January BFOA Board Meeting                                                                       01/24/09

Meeting was held at Larry Simpson’s House @ 3:10 pm.

Members present: Guy Taglienti, Steve Epstien, John Gazzano, Larry Simpson, Larry Bowen, Bryan Davis and Tye Sager  Not Present but excused: John Gazzano, Bryan Baker

2009 Board/ General Membership Meeting Schedule:
Steve Epstein put together the 2009 board/general membership meeting schedule and explained it. One of the things that was discussed was that during the season that the board has gotten away from full board meetings, often having them after general meetings. First general membership meeting will be in April to discuss the Dade County field clinic and get officials status for spring games. (Thursday, April 16^th @7 p.m. South Plantation H.S. – Media Room in rear of school)

Concerns raised by the Membership:
Taglienti read various emails and concerns in response to his email to the general membership to allow members to voice their concerns.  Topics included playoff selections or recommendation committee, training at the general membership meetings, 10 years white hat/referee time requirements, late payment by certain schools, evaluations, chain crews or require home teams to provide chain crews, missing meetings, scheduling two varsity games in the same day, be proactive in getting members in shape or require a physical, don’t allow referees to work other positions in the playoffs, crew assignments to big games,

Committees – FHSAA – Board liaison for each committee will be:
Assignment -     Bryan Baker
Education/Training -
Evaluation - Bryan Davis
Grievance - Steve Epstein
Recommendations - Larry Simpson/John Gazzano
Banquet - Pending

Recruits:
Tye Sager will send out a list of potential members to each member of the board to contact each and see if they are still interested and answer any questions they may have before the April 16^th meeting.

Referees/White Hats:
Tye Sager will send out an email to see what everyone’s status will be for the upcoming year. Reporting of penalties during your games this year may be a possibility for accountability. So officials may be required to write down any flags they throw. There will be discussion on that in the coming months.

Crew Assignments:
Since there has been a considerable amount of communications issues with officials missing game assignments. The board wants to look into what Vince could change with the Gremlins program or look at Arbitor and what options that program has.  Arbitor is used by other BCAA sports and the BCAA pays for it. It has automated email responses, etc. and we will look at those options with a demo at the next meeting.

USA Football:
USA Football is offering a paid web service for Officials for $10 a member (special association pricing) with a $10 or 10 % discount at Honigs. Steve Epstien and Tony Michalek  (NFL & USA Football) will give us a demo and explain the site in February.

Meeting ended @ 5:00 P.M.