March BFOA Board Meeting – Minutes                                                       3/29/09

Meeting took place at Guy Taglienti’s House

Start: 3:11 pm  Present: Taglienti, Epstein, Gazzano, Simpson, Bowen, Baker, Sager, Craven              Not Present: Davis, Winston

April 16 General Membership Meeting Agenda:  Discussion was had on the agenda for this meeting. Location will be at South Plantation HS in the Magnet Auditorium (South side of School). Emails will be sent out to remind members of the importance of attending this meeting. Topics for the meeting will include: Moment of silence - Chet Smith, Interesting plays from 2008, USA Football memberships, white hat applications, flag patch on uniforms, field clinic, breast cancer awareness donation, spring game assignments, spring game evaluations, spring clinic in Miami-Dade, revised website/gremlins enhancements, feedback from membership on banquet/shirts and a guest speaker.

Correction on Committee’s – Board Liaison’s:
·          Assignment – Simpson
·          Education/Training – Baker
·          Evaluations – Davis
·          Grievance – Epstein
·          Recommendations – Gazzano
·          Banquet/Hosting – Bowen

Vote on USA Football Membership:  After a considerable discussion, Epstein made a motion that we purchase a bulk membership to USA Football for our membership at $10 per head for the 2009 season. Seconded by Simpson, all in favor, motion passed.

2010 Spring Clinic:  Initial discussions were had on a proposed 2010 Spring Clinic, however it is in the very early stages at this point.

Playoff Hosting Fees & Substantiation:  This fall, Simpson will price out what a decent hosting package will be for the upcoming playoffs so there will be a set cost for hosting this year.  Contact will be made with the BCAA for possible reimbursement by them or individual schools to pay for hosting in 2009.

Flag Patch on Uniform:  The board agreed that the patch will replace the Association of the Year Patch on the left sleeve. This will be mandatory by AUGUST 2009. The association will order another 100 from Honigs this year. Craven advised 200 were ordered and given out last year.

Rain Delays from 2008: Per Sager, all was submitted to BCAA however he has not heard back from Rocky Gillis yet.

Rules Interpreter: Mr. Tom Winston has been appointed by the board as Rules Interpreter for the upcoming 2009 season.

Tracking Down of Former Officials:  Epstein suggested we try to find former officials who want or are interested in coming back. Todd Wilpon and Ken Weisberg are two names who have said they are interested in seeking a comeback. Sager will look into this.

Recruitment Program:
1.       Identifying – Sager gave each board member a list of names to contact.

2.       Contacting – Each new name will be contacted by a board member before the 4/16 meeting. Remind about location of meeting and getting Jessica Lunsford finger prints out of the way.

3.       Training – For new officials will start at that meeting, Tom Zace will welcome them.

4.       Publicity – Based on response to this meeting, we will see if we need to do more things to get some new officials. Epstein

Assignment Software Programs:
1.       Gremlins – Our current software, designed by Vince Mundo was presented by Sager. He made some significant enhancements including a confirmation/giveback addition. This enhancement will hopefully solve some of the confusion and communication errors which happened last year. The Referee’s will be more involved in this addition.  Our current evaluation system works in conjunction with the Gremlins system. Technical Support is provided by Vince Mundo and there has never been any real technical problems from an Assignor stand point as of yet.

2.       Arbiter – J. Shamash presented and gave a presentation on Arbiter. Jeremy showed us various pro’s and con’s to the Arbiter software.  We were able to log into this program in a demo version and played with and used all the options. The program was easy to use and Jeremy showed us the different things that the software was capable of doing.  24 hrs. a day technical support is included and he has used and he states it is a great service. BCAA pays based on the number of officials, obviously the more officials the less it is. Right now Baseball and Basketball use Arbiter.

3.       Assign by Web – Sager spoke about this web based program. $350 per year for less then 100 officials.

After the lengthy presentations, discussion, Epstein made a motion to continue the use of Gremlins as our assignment software for 2009 and the board will re-evaluate at the end of the season if necessary, seconded by Bowen, all in favor, motion passed. Emails will be sent out describing the enhancements to Gremlins as well as it will be discussed at length on Thursday, 4/16 (April General Membership Meeting).