Cedar Rapids Athletic Officials Association

Spring Business Meeting

April 7^th, 2003

Washington High School

Monday, April  7^th, 7:00pm

President Dan Hilby called the meeting to order at 7pm. Roll call of the members present was taken by attendance sheet at 7pm.

The November 2002 minutes were posted on the CRAOA website. A motion to accept the minutes as presented was made by Don Haugen, seconded by Paul Schuetz, and the motion passed.

The Financial Report was also distributed for review. There was no discussion. Pinky then gave the executive secretaries report. It contained 12 major points summarized here. 1) 66 total basketball officials – 41 active members. 2) CRAOA assigned 880 games with almost all officials making their assignments. 3) The combined banquet will be at the 5 Season Center with Steve Beckman the featured speaker. 4)  New officials are still needed. 5) Most rules presenters did a nice job, but some still read from the book. 6) All schools have paid and thanks goes to those that worked their assigned games. 7) Current sign up for the banquet is 100. Hopefully more will show up. 8) Schools still need officials. Update Pinky with your current schedule. 9) Still 16 people who did not take the test. See Pinky to schedule a makeup 10) The sliding pay scale was approved – 55% of varsity pay for Soph and JV and 50% for middle school. 11) Be sure to pay Boone for your dues 12) Pinky recommends sending all middle and high schools a roster of officials who did not meet CRAOA requirements. A motion by Larry Talbot to accept both the financial report and the executive secretaries report as presented was made, seconded by Pat Casey. The motion passed.

Dan Hilby gave the report from the executive committee which met in March. 3 major topics were discussed. 1) Harry Brown will no longer be training new basketball officials so a new trainer will be needed. 2) Its also time to elect a new vice president for basketball. 3) Should CRAOA have one or two banquets? Declining attendance was the driving factor for moving it to one. The last football banquet was down to 50 officials and the last basketball banquet was down to 35. The combined banquet now has 100. It also helps football and basketball officials get to know each other.

The following members did not meet all meeting requirements but sent letters requesting to remain in the association: Jim Hazelton, Mark Springsteen, Dennis Boedeker, Kim Patik, Craig Murray, Terry Schneekloth, Tim Brashaw, Dave Stamy. A motion by Tom Pumroy to accept their letters was presented and seconded by Don Haugen. The motion passed. Pat Casey then put a motion on the floor to have the executive council come up with a recommendation on how to deal with members who consistently miss meetings year after year. Terry Turner seconded the motion and the executive council will review the motion. Marvin Howsare and Tom Cleveland applied for honorary status. A motion to approve them was brought up by Jack Jaspers and seconded by Jerry Winter. The motion passed.

There was no old business.

Harry Brown then gave his report on the applying members. He said there were some problems with tests but overall they were a group of good officials. He recommended advancing them all (Dennis Boedeker, Craig Murray, Kim Patik, & Terry Schneekloth).  Jerry Winter brought up the motion and Jeff Hare seconded. Motion passed. The following members are currently on Step I and desiring to move to Step II. Eric Bergman, Cory Burkle, Rob Canada, Dale Dugenske, Scott Enright, Kevin Flood, Brian Gravel, Kai Johnson, and Jason Rife. It was recommended that all advance with the exception of Enright (who started midway through the meeting cycle and did not attend enough meetings-was stated he was an excellent official however). Paul Schuetz brought up the motion and Terry Turner seconded and the motion passed. There were two transfers. Pat Casey and Mark Springsten. Both were recommended for full status and Jerry Winter brought up the motion, Marv Lincoln seconded, and the motion passed. There was then a brief discussion as to how to best replace Harry. Pat Casey suggested 2 or 3 people take over the duties. Terry Turner said he would consider it. It was also time to select a new VP from the basketball roster. The executive committee proposed two people but when they called one of them, David Lynch, he stated he was too busy. The other nominee, Jeff Freeze, was not present but did say he would be interested when called. There was then considerable discussion as to whether he took the test or attended enough meetings. Harry Brown stated was a very conscientious official. Tom Pumroy brought up the motion to accept the nomination and Rick Hersom seconded. The motion passed on a close vote. Bill Yeisley then brought up the idea of moving the meeting site to one which would have better air conditioning and AV equipment. Pinky then stated that printing was free so it was a tradeoff. The annual dinner was then discussed. Dick Pohorsky stated he would like to see it in the fall if we were only going to have one. Rotating it was discussed. It was then decided that since attendance was up we would try it for a year or two to see how things went. What to do with the non test takers was the last issue brought up. Pat Casey said the bar needs to be kept high. He saw firsthand in the Quad Cities what happens when standards are not kept up. It was determined that since it was a requirement of the CRAOA that they would be dropped from the roster if they did not take the test. Pinky provided ample opportunity for one to do so.

The motion to adjourn was brought up by Pat Casey and seconded by Dick Pohorsky.

Meeting adjourned at 8:10.

Respectfully submitted by Dave Brousard.