It appears that it is not only referees who are fed up with the behavior, actions, inactions of the federation’s referee department.
You’ve already read about the collective action taken by senior referees who were not being paid anywhere near international amounts for international games. (By the way, I’m happy to write that their action worked and they will be paid more appropriate fees and expenses for important games. I can’t give out any more details at the moment, because of promises I made to my sources, but soon when the deal is settled, I’ll explain.)
Now get this: last weekend, a group of administrators, instructors, assessors in the national program also took action in defiance of the federation.
Can you believe it? Fifty-one—yes, fifty-one—SDAs, SDIs, SRAs, SYRAs from all over the country gathered for a weekend in Florida to talk about how they do their jobs. I can say that when Julie found out about it in the planning stages, she was really pissed. Perhaps she thought the participants were trying to by-pass the Powerful Pentad and their minions in Chicago; perhaps she wanted to give her permission. Whatever her motive, she knew she couldn’t stop a meeting of private individuals paying their own way to a weekend in Florida. In any case, if she’d wanted to, she could have attended and participated. I wonder why she wasn’t there?
The fact is that all of the people there had the opportunity to speak freely, to brainstorm, without fear of the retribution that is so typical of Chicago when challenged. (Ask National Referees and candidates, ask anyone who makes a critical remark about the work of the powers-that-be.)
Here was the purpose, taken from the invitation sent out:
“. . . this is not to make any USSF Policies. This is an informal meeting to exchange "best practices", to share ideas on how we can make our jobs more productive. Some SRA/SDI/SDAs are new at this job and they might need help from us on how we do things in our States. So please do not think that this is to make any NEW POLICY; it is only to help us in our jobs as SRA/SDI/SDAs.
As to your question of the agenda. We do not have a defined agenda; this is what we as SRAs will work on. We will be brainstorming our ideas on Saturday morning, work on them in individual groups in the afternoon and discuss the implementation on Sunday morning. We will have a moderator for this. Mostly what we are looking at is to share ideas, and (discuss) how we can help each other. We can all learn something from one another; this is only a start.”
Participants in the meeting were energized by a shared disappointment in the referee program. The annual SDA meetings have become exercises in futility, with nothing new coming out, with voices stifled by palliatives like “We’re working on it” or “Thankyou for your input” and so on. For example, how long have people been complaining about the registration process?
Enough was enough, and so the participants took matters into their own hands. Fed up with waiting for the federation to change, they got together to make their own changes at the state level. In a week or two I’ll be able to publicize the content and consensus of the meetings and pass them on.
Suffice it to say that as far as the inefficiencies and indifference of Chicago are concerned, Bob Dylan got it right many years ago: “… the answer is blowin’ in the wind.” Take heart, referees. People are working for you, and they ain't in the windy city . . .
As the USSF Director of Administration from 1990 to 1995 I attended many Federation sponsored meetings with the SRA, SDI, and SDA. For all you referees who read this blog, I can tell you that at the non-sponsored meeting in Florida you have some really great people working for you. I think some great things will come out of this meeting that will help us all. Why I think this, is because it was obvious these are people of action not just talk. Stay tuned!
Posted by: Rodney Kenney | March 16, 2006 at 01:46 PM