Lessons in survival

[oatmealqueen]

One of our associations POE's this year is "Train and Retain" in reference to newer officials. We lose these new people at an alarming rate it seems.
Any thoughts or tips on the subject? What incentives can we offer these newer people? How can we keep them interested?

[mick]

Originally posted by oatmealqueen
One of our associations POE's this year is "Train and Retain" in reference to newer officials. We lose these new people at an alarming rate it seems.
Any thoughts or tips on the subject? What incentives can we offer these newer people? How can we keep them interested?

Try to get assigned with them from time to time. Get out on the floor with them.

Once they are trained, use your considerable influence to help 'em get better games by volunteering to work with them.

[JRutledge]

Originally posted by oatmealqueen
One of our associations POE's this year is "Train and Retain" in reference to newer officials. We lose these new people at an alarming rate it seems.
Any thoughts or tips on the subject? What incentives can we offer these newer people? How can we keep them interested?

Have your association identified why you are not retaining officials? You might have very specific concerns that do not apply to most here. Ya know, who assigns your games, how guys move up, what the pay is for doing games, what association requirements to stay a member. All those things can be factors as to why people stay or leave.

Peace

[Nevadaref]

You must show the new officials that you are bringing in that you are moving out the older officials. If your association allows the old guys to continue to work the marquee games year after year the younger officials will become frustrated and move on to something or somewhere else.

[oatmealqueen]

Good points so far.
We are moving the newer people into the "big" games when we can, and using the 3 whistle has helped as well.

[LepTalBldgs]

I was disappointed (but not surprised) by the level of interaction by the senior members my first year. I think I am an above-average first year official and the only interaction I got was just before, during or after a game. I'm certainly going to stay in our unit, but I would have hoped that one of the board members would have contacted me early in the season outside of normal basketball hours to inquire if I had any questions or issues.

I understand though that people are busy with their lives and that this is just a hobby. So although I never anticipated receiving a call, I would suggest a call about two weeks into the season and then another two weeks prior to the end of the season. The message that should be sent is that this person is valuable.

Also, we just had our annual banquet last night. I was very disappointed that there was not greater attendance and this was another opportunity for a board member to call people and invite/persuade them to attend. There were only three first year people who attended out of a first year class of about 50.

[ChuckElias]

Originally posted by LepTalBldgs
I was disappointed (but not surprised) by the level of interaction by the senior members my first year. I think I am an above-average first year official and the only interaction I got was just before, during or after a game. I'm certainly going to stay in our unit, but I would have hoped that one of the board members would have contacted me early in the season outside of normal basketball hours to inquire if I had any questions or issues.

I think this is pretty unrealistic, personally. While I would agree that senior officials should be available to the younger officials who have questions, I don't think you can expect 20-year Varsity officials or D1 college officials to seek out a first year guy outside of "normal basketball hours". This is especially true if the association is a large one, with a lot of new guys coming in.

LepTal's disappointment might be avoided in the future in a couple of ways.

1) Institute a formal mentoring program, in which every official with less than 5-years experience is assigned a mentor who works a full HS Varsity schedule (or better). The problem with that plan is finding enough experienced guys who are willing to participate.

OR

2) Stress to your new officials that the experienced officials are available to help them. Make it clear that they will not be a nuisance, but that the responsibility for getting help is theirs. Encourage them sincerely to contact the veterans with questions, game situations, etc. Maybe not all the veterans will be happy to get that kind of phone call; but the young guys will figure that quickly and stop calling those guys.

This post is quickly becoming too long, but a couple of quick stories.

About 4 years ago, just as I was getting a full Varsity schedule, I was working a pre-season HS scrimmage. Everybody, regardless of experience level, is encouraged to work at least a couple of these each year. So I was there, along with a D1 official, along with a mixed bag of other guys. I overheard a new guy say, "Look at Mark (D1 guy). He just sits there and hasn't said a word to me about my calls." I wanted to turn around and say, "Look at you. You haven't asked Mark even one question about your game." Most guys won't go out of their way to help out, but are more than happy to help if you'll go to them.

I help out with new official training at the beginning of each season and this season, when I arrived for one of my HS games, I saw one of our newer guys there, watching the JV game. So after talking to my partner, I invited the new guy into the locker room to listen to our pre-game. I had never worked with this partner before, so it was a thorough pre-game. Ok, so I went out of my way a little bit, but I think the new guy really appreciated it.

If any of that is helpful at all, I'll be amazed. I'll shut up now.

Chuck

[mick]

Originally posted by ChuckElias
...1) Institute a formal mentoring program, in which every official with less than 5-years experience is assigned a mentor who works a full HS Varsity schedule (or better). The problem with that plan is finding enough experienced guys who are willing to participate.

Chuck

Chuck,
I'm willing to help, but I don't have one of those "full HS Varsity schedule (or better)" schedules.
mick

[Jurassic Referee]

Originally posted by mick

Chuck,
I'm willing to help, but I don't have one of those "full HS Varsity schedule (or better)" schedules.
mick

That's due to geography,not ability!

