The Official Forum - Recruiting New Referees

We send officers to the various colleges in the area. They go to the rec center and/or IM games and set up a table. We also hit the rec leagues in the area ran by the various cities. In the past we have offered a $10 discount toward the annual membership dues if someone recruits a new official on their own (they must be active and work a minimum number of games).

Those seem to work pretty well. I would guess each year (at least while I was very active) we would get between 60-100 each year. Probably had about a 50% retention for year 2. My guess would be after three years we would have kept about 15-20...enough to keep up with retirements and officials moving away.

The process is they attend a 10 week class (no charge for the class...Wednesday nights at a centrally located HS gym) where we go over the rule book, mechanics, etc. During the scrimmages they work, as a group, 3 boys and 3 girls scrimmages. There are several experienced officials that attend and the new ones work a period, then step off the floor and discuss what they did (right and wrong) with a vet. After that, at each association meeting we have a break-out session where we discuss real game situations and let them ask question about specific things they have encountered or may not have a good grap on.

We also have an evaluation committee that will watch them a couple of times during the season. They do not get the usual formal eval sheet turned in ont them (unless they are really picking it up quickly). Rather the committee member goes over the sheet with them. Lastly, we ask the varsity officials to get to the site early and watch the first half of the sub-varsity games when it is possible so they can offer feedback.