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  #1 (permalink)  
Old Mon Dec 31, 2007, 03:36pm
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Other important Portland information.

At least a time or two, you need to watch Perry Mason re-runs at noon. It's been on continuously since whenever Perry Mason started back in the '50s.

You'll also want to carefully choose your county of residence. The political lawn signs are a good indication where the county lines are.

Start now following the Trailblazers. They may fall apart later, but if they don't you'll want to be conversant with the details of this season.

Portland has the most stable home prices in the country right now, so be prepared to pay full price. You probably won't be able to take advantage of the big foreclosure boom.

Most of all, learn to say, "It's just a sprinkle, what's a little bit of rain?" Anyone that ever complains about the rain is automatically tagged as an outsider. YOu decide whether you want to be a native or a permanent visitor.

We drink milkshakes here, not frappes. We have potluck dinners, not covered dish dinners or carry-ins. We carry purses, not handbags or pocketbooks. And we drink pop, never soda. We go to the beach, not the shore, and we have El Ninos and El Ninas. And the hottest political issues are land use planning, water rights, land use planning, smokers' rights, land use planning and let's see, oh yea, land use planning.

If you're already doing college ball, you won't have any trouble breaking into it after a year or two. They always welcome a new person with skills, at least at the CC and NAIA level. But no matter how much experience you have, you won't get any varsity your first year. It just doesn't happen.
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  #2 (permalink)  
Old Mon Dec 31, 2007, 04:06pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rainmaker
Other important Portland information.

At least a time or two, you need to watch Perry Mason re-runs at noon. It's been on continuously since whenever Perry Mason started back in the '50s.

You'll also want to carefully choose your county of residence. The political lawn signs are a good indication where the county lines are.

Start now following the Trailblazers. They may fall apart later, but if they don't you'll want to be conversant with the details of this season.

Portland has the most stable home prices in the country right now, so be prepared to pay full price. You probably won't be able to take advantage of the big foreclosure boom.

Most of all, learn to say, "It's just a sprinkle, what's a little bit of rain?" Anyone that ever complains about the rain is automatically tagged as an outsider. YOu decide whether you want to be a native or a permanent visitor.

We drink milkshakes here, not frappes. We have potluck dinners, not covered dish dinners or carry-ins. We carry purses, not handbags or pocketbooks. And we drink pop, never soda. We go to the beach, not the shore, and we have El Ninos and El Ninas. And the hottest political issues are land use planning, water rights, land use planning, smokers' rights, land use planning and let's see, oh yea, land use planning.

If you're already doing college ball, you won't have any trouble breaking into it after a year or two. They always welcome a new person with skills, at least at the CC and NAIA level. But no matter how much experience you have, you won't get any varsity your first year. It just doesn't happen.
Guess that explains the fishnets.
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  #3 (permalink)  
Old Mon Dec 31, 2007, 04:12pm
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So if someone moved to Portland after doing playoffs and/or state finals in another state they wouldn't have a full varsity schedule?

Is there a transfers scrimmage or anything like that? That is pretty rough. You are shattering my dream of working for Nike when I retire (for the first time).
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  #4 (permalink)  
Old Mon Dec 31, 2007, 04:14pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tomegun
So if someone moved to Portland after doing playoffs and/or state finals in another state they wouldn't have a full varsity schedule?

Is there a transfers scrimmage or anything like that? That is pretty rough. You are shattering my dream of working for Nike when I retire (for the first time).
You could interleave your college games with those freshman girls games for a season or two. After all, retirement should be about taking it easy, shouldn't it?
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Old Mon Dec 31, 2007, 08:02pm
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just remember, you won't be able to pump your own gas.
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  #6 (permalink)  
Old Mon Dec 31, 2007, 10:38pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Snaqwells
just remember, you won't be able to pump your own gas.
Not only won't you be "able to" - it's actually illegal if you do. Gotta love a state in which it's illegal to pump your own gas but it's legal to assist a suicide for medical reasons. Actually, I like both laws.