[rockyroad]

Originally posted by LepTalBldgs
I was disappointed (but not surprised) by the level of interaction by the senior members my first year. I think I am an above-average first year official and the only interaction I got was just before, during or after a game. I'm certainly going to stay in our unit, but I would have hoped that one of the board members would have contacted me early in the season outside of normal basketball hours to inquire if I had any questions or issues.

I understand though that people are busy with their lives and that this is just a hobby. So although I never anticipated receiving a call, I would suggest a call about two weeks into the season and then another two weeks prior to the end of the season. The message that should be sent is that this person is valuable.

Wow...I would have to echo Chuck's response. This is pretty unrealistic...I would also add that most "experienced" officials have been burned at one time or another by offering advice to newer officials, and then finding out they didn't want it, or took it the wrong way, etc...if a rookie or newer official comes to me with questions or asks me to observe/evaluate them, I will gladly do that...as a matter of fact, as one of our local rookie trainers, I always give out my phone numbers and e-mail to the rookies and tell them to feel free to contact me with any questions - but they have to contact me first!

[Kevzebra]

I have a unique situation in this "training" area. I run a local rec league which I have assigned for about 5 years. This fall they opened a new facility with a full length floor and a running track around it. This gave me the ides to offer a few games to our members (local association) at a reduced pay rate. The kicker for me to get them there was they get a tape of the game (I center on one official per game, three games a night) and I get the games covered. I have had 5 people so far come and work (which suprised me, as there are many of our younger officials coming to me during the season saying "how can I get better") and they are very appreciative as to the effort of myself and the people that work for me. I guess that there are not really that many people that want to get better! I sent the email to all our membership, so I guess all of them felt if they cannot get paid to referee, they cannot get better! I wish I would have had someone like me when I was "growing up"!

[RefSouthAlb]

We are not asking for one official to contact a hundred officials over the course of a few months.

Most organizations must have 10-15 senior officials. The governing executive should put in place a so called "mentoring" program where each person is responsible for 2-3 new rookies. This might entail a call or 2 for a 5-10 minute chat or sitting down at meetings for a 5 minute discussion.

The reason we lose officials is because most are probably scared to approach the senior guys. "Having them call me" puts the onus on the new guy. The lack of accesability or attitides like that indicate he/she has to initiate puts up barriers for a new ref looking for a pat on the back or direction.

We as refs have all had people who have taken us under his wing for some mentoring. As to those that do not want any direction/help, they will probably leave and good riddance. We want to keep those that are on the fence (and will become a good ref) and those that show potential.

We have all benefitted from being officials.

A good official is willing to give time back to make thopse around him better.

Although a hobby we all get paid which is a bonus.

[JRutledge]

Officiating is not much differnet than anything in life. If you want to get better at something, you need to seek out the people that might help you to some extent. That is what I did, that is what a lot of officials around me did. Because I have had young officials say to me, "I want to watch you officiate somewhere," and when I give them dates and situations to watch or come with me personally, they never show up or do not call. So if you want to become and accomplished official, you have to take some responsiblity for being mentored. We can create a mentor program, but we always have very few officials that want to participate. Not a whole lot the veterans can do. I do think that associations can take a more active role, but the young officials have to be willing to "tag along" for the lack of a better word.

We have many prelim games or JV games before the varsity and no one stays around to watch anymore. Everytime I did a game, I watched the other officials, whether I thought they were the best or the worst. Because my viewpoint was, if they are at the varsity level, they are there for a reason. Younger officials do not seem to do that anymore.

Peace

[theboys]

How many officials do you think you lose because of spectator/coach "abuse"? Do you think its a significant number?

I've suggested this before, but I think it would benefit the referee community to offer clinics for teams (and other interested parties). In fact, referee associations should require that "organized" groups, like high school, AAU, YBOA, etc, have all their teams attend some sort of half-day clinic, where referees could go over common misconceptions, etc.

Again, as I've said before, I've learned tons from this site, and from actually reading rule books (go figure). I am much quieter at games, and enjoy the games themselves more. Don't get me wrong, I still yell - just not nearly as much.

[JAdams]

Over the last two years I have moved from mostly JV level to mostly varsity, so I can see this issue from both sides. Let me ramble on a bit...

In our area (as many areas, I'll bet) there seems to be a core of 20-year+ veterans. Most (not all) of these veterans couldn't care less about the education of the less-experienced officials. They will arrive for their varsity game in the third quarter of the JV game, head right to the locker room, and never really watch the JV officials work their game. When the JV game is over, if one of the JV guys asks for feedback, the varsity guys usually have nothing (constructive or otherwise) to say, because they didn't watch. There's a little bit of haughtiness in effect with the varsity officials, too, so most JV guys don't even ask.

Now, on the other hand, I have also noticed that most JV officials don't stick around to watch the varisty game. So they're passing up an opportunity to learn by watching.

The combination of these two things means that there is very little interaction between (most) varsity officials and (most) JV officials.

I was fortunate because two varsity officials took me under their wing during my first two years and helped me through the mental and physical learning process. I am so grateful to those two guys... I might well have bailed if were not for them.

What't the answer here? I try to quietly help junior officials the same way the two senior guys did for me. A little here, a little there... maybe we'll all get better with time.