Recruitment

Cain · #1 (**permalink**) Fri Nov 07, 2003, 11:26am

I have seen this topic posted on some official's board here and there, but it's like the old adage, ....when you need something, then you can't find it anywhere. When you don't, ...then you find it.

Anyway, ....real concern lately I am having with our association. I realize it's a problem really everywhere, but I see the cloud building on the horizon to really cause problems years down the road. Recruiting good quality officials. To be honest, we don't do anything about it, and we need to. Get them in. I have discussed this with several of our crews, ....and we figure each year maybe brings us in 20 guys to begin the year. 3-4 years later when these guys are ready to become serious Varisty officials, ...there ar emaybe 2-3 left from the 20 if we're lucky. Maybe it just feels this way, ...but these 20 guys every year seem to be getting of lower and lower quality of offcials, and it concerns me.

So I'd like some ideas of everyone else's association. What do you do to try to get new memebers? Advertise? Talk to local college coaches and AD's? Go out trying to find them? Offer incentives for people to bring in others? I know pay is an issue, and that's another battle to work on later. I honestly think mor epeople would become officials and good ones, that would never even try it. How do we get them out there to give it a try?

I'm look for some good suggestions I can take and try to utilize.

MD Longhorn · #2 (**permalink**) Fri Nov 07, 2003, 11:37am

Do you have a person responsible for recruitment? Might be worth having if you don't.

Our main recruiter guy also umpires baseball and softball - he sees dedicated officials there and invites them to join (the pay is generally better for football). We had 103 new guys in my "class", and 74 new guys this year. I'd bet the guy I mentioned brought in nearly half of them.

Also, it's made a priority by all officials. I've invited 5 or 6 to join myself (only 1 has, but more might). It has to be an effort by everyone.

Cain · #3 (**permalink**) Fri Nov 07, 2003, 11:46am

100?! In each class? How many in your association? We have maybe 150 total. We do have a dedicated person - -but it's just a title for structure purproses. We just don't really make an effort.

Mike Simonds · #4 (**permalink**) Fri Nov 07, 2003, 01:28pm

In our high school association (we also do Pop Warner) we were thinking about having each Pop Warner team provide one adult (preferably a coach) to join our association, learn the rules, hold the chain for varsity, and work some Pop Warner and JV.

We are close to the President of the Pop Warner League and he was presented with this idea for his consideration.

We see the same problem over here. I'm the second or third youngest guy in our association of about 30 officials. And I'm 43 years old! There will be shortage of officials within the next 5 to 10 years unless we start the pipeline flowing again.

MD Longhorn · #5 (**permalink**) Fri Nov 07, 2003, 01:57pm

We had 615 on the roster last year. Probably slightly more this year, but I don't have an exact number.

sloth · #6 (**permalink**) Thu Nov 13, 2003, 08:56am

I just finished my second year. I've belonged to the same association for the same amount of time. I see similar trends in this association as well. As a new official I really had to do it all myself and learn from a lot of my own mistakes. Not that a person shouldn't have to go out and do a lot on their own, but becoming an official can be very intimidating. It would have been nice to have one of the older guys act as a mentor and spend a little bit of time teaching me some of what they know.

There are a couple of fellas that I can call and ask questions, but no one ever showed a desire to really take some time and help me get a good start.

Let me make some suggestions as a new guy...just take an interest in a few new officials. Take some time, get together with them (nothing special, just to go over rules, address their worries and tell them what to expect as a new offical). There are a lot of questions I bet those new guys have but are too embarased to ask in a large group setting. Help them to build confidance in themselves.

Suggest to your association that all first year officals get assigned an experienced official to ast as a mentor. At least then you have established a formal process where new guys should have a person that will be there to advise and help them.

It is a problem (recruiting) but in my mind (from what I've seen, and your message indicates) retention is a much larger problem. You have the numbers, people what to be officals, you just have to get them hooked so that they stay. I think establishing a mentor system will do just that.