Iaabo charter membership

[constable]

Curious as to how many of you are IAABO members.

How many are in an association that requires all officials to be a member, and how many of you join individually?

What benefits do you value from iaabo? What do you wish they'd do?

Do you feel you get your money's worth from IAABO?

Our association is conducting a review of the benefits of IAABO membership. A few years ago our province has completely ditched NFHS rules and now we exclusively use FIBA. FIBA rules and interpretations are available free online both in an app and PDF. The book iaabo publishes for us is often outdated (we have to print before our girls season starts in September) and often contains typos. The plays of the week were supposed to contain FIBA rulings in addition to NFHS, but that hasn't come to fruition yet.

So, if you used a ruleset that IAABO wasn't a subject matter expert in and could get the rules for free, would you still be an IAABO member if you didn't have to be?

Thanks in advance

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[BillyMac]

From all the money that I give to my local IAABO board through dues and fees ($125.00 dues, $150.00 fees), approximately $35.00 goes directly to IAABO International.

The rest goes to running my local board, paying the assignment commissioner, stipends for officers (secretary/treasurer, assistant commissioner, interpreter), membership in our state interscholastic sports governing body, Arbiter fee, scholarships, banquet ($30.00 each), meeting facilities, hearing impaired interpreter, etc., stuff that most non-IAABO associations have to pay.

So what do I get for my $35.00 annual dues that go directly to IAABO International? I get the benefit of all the instructional resources that IAABO International provides, including instructional DVDs that are used by my local interpreters and trainers. I get an annual combined NFHS Rulebook and IAABO Mechanics Manual. I get an educational magazine several times a year. I have an opportunity to attend twice a year conventions to discuss rules, mechanics, and the instruction of such. I get some liability insurance.

I am aware of FIBA getting the short shrift, but IAABO International has been trying to improve it's FIBA training over the past few years, and will hopefully eventually get fully onboard the FIBA train.

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

From all the money that I give to my local IAABO board through dues and fees ($125.00 dues, $150.00 fees), approximately $35.00 goes directly to IAABO International.

.....

$275.00 to work on a HS board? That officiating shortage will not be ending anytime soon.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

$275.00 to work on a HS board? That officiating shortage will not be ending anytime soon.

Varsity fee: $97.17, subvarsity fee: $63.05; and exclusive rights to officiate all high school and prep school games in the state (within our local geographic area), as well as almost all middle schools, cost isn't a major issue for most.

If you don't belong, and don't pay your dues and fees, you don't work high school games anywhere in the state.

We had a member suggest to make our annual banquet (it's about $30.00 each, appetizers during cocktail hour, open bar, cloth tablecloths, and napkins) a cash bar banquet to save money. That didn't go over big with the membership.

[constable]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

From all the money that I give to my local IAABO board through dues and fees ($125.00 dues, $150.00 fees), approximately $35.00 goes directly to IAABO International.

The rest goes to running my local board, paying the assignment commissioner, stipends for officers (secretary/treasurer, assistant commissioner, interpreter), membership in our state interscholastic sports governing body, Arbiter fee, scholarships, banquet ($30.00 each), meeting facilities, hearing impaired interpreter, etc., stuff that most non-IAABO associations have to pay.

So what do I get for my $35.00 annual dues that go directly to IAABO International? I get the benefit of all the instructional resources that IAABO International provides, including instructional DVDs that are used by my local interpreters and trainers. I get an annual combined NFHS Rulebook and IAABO Mechanics Manual. I get an educational magazine several times a year. I have an opportunity to attend twice a year conventions to discuss rules, mechanics, and the instruction of such. I get some liability insurance.

I am aware of FIBA getting the short shrift, but IAABO International has been trying to improve it's FIBA training over the past few years, and will hopefully eventually get fully onboard the FIBA train.

Butttttttt

If you were able to get that stuff for free else, would you still be on-board with spending the 35 to IAABO?

If they gave us additional insurance (similar to NASO) or something like that, then it might seem like a more worthwhile venture.



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[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Varsity fee: $97.17, subvarsity fee: $63.05; and exclusive rights to officiate all high school and prep school games in the state (within our local geographic area), as well as almost all middle schools, cost isn't a major issue for most.

If you don't belong, and don't pay your dues and fees, you don't work high school games anywhere in the state.

We had a member suggest to make our annual banquet (it's about $30.00 each, appetizers during cocktail hour, open bar, cloth tablecloths, and napkins) a cash bar banquet to save money. That didn't go over big with the membership.

What does any of that have to do with extortion level fees/dues a newbie would have to pay just to start out?

