Association Booth at County Fair

[Freddy]

Our association set up a booth at the local county fair in order to portray a positive image of officiating to the public and to recruit candidates for sports officiating. Went better than we expected. Have pics but can't seem to post a link. PM me if you're interested in seeing how it turned out. 78 new official candidates yielded.

[BillyMac]

Try any deep fried Twinkies?

[Freddy]

Negatory on the deep fried twinkies. I did, however, limit myself to thirteen corndogs. Per day.

Pics of fair booth can be seen at Fruit Belt Officials Association Home Page

[dsqrddgd909]

Freddy, Nice web site. Very useful layout.

[bainsey]

Clever idea.

Although, you could probably make a few extra bucks for your association with a dunk tank. I always thought this would be a good charity fundraiser at tourney time.

[BillyMac]

This would have been a great idea for us several years ago, when we were in great need of officials, especially for late afternoon high school freshman, and middle school games.

However, over the past few years, our "cadet" classes have been filled to capacity, forcing us to turn away recruits. Maybe it has something to do with the economy?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by bainsey

You could probably make a few extra bucks for your association with a dunk tank. I always thought this would be a good charity fundraiser at tourney time.

Halftime?

[The_Rookie]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Try any deep fried Twinkies?

I was at the Bridgewater fair this weekend at had amazing Fried Dough and corn on da cob !

[Bad Zebra]

Originally Posted by Freddy

Our association set up a booth at the local county fair in order to portray a positive image of officiating to the public and to recruit candidates for sports officiating. Went better than we expected. Have pics but can't seem to post a link. PM me if you're interested in seeing how it turned out. 78 new official candidates yielded.

That's a real creative approach to recruiting. Kudos to your association.

Not so sure it would work here. The county fair tends to attract an interesting demographic locally. Suffice it to say that the headline entertainment on Saturday night is usually (bad) pro wrestling...on Friday, a mud bog/tractor pull. I doubt any of the candidates we brought in from that type of crowd would pass the background check. Not trying to be elitist...just the reality of what we'd be facing.

(btw...I like your web site too, but there's a LOT of information available about every official...names, addresses & phone numbers. Might want to have that stuff protected from non-members)

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by Bad Zebra

. . . Might want to have that stuff protected from non-members)

Yeah. Good thing I'm not using my real name here also. Always appreciate the cloak of anonymity.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Bad Zebra

Pro wrestling, a mud bog/tractor pull.

Sounds like fun. I'm there.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Freddy

Our association set up a booth at the local county fair in order to portray a positive image of officiating to the public and to recruit candidates for sports officiating.

Freddy: I'm curious. How much did the fair charge you to set up a booth? I can't imagine that it was inexpensive.

[Multiple Sports]

Our board tried some "public relations type" events to get more members and in the current economy (don't forget to vote) we found that we got a great response but over 80% of the people that were interested wanted to be nothing more than "rec" officals and were in it just for the money...........

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Freddy: I'm curious. How much did the fair charge you to set up a booth? I can't imagine that it was inexpensive.

Booth was $265 which included insurance. Total cost for that, two 55" monitors, carpet, striped wall covering, and banner was just under our 875 budgeted amount. Other items were either provided gratis by members, free, or borrowed to us by area schools.

72 different prospective officials expressed interest by filling out a form. 14 of those were high school students eligible for our state's "Legacy" program for pre-graduates. We'll work on linking them up with suitable mentors.

The remaining 58 expressed their interest in officiating the six sports we train for (some chose multiple sports): 31 Basketball, 29 Baseball, 21 Softball, 18 Football, 13 Volleyball, 6 Wrestling. Sport-specific trainers will be given their names and information for personal follow up and invitation to our association's meetings and relevant training sessions. Half a dozen or so from out of our area who gave us their information were referred to the officials' association in their home area.

True, the proof is in the proverbial pudding, and by no means do we expect that all 72 will register with the state and join our association and actually become officials. However, we were pretty delighted that 12 of the 31 prospective basketball officials stating interest have already committed to attending a "New Officials' Orientation" and "Court Positioning/Mechanics" session tonight, with 6 excusing due to previously scheduled commitments. That seems pretty good, given the short notice and the fact that today is just five days after the event ended.

Heck, our goal for recruitment was, unofficially anyways, to yield 12 interested individuals total. Since the chief aim was "to promote a positive image of officiating to the community", the recruits we derived are, in all actuality, a bonus. About 100,000 or so people saw our bright and beamy faces and many stopped to take the mini-sports rules quizzes we offered.

Will be interesting to look back one year from now and evaluate the effort based on those who actually followed through on their expression of interest.