Frustration

[Mregor]

I just moved this past summer and joined a new association in a new state. Checked out the req'ts for applying for membership and got the requested letter from old association, copy of old card, sent in application. Now they of course have to do a determination to see what level I should be classified as, which I fully understand. In the meantime, I go to the rules meeting and this is where I start to have problems. Their rules interpretation is terrible. Trying to give an example of a Team Control foul, they used the example of an illegal screen during a throw-in. I had to resist the temptation to correct them. Someone finally did and after much tap dancing they came up with the correct interp. After the meeting I introduced myself to the leaders and they tell me I need to go to the meeting for officials new to the association and will be "reclassified" into a group commensurate with where they feel I belong. So I go to the meeting last night. There are about 25 people and all but 2 of them are brand new officials. We are learning basic mechanics. I play along and then we have a scrimmage. I get dinged for doing things different than they do such as when reporting foul to the table, they want you to verbally identify the type of foul where I was always taught not to. I say yes sir and continue. Then we have a throw in situation where the defender breaks the plane. The "clinician" stops and explains the rule "as he sees it" which is completely wrong. He wants us to record a delay warning for both teams as soon as one team does it. Next offender will be a T even if it is the first offense for the other team. He goes on to say that if they touch or dislodge the ball on the OOB side of the plane that it is a T (first time he was right all night), and lastly, he asks what is the call if the defender fouls the thrower prior to release. I speak up and say Intentional. He says it could be but you would have to judge their intent. I said I thought it was automatically an intentional foul and he says no. I drop it and continue. From here on out he continues to make numerous, and in my judgement, very amatuerish errors (over-the-back, baiting coaches into T's, etc.). After the scimmage is over, they hand out some assignments for MS games. At the end, I go to him and explain my situation and ask what I have to do to get some higher level games fully expecting that I'll have to work some JV to be evaluated before they give me varsity contests. But to my surprise, he says I have to be evaluated at the MS level before I move up to freshman and freshman before I move up to JV etc. OK fine, I signed up for a MS Girls game next week but am a little upset that I go through the process of getting letters of recommedation only to have to start at at MS level, especially from someone I don't respect based on what I just witnessed. Now, what's the purpose of this post? To vent a little and ask for suggestions. Knowing that this person was the assigner, I didn't want to correct him during his teaching as I don't want to come off as an a$$. On the other hand, he's teaching these new people wrong. Granted, I do not know the full heirarchy of the association, but since he's teaching the new officials and does some of the assigning, I figure he's got to be somewhat in a leadership position. Would you do anything differently? Any suggestions on how to persue advancement? I just retired from 20 years in the military and moved a lot but until the last 7 years, was not serious about officiating. The association I just moved from didn't assign the games; you had to work on your own in getting games from AD's and conference commisioners, so I'm new to this system. Sorry for the lenghty post but would like to hear some objective feedback.

Mregor