REGULAR MEETING OF THE

CEDAR RAPIDS ATHLETIC OFFICIALS ASSOCIATION

October 27, 2014

CALL TO ORDER. The meeting was called to order by President Scott Anderson at 6:32 PM. An attendance sheet was circulated.

FINANCIAL REPORT. The financial report was presented by Assistant Executive Secretary Chris Heidelbauer. Since our last meeting, we have collected Member Dues, which accounts for the majority of our Annual Revenue. Major expenses included our Kernels Social and Annual Fees to Arbiter, and

Stipends for Football Trainer and Executive Secretary. The Executive Secretary stipends are paid in installments throughout the year. The financial handouts and a complete list of paid expenses is attached to these minutes.

PRESIDENT'S REPORT. There has been some discussion of streamlining the Step I / Step II Training classifications among the board. The idea is to have only two classifications... "In Training" and "Full Member." This change would require a change to our constitution. Once a draft constitution is

proposed it will need to be passed at two Business Meetings. Some discussion of this idea was had during the meeting. Larry Walderbach indicated that the one-tier training method has been used before and that the two-tier method was installed to provide more opportunities to weed out less-qualified officials.

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY'S REPORT. Cory Burkle reported on a number of topics.

The Association Banquet / Social held last Summer at a Cedar Rapids Kernels game was generally well received. There were some objections to the activity being held on July 4, but this was unavoidable since other dates were already reserved with the Kernels. Next Summer we have been offered preferred choice of dates and have scheduled for Saturday, July 25. The game will begin at 6:30 and food will be served beginning at 6:00 PM.

There has been discussion of CRAOA providing access to HUDL, a game film sharing site widely used by area schools. Individual officials are not directly eligible for HUDL accounts, but associations can provide this ability to members through the group. HUDL packages start at a minimum of 200 accounts for a cost of $800 annually. We are exploring sharing this cost with the Iowa City Officials Association. There is also some discussion that Chuck Brittain may begin providing this access to his officials.

CRAOA has recently been approached to begin assigning for Benton Community. We are honoring assignments previously made to non-CRAOA officials. We will try to add those officials to our membership next year. Cory plans to fill those Benton games with preference to officials living closer to those sites and attempt to avoid distant travel.

Some discussion was held regarding football training sessions and rules meetings this Fall. Any input from members with regarding planning of these session next year is welcome. The on-field session at Prairie was generally well received and believed to be productive. Kudos were offered by Terry

Schneekloth for Bill Yeisley's efforts in training the new officials. There were eight Step I officials and 5 Step II officials.

NEW OFFICIALS. Bill Yeisley held discussion on the Step I and Step II officials.

The following officials were recommended from promotion from Step I to Step II... Joe Fontenot, Jordan Hare, Ron Major, Doug Yanecek, Doren Montgomery, Terry Schneekloth, and Kevin Moser. Motion was made by Bill Yeisley and seconded by Joe Schmall. Motion Carried.

The following officials were recommended for promotion to Full Membership... Shane Remington, Joel Murphy, Derrick Samson, and Matthew Edwards. Motion by Bill Yeisley and seconded by Bill Utterback. Motion Carried.

Two officials were not offered promotion from their current positions. After discussion, a motion was made by Jack Japsers and seconded by Jeff Frese to drop Owen Lamphier from membership for lack of requirements. He should receive a letter as such and is welcome to re-apply. Motion Carried. Lester Sammons will remain at Step I with no action taken by the membership.

The following officials were offered Full Membership by transfer... Matt Friday, Kevin Thorp, and Kevin Johnson. Motion by Cory Burkle and seconded by Jeff Frese. Motion Carried.

NEW BUSINESS. There was discussion of the changes in Metro Youth Football and the impacts on local Junior High games. Metro Youth added a 7th grade program this year and schools saw significantly lower participation. Most schools offered only one junior high level team. There is discussion that

MYF may expand to 8th grade next year. Cory is working with the schools to be in-front of this next year.

OLD BUSINESS. There was some discussion of our ongoing effort to flesh-out our Honorary Membership process and roster. Larry Walderbach indicated that he is retiring from officiating and would like to request Honorary status at this time. He also indicated that he would like to stay involved with the

association and offered to provide mentoring and observation of officials. Motion by Cory Burkle and second by Pat Dolphin to extend Honorary Membership to Larry. Motion Carried.

ADJOURNMENT. A motion to adjourn was made by Jeff Drahozal and second by Joe Schmall. Meeting adjourned at 7:23 PM.