A Little help from around the U.S.

[ChuckElias]

Here in western Mass, we have a boys' board and a girls' board. Up until 3 years ago, only members of the boys board could do boys games and only members of the girls board could do girls games. That changed three years ago, at the request of the girls' head coaches, and now officials from the boys board work girls games as well. To make things "fair" (i.e., so that the boys board didn't "steal" all the assignments from the girls board), members of the girls board are also allowed to work boys games. So there's really no more reason to have two boards.

The difference, however, is cost. Dues for the boys board are $100/season. Dues for the girls board are about $40/season I think.

Eventually, I think, we will see the "phasing out" of the girls board and the merging of the boards into one organization under the IAABO umbrella. It's really stupid to have two boards and the main difference between the two is cost.

The training is clearly better on the boys board, but for officials only interested in the money, they don't care about the training anyway. They figure they can get HS games (including boys games) and save $60/yr in dues. It's stupid, but that's the way it is.