Oh yeah - marijuana is "almost" legal, too. Why do you think guys like to be drafted by the Blazers?
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  #7 (permalink)  
Old Mon Dec 31, 2007, 11:39pm
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It's illegal to pump your own gas?

Wow.........
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  #8 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jan 01, 2008, 12:14am
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Quote:
Originally Posted by DonInKansas
It's illegal to pump your own gas?

Wow.........
Oregon and (I think) New Jersey. The only reason to keep the law is to prevent the loss of jobs if stations were allowed to go self-service. I think it's hilarious.

Mark, how do you teach your kids to pump gas? Or do you just tell them never to get gas outside of Oregon?
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  #9 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jan 01, 2008, 02:14pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by tomegun
So if someone moved to Portland after doing playoffs and/or state finals in another state they wouldn't have a full varsity schedule?

Is there a transfers scrimmage or anything like that? That is pretty rough. You are shattering my dream of working for Nike when I retire (for the first time).
Officiating in some areas is very provincial. I know of two professional minor league baseball umpires who are not yet allowed to work Varsity games in their home association suring school season. Unfortunately "time-in" is valued more than ability by some associations.
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  #10 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jan 01, 2008, 02:49pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GarthB
Unfortunately "time-in" is valued more than ability by some associations.
On our local board, the season in which you pass the written exam and the floor exam, doesn't count as a year. You must work at least three years of only junior varsity ball to move up. You must work at least three years of "split" ball, a combination or junior varsity and varsity games, to move up. Finally, after working at least three years of "split" ball, you can move up to full varsity, i.e all varsity games. So in reality, no matter how good your peer ratings, and rankings, are, you can't get a full varsity schedule until your seventh (or eighth including your first "probation" year) year.

It didn't effect me. I took me four years to make "split", and four more years to make full varsity, two years more than the minumum.

Note: We have over 280 officials, 85 are considered full varsity, 30 are considered "split". We service about 70 high schools, most with both boys and girls programs, as well as many freshman programs, and many middle school programs.

Last edited by BillyMac; Tue Jan 01, 2008 at 02:57pm.
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  #11 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jan 01, 2008, 03:54pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyMac
On our local board, the season in which you pass the written exam and the floor exam, doesn't count as a year. You must work at least three years of only junior varsity ball to move up. You must work at least three years of "split" ball, a combination or junior varsity and varsity games, to move up. Finally, after working at least three years of "split" ball, you can move up to full varsity, i.e all varsity games. So in reality, no matter how good your peer ratings, and rankings, are, you can't get a full varsity schedule until your seventh (or eighth including your first "probation" year) year.

It didn't effect me. I took me four years to make "split", and four more years to make full varsity, two years more than the minumum.

Note: We have over 280 officials, 85 are considered full varsity, 30 are considered "split". We service about 70 high schools, most with both boys and girls programs, as well as many freshman programs, and many middle school programs.
Pathetic. Systems such as this exist to protect those on top instead of instead of developing and utilzing better officials.

This system would prohibit a retired NCAA D-1 Final Four experienced official from working varsity for seven years. Incredible.
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Old Tue Jan 01, 2008, 04:25pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by GarthB
Pathetic. Systems such as this exist to protect those on top instead of instead of developing and utilzing better officials.

This system would prohibit a retired NCAA D-1 Final Four experienced official from working varsity for seven years. Incredible.
No, it keeps them from having all-varsity for 7 years. They get SOME varsity after 4 years. I wonder how good a retired NCAA D1 ref would be at HS varsity. Personally, I'd rather have those folks take a year or to to "adjust down" to a different set of expectations. Although I expect 4 years may be a bit too long.
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  #13 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jan 01, 2008, 05:03pm
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Quote:
Originally Posted by BillyMac
On our local board, the season in which you pass the written exam and the floor exam, doesn't count as a year. You must work at least three years of only junior varsity ball to move up. You must work at least three years of "split" ball, a combination or junior varsity and varsity games, to move up. Finally, after working at least three years of "split" ball, you can move up to full varsity, i.e all varsity games. So in reality, no matter how good your peer ratings, and rankings, are, you can't get a full varsity schedule until your seventh (or eighth including your first "probation" year) year.

