Meeting Minutes for SCBOWBO

October 15, 2002

Meeting minutes from Tuesday, October 15, 2002: Kevin has found a new assigning software program that looks promising and has much more capability and flexibility than our current one. It also is supported (the company that wrote our current assigning program is no longer in existence so we cannot get any help if we have a problem or question with it). This new program has been around since 1984 and is not very expensive. Rick Byrum is going to take a more in-depth look at the program and see if it would meet our needs. Ratings: Rick Byrum provided more details about the new ratings system he will propose at the first meeting on October 28. Some changes to the categories (A, B, C, etc.) were made and a sample ratings sheet was shown. Rick read off a list of possible observers (he has contacted some of them already) and some more names were added and some were eliminated. Rick will continue to follow-up with prospects and get the list narrowed down. Observers would be paid $20.00 per game. If the new ratings system is passed for this year, the observer program would probably not start "full-bore." The observer system would need to be funded in following years - one idea is to have our officials volunteer for an "RB Sports" summer tournament with all the officiating money to go into the observer program. One thing that everyone agrees on is that our J.V. officials need more feedback. When Rick gets a call from a fairly low-rated official who has not received many comments during the season, it is difficult to provide an answer as to why they are not progressing. Glenn and Kevin will design a very simple form that varsity officials must fill out and give to each J.V. official that they observe. It will simply have a court diagram on it plus a place to give two positive comments and two "items to work on." Board members are encouraged to contact Rick Byrum with any additional ideas or changes as quickly as possible. The board will need to stress to our officials at every meeting that they need to keep track of their officiating partners (as well as their games and game fees) or they will create a lot of additional year-end work as well as get fined. Jim Shaw will spend some time at one of the first meetings going over "how to fill out a paysheet properly" (and when they are due) because we had many incorrect and late time sheets turned in last year. Rick Byrum commented that one of the things our board has done a great job at this year is recruitment. We have over 50 interested individuals who have been invited to the combined training orientation this year. We often have several new officials who get added on during the season. Glenn brought up the idea that we should have a mid-season training class for new officials if we get "in-season additions" again this year. All board members thought it was a good idea. Jason Bradley will take minutes at the general meetings. Pat will continue to take minutes at the board meetings, but his workload is substantial because he will be leading the apprentice meetings immediately prior to our general meetings. Thanks Jason. Jim provided a check to Rick Byrum to have a backup system installed on his scheduling PC. Jim will have his backup solution installed soon as well. Jason showed us some shirt samples he is looking at for the SCBOWBO shirts we will make available for members to purchase. They will be a good deal for members ($30.00 for a very nice shirt that they can wear to games or to work etc.) and we will make about $5.00 off each shirt for SCBOWBO. We chose a dark blue color. We will order ten shirts to show to members at our first meeting and then accept orders and have a larger quantity printed. Members can pay cash or have the cost deducted as a payroll deduction when checks are issued at the end of the season. Glenn will be taking pictures after our first two general meetings to put on our website. These pictures are handy when officials are assigned a partner that they are not familiar with. It makes it so they know who to look for when they arrive at the gym. Glenn may not be available for our board meetings after our general meetings due to his picture duties, but we will still have a quorum. Kevin read a letter from the WOA indicating that the "testing period" for "three-person" officiating is over. Apparently the schools would only like to add a third official if the cost to them for the entire game fee remains the same. The letter asked if our association would be willing to split the usual game fee into three amounts for a 3-person game rather than two for a two-person game. In other words, if a game fee is $90.00, each ref in a two-person crew would get $45.00 and each ref in a three-person crew would get $30.00. This proposal was unanimously rejected by the board. The letter also asked if our association would support a WOA officiating camp in Eastern Washington. The letter did not elaborate on what "support a camp" meant so we assumed that it meant that we would extend our scholarship to ref camps to include one in Eastern Washington. So yes, we would support it. Kevin has returned our responses to the WOA. Glenn is going to order some referee shirts as well as some Fox-40 whistles. The shirts will be used in our weekly attendance raffle as well as prizes at our year-end banquet. The whistles will be used for our apprentice officials. Kevin went over his proposed agenda for the first meeting. We decided that Rick's new rating system should be presented at the first meeting so that has been added to the agenda. Kevin would like all board members to view the agendas for the first three members on our website and suggest changes or additions to him via e-mail. Jim discussed a problem that Marysville Parks and Rec is having with their 4th and 5th grade games. They hire high school kids to officiate and they are getting too many irate parents because the kids are not blowing the whistle enough. They want us to provide a partner official for each of these high school kids at a reduced rate. After much discussion, we agreed that officiating with these kids would be more difficult than a typical game (where you have a trained partner). We did agree to offer them a $24.00 rate ($20.00 to our official, $2.00 to our assignor, and $2.00 to the association) and provide a training class for their high school employees. Jim will report back if that works out. Jim said that the state is offering $10.00 passes to officials that will get you into every state playoff game for all school sports. It costs $10.00. We will need to get the names of any members that would like to buy one of these passes at the first meeting (the passes need to be purchased through our association rather than by each individual member). Members can take the payment out of their earnings at the end of the season or pay us up front. Jason informed the board that he may be relocated to Eastern Washington for the winter months by his employer. If that happens, Jason would miss the entire season and need to be replaced on the board. He will let us know as soon as he finds out more information. Glen Sande has been transferred to Delaware by his employer and will not return. Gary Barstow is moving to California and will not be officiating this year. Jim gave a brief summary to the board of how our insurance works and what happens if one of our officials gets injured during a WIAA game. Claims would be handled with the state (Labor and Industries) and our officials should contact the claim specialist at the WOA as soon as possible after the injury. The claims specialists contact information is on the WOA website. Just a reminder that we will have short board meetings after each general meeting this fall so our availability forms need to make sure that we always have a quorum present. NEXT BOARD MEETING: Monday, October 28 after the general meeting at the Elks Club