How to get people interested?

[AlaskaReffin]

I am from a pretty small community and I am trying to generate interest in officiating. Our organization is pretty small but we cover our local high school, jr high,youth league and mens league. And there is not enough officials to go around.

We have been trying to recruit some new people for many years but with very little success. We have held camps, taken out ads in the paper trying to recruit and have tried mentoring young people.

I am just wondering if you guys had any thoughts on how I could reach out to our community and get some " new blood " in our association?

Thanks

[Scrapper1]

How small is the community? Do you have a college nearby? College kids are a good source for recruitment. You also might have to consider paying more for officiating the games. People just might not see it as worth their time. Most of us do this because we love it, and not because of the money. But very few of us would officiate as much as we do if there were no money at all.

[JRutledge]

You could emphasize the money aspect to what we do. People do not realize the amount of money they can make working games and especially youth games. That might be the focus of your ads or other pubic addresses. We are in a new economy and there are a lot of people I know that do this for their primary employment for obvious reasons. So that could be another focus. Also that helped me get started when I was a college student (HA!) and realized that I made more in a night than I did delivering pizzas.

Peace

[ref2coach]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

You could emphasize the money aspect to what we do. People do not realize the amount of money they can make working games and especially youth games. Peace

Last Summer I worked an AAU game with a partner I had never met. Talking between games He said refereeing was his Job. He refereed Club, HS and College Volleyball, Club & HS Basketball. He said he made ~$60K per year of which he reported only the income that he got 1099ed on, which was a much smaller figure.

[Bad Zebra]

Our local youth league requires a parent of a player to officiate one low level youth game (usually 7&8 year olds) during the season. It's low pressure and non-competitive at that level so it's not real difficult. It is surprising how many officials we have developed out of the ranks of those parents.

[dsqrddgd909]

Originally Posted by ref2coach

Last Summer I worked an AAU game with a partner I had never met. Talking between games He said refereeing was his Job. He refereed Club, HS and College Volleyball, Club & HS Basketball. He said he made ~$60K per year of which he reported only the income that he got 1099ed on, which was a much smaller figure.

Does anybody else cringe when they read this?

[doubleringer]

In addition to money, make sure sportsmanship is an emphasis, especially at the lower levels where officials begin. If they can work in a good environment when beginning, maybe they'll stick around.

[jdmara]

Originally Posted by dsqrddgd909

Does anybody else cringe when they read this?

Yes

-Josh

[AlaskaReffin]

I am kind of in a unique position here where I live because it is a island. Only two ways on or off are to either fly or by boat. The only way you get to ref off the island is to be selected for regionals and or the state tournament. So I think one of the biggest deterrents we face here is the fact that everybody knows everybody and people are terrified of the bashing that they could face. You just can't hop in your car and drive 70 miles to the next town where nobody doesn't know you.

We don't have a college team so that is not a option. I do like the idea of posting an ad and throwing the money aspect out there. I would really like to incorporate some of the high school players and have tried in in the past with little success. But I do think that it is a great part time job on the weekends for the kids and is where I got my start 15 years ago.

Thanks again for the thoughts.

[26 Year Gap]

When I worked games in college, it gave me spending money. The per hour compensation when you put it in that perspective is pretty good. Consider having a class taught on the campus, if you have one. That is another way to attract people.

[AlaskaReffin]

I am kind of in a unique position here where I live because it is a island. Only two ways on or off are to either fly or by boat. The only way you get to ref off the island is to be selected for regionals and or the state tournament. So I think one of the biggest deterrents we face here is the fact that everybody knows everybody and people are terrified of the bashing that they could face. We see the same kids and parents from the time they are in youth leagues till high school and most likely into mens league. So usually everybody is sick of everybody by that time. You just can't hop in your car and drive 70 miles to the next town where nobody doesn't know you.

We don't have a college team so that is not a option. I do like the idea of posting an ad and throwing the money aspect out there. I would really like to incorporate some of the high school players and have tried in in the past with little success. But I do think that it is a great part time job on the weekends for the kids and is where I got my start 15 years ago.

Thanks again for the thoughts.

[representing]

Originally Posted by Bad Zebra

Our local youth league requires a parent of a player to officiate one low level youth game (usually 7&8 year olds) during the season. It's low pressure and non-competitive at that level so it's not real difficult. It is surprising how many officials we have developed out of the ranks of those parents.

I'm not cringing at this because it is a good idea in my opinion. In our one local rec league, it's just one certified official and one coach of a team not involved in the game (usually a coach of the game before or after the current game). The philosophy behind this is that coaches will see just how hard it is to officiate a basketball game, with the idea that they would remember that next time they think a referee (especially the coach referee) missed a call in their next game, with the hope they won't dissent as bad as some coaches do in the rec league. Maybe that would be a good idea to get parents involved as well.

[representing]

Originally Posted by AlaskaReffin

We don't have a college team so that is not a option

How about high school seniors and juniors? See if your local rec leagues would allow one certified coach and a high school student ref the games. If so, then you could try to recruit high school kids to ref on weekends if you paid them some money. That way, if they like it when they leave the high school, they could take the test and become certified officials. Just my 2 cents.

[rockyroad]

Kodiak??

If so, then he also faces the problem of having a large number of the high school kids not "needing" to earn pocket money because a lot of them work in the fishing industry up there and earn quite a bit of money over the summer. Plus they all know that the Permanent Fund checks go out right about the time basketball is starting up and getting rolling. So the money aspect might attract some people, but not as many as it would in a different community.

Your best bet, AlaskaReffin, is you and the others in the group right now. You have to be very charismatic and outgoing in your approach to pulling people in. Emphasize the fun that you guys have doing what you do. I think that might work better than the $$ tactic. Make it a "brotherhood" or a network, and you might be able to get some people interested.

[zm1283]

Originally Posted by dsqrddgd909

Does anybody else cringe when they read this?

Almost as much as when you see how much self-employment tax you pay on $60k.