It didn't effect me. I took me four years to make "split", and four more years to make full varsity, two years more than the minumum.

Note: We have over 280 officials, 85 are considered full varsity, 30 are considered "split". We service about 70 high schools, most with both boys and girls programs, as well as many freshman programs, and many middle school programs.
This system is absurd, especially for developing refs. It discourages young officials from taking the time on their own to go to camps, work hard in the offseason and do the things that they need to do to improve their game because outside of college, there really is nowhere to go. As a result, your association loses all of its up and comers completely to college ball and when your varsity guys start to get old, there's a huge shortage of quality officials. I'd be interested to see how many of the 80 or so varsity guys are really too old to be doing V ball and are hanging on too long. That type of situation IMHO does not respect the game of basketball or the avocation of officiating.

We are living in America, where we are supposed to award ability, hard work and achievement. Your system penalizes officials for possessing those qualities and ultimately hurts your association as it denies you top officials and discourages offseason improvement.

Every association should have 2 goals: 1) service the game of basketball by matching the best crew of available officials on each game and 2) service its officials by matching them on games and with partners that allow them to develop and improve. Your group's system does neither.
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  #14 (permalink)  
Old Tue Jan 01, 2008, 05:33pm
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The Whole Story

Quote:
Originally Posted by SMEngmann
This system is absurd, especially for developing refs. It discourages young officials from taking the time on their own to go to camps, work hard in the offseason and do the things that they need to do to improve their game because outside of college, there really is nowhere to go. We are living in America, where we are supposed to award ability, hard work and achievement. Your system penalizes officials for possessing those qualities and ultimately hurts your association as it denies you top officials and discourages offseason improvement.
I'm not going to comment on the good, or bad points, or our local system, mainly because I'm not familiar with how other local boards, or associations, work their systems. But I will reply to the quote above, because my post was simply in regard to the minimum number of years required to get to a certain level of games, and I didn't give Forum members the whole story.

Within each level (junior varsity, "split", full varsity) there are rankings that determine the number of games that you will be assigned. A junior varsity official may receive anywhere from 6 to 27 games a season depending on their ranking. A "split" official may receive anywhere from 14 to 22 junior varsity games, and from 4 to 12 varsity games a season depending on their ranking. A full varsity official may receive anywhere from 8 to 43 varsity games a season depending on their ranking.

Rankings are determined mainly by peer ratings. Rankings also depend, in a smaller part, on refresher exam scores, attendance at meetings, and availability to officiate.

Officials on our local board take time on their own to go to camps, work hard in the offseason, and do the things that they need to do to improve their game, because they want their peer ratings to improve, to improve their assigned schedule, and also, want to move up to the next level. Officials who do not work hard to improve their game, will see their peer ratings drop, and not only will their assigned games decrease, they may also fall far enough in the rankings to drop from full varsity to "split", or from "split" to junior varsity only. Our former assigner used to say that a varsity official on our local board is not like a Supreme Court Justice or the Pope. Varsity officials are not varsity officials for life. They must prove their worth every season, or low peer ratings will lead to low rankings, which may lead to a lower level assigned schedule.
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Old Tue Jan 01, 2008, 05:34pm
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I am amazed at what some associations do. The malcontents in my association should read how these others do it and then they might complain less. I have a very good friend who did the 5A boys championship at the end of his 3rd season and was working D1 the next year. Good thing for him he lives around me instead of Portland or Ct. I will admit that he is an exception to what most people do, but guys like him do come around.

Get the best officials on the court.
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