How do you prepare in your area?

[Bad Zebra]

The state of Florida awards "proficiency points" to officials who attend local association meetings. These points accumulate toward a Ranking Level (1 through 3)

Our local associations use meetings (a total of 10 per year) to go through the rule book one section at a time and discuss specific examples or situations where confusion can occur. You don't have to attend every one, but the discussions really do help.

The unfortunate part is that the same 30% of the association seems to attend all the meetings with another 20-25% coming to one or two. Not surprisingly, the 30% who attend most or all the rules meetings tend to be the guys that get the post season assignments as the state uses the Ranking Status as part of their criteria for tournament assignments.

Ultimately...you get out of it what you put in. I've always found them beneficial.