local board while officiating in another local board. The term "new" in the policy means that local board veterans with Dual Member status have been grandfathered in and may continue to be Dual Members.

Uhhh....that's not even in the top 5 of reasons why they split.

Regardless, the Feds are going to have a field day with the concept on "independent contractor" status around here if it ever gets challenged.


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That's the fast track to being considered an employee if anyone challenges it. Or if the IRS just gets bored one day.

"Dual Members" means someone is a member of 2 organization. What if I live in one jurisdiction and work in another and it's more convenient and financially prudent to belong to the organization where my job is located? IAABO can mandate that I can only work for the board where my residence is?

Dirty Laundry (Don Henley., 1982) ...
 

I know that, I just didn't want to expose our dirty laundry to the entire internet.

(Plus, I've only heard reasons for the split from a few guys from that region (who really didn't want to talk much about it with an outsider), certainly not a true multisided indicator of why it happened.)

All Politics Is Local ...
 

I doubt that IAABO International can do that, but my local board has certainly done that.

I've never been fond of areas where a single assigner could see to it that I couldn't work games.

When I lived in TN, my baseball assigner coached middle school hoops. For an official, he was a complete ass as a coach. I ejected him.

On the way off the floor, he threatened my baseball assignments.

I contacted the state office the next day. I contacted the association officers, as well. Not sure what kind of conversation there was, but I had a great schedule that next spring....and then moved out of state.

I'm thankful I can work with as many assigners as I want here.

One Assigner ...
 

I can work for lots of assigners, many middle schools, AAU, recreation leagues, travel leagues, mens leagues, church and synagogue leagues, summer leagues, and in theory, college, junior college, Olympics, NBA, etc.

If I want to work scholastic games, I have to work for one assigner.

I've had four scholastic (high school) assigners over the past thirty-seven years, two short term, two long term. All of them have been professional, fair, and have shown great integrity.

Lucky? You bet I am. I realize that it could have been different.

Our local IAABO board assigner works for us. We pay him. He has a one year contract. If he screws up, he, and his $32,025.00 salary, might be gone the next year. And, as we've seen after retirements, and death, there's no shortage of applicants for the job when we make a change.

Would I prefer to pick my scholastic assigner from multiple choices? Sure, I guess, but if it ain't broke, no need to fix it (until it's broke, and needs fixing).

That’s the type of system that’s in place in many of the southeastern states. Associations control the assignments, you can only be a member of one association, and if you piss off that assigner, goodbye to your schedule.

Even in South Carolina where the SCHSL controls all the varsity assignments, if you piss off your district director he can tell the state to stop giving you games.

I wish we had more of a “college system” that’s in place in much of the Midwest. Difference here is that schools aren’t members of “conferences” that hire assigners; they’re assigned to a classification (1A through 5A in South Carolina) and a region within that classification by the state office. Schools aren’t free to pick and choose what conference they play in.

I am a conference assigner for 23 schools.

I only hire varsity officials, but I do so for all sports.

This probably seems weird to the rest of the country, but our schools hire all the lower level stuff, unless they've cut deals with people that do assigning.

Same in VA, man. I did football, had a falling out with the commissioner, and low and behold I'm done doing football in my part of the state. Not that I miss it.

Basketball suffers from that as well. My two neighboring associations fight for control of county contracts, and it appears schools can pick which association they want for each sport. You get caught working for a rival, goodbye schedule.

They should hope the Lacrosse officials in PA don't decide to move to RI.

I work for 2 different HS assignors. One controls a large association, the other a small one. Both work me whenever I'm open. Both of them dislike the old 'good ole boy' standard of "you can only work for me and no one else".

The one who has the smaller association only warns that he will not seek additional contracts without firm commitments of availability from those of us working out of town.

We are independent contractors. Work me when I'm available, that's the purpose Arbiter and other assigning software. Commissioners get 8% of our game fees, so we officials are paying them, not the other way around.

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