This past weekend our Texas Section Officials Committee met--and accomplished very little if anything. Since the Section pays all the travel expenses for the members that means that about 20 people got an expense paid trip to Dallas (at a cost of at least $4,000 and probably much more than that).
Committee members have told me that they took the following "actions":
1. They discussed the officials schools that will be held in June and their dates.
2. They talked about selecting an assistant chairman but then did nothing.
3. That was it...
Here are the issues they didn't address:
1. "Undercover officials" espoused by the Junior Council.
2. Training for these "undercover officials."
3. The date of the Tournament Director/Referee workshop in Dallas that is required by the Section.
4. The minutes of the secret Ad Hoc Committee meeting held before the committee meeting.
5. The issue of the Section dealing with the solidarity of local officials associations.
I guess we will just keep hoping they address some real issues at the next meeting later this year.
Just think of how many officials shirts we could have bought and given out free with that $4,000 that was spent in Dallas...
13 comments:
Those two "action" items could have been "discussed" electronically at a total cost of $0.
I wonder if they have ever heard of "gotomeeting.com"?
The "undercover official" is known as the sportsman ambassador and is limited to members of the Section staff and committee. A training session was held before the officials meeting this week-end and will be held before each semi-annual and annual meeting from now on.
A vice-chair will be elected by e-mail vote.
Dates for extra schools were given out.
Guess whoever you talked to wasn't paying very good attention.
So now they are being called "SPORTSMAN AMBASSADOR"? That's even more laughable. I would love to see the training materials they had in their training session. Its also interesting that they had their training session before the Officials Committee was formally informed that they existed...
Be sure to send me the specific dates for the officials schools so I can print them.
Everyone I talked to said the decision about the vice-chair just kind of "disappeared". Perhaps the Sectional Chairman should go back and alert the committee members that there will be an email vote.
At least I'm glad to know you are reading the blog.
Be sure to send me those school dates so I can publish them...
And which committees might these sportsman ambassadors come from?
Dear Mr. Anonymous Sportsman Ambassador,
Go back and read the post. Randy said that they discussed the schools and their dates. I guess you were too busy going over your training materials as a sportsman ambassador.
If they can vote for a vice-chairman by email they can obviously send out the school dates by email and all of their meeting could have been done over the internet. Maybe they should take the thousands of dollars they spend on their meetings and give it to the poor.
The dates for the tennis officials schools have been posted on the USTA/Texas Section site since before the first of the year... including the ones that WERE called "if needed." Kevin had this changed on the Texas Site - quick after he saw that he goofed up by printing "if needed."
To all of those who have the intuition, and not working a tournament or match, the meetings are open to the public. Might be better than complaining here. Have anyone of you ever attended a sectional meeting to see what goes on?
I'm a new provisional official, but would like to get involved somehow and help out. I could probably be very helpful as the assistant to the new assistant chairman whenever that person is selected. I'd be a good 3rd wheel man and have excellant gofer skills. I could sit in on those 'Ad Hoc Committee" meetings and take copious notes for those not attending. This would also fast track my learning curve to become one of Texas' finest. My goal is to be selected for the U.S. Open as a roving official. Is it possible for that this year?
The school dates have been posted on the USTA-Texas section website for quite some time. I assume the officials committee is like other committees in that the expenses for the meetings are paid by the administration budget & not the officials budget. Therefore these funds would probably not be available to be spent elsewhere.
Dang, and I was hoping we would have some funds to buy officials wear those who are less fortunate.
Say Larry, gald to see you are interested in helping and you should go far with that positive attitude. It's not often a gofer is good at multi-tasking. You will probably be getting a call from Richie at the USTA Nat'l. office sometime soon. He'll be all over you. Keep up the good work.
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