KSOA Recruiting Efforts Update

One of the primary concerns of the Kansas Sports Officials Association from its inception has been to address the sports official shortage through various recruiting efforts. Below is an update outlining the recruiting approach KSOA is beginning to take as well as opportunities for members to get involved in this effort. Here are the main points that will be discussed in the remainder of the email:

• A New Official Intake plan helps bring new officials into the craft, walking them through their second year

• A recruiting tool you can print and use now

• Directions on how to best utilize the "Getting Started" form on the website

• List of a variety of ways for you to get actively involved in KSOA's recruiting efforts

Your buy-in to the KSOA has helped bring these opportunities to fruition, putting us on a good path to ensure future sporting events will have well trained officials.

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Intaking New Officials

It can be difficult getting started as a sports official, especially if you don't have a close friend or connection already in the industry. KSOA wants to walk with new officials through registration, certification, training and those ever scary first few games!  Below is a link to an outline of our New Official Intake Plan. This plan aims to provide a support system for an official from the moment they express interest in becoming an official through their second year of officiating. We recognize that timeliness of replies from our membership committee and sport specific committees as well as providing mentorship opportunities and in-game evaluations will be essential in helping these individuals to succeed. If you're interested in helping with this intake process, please email the board.

CLICK HERE to access the New Official Intake Plan.

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Recruiting Tool

We've put together the recruiting tool below that you can use to help prospective officials get started. Email the board if you would like 4 per page for easy printing.

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Getting Started Form

On our website, the Get Started in Officiating portion provides a landing page for individuals wanting to get started as a referee/umpire. Here we invite individuals to complete our "Get Started in Officiating" form so we have the chance to follow up with them.  You might be in conversation with someone who is ready to roll just needs to be contacted by our membership committee and the sport specific committee of their sport(s) of interest. If this is the case, feel free to get out your phone and input their information directly into the form. KSOA will take care of the rest! To access the Get Started in Officiating form directly, CLICK HERE.

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Ways to Get Involved

Below is a list of opportunities of how you can get involved in KSOA's recruiting efforts. If interested, please email the board at info@ksoasports.org.

• Share high quality photos of yourself officiating

• Hand out the above recruiting tool to prospective officials

• Mentor a new official

• If you are handy with a camera, KSOA is in need of high quality photos and videos of our members working

• Work with your sport specific committee leaders for sport specific recruiting efforts

• Donate new or gently used gear

• Sponsor a new official's KSHSAA, KSOA or youth association fees

• Join the KSOA marketing and membership committee

• Assist in brainstorming and operating social media accounts

6 Month Member Update: A Look Back and A Look Forward

What a First Year:

I love this old Greek proverb:  “Society grows great when old men (and women)  plant trees whose shade they know they shall never sit in.”

The Board is taking this time to reflect on the first full year of existence of the Kansas Sports Officials Association (KSOA) and think about the future of the officiating avocation for us all.  KSOA first organized in January 2019 with a purpose to provide sports officials in Kansas a path to excellence in officiating to our members. This included a primary mission of recruitment, training, evaluation and networking.  That has been the focus and the effort expended over the last year.

It has always been the Board’s goal to create an organization that is by members and for members.  The initial effort to complete the stated purpose has been to engage with our community of officials to give of their time in this effort.

As we look back we believe we have been true to the stated purpose and mission.  KSOA has been successful in getting started with the necessary difficult steps of creating an organization from scratch.  There is much work still to do and improvement to be made. The Board understands KSOA is not a mature organization where every process is in place and understood.  We do believe we see growth and “those trees are being planted.”

This newsletter is an attempt to summarize those activities that have been undertaken since KSOA’s inception and this look back helps identify where the organization needs to continue to improve.

All the best,

Jack Messer, President

A Look Back:

The board met monthly Jan – Dec 2019 and discussed how to bring the most benefits to members and how to structure Kansas Sports Officials Association for success. Before July 1, we had 210 members in KSOA and over the next six months we added 383, bringing us to 605 members as of January 29th.

Jan – May 2019: structured the board and board member responsibilities, settled on our name, created our logo, finalized bylaws, obtained our non-profit IRS approval, structured annual dues amounts, setup “how to pay” methods, set up website www.ksoasports.org, set up social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram account, designed Membership Cards, opened bank accounts, and other business steps.

June 2019: Elected our newest board member, Patrick Crider, at our Kick-Off Event with an invite to Limitless Brewing in Lenexa. We gave away over $1,300 in free Gift Cards to area restaurants and sporting goods store plus six sets of Royal’s tickets and Chiefs Memorabilia. We also gave members their “FOUNDING MEMBER” Membership Cards.

