THE YEAR OF THE REF!! (Will your child be left out this fall season??) Please spread the word....
Some of you will recall that last season we were VERY short on the number of refs who were willing to get certified and/or willing to ref games in our Region. As a result, 4-5 senior refs (some of which have NO children playing in our Region) had to cover 50-60 games EACH so that the games could be played. This included playoffs in which some reffed every night of the week. (Too many games...not enough refs).
Additionally, we had an unusually HIGH number of parents that were verbally abusive to refs this past season, which as you would suspect, contributes to the number of adults that are unwilling to volunteer their time in such roles if it means being subjected to such criticism or abuse.
The Board of Directors recognizes the seriousness of BOTH of these issues and has made significant changes to the Registration process affecting the Fall 2007 season.
1). We will ONLY form teams based on the number of certified Refs that we have (prior to the Team Formation process beginning in June) in order to assign a “team ref” in the U6, U8, U10 and U12 divisions.
To become a “certified team ref” requires the following:
a). Sign up to become a certified Ref during Walk-in Registration.
b). Get certified prior to Team Formation (which begins in mid-June) for the division in which your child will be participating. (U6/U8 requires a 4-hour certification course; U10/U12 requires an additional 4 hours if you have already been certified at the U6/U8 level; otherwise, a newly certified ref in U10/U12 will be one 8-hour course).
c). Commit to the 10-game season. (U6/U8 refs will ref their own child’s game; U10/U12 refs will ref the game prior to their child’s game).
2). CAUTION: In any division whereby we have more players registered than we have number of volunteers to ref and who are certified prior to Team Formation to form the # of necessary teams, we will implement a LOTTERY system to determine who is selected to play in the Fall season in that division to complete team formation.
GUARANTEED TO PLAY: Only certified refs (prior to team formation, & who have committed to the 10-game season) will be assured their child will play in the Fall 2007 season and therefore will avoid being exposed to the Lottery (additionally, Certified Coaches, and Board members in those divisions will also be exempt....NOTE: There are still key board positions vacant!!).
3). Finally, if you volunteer to ref we WILL protect you from verbal abuse on the sidelines. The Board is currently looking at measures to implement for any individuals who are abusive/disrespectful to the volunteers of any game, at any level…including barring that individual from the field for the remainder of the game, with increasingly escalated disciplinary measures from there.
This IS the year of the Ref. We need the number of ADULT volunteers to continue to keep pace with the number of players registering to play in our Region. These core volunteer positions directly affect the number of players we can register in any one division, the number of teams we can form in that division, the number of fields we can secure, the number of games we schedule, the number of uniforms we order, etc etc etc. It is all connected.
We recognize it is easier to pay a Patron fee than to volunteer time. We need the adult volunteers this season. Please consider your investment of TIME for 2007 to continue to grow our program and to assure no one gets left behind.
We need YOU to ref. See you at the volunteer Ref sign-up table at walk-in Registration?
Please proceed to the Pre-Registration link....