Why IAABO ???

[Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.]

Originally posted by ChuckElias
Mark DeNucci should probably answer this question, but I'll give it a shot.

IAABO is an (as the name implies) international organization dedicated to the improvement and education of basketball officials. Anyone can join as an individual member, even if there is not a local board. IAABO holds interpretation meetings for all of its local interpreters, where new rules, interpretations, mechanics are all disseminated and fully explained. Those interpreters then all go back to their respective boards and give the same interpretations, hopefully making officiating throughout the country more uniform. That's the theory, anyway.

The dues get you a rule book, case book, official's manual and a members' directory, as well as a newsletter (called "Sportorials"). Some areas of the country (like Massachusetts) require an official to be a member of IAABO in order to officiate inter-scholastic games.

For most people, I think membership isn't worth it if it's not required, but there are still advantages to being a member. It just depends on whether you think it's worth the annual dues.

Chuck has done a good job in eplaining some of the benefits of being a member of IAABO. I would like to add more information.

One: Any basketball official in the world can be a member of IAABO. It does not what level of basketball you officiate. H.S., college, WNBA, NBA, FIBA, amateur, or professional. That means if you live in an area where there is not an IAABO Board, you can be and Individual Member.

Two: When someone asks me to explain what IAABO is, I like to use the analogy of professional and technical organiztions in the engineering profession. (I guess that is because I am a structural engineer.) I compare organizations like NASO, NFOA, and Officiating.com to the National Society of Professional Engineers (NSPE). The NSPE is a professional organization. The NSPE is concerned about the condition of all engineers regardless of their disciplines. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), the Structural Engineers Association of California (SEAOC), and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) are technical organizations. A technical organizatio is concerned about a specific discipline the engineers that practice that discipline.

IAABO is a technical organization concerned about basketball officials only. Another technical organization in sports officiating is the Amateur Baseball Umpires Association (ABUA). I consider local officials associations (LOA) that are sport specific to be technical organizations.

I hope that this as not muddied the waters pertaining to garote's question.


But my advice to all officials no matter what sport they officiate is that they should belong to organization such as NASO, NFOA, and Officiating.com for the same reason that I am a member of the NSPE. I also advice them to belong to sport specific organizations such as IAABO or ABUA for the same reasons that I belong to the ASCE, ASME, and SEAOC (I have a B.E. in both civil and mechanical engineering and practice structural engineering).

Belonging to these various organizations give officials (engineers) the opportunity to avail themselves of the educational and professional opportunities that organizations offer. And at the vary least the membership dues are tax deductable.