MACBOA: Newsletter - Issue 42, May 16, 2003

Newsletter - Issue 42, May 16, 2003

In this Issue:

Remarks from the Supervisor of Officials: Donnee L. Gray
Get Ready for the Upcoming Season (Ike Relacion)
New MACBOA-logo Fox-40 Classic Whistles
Submitting Articles for MACBOA Consideration
MACBOA Volunteers
Newsletter Contact/Information

The MACBOA Newsletter is a periodic (twice a month during November through March and monthly July through October) publication of the Mid-Atlantic College Basketball Officials Association (MACBOA). MACBOA provides basketball officiating services to several colleges and universities in the Maryland - Washington, DC area. The Association has a membership of approximately 200 men and women officials. Our membership consist of men and women who work Divisions I, II, and III basketball. We pride our Association on providing quality and professional service.

The usefulness and survival of this newsletter is going to depend on the participation of subscribers and professionals alike. Please help by submitting personal stories, experiences, and articles of general interest to the MACBOA community.

The MACBOA Newsletter is made possible by the kind support of our sponsors. We thank our sponsors for making the newsletter and other programs possible. Please visit our web site at http://www.macboa.org. As always, please visit our sponsors and thank them for keeping MACBOA operational.

[Photo of Donnee L. Gray.]

Donnee L. Gray

This newsletter has lots of important information, so lets begin.

First of all, I want to thank you for all your support and encouragement on my recent 2003 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships Final Four selection. Getting the honor to work the Final Four is a tremendous privilege and I appreciate all the cards, phone calls, e-mail and well wishes.

For those officials that have expressed interest in 2003-04 Crew Chief appointments and for those who have already submitted letters of interest, I would like to clarify the application process. If you are not a Division I conference official, the selection criteria used to appoint Crew Chiefs are as follows:

A member in good standing with MACBOA for at least three (3) years
Never have been late for game assignments
Never been fined
Turned in all required tests and forms
Overall evaluation rating equal to or greater than 3.0
Available for assignments at Garrett College and College of Southern Maryland
No major travel restrictions and/or availability issues
Less than 5 turn backs per season

If you would like to apply for a Crew Chief appointment, or have applied in the recent past, please send your letter of application to the MACBOA office addressing the criteria above. You should also include why you believe you are qualified as well as a list references by May 27, 2003. Selected Crew Chiefs for the 2003-04 season will be required to pass written or oral examinations, be able to show rules knowledge and common sense in handling play situations and administrative matters. While attendance at the Time Out Officiating School is not mandatory, selected Crew Chiefs will be encouraged to participate, meet with the Supervisor of Officials and selected staff.

Thank you to officials who donated game earnings to First Book. And a special thank you to Eddie Fields who raised over $1,100 at his job for First Book. First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. The primary goal of First Book is to work with existing literacy programs to distribute new books to children who, for economic reasons, have little or no access to books. In the last two years alone, First Book has provided almost 15 million new books to children in need in hundreds of communities nationwide. If you would like more information about how to get involved, please contact Vedia Gray at 301-283-6807 or visit http://www.firstbook.org/.

Your feedback is very important to MACBOA! Please either cut and paste the following survey and e-mail your completed survey to dgray@macboa.org.

Have you had an occasion to use any of our Sponsors?
If so, which Sponsor(s) did you patronize?
How many times did you use a Sponsor’s services or products?
Was the service requested or products ordered handled in a timely fashion?
Was the Sponsor’s staff knowledgeable and helpful?
Were you satisfied with the overall service that was provided?
Are you a male or female?
Do you have any sponsors we should contact? If so, please list them.
Did you have any problem with a Sponsor’s service(s) or product(s)
Please rate your satisfaction with the quality and amount of information you get from the MACBOA Newsletter.
Any other comments are welcome:

Thank you for taking the time to answer the important questions.

I am a firm believer in continuing education and training. Although you are not required to attend specific officiating camps/schools, you are encouraged to attend basketball officiating camps/schools in order to stay abreast of rules and mechanics changes. Current MACBOA Staff wanting to attend Time Out Referee School should contact me regarding fee structure as soon as possible. We have provided a link to the Time Out Referee School brochure on the main macboa.org home page.

I want to thank the Greater DC Pro Am Officials Association and the Golden Child Award Foundation for the invitation to formally address the officials during the charity event on the topic of “Pre-Game,” “Clock Management,” Whistle Discipline,” and “Goal-Setting.” The Annual Golden Child Award is given to a child of the Metropolitan Washington Area who has experienced difficult times and has overcome the worst of physical and mental challenges. This award, given by the Golden Child Award Foundation and the Metropolitan Police Department’s Emergency Response Team, is their way of saying: “We as a community have not forgotten you!” This year’s recipient is thirteen-year old Iran Brown. Iran is the young man who was shot on October 7, 2002 by the snipers that plagued the Washington, DC Metropolitan Region. The Golden Child Award Foundation and Emergency Response Team has partnered with the Greater DC Pro-Am Basketball Officials Association providing high-caliber basketball officiating services throughout the tournament.