So I repeat, your officiating shortage will not be going anywhere for a while. I would insulted if someone solicited me to throw in an additional $30 for a "banquet".

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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by constable

If you were able to get that stuff for free else, would you still be on-board with spending the 35 to IAABO?

Instructional resources, including instructional DVDs, and training of trainers, annual NFHS Rulebook, Casebook, and Mechanics Manual, educational magazine several times a year, opportunities to attend twice a year conventions to discuss rules, mechanics, and the instruction of such, all for free?

Who doesn't like free?

When did the NFHS start offering rulebooks, casebooks, and mechanics manuals for free?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

... would insulted if someone solicited me to throw in an additional $30 for a "banquet".

I apologize for being unclear, the banquet is built into everybody's annual dues (and the annual board budget), even if one doesn't go.

Of course this means that the approximately 33% of us that don't go subsidize the 67% of us that actually go, meaning the banquet cost per plate is actually more than the $30.00 per member that is built into our budget.

The banquet is a little too classy for my taste. When I started almost forty years ago we had our banquet in a church hall with a local caterer, eight foot folding tables, with paper tablecloths, and folding bridge chairs.

Then, for some reason, we upped the ante. Now we have our banquet at some of the finalist banquet facilities in the state.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if they deducted $30.00 from our annual dues ($95.00 instead of $125.00) and made the year end banquet and awards ceremony a pay as you go affair, including a cash bar.

[constable]

I'm speaking hypothetically...

All of our fiba resources come to us free of charge...

So even if IAABO did increase their fiba resources, we'd still get them for free from fiba.. So what sense is there in paying IAABO 35 USD if we get that stuff for free?



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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Raymond

What does any of that have to do with extortion level fees/dues a newbie would have to pay just to start out?

Extortion is a strong word, but not too far removed from being accurate.

As a 100% IAABO state, with no other high school assigners except local IAABO assigners, if you don't belong to IAABO, and don't pay your dues and fees, you don't work high school games anywhere in the state.

To compare it to other associations, apples to apples:

Our annual dues ($125.00) is approximately equal to two subvarsity fees ($63.05).

We all pay a 7% assignment fee (7% of our income) regardless of the level we officiate.

Is that grossly unfair compared to other associations?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by constable

I'm speaking hypothetically...

If wishes were horses then beggars would ride,
If turnips were swords I’d have one by my side.
If ‘ifs’ and ‘ands’ were pots and pans
There would be no need for tinker’s hands!

Originally Posted by constable

All of our FIBA resources come to us free of charge...

Free rulebooks. Free casebooks. Free mechanics manuals.

It's tough to beat free.

Why switch?

[constable]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

If wishes were horses then beggars would ride,
If turnips were swords I’d have one by my side.
If ‘ifs’ and ‘ands’ were pots and pans
There would be no need for tinker’s hands!



Free rulebooks. Free casebooks. Free mechanics manuals.

It's tough to beat free.

Why switch?

My point is now that we get our resources for free from fiba... AND we pay a membership to IAABO who since we have switched away from using NFHS (previously 50% of our ball was nfhs.. Now it is 0%) seamingly provide no benefit to us. A few years ago, the cost of the rule and case books along made the 35 USD investment easier to stomach.

I'm trying to see if I can come up with a point/counter-point arguement for ditching our board's iaabo membership (it's mandatory in our constitution all must join iaabo). So far I haven't found one single reason to justify us remaining with IAABO.


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[Raymond]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Extortion is a strong word, but not too far removed from being accurate.

As a 100% IAABO state, with no other high school assigners except local IAABO assigners, if you don't belong to IAABO, and don't pay your dues and fees, you don't work high school games anywhere in the state.

To compare it to other associations, apples to apples:

Our annual dues ($125.00) is approximately equal to two subvarsity fees ($63.05).

We all pay a 7% assignment fee (7% of our income) regardless of the level we officiate.

Is that grossly unfair compared to other associations?

$40 to the state, $45 to the association here. $35 if you choose to join IAABO annually.

So not only do you have a monopoly in your state, they charge exorbitant prices just to work for them. That is some kind of graft in my opinion.

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[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by constable

So far I haven't found one single reason to justify us remaining with IAABO.

If you get the books for free, I can't either.

[LRZ]

"The rest goes to running my local board, paying the assignment commissioner, stipends for officers (secretary/treasurer, assistant commissioner, interpreter), membership in our state interscholastic sports governing body, Arbiter fee...."

With these costs already accounted for, I'm appalled by the additional 7% assignment fee. Whose retirement fund is the beneficiary of that? I'm with Raymond on this.