February BFOA Board Meeting                                                                     2/22/09

Meeting took place at Bryan Davis

Start: 3:03pm  Present: Taglienti, Epstein, Gazzano, Simpson, Baker, Davis, Sager, Craven  Not Present: Bowen

USA Football Block Membership:
Steve Epstein suggested a block membership at $10 an official to USA Football which will give you access to all of their online training. USA Football will give back $10 gift certificate or 10% off back per official to Honig’s, so essentially it will cost $0 per official. You will be given access to all training materials, testing, rules interpretations, real game video, power point presentations, signals, etc. which is available on the site. There was considerable discussion about this and NFL Umpire, College official and USA Football representative Tony Michalek walked the board through various parts of the website via a conference call.  John Gazzano asked that all the Board get access to the USA football website before the March board meeting so everyone has an opportunity to use it and evaluate it before deciding on this issue. Steve Epstein advised that he would supply his login and password for the board to evaluate the site. Larry Simpson suggested to project the website up at the June Meeting to give members an idea of what is offered and will allow for member feedback. Bryan Baker posed the question why does his (speaking in general terms) membership have to pay for a banquet, a t-shirt, a USA membership? Why can’t it just be for being a member and let the individual member decide for themselves what they want to pay for? Larry Simpson agrees with some of the points Bryan made, however he brought up a good point that members don’t join just to be individuals, football is a team officiated game, its not one person out there, there is a sense of pride that members are a part of something and as an organization we have a responsibility to provide members with that feeling of being a part of something special and are representatives of the organization.  Bryan advised there is a $5 per member buffer built in to the budget for this coming year, that we can use towards this membership. This has been tabled till next board meeting to allow the board members to review the site.

Public Schools (BCAA) Schedule Received:
Based on that there will not be more then 13 games on any given night for public schools. Private schools that are not part of the BCAA are not included in this number.

Recruiting:
Tye Sager brought up some issues he had last year with finding timers. He says there is a real need this year for timers! So if any members now anyone looking to make extra money and are not able to work on the field, timing may be a possibility for them. Have them contact the association through the website link (becoming an official). There was also some talk of having permanent timers on crews, in an attempt to keep them interested. Tye also mentioned that he has a list of approximately 40 potential officials that he will be forwarding to each board member to make contact with each in the coming weeks before the April 16^th general membership meeting.

Rule Changes:
The National Federation Of High Schools announced their rule revisions for the upcoming season on February 13th.  The most notable rule change effective with the 2009 season, it will be illegal to grab the inside back or side collar of the runner's shoulder pads or jersey and subsequently pull the runner to the ground. The penalty will be 15 yards from the succeeding spot.  This change mirrors similar rules at the pro and college level. This is just one of the rule changes for 2009, visit the BFOA website, www.browardfootball.com for a link to all of the rule changes for this upcoming season.

Clinic in Miami-Dade County:
USA Football and the University of Miami will be offering a comprehensive two day school designed for crews who can work on the field. Tony Michalek, NFL Umpire and Bill LeMonnier, Big Ten Referee will lead these clinics. Youth, High School and Collegiate officials will learn from clinicians that include NFL and NCAA Division I officials during a full day of comprehensive training. Unique and interesting plays from the 2008 high school and college seasons will be used to discuss mechanics, philosophy and rules applications for all levels of officiating. Lunch, surprise guests and giveaways are included.   

Attendees will receive FHSAA credit.  Due to the expense ($250) and limited enrollment, the board would recommend this primarily for officials who are looking to explore the next step in their officiating career.  If you attended the clinic hosted by the BFOA in 2006, you have met the FHSAA field clinic requirement that covers you through the 2009 season.  We will explore opportunities to make a more traditional clinic available to our members in 2010.

Number of Varsity Crews & Referee Openings:
This will be determined after the April general membership meeting.

Web site Update:
Vince Mundo our webmaster did a fine job updating the web site. It has a fresh new look and easier to navigate. Check it out!

Rules Interpreter:
Suggestions were made since Tom Winston is not on the field anymore, that if possible he can attend some games and if he sees an unusual play or something a crew handled incorrectly/correctly he can attempt to get video from the coaches so he can work that into the training for the following meeting. Bryan Baker suggested to survey the membership to see what they would like to see for training topics. Several suggestions were made for the use of more video in training.

FHSAA Fine:
The association received a $50 fine for not turning in the attendance musters for the 2008 season. Tye Sager advised it was sent, however the FHSAA was not able to locate it. This information was sent in via the FHSAA website, however there was no record it was sent. Tye advised that in 2007 he made copies of everything he sent, however this year he didn’t and as you would guess it was lost. Bryan Davis made a motion to pay the fine, seconded by Bryan Baker, all in favor, motion passed.

Mechanics Committee:
Bob McKinney suggested the need for a Mechanics Committee, where there would be a position representative from each position on the field (R, U, HL, LJ, BJ). He advised also that he would be interested in chairing such a committee if formed. Steve Epstien made a motion to create an Ad Hoc Mechanics Committee and allow Bob McKinney to Chair it. Seconded by, Larry Simpson, all were in favor, motion passed.

Banquet:
Steve Epstien advised that over the last few years less then half of our members have attended the end of the year banquet.  He suggested we survey our membership and find out why the members are not attending the end of the year banquet. The banquet cost just less then $3000 per year and less then half of our members are benefiting from that. Steve talked about maybe having a banquet every other year, but before any decisions are made by the board he would like to see feedback by the membership.
 

Scheduling Software:
Jeremy Shamash, BFOA member and Assignor of the Broward Basketball Officials Association will be asked to come to the next meeting to speak about Arbitor software that is used by other BCAA sports and paid for by the BCAA.   There was a small discussion about pros and cons to a switch to a new software, however it will be discussed at length in March.