If you know anyone interested in being considered for MACBOA staff next season, or know of a young official who could benefit from attending camp, please contact or have them contact me at 301-283-6807 or via e-mail at dgray@macboa.org. The Time Out Referee School will be held at The American University (www.american.edu), Washington, D.C. The school/camp is tentatively scheduled for the second weekend in July. The Time Out Referee School includes lectures, demonstrations, films and video viewing of on-court officiating during top-level basketball competition. The staff will work with each attendee individually to provide team and leadership skills. After being observed at Time Out Referee School by various collegiate supervisors, participants of the school have been selected to work in several NCAA and professional leagues/conferences. Further details will follow. Officials returning to the MACBOA staff next season and selected to attend camp will be notified.

Officials are reminded to notify the MACBOA office immediately if there is a change of address or phone number. You may e-mail changes by accessing the password protected "Members Only" area of the www.macboa.org web site. Please check the web site for correct addresses, phone numbers and email address information.

Plan to play golf in our second annual golf outing in September. You "do not have to be a player", the teams are balanced so that everyone/team has a chance. Last year everyone got something (“Prizes”) for playing!!! Then we did the food thing! If you are interested in assisting in logistics for our golf event, please contact me.

Congrats to those who got married, had babies, and worked post season tournaments, etc.

I wish you and yours a safe and relaxing Memorial Day holiday!

Donnee

[Photo of Ike Relacion.]

Ike Relacion

Keys to Officiating:

Get into the flow of the game from the start
A game cannot flow without being controlled
Establish a pattern early in the game: if it needs to be tight then call it tight from the start, the players and coaches will adjust
Each game is different
Good officials can feel the difference
Concentrate on the reactions of the players
Notice if the style and tempo of the game changes; again, good officials can feel the change
Adjust your calling to the needs of the game

As you prepare for the upcoming season, here are some Game Management practices to improve on: During times-out reflect on the game and your performance up to that point:

How is game going?
Are there any unnecessary delays?
As a crew, are you being consistent at both ends of the floor?
Are you controlling your emotions?
Are you giving 100% effort regardless of score and game situation?
Are you watching off-ball coverage properly?
Are you seeing the entire play, letting the play start, develop, and finish before you put air in the whistle?

Order your MACBOA Logo Whistles!

Be the first to receive your MACBOA logo Fox-40 Classic Whistle while supplies last!

Send your payment of $5.00 for each whistle ordered to Ike Relacion, c/o MACBOA Logo Whistle, 21112 Archstone Way, Unit 101, Germantown, MD 20876-6996.

Thank you for your interest in submitting an article for consideration on www.macboa.org.

We accept well-written features, how-to articles, "how I did it" success stories, tips and hints, motivational articles and other articles that will help our audience gain knowledge and succeed in their officiating avocation.

We do not accept articles that are primarily advertisements. However, you may place a biographical section at the end of your article. It should be no more than 30 to 40 words in length. It would be nice if you could include a 60x60 picture of you in .gif or .jpeg format.

Below are instructions for submitting your article to the MACBOA.org web site. We ask that you read the terms of your Agreement with MACBOA.org carefully.

Please note: We only accept submissions from the original author of the articles or a publicist hired by the copyright owner to submit material here. By submitting material, you acknowledge that you are legally entitled to distribute the work and to allow it to be redistributed. (If you are a book publisher or public relations firm with copy to distribute, please include a note to that effect at the top of the article you submit.) We do not pay for articles, and do not accept articles that are primarily advertisements. However, you may place a brief resource box and contact information (but no ads) at the end of your article.

To send your article, click on the "Article Submission Form" and answer the questions and then copy and paste your submission into the space provided. We have provided a copy of the form below. Please be sure your by-line appears below the title of the article. Click on the submit button to complete the process and or cut-and-paste the completed form and your article to macboa1@aol.com.

These are some of the attributes of the well hidden job of MACBOA Newsletter Volunteer. Are you interested in working behind the scenes (screens?) to help get information to members? MACBOA is looking to grow our ranks by a couple of folks and thus, we're soliciting volunteers.

What do you do? Read postings. Write articles, membership news, coordinate interviews, cultivate sponsor relations, etc. Write e-mail back and forth amongst us to establish communication, and guidance to keep this list as valuable as possible for our membership. Although we're virtual, our presence is sensed, we hope...and appreciated, although rarely acclaimed.

We haven't a job description, nor do we know what knowledge, skills, and abilities are required, but some that will come in handy are:

having the ability to write
being thick skinned, not thick headed
being able to express your opinions, while being open minded
having at least a free hour or two a week caring for the membership

Please respond directly by e-mail to: irelacion@aol.com

[Drawing of flat screen monitor.] HOW TO CONTACT THE NEWSLETTER COORDINATOR

MACBOA welcomes and encourages news and information for the periodic newsletter. Please submit all materials to address letters of comment, article proposals and queries, or news items to:

Ike Relacion, (301) 371-8520
E-mail: irelacion@aol.com

MACBOA, INC provides the MACBOA newsletter. MACBOA is a nonprofit organization providing information about membership news. The MACBOA.ORG Newsletter's contents may be quoted and reused as long as attribution is included with the reprinting and/or posting.

MACBOA nor its guest contributors shall be liable or responsible to any person or entity for any loss or damage caused, or alleged to be have been caused, directly or indirectly by the information or ideas contained, suggested, or referenced in this newsletter

MACBOA does not share its email lists. We value and respect your privacy.

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