Brainstorming Meeting July 19, 2008

[futbolislife]

On Sat, July 19, 2008, at the LSA Annual General Meeting in New Orleans (Airport Hilton), there will be a meeting starting at 1 pm. This meeting will be to generate ideas for the recruiting and retention of referees. The State Referee Committee will be seeking ideas on how we can accomplish these goals. We are hoping to attract referees, assignors, assessors, instructors, coaches, players, managers, administrators, etc. Anyone who thinks this is a problem (it is) will hopefully gather to throw out ideas in a brainstorming session. Please consider attending to throw out ideas that can later be turned into some productive programs.

[futbolislife]

The meeting time has been moved to the same day but 9 am. Please consider attending and offering up ideas on how we can improve the status of refereeing state wide.

[furriner]

I hate to be a party pooper, but is that not the same day as the recertification for refs in south LA?

[futbolislife]

This is true. The recert clinic was set months ago. Later, the LSA exec committee asked the SRC to address this issue and the SRC believed the best forum was at the AGM. Originally scheduled for 1 pm but the entire SRC except for me will be at the recert leaving me to work this alone. The timing did not allow for other members to attend. And since there are other meetings at that time that also required my attendance, I moved the session time. I can only hope that there will be adeqaute particpation by locals and other AGM attendees.

[furriner]

can we email in questions / thoughts to be discussed at the AGM?

[futbolislife]

you bet you can......

[furriner]

okay, in no particular order, here are 4 possibilities for possibly encouraging younger / inexperience refs stay in the game:

Shadowing during scrimmages: experienced ref shadows the inexperienced during scrimmage games. Helps with positioning when to sprint, when to jog. Which fouls could be considered insignificant depending on age group. I have seen this kind of thing being done during premier preseason camps with some success.

Support from local club: when parents / coaches start getting abusive, the clubs has to step up /in and either remove the coach involved or fine the team on a sliding scale, increasing the amounts each time. If someone has a reputation, this info should be shared between clubs: allowing assignors to be prepared.

Mentoring of young/ new refs: getting a local team of respected refs to take young refs under their wing to work with for a couple of weeks as a team. Would probably work best with intramural games within a club where mistakes are for the ref to learn and not punish a team / player. I guess this also includes training mentors.

Encourage ref development: get the promising 16-18 year old refs doing more mature games than the typical u10-12 or u13 ars. Encourage older, more experienced refs to be the ars for these games, possibly as part of a three man round robin where the young ar watches the other two first and then does a game himself/herself (more an issue for assignors than anything else) – e.g. a 16 year old with a couple of 7s / 6s ending up with a U-16 D1 game with the young ref as the center.

[futbolislife]

I don't disagree with these solutions but these are certainly programs that can be instituted at the local levels by local associations with club participation. What can be done at the state level that is too large or too costly to be managed at the local level?

[futbolislife]

Another reminder that the brainstorming session is this Sat and was moved to 9 am NOT 1 pm as originally posted. I encourage referees, administrators, coaches, managers, any interested party to consider attending to provide input on this crucial topic.

[number3]

How did it go? Anything productive come out of it?

[futbolislife]

There were actually some pretty good ideas that came out of it despite the very small turnout. But the group there was enthusiastic. When I gather all the info, I'll try to report back what ideas came out.

[tonygalinto]

Jul 21, 2008 6:29:20 GMT -6 futbolislife said:

There were actually some pretty good ideas that came out of it despite the very small turnout. But the group there was enthusiastic. When I gather all the info, I'll try to report back what ideas came out.

Did I miss the report back on the meeting, or are you still gathering and compiling all the info from the meeting?

[futbolislife]

I just compiled those ideas on one document and can post them on Monday. The State Referee Committee (SRC)did assemble a task group of individuals around the state to develop those ideas into programs. That TG just started working and we anticipate that this will take a while to develop every idea but some ideas will develop into programs fairly quickly. They will take the ideas, work them into a program ,develop budgets, procedures, etc in order to implement those raw ideas into working programs.

Additionally, the SRC has assembled two other task groups to implement programs as well. One is The La Referee Academy. The academy will be composed of several programs within itself directed at training, mentoring, retention. At selected tournaments, the academy will hold training sessions in the evenings and specific field training to academy participants from high level referees assessors and instructors. A mentor program will also be involved. Other aspects include a specific email system to disseminate USSF memos directly to those academy participants, and selected PDL/Professional games will have academy members watching the game with an assessor and then having a session after the game, with the referee crew to discuss situations and ask questions. There are other aspects as well being developed to encourage participation with perks.

