IHSA

IHSA Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes - 2006-07

athletic officials Advisory Committee

April 19, 2007

The IHSA Officials Advisory Committee met at the IHSA Office, Bloomington, Illinois on Thursday, April 19, 2007, beginning at 10:00 a.m. Committee members present were: Clifford Bailey, Country Club Hills (BK); Rhonda Haffner, Morton (VB); Octavio Herrera, Naperville (FB); Michael Hutton, Lake in the Hills (SW); Mickey Klement, Joliet (Competitive Cheerleading); William Lamkey, Riverton (Principal); David Mathews, Westmont (WR); Vicki Munch, Arlington Hts. (GY); Greg Pavloff, DuQuoin (BA); and John Polka, Oak Park ((TR). IHSA Assistant Executive Director Dave Gannaway; Rick Karhliker, Sherman (NFOA Liaison); IESA Assistant Executive Director Nicole Schaefbauer, and Perry Karbakis, Crestwood (WP) were also in attendance. Committee members Jim Hayes, Peoria (So); Brian Knutson, Downs (Tri-Valley) (Principal); and Chris Long, Sigel (SB) were unable to attend.

1. Recommendation: All first year officials to attend a Level One Clinic in the sports that have two levels and a clinic in all the other sports that offer only one level, within the first year.

Rationale: There is a need to provide the first year officials with valuable information that can help make their officiating experience better. At this time a first year official does not have to attend a clinic for three years. It is not a good situation to put officials out working without some type of training. By mandating that all first year officials must have a clinic by July 31 of that year will guarantee that we have provided some type of training for all first year officials prior to the start of their second year.

Approved

2. Recommendation: One more component to be added to the power rating of an official. That component will be recent clinic attendance. If an official attends a clinic within the last year they would get 5 points, within the last two years 3 points and within the last three years 1 point.

Rationale: This will add one more component that the official can control in the power rating process. It promotes recent clinic attendance for the officials that want to be assigned further in any of the state tournaments.

Approved

3. Recommendation: The promotion process for officials to be changed to the following: Each official must apply for promotion and continue to take the Part 2 exam at a designated spot. The Part 2 exam will continue to be an open book exam for promoting to the Recognized level and a closed book exam for promoting to the Certified level. Each official will provide, with the application for promotion, three letters of recommendations, one from a coach, one from a certified official and one from either a coach, certified official or administration from one of our member schools.

Rationale: At this time we request that the official provide the IHSA with three names for recommendations. The IHSA mails to the three for recommendations, a card to fill out on the official that has applied for promotion. If the people do not send back the recommendation responses, the official might not get promoted. This has been a very bad public relations situation, where an official scores high enough on the exam, but does not get promoted because the responses are not returned to the IHSA Office. This official must then go through the entire process next year for promotion. By having them attach the three letters of recommendations to the application for promotion we could rectify this situation.

Approved

ITEMS OF GENERAL DISCUSSION:

1. The Observers Program was discussed and there were issues addressed on when the program had to be implemented. The biggest concern was that associations thought the entire program had to be implemented next year. There needs to be correspondence sent to all recognized associations with the expectations of this program and how it can be implemented within the next five years.

2. Reviewed the Summer Officials’ Conference. The Conference will be July 20 and 21, 2007 in Peoria. Information on the Conference is available online and the registration information will be sent with the renewals.

3. There was discussion on some pay discrepancies within the IHSA pay scale. Concerns were addressed about Water Polo’s Regional pay is less than what they are getting for a varsity contest. Sectional Gymnastics and sectional Wrestling seem to be below what would be expected for the time that is spent officiating at those two events. The fourth official for Soccer needs to be reviewed.

4. There was a request to create a comment section that must be filled out by the certified official when rating an official and checking a needs improve area. This comment section must be filled in to explain why they felt this official needs improvement in this area.