Northern VA Officials Associations

[ilyazhito]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

If an individual official is allowed to join two organizations, and is actually in two organizations, both that he likes, plenty of good assignments, no political drama, fair membership responsibilities, fees, etc., why wouldn't he just pick one and stick with it? What advantages does one get by being in two organizations? Just because one is allowed to do something doesn't necessarily mean that one should do so. Don't the logistics become burdensome belonging to two, or more, organizations?

Again, this is a completely foreign concept to me so please be patient and bear with me.

People in the DMV tend to live in one jurisdiction and work in another. A guy I work football with in EBO, lives in Virginia and calls games for both Board 12 and Board 134, in addition to being on the Centennial Conference basketball staff. I believe that this gentleman can do this because he works in DC and can easily travel to both PG County and to the various private school games that Board 12 services.

Some officials might have a board close to home that they work with, and another board closer to work that they could also work for. When I went to class at the UMD campus in College Park, I was considering joining Board 134 in addition to Board 12, because I would be able to travel to other Prince George County schools, even without a car (I was already working high school baseball in Prince George County at that time) for exactly that reason. I ended up joining MBOA because they had contracts for schools in the District of Columbia and other suburbs that I could easily reach from home or class.


I'd say that if officials can manage the logistics of being both high school and college officials, or of working multiple sports, they can manage working in multiple boards.

The reason why I will also be in Cardinal this year is that I can get varsity experience if I do well on the evaluations that they will conduct for me as a transfer official, and get placed as either a swing or a varsity official (Most groups classify officials into non-varsity/subvarsity and varsity categories for assigning purposes. Cardinal also has swing officials, who can be assigned both subvarsity and varsity games. They work mostly a subvarsity schedule, but can work varsity if needed.). Even if I do not end up working varsity games this year, I will still have exposure to the Steve Gordon camp that Cardinal Basketball Officials Association runs every year, and the Summer Evaluation Program, where I can get training and feedback to help me move up to the varsity level, in addition to whatever other camps I might attend. I have more geographic flexibility this season than last season, because the graduate program that I am currently enrolled in is online.

LRZ, are you sure about IAABO officials in PA? AFAIK from reading the IAABO manual, there are IAABO boards that are at the same time chapters of the PIAA, such as Board 70 (the Central Pennsylvania Basketball Officials Association), who participated in filming the 3-man mechanics training DVD for IAABO. Unless I am mistaken, Board 65 (the Suburban Philadelphia Board) still exists and still services the Catholic schools in the Philadelphia area. Board 67 in Berks County still exists too, is known as the Berks County Basketball Officials Association, and services high school basketball in Berks County.