REGULAR MEETING OF THE

CEDAR RAPIDS ATHLETIC OFFICIALS ASSOCIATION

March 10, 2014

I. Call to Order:  The meeting was called to order by President Joe Schmall at 6:30pm at Grant Wood Area Education Agency.  An attendance sheet was passed around.

II. Minutes of Fall 2013 meeting.  The meeting minutes were available on the website and accepted by the membership.

III. Financial Report.  Chris Heidelbauer presented the financial report to the membership.  As of 02/28/14, the balance on-hand was $4,744.58. The financial report was reviewed by the Executive Board on 03/05/14. Motion by Jerry Winter and seconded by Sonny Deke to approve the financial report as presented. Motion carried.

IV. Presidents Report.  President Joe Schmall presented a proposal to update CRAOA’s Constitution and By-Laws. According to our Constitution and By-Laws, Joe , as immediate past-President, will oversee a committee to review and propose changes. The suggestion that was made was to streamline the existing Step I / Step II /Full membership training progression to reflect only two groups… Probationary Member and Full Member. This proposal and any other ideas offered will be included in the review process. A new proposed Constitution and By-Laws will be presented to the membership for adopting at a future Business Meeting.

Next Year’s officers are President Scott Anderson, First Vice President Bill Utterback, and Second Vice President Ron Van Hoeck. Cory Burkle has been retained by the Executive Board as the Executive Secretary for next year with a compensation of $2500 for the year. Chris Heidelbauer have been retained by the Executive Board as Assistant Executive Secretary with a compensation of $1000 for the year.

V. Executive Secretary Report.  We want ideas for the upcoming season’s Football meetings. Planning sessions for this Fall’s meetings will begin in June. Please share any ideas you have on what went well, what you didn’t feel went well, and any ideas that you have. (Suggestions made at the Fall 2013 Business Meeting right after last season suggested the following… A discussion about the past and future training sessions occurred and the consensus was to continue down the path that we had taken this year with a few additions. Watching some film of a game from a current member crew was one idea that was very popular. Printing out the state test and going over was also suggested.)

Jerry Winter has been working to fully document our Honorary Members and ensure we have contact details for as many of them as possible. A number of people offered to help Jerry get in touch with people they were in contact with. Consensus of the membership was that we should automatically include qualified individuals on the Honorary Membership list, without making those people request this status.

A newsletter will be prepared in the coming weeks. Please provide any input to Cory.

Our annual banquet format is being changed this year. A dinner, social event, and awards ceremony will be held this year on July 4, 2014 on the Miller Mezzanine at a Cedar Rapids Kernels game. This will be an all-you-can-eat/drink package. Active Members will be admitted at no cost. We want to see this be a family event. The cost of additional family members is $26 per person (again, food, beverage, and the game ticket are included). We will have access to the facility an hour earlier than normal to allow us to have an award ceremony. The evening will include the baseball game, entertainment by the Dueling Pianos, a fireworks display provided at the stadium, as well as great viewing of the fireworks hosted by the Freedom Festival downtown.

We are proposing an increase in game fees to our schools. This is in concert with a fee increase that is being paid at the varsity level in the MVC. Football fees are being proposed as follows… Junior High base fee is $50, with $5 additional for each extra participation period. Freshman/Sophomore/JV will be $50, again with $5 for each extra participation period. Basketball… Junior High will have a base fee of $55 for two games. Freshman/Sophomore/JV will be $50 for three-person games and $55 for two-person games, with an additional $5 for extra participation quarters. Schools will be shown rates from Iowa City, the MAC, and other areas to demonstrate the sub-standard nature of our current fees. Fees will again be tied to varisty compensation on a sliding scale so that future increases are tied together. Schools like Cedar Valley Christian which have slightly different game calendars will have slightly higher fees to reflect the different demands.

Fees being charged directly to the schools by the CRAOA for scheduling services are also increasing. High schools will be charged $350 (currently $275) and middle schools will be charged $125 (currently 75). Again, some schools will have their fees adjusted when their scheduling demands dictate. (Marion and Anamosa do not have us schedule Sophomore games. Therefore their fees will be discounted.)

The use of three-man crews on Sophomore Basketball games went very well at Kennedy and Prairie. This will continue. We expect it to expand, since other Metro-area coaches noticed and have been lobbying their ADs.

We will be approaching Cedar Rapids Prairie again this year about coming back to the CRAOA.

VI. New Business. Joel Duffy presented the Step I Basketball Officials for consideration.

Joel Duffy moved that the following Officials be promoted to Step II… Ron Major, Joel Murphy, and Jeff Koolbeck. This was seconded by Jeff Frese. After brief discussion, the motion carried.

Joel Duffy moved that Mike Koolbeck be promoted to Full Membership as a transfer. Mike had previously been a member, but have been away from officiating for a few years and voluntarily participated in the Step I process. Second by Jeff Frese. Motion Carried.

No action was taken on two officials that will remain at Step I. Mark Todd was injured early in the season and had extremely limited experience. He has remained in contact with joel Duffy and expect to see him back next year. Bill Keel was only able to work four games due to work schedules and specifically asked to remain on Step I.

Chris Heidelbauer proposed the following Step II Basketball members be accepted to full membership… Todd Ambrosy, Michael Bonwell, Sam Burdt, Bill Connolly, Bill Johnson, Ken Koska, Rich Ripley, and Bill Wilson. Seconded by Fred Griffiths. Discussion indicated that this was a very strong class of Step II candidates, as many were already working varsity assignments. Motion carried.

No action was taken on Step II officials John BeGuhn and Keith Rath. Neither was active in basketball this year.

VII. For the Good of the Organization. Kim Patik shared a situation that happened at a Prairie Tournament this year where a pair of officials (who were NOT CRAOA members) demonstrated highly unprofessional behavior to palyers, parents, and tournament administration. This escalated into a confrontation. A number of points were discussed with this incident in mind.

Please remember that each individual’s behavior reflects not only on yourself, but on our association and on all officials in general. The success of any officiating assignment depends on being mentally and physically for the game and maintaining a professional demeanor at all times.

Per our Constitution and By-Laws, the CRAOA does have the ability to suspend any member by action of the Executive Board. Egregious behavior by officials in any officiating assignment can result in the immediate loss of officiating assignments from the CRAOA.

Motion by Ron Van Hoeck and Seconded by Dave Baker to adjourn. Motion carried at 7:18 PM.