If you have not received your card, contact: Marketing & Membership, Lee Whitman (816) 918-3402 ksoa.membership@gmail.com or Gordie Wetmore (913) 904-2862 ksoa.secretary@gmail.com

July-Aug-Sep: Launched sport-specific committees for Volleyball, Soccer and Football. Committee members went to work on in-season written observation forms. Feedback from members has been beneficial to use next year, and we have written records of reviews that have been shared with the officials and with assigners who support KSOA. 

Negotiated and gained free admission access to local high school sporting events.  The newly printed Membership Cards were honored for this accessat EKL, Sunflower, KCAL, United Kansas Conference, and Frontier Leagues for our members to enter high school sporting events they officiate to observe other officials work games to help them improve. Members were also invited to meet officials if their pre-game, if time allows, or post-game to talk.

Hosted a pre-season football clinic that combined several meetings and included on-field and classroom instruction.  Admission was free to all. Service was provided to non-members and members alike.

Held a pre-season beach volleyball event, a post-season event for volleyball.  Held a pre-season event for soccer where KSOA provided appetizers for members.

October:  Formed the following committees to help establish our goals and priorities: Membership & Marketing, KSOA Store, Sub-varsity Advisory Council, Varsity Advisory Council, and expanded the Sport-specific committees to include over fifty member-volunteers who joined a committee. We held a social event and invited all volunteers of these committees to attend, KSOA bought appetizers to share. Thank-you again to all members who have stepped up to help on one of these committees!

For information on these specific committees, here are your contact:

Membership & Marketing, Gordie Wetmore gwetmore3@gmail.com. 

KSOA Store, Kevin Miglianti migliantik@gmail.com.

Sub-Varsity Advisory Council, Ken Neaderhiser neadfam@gmail.com.

Varsity Advisory Council, Chuck Floyd cfloyd@kc.rr.com. 

KSOA Sport-Specific Committee Contacts:

Baseball Committee: Lee Whitman lawhitmanjcu@gmail.com

Basketball Committee: Patrick Crider ksoa.crider@gmail.com

Football Committee: Scott Wetterstrom southstanders1998@gmail.com

Soccer Committee: Gordie Wetmore ksoa.soccer@gmail.com

Softball Committee: Robert Blatcher rblatcher85@yahoo.com

Volleyball Committee: P.J. Tuma tumapj@gmail.com

Wrestling Committee: Brett Waggoner wag05@hotmail.com

In November: KSOA Basketball Committee pre-season kickoff social at Brewbaker’s in Lenexa with appetizers. Bskb committee held several test-review events for members.

The Sub-varsity Advisory Council met to discuss issues to keep the board aware of the majority of members. Sub-varsity officials make up 75-80% of the officials in every sport so we want to be sure to hear their voices. For more specific information on this committee, contact: Ken Neaderhiser neadfam@gmail.com

KSOA Store Committee met in October and November to select apparel with our KSOA Logo on them and launched a three-week sales website window with the free help of Olathe T-Shirt and Trophy. Many items were purchased and sold at cost to KSOA members. We want to brand KSOA and have people ask about memberships. New and improved sale in Jan/Feb 2020. For more information on this committee, contact Kevin Miglianti migliantik@gmail.com.

In December: Basketball season began (thru March 2020). Committee also hosted area supervisor makeup meetings. For more information on the KSOA Basketball Committee contact: Patrick Crider ksoa.crider@gmail.com

Junior Membership group met in December for a social to discuss their views on how to attract young officials. Received great feedback so a lot of good ideas going forward, including posting “job awareness” information with the councilors’ offices through the districts. A “New Official Intake Plan” was drafted and is a work in progress. We want to retain officials who join and a written plan will help assure new officials don’t get lost in the process as they begin their officiating career.

A Look Forward:

Our First Annual Meeting of Members will be held in the summer of 2020 TBD. We envision a fun event for members and we also elect new board members, committee members, and talk about our finances. We have identified a few local corporations who might want to support our efforts. Fundraising to pay for this type of event has begun.

In February we will host a 2020 Kickoff with all Committee members and brainstorm plans for our second fiscal year that begins on July 1, 2020. We are a member-driven association and your input will be vital to any success we have, going forward. 

In 2020 we will continue to enhance our social media presence as we blend ideas from the board with ideas that come from this committee kickoff event.

STAY TUNED … and HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY. We appreciate your commitment to the improvement of the athletic experience AND, THANK-YOU FOR OFFICIATING the fantastic kids and grandkids in our communities throughout Kansas! 

February 2020 Member Spotlight: Brett Cahill

KSOA will be featuring a member each month. For the month of February, KSOA is spotlighting football and basketball official Brett Cahill.

There are countless officials that could and will hopefully be "spotlighted". If you would like to nominate an official, please email info@ksoasports.org.