TO: MFOA Members

FROM: Ralph Messer, Secretary

SUBJECT: Minutes, Executive Board meeting of September 24, 2007

DATE: September 24, 2007

The meeting, which was held immediately following the basketball “Tip Off meeting, was called to order at 8:15 PM by the President.

Attending: Bud Holt, Al Summers, Ralph Messer, Jeff Pole, Carl Dill, Reid Sergent, Terry Lee, Saul Speights, Jeff D’Amelio, and Tracy Goodwin.

Not Attending: Richard Sullivan and James Law did not attend. Ted Bedford, Paul Gery, and Dan Cannon were working a make-up football game at Trinity Catholic.

Old Business:

Tracy Goodwin, the Inspector, discussed with the board, the complaint made against Joe Rigney by Duffy McClelland. The complaint was also signed by Reid Sergent, Richard Wilson, and Kyle Sergent. Tracy said he spoke the signors of the complaint and also with Joe Rigney, David Bobrowski, and the representative of North Marion High School who escorted the crew from the field at the conclusion of the game. Tracy stated that the recounts of the game as given by the three complainants differed from that of Rigney, Bobrowski, and the school representative. Motion by Ralph Messer that since there were conflicting statements, that the matter be dropped. Second by Wade Clayton. Motion to amend by Terry Lee by adding that a letter be written to Joe advising him of the conduct expected of MFOA members , that the type of conduct described in the complaint would not be tolerated, and as a Referee, he should be setting the example. Second by Saul Speights. The amendment passed. The motion as amended also passed.

The board was updated on the problems that are on-going with registration, the FHSAA on-line exam and the formulation of the 2007 Football Relative Rating. Registration with the MFOA by returning basketball officials has been extremely slow, even though the members in question have registered with the FHSAA. Directors will attempt to contact these members.

The members who had problems with the on-line makeup test have been identified and have been given last year’s test score or the average of the last three years, whichever is higher.

A current Relative Rating has not been developed because the test scores of those who took the exam on-line, both open and closed book have not been posted. Carrie Hardee, the Registrar of Officials for the FHSAA was contacted and she stated that those scores should be posted by Thursday, 9/27/2007. When those scores are posted, a Relative Rating will be completed.

Ralph Messer advised the board of complaints that were being received regarding the conduct of the evaluations. Complaints were that the evaluators were only evaluating for the first half of the game and then leaving and that not all evaluators are putting their name on the evaluation form. Several of the board members felt that these were not valid complaints and the evaluators should be allowed to do their jobs.

New Business:

Ralph Messer asked the board to pay half his cell phone bill because of the increased number of calls being made regarding the failure of and the problems contributed to the exam, After a mild discussion, the request was withdrawn.

Ralph Messer read a letter of complaint from Joe Rigney regarding the conduct of Reid Sergent. The board members feel that there is ongoing strife between Joe and Reid and that they should not be booked on the same crew again. No further action was taken.

Jeff Pole and Wade Clayton discussed the procedures for postponed, delayed or cancelled games. If the crew arrives at the game site and the game is cancelled, the crew shall be paid game fees and mileage. If the game is postponed and/or rescheduled, the crew shall only get mileage. If the crew has worked a portion of the game and all or some of the members of the crew cannot work the rescheduled game, those members would get a pro-rated fee for the portion of the game they worked. If the game has been cancelled by the school and the MFOA notified in a timely manner, there are no fees or mileage due.

Since the board had already advised Paul Gery and Grievance committee to establish procedures for handling of complaints and/or grievances, it was decided that, since the Inspector is involved in most of these situations, he should also assist in the formulation of this procedure.

Reid Sergent discussed the formulation of the evaluators for basketball and stated that he would do basically the same as football as soon as he can line up the non-member evaluators. Fees for these evaluators were not established. It was suggested by Wade Clayton and Terry Lee that the majority of these evaluations be conducted by senior officials during the Christmas tournaments .

There being no further business to come before the board, a motion to adjourn prevailed.