as a crew...

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

And the advice here has been to make sure the OP understands his system and who is who before saying a whole lot. Even completely professional remarks and intentions can be misconstrued by someone who wants to do so for whatever reason.

If that is the case then none of us should ever officiate. That is life. Things in life can always be misconstrued, but that does not mean that one interaction is going to be the end all be all in someone's career. We are talking about one play here that was talked about. I do not think anyone should walk on egg shells to avoid all conflicts of any kind.

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

Our board president does not assign games, but I would guarantee you his opinion carries a lot of weight with our board's assigner. Here, unlike your area, all assignments come from the local association, so going sideways with leadership is a great way to limit options.

In my association we need young guys. They will one day replace us in all kinds of ways. I cannot be in my position forever. I am sure many other associations realize this too.

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

It seems to me there are three sorts of power players in most associations:
1. Officers (pres, vp, secretary, etc.)
2. Former Officers
3. Veterans who don't serve as official leadership but whose opinions carry significant weight.

As in every organization, some of those folks will be more "sensitive" than others.

I understand this, but this was not apart of the OP. He did not say his partners were in any particular stature other than they were veterans, which probably means they had some experience on him in officiating. Heck you might have a person that has a little experience on someone that has little perspective and they could "run and tell" what happened. We cannot spend all our time worrying about that or it will make us ineffective as officials. All veterans were helped at one time by other veterans when they were younger officials. I just think we should not automatically assume that everyone that has worked longer than you has the interest or the ability to ruin you over one game.

Peace