The Main Thing?

[Freddy]

If your local officials' association was charged with prioritizing one thing, one activity, one responsibility -- one most important thing on which to focus -- what would that be?

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Freddy

If your local officials' association was charged with prioritizing one thing, one activity, one responsibility -- one most important thing on which to focus -- what would that be?

Education. The education of new officials, and the continuing education of veteran officials.

[JRutledge]

Training.

Peace

Getting members to pay their dues for next year.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by Freddy

If your local officials' association was charged with prioritizing one thing, one activity, one responsibility -- one most important thing on which to focus -- what would that be?

Not really possible since it is responsible for training/education, distributing assignments, collecting money from the schools, and passing it along to the officials. Leave out any one of those jobs and it breaks badly.

[Raymond]

Training is suffering greatly where I live.

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

Training is suffering greatly where I live.

Is that supposed to be "the main thing" in your association?

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Freddy

If your local officials' association was charged with prioritizing one thing, one activity, one responsibility -- one most important thing on which to focus -- what would that be?

Originally Posted by Freddy

Is that supposed to be "the main thing" in your association?

I guess I'm lost as to the point of this thread. We have a commissioner who assigns and negotiates contracts. We have an executive board that runs meetings and gets info out to its members. What's not done very well here locally is training, continuous improvement, of high school officials.

When you don't train, you put an increasingly inferior product on the floor. Where I live (I commute to my main HS board), the 2 local boards have a pretty sh!tty reputation for the products they're putting out. A local conference actually hired an out-of-town association to do its games this season.

So, to me, training needs to be the thing that is prioritized.

[ODog]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

What's not done very well here locally is training, continuous improvement, of high school officials ...

When you don't train, you put an increasingly inferior product on the floor...

So, to me, training needs to be the thing that is prioritized ...

Ditto here.

[johnny d]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

What's not done very well here locally is training, continuous improvement, of high school officials.



So, to me, training needs to be the thing that is prioritized.

In a utopian world, these would be perfect statements. In reality, at least where I work, they are just worthless sentiments. There are more games than there are competent officials, especially on Friday nights. A good percentage of officials care about getting better and doing things the right way. Unfortunately, there is also a high percentage of officials that do not care and will not get better no matter how much training is available to them, but they will still get games because there isn't another competent official to take their place. Assignors and associations are stuck with these guys and they know it. Conferences and leagues can switch assignors if they like. They might see some new guys or a different mix of guys, but it is inevitable they are going to still get guys that don't belong on a game. Making training a priority is a fruitless endeavor. It takes a lot of work by a select few, with very little tangible benefit for the group as a whole. In fact, the whole idea of having associations seems pointless. In my experience, I get more out of the interactions I have with the select group of officials, that have goals and aspirations similar to mine, than I ever have participating in any of the associations I have belonged to.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BadNewsRef

We have a commissioner who assigns ...

Same here. My local board has been out of the assigning "business" for as long as I've been a member of the board, well over thirty years. We hire an assignment commissioner who does all the assigning. He's our "go between" between the schools (athletic directors), and our members (officials). If we like the job he does, our executive committee rehires him for the next year, if not, it's "hit the road Jack" (his name's not really Jack), and we hire someone new. It's only a one year contract.

[BktBallRef]

Originally Posted by Freddy

If your local officials' association was charged with prioritizing one thing, one activity, one responsibility -- one most important thing on which to focus -- what would that be?

Well, that's pretty easy. If we don't assign officials to games, we cease to function.