A Rat

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Raymond

On this side of the country, an assignor may have multiple conferences, but it doesn't mean an official will work or sign a contract for all those conferences. Regardless of how many conferences a supervisor has, most college officials work for multiple supervisors.

One of my college assignors is the assignor of multiple high school conferences. I work for him both in high school and college levels. I work for many other high school and college supervisors too.

I got SC's point totally. There seems to always be some drama that goes around with an association, either by someone in a leadership role either doing something that might be unfair to the group or that sounds like something that violates the independent contractor position. I am so glad I do not live in that situation exclusively (at least in Illinois). If I have issues or the conference has issues with their assignor, they hire someone else or we can choose as officials to work for someone else. I do not work for every assignor in our area for many reasons. It is very much like a college situation where I can prioritize certain leagues over other leagues and work what we want on many levels.

Peace

[Rich]

Yup.

I assign for 23 boys programs and 22 girls programs.

Some people choose not to work for me.

I choose not to hire some people.

Some people ask for only boys games. With rare exception, I don't grant that request as I prefer working with people who will take both. I also remember how much I hated it as an official when assigners would offer fewer boys games to me cause he accommodated these requests, a request I don't make.

Does this cost me some officials? Sure.

Does it dramatically affect my assigning? No.

My goal isn't to get the "best" officials. It's to get ones who really want to work at my smaller schools. I've stopped using some who get off my games too often - a few of those, I'm convinced, dump my games to take ones at bigger high schools or ones closer to home.

That said, I don't keep a black list -- a coach telling me he doesn't want a particular official usually has me respond with me saying I don't keep a black list.


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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Rich

It's to get ones who really want to work at my smaller schools.

I like working big games at big schools in front of big crowds, but I also like working games at smaller schools in some of our rural areas. In many of these small towns there's nothing else to do on a Friday night except watch a high school basketball game, so it's the biggest event in town. The gyms may be smaller, but they're almost always filled up with enthusiastic fans, both parents, and students. The players may not be as skilled as in bigger schools, teams often consist of a few basketball players and some football players and baseball players looking to stay in shape, and have some fun with their friends, in the winter.

I just wish that they wouldn't park their John Deere tractors in the best parking spaces in the school parking lot, often taking up two spaces. And watch out, if you make bad call you may get some tobacco juice spit at you. Makes doing my laundry a pain.

[RefRich]

Doesn't he have to get the approval of the state to start another recognized group?

[RefCT]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Does a dual member have to pay dues to both his parent board and his assigning board?

I don't really understand it. I am a dual member and pay dues to our board, but apparently my home board controls all my information related to IAABO and (presumably), the CIAC. I don't pay or interact with my home board at all.

The only reason why I knew about the policy change is I am probably giving officiating up this year and was wondering if I could join Bd 6 again if I chose to ref in the future and looked it up last week.

Unfortunately, working in the Hartford area doesn't make it very easy to get to anywhere else in the state in time for a high school game so I really can only realistically work for Bd 6 as long as I am stuck working in "New England's Rising Star".



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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by RefCT

... working in the Hartford area doesn't make it very easy to get to anywhere else in the state in time for a high school game ...

Before I retired from my day job as a chemist I had to travel through the Hartford area on my daily commute. The traffic is a perfect storm of I-84, I-91, Route 15, the Bulkeley Bridge, the Charter Oak Bridge, all pressed tight against the Connecticut River.

Add skiers heading north on a winter Friday night, and those heading east to Newport and Cape Cod on a summer Friday night, makes for a traffic disaster.

Throw in one fender bender, or a little construction, and traffic comes to a halt.

Whoever came up with the New England phrase, "You can't get there from here" was referring to this area.

The traffic engineer who designed this junction back in the 1950's should be shot.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Before I retired from my day job as a chemist I had to travel through the Hartford area on my daily commute. The traffic is a perfect storm of I-84, I-91, Route 15, the Bulkeley Bridge, the Charter Oak Bridge, all pressed tight against the Connecticut River.

Add skiers heading north on a winter Friday night, and those heading to Newport and Cape Cod on a summer Friday night, makes for a traffic disaster.

Throw in one fender bender, or a little construction, and traffic comes to a halt.

Whoever came up with the New England phrase, "You can't get there from here" was referring to this area.

The traffic engineer who designed this junction back in the 1950's should be shot.

Move to DC/N VA, you'll have it so much better...... (sarc).

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by grunewar

Move to DC/N VA, you'll have it so much better..,

Been there as a tourist, and agree with your sarcasm, but at least you have a beltway that brings you around the most congested areas.

And don't you have a subway system? It was beautiful when we visited twenty-five years ago, but I hear that it's had some recent problems.

We only have a partial beltway, one almost has no other choice but to go straight through the heart of the city of Hartford.

