CONVENTION COUNTDOWN

If you build it, they will come

Most of you will be aware of this well known phrase from a Baseball movie. This year we have put together quite a varied selection of speakers and topics for the Convention and it looks like being the best attended for quite a number of years. We have invested more money on accommodation subsidies, booked additional Break-out Session rooms and extended the training to the College Bowl on the Sunday afternoon. We have also purchased the NCAA 2006 Officiating Review DVD which contains over 180 plays, with commentary provided by the Supervisor of Officials. The quality of the game film and content is excellent and we will endeavour to show as much as we can over the weekend. This is your Convention; we’ve built it for you, so come along.

Payment for Hotel Accommodation

If you have booked overnight accommodation at the Convention hotel please contact Charlie to arrange payment. Charlie had a lot of chasing around to do at last years event and would appreciate if you settled early.

Cheques should be sent to: Charles Dean-Young, 89 Smithfield Road, Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, ST14 7LD. If you can’t remember the cost please refer to the following link: http://bafra.org/newsflash/200704.htm.

EFAF DVD

Thanks to everyone who responded with regards to copying the EFAF DVD. We now have more than enough to issue everyone who attends the convention with a copy and the accompanying review notes.

Time is Running Out

As some of you may be aware, I have a lot of Convention Packs and Game Day Paperwork Packs to put together and Charlie has to finalise accommodation arrangements and Convention attendance numbers with the hotel. As such, we have now set a closing date of Friday 16th March for registering your intention to attend.

Even though you may not require overnight accommodation at the Convention Hotel, you still need to register your intention to attend by contacting Charlie at finance@bafra.org.

See Newsflash issue 04/07 for Convention details, hotel location and accommodation information. You can find a copy on the web site or click on he following link http://bafra.org/newsflash/200704.htm.

Davie Parsons
training@bafra.org

Attendance

The following people have confirmed that they will be attending:
K Aldritt, B Beynon, A Binns, E Bowyer, D Bridgland, A Briggs, J Briggs, P Clarke, A Cockerill, M Cockerill, G Coleman, P Cottier, N Cox, C Dean-Young, E Elliott, R Friel, G Galloway, C Gibson, M Gibson, Muz Gibson, R Grace, T Hodgkiss, C Jarvis, K Laing, R lenoire, T Linderman, A Lovell, W Marriage, G McJannett, R Newton, C Oates, D Parsons, P Parsons, A Price, R Stangroom, P Thom, C Urin, I Wainwright, A Ward, J Weir, M Wilson and B Yates.

Charlie has also confirmed that he has deducted the hotel costs from expenses/game fees owed - you may still owe him some money.

If your name is not on this list then please contact Charlie (via email to finance@bafra.org) before 16th March as the opportunity for the discount will end at that date. You need to do this to register for the Convention even if you are not staying at the hotel. If you intend to stay then booking your room via Charlie will ensure that you get the rebated rate - if you contact the hotel direct they will charge you the full rate.

Roger Stangroom
secretary@bafra.org

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

The Annual General Meeting of the British American Football Referees' Association will be held on 24th March at the Coventry Hill Hotel starting at 5:00pm. Additions to the Agenda must be received by me before 17th March in writing (paper or email), and should be presented to the AGM by the proposer or a nominated deputy.

Roger Stangroom
secretary@bafra.org

BAFRA LOGO

The BAFRA logo (the one with the lions - see http://www.bafra.org) has come in for some stick lately. Its origins are lost in the mists of time, but it is now generally viewed to be a bit "naff" and we are considering replacing it. Our current idea is to retain the Badge as shown at the top of Newsflash and used on the cloth badges on your uniform (badges obtainable from me at £2 each - either by post or at the Convention), but replace the "Crest".

This is where you, the membership, come in as there is no-one of the current Board of Directors who can be even remotely considered a graphic artist. We are hoping that there is someone out there in BAFRA-land who is, and who is prepared to put pencil to paper (or stylus to tablet or whatever the electronic equivant is) and come up with something that we can adopt as our logo.

Please send all offerings to me (secretary@bafra.org) or post to my home address (see the members' area on the web).

Roger Stangroom
secretary@bafra.org

EDITORIAL

N.Va. Boys' Championship Dream Doomed by a Moment of Vengeance

The South County Raptors, a scrappy football team made up of 12- to 14-year-old boys from southern Fairfax County, were supposed to meet the Herndon Hornets in the first round of the county playoffs.

Instead, the Raptors are sitting at home, their season over with no possibility of a championship after a league commissioner fired the head coach and the assistant coach this week. Their offence? They moved the commissioner's son from defense to offense for the final game of the season last Saturday, an overtime win that put the Raptors in the postseason.

"Scott does not sit out on defense -- ever," the commissioner, Dan Hinkle, had warned the head coach, James Owens, in an e-mail sent before the season began about how he should play Hinkle's son, aged 12. On defense, the father said, "he goes in and stays in. That includes all practices, scrimmages and games. This entire league exists so he can play defense on the best team in his weight class... He is my son, I own the league, and he plays every snap on defense."

The sudden end to the season, which began with preseason practice in the wickedly hot days of late August, has crushed the 19 boys on the team.

Only goes to prove the old adage - all power corrupts, but absolute power corrupts absolutely. It could never happen over here, could it?

Roger Stangroom
secretary@bafra.org

PAYMENTS FROM TEAMS

I have invoiced all teams. Teeside have paid; and Birmingham, Loughborough and Bath are expected to pay in advance, so please assume they have.

Charlie Dean-Young
finance@bafra.org

BAFRA RULES CHANGES 2007

Jim Briggs, Chair BAFