Its never good to be the person that complains about something and then offers no solutions to fix it--and I sure don't want to sound the alarm of our diminishing pool of qualified officials without offering some solutions. Here they are:
* Develop materials to give out at every tournament that enlist new officials.
* Develop internet programs to enlist new workers. Copy it from successful businesses if need be.
* Encourage all officials to constantly be looking for new people to recruit to join our ranks.
* Develop and use a new method of accountability to detect officials that need more training.
* If an official is inept or needs additional training then make sure it happens. Nothing harms our cause more than an inept official.
* Secure people who are willing to do training of new officials and then use them.
* Work with collegiate coaches to find those who are willing to let you train officials in their dual matches. On the job training produces the best officials.
* Make changes to the requirements and programs only after you have fully developed the changes. Nothing is more frustrating that being told something is changing and it will take years to implement.
* Evaluate the need to keep requiring experienced officials to do the same thing as new officials.
* Go back to some form of the schools we used to have to teach and certify officials. When we stopped doing that, the quality and numbers declined in a hurry.
* Have meetings of officials in your area where you can meet face to face and share some time together. Bonding makes a huge difference!
* If you are going to require webinars, make them more available and find a way to limit the interaction of those who would dominate the discussion.
* Requiring officials to watch videos every year is ridiculous. Once will do it.
* Develop and use training programs at every level. Right now we ain't got nothing so anything would be better.
* Remember--we pay dues to be officials so we expect something for our invest and more "bang for the buck."
2 comments:
Those of us who are experienced and commit to this work are constantly being excluded in favor of new, untested recruits. Institutional knowledge is a good thing and constantly being disappointed in lack of assignments when committing our schedule to events for which we have applied does not instill a desire to continue. Assignments can and should be more equitably distributed, especially with capable applicants.
I totally agree with the previous comment. Nothing more frustrating than being repeatedly told by Silver and Bronze Badge chairs that your work is far superior to many of the "old guard", yet the "old guard" get the assignment and the new up and coming are ignored in a political and good-ole-boys system.
Post a Comment