Association Culture ...

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by JRutledge

Why not come up with some "best practices" that have seemed to work, instead of mandating rules that have holes in actual application.

All of these "customs" worked for over twenty of the thirty-one years that I've officiated. As I said earlier, our recent problems with these customs seems to be related to a sudden influx of new officials unlike anything we've ever seen in the history of our local board, and the "more democratic, less dictatorial" style of recent leadership.

Nothing mentioned in my article is mandated. It's expected, but not mandated. There is no penalty for not following any of these expectations.

We're just trying to be a professional organization, one that we can all be proud of. Many years ago, athletic directors would often comment on how professional we were compared to other sports associations, that we never seemed to act in a "get in, get out, get paid" manner, we arrived professionally in dress clothes (ties, and maybe jackets back then), and that we were always trying to help, and educate each other. We seldom hear comments like those anymore. How sad?