And lastly another TG has been developed to steal and idea from the FA who started a program called "Respect the Ref" which is geared at reducing referee abuse form coaches, spectators and players and enhancing retention. The base workings are in place from the FA and we will adapt those into a La program as well.

In all, some very aggressive new programs are on the horizon. Members of all the task groups involve every side of the entire refere program from administration to instruction, assessment and assignment with members from 10 different cities around the state.

[tonygalinto]

Sounds like the State Referee Committee has lots of good ideas. I hope we can get some updates after the programs are implemented as to how they are being received by referees and what type of results you are seeing. I know it will take awhile before any real progress can be judged.

Good luck with all the new programs.

[futbolislife]

OK tonygalinto, I said I would post what the ideas were so here they are. These were the discussion points and the ideas that were thrown out. None of these ideas were developed to any extent at the session. They w ere only ideas.

First, we covered the reason referees do what they do and why they quit to establish background.

Reasons referees quit
Abuse
Not assigned
Transportation
Playing conflicts
Not what they thought it was
Reasons referees stay
Exercise
Want to stay involved, love of the game
$$$
Giving something back
Recognition
Advancement
Incentives

Retention Ideas

Mentoring Programs
Ideal mentor - active ref, younger, maybe one who also still plays
Local level, face to face contact is a must
Work younger refs with senior officials

Information to new referees on SRC website on “how to get assigned”
Assignor database on who is being utilized
On Line availability form for use by local assignors
Lsa phone Extension for assignors at LSA
Assignor incentive for using infrequently used referees
Assignor recert clinic to discuss these issues?
Local carpools and setting up ways to get those with transportation needs to games

Referee passes to PDL games
Professional game review - referees sit with the referee crew to discuss the game and situations

Better and more training opportunities – dynamic speakers (national speakers), social events
Bonus pay at the club level for higher grades or number of games

Area Referee swap – send referees for a weekend from one area to another to get senior people working with other groups
Lunch and T-shirt event
Point system with patches or other rewards (gear)

Misconduct reports to SRC on abusive sideline behavior
Notices to clubs on abusive coaches

Tournaments
More extras/perks to referees working tournaments

More info disseminated to referees from SRC via post cards

Abuse
Silent sidelines
“Ref Class” Card – issued to coaches, requiring coaches to attend a ref class session for abusive behavior
How do other sports handle abusive coaches?

More Field training

Joint recert clinic at AGM

Recruiting
More adults, less youth - New amateur players, face to face recruiting
Look to colleges for recruiting
Recruit at H.S Tournaments
Target amateur leagues and clubs for recruiting

These were the bullet points of the discussion. Some of these ideas will be captured by the La Referee Academy while others will be addressed by the "Respect the Ref" campaign. You can easily see the overlap in ideas with our new task groups.

[tonygalinto]

Thanks for the update on the brainstorming suggestions.
Let me also make one more suggestion.

Set up a mentoring program for adults that are just entering the referee program. I think they are more comfortable with another older adult referee as a mentor. The reasons they are more comfortable is the same reasons the younger referees are more comfortable with younger mentors.

Starting out as a new referee can be quite intimidating, even for an adult.

[number3]

Something that I did worked reasonably well in my area.

I got a class set up for a few weeks after the high school season ended. Towards the end of the regular season, I would approach the local teams prior to the game and ask the players if they would be interested in making some money and learning more about the game. I had printed out probably 500 slips of paper with the date, time, location, and contact information. The results were amazing. As of today the pre-registered class size grew so large that we are bringing in an additional instructor for a separate class to be taught in the room next door.

Maybe this can work in Louisiana as well, and I'm willing to find out.

[number3]

FIL, would any instructors be willing to come down to Houma toward the end of February for a new Grade 8 course? I am trying to get the ball rolling so I can start plugging for new blood in the area.

[lather]

Anyone that needs a clinic can go to www.referee-la.com/ and follow the links to contact Doug White (SRA) or Dave Busekist (SDRI). They can help.

Most Instructors are willing to travel to assist with training.

lather

[futbolislife]

The Houma folks just contacted us recently requesting a grade 9 clinic. We are always willing to do entry level clinics. They should contact Doug, Dave or Bill.