A Rat

[Nevadaref]

Competition is the American way.
Numerous successful companies began because an employee became disgruntled with the current leadership and decided that it was better to depart, start his own business, and do it better.

There is nothing wrong with what is taking place in your area. Competition will sort it out.

As far as elections go, I've found that true democratic votes don't usually serve the best interests of an officiating association.

For example, if the group has 30% varsity officials and 70% subvarsity officials, understand that your group will be governed by the 70% who do not work varsity contests. If you elect an assignor, the subvarsity guys will dictate who that assignor will be. Will that be best for the varsity officials?

Another situation would be if an association has 20 truly top officials and another 20 who are second tier, an elected assignor will be obligated to keep as many of those happy as possible in order to get re-elected. This can lead to some lesser officials getting games that they shouldn't.

Situations like the above lead to frustration by some officials and can spur people to break away and form their own officiating group.