The I-84 / I-91 junction was named one of the ten most dangerous stretches of highway in the nation in the 1980's.

We have lots of entrances and exits, more than I've seen on any stretch of the interstate highway system up and down the East coast, from Maine to North Carolina, and as far west as Philadelphia.

Left hand exits, and left hand entrances. Lots of them. How often do you see those anywhere else?

When the interstate highway system was first built under the Eisenhower administration, Beatrice Fox Auerbach, the wealthy owner Hartford's G. Fox & Co., the largest privately held department store in the nation, used her political influence to insure that exits off of I-84 at the junction of I-91 led right to the frontdoor of her store.

I-84 literally split the city of Hartford in half, with the north half now one of the poorest areas in Connecticut, completely separated from the main business district.

Like the Berlin Wall before Ronald Reagan tore it down.

Again, the traffic engineer who designed this junction back in the 1950's should be shot.

[ilyazhito]

How did we get from a renegade former association president attempting to found a new association and take his former association's contracts by undercutting his former colleagues in cost and quality to comparisons of traffic patterns in New England and the Mid-Atlantic regions?

AFAIK, unless the new association is registered with (and has approval from) the MPSSAA (assuming that Terrapins Fan is talking about Maryland), it can't take contracts from the existing association on the OP's territory (at least not high school contracts). I don't believe that such things would be allowed in the WVSSAC or VHSL either. I don't know much about how to form an association (other than what is written in the VHSL officials' handbook), but wouldn't a new association registering with the state for the first time have to undergo a probationary period before it can be approved as a scholastic officiating organization? In Washington, D.C., there are only 5 approved basketball associations for scholastic games (Board 12, MBOA, JUSO, Sports Enhancement Officials, Mid-Potomac Officials Association) and Charm City Basketball Officials Association, a new group looking for approval, and any official working in DC must be a member of an approved association. AFAIK, Sean Conley and the DCSAA approve the formation of new associations and oversee their activities, to ensure fair competition for contracts and proper operation (associations can be disciplined if their members fail to act professionally or if they fail to meet obligations to the DCSAA (e.g. wearing DCSAA patches for scholastic games in DC, paying DCSAA registration fees for their members)). Perhaps MPSSAA and the other governing bodies around the area have similar means of regulating association formation and activities (The MPSSAA has a list of registered associations in each sport, and only officials working for those associations service MPSSAA schools).

[Terrapins Fan]

Originally Posted by RefRich

Doesn't he have to get the approval of the state to start another recognized group?

In WV yes and they denied him. In Md. No. He could work 1 game and he is his own association.

Great replies. Thanks. The contract says we are the exclusive provider of services to the conference, not to the schools, not what we wanted but it's 6 pages of legalese.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Terrapins Fan

....The contract says we are the exclusive provider of services to the conference, not to the schools, not what we wanted but it's 6 pages of legalese.

Which means other associations can work non-conference events like holiday showcases at a conference School. That's how it is down here because my association does that. In previous years the servicing Association tried to strong-arm the schools into not allowing other officials to work those events.



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[Player989random]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Been there as a tourist, and agree with your sarcasm, but at least you have a beltway that brings you around the most congested areas.

And don't you have a subway system? It was beautiful when we visited twenty-five years ago, but I hear that it's had some recent problems.

Oh man, I-495 and 395 are parking lots from 7AM-9AM and 3PM-7PM. And the metro? If it isn't on fire, they've shut down lines for service. Next year from May-September (read December), they are shutting down most of the services in NOVA for construction.

But back on topic. I've seen this. Dude likely has some valid gripes, but will probably fizzle out in a couple years, and those college dudes will likely move on to doing more college games.

[ilyazhito]

In my experience, the Metro system (Metrorail + Metrobus) works pretty well in getting me to where I need to go in the DC Metro Area (at least in DC and MD). In Virginia, it is a little more problematic, but it has not failed me yet in getting to places in Alexandria, Arlington, or Fairfax County (+ Fairfax City and Falls Church).

When I am more pressed for time, I take Uber, and am able to get to anywhere in the Metro Area in a reasonable amount of time.

While there are stories about weekday shutdowns in the news, and they have happened, most shutdowns and single tracking events happen on weekends or late at night, so officials should have a reasonable chance at getting to games early on public transportation throughout the DMV, at least in the near areas (DC+ MOCO, PG, Fairfax (City + County), Falls Church, Arlington, and Alexandria).

In MD, how can you work single games for schools without being a recognized association? AFAIK, the MPSSAA recognized groups are the only ones who can work public school basketball in MD for the regular season and playoffs, otherwise, MPSSAA would not be listing registered associations. How does Donnie Grey, or whoever his successor in the MPSSAA office react if there is an unapproved association working MPSSAA games? What is his office empowered to do? The DCSAA can fine, suspend, or put members and their associations on probation, or terminate an association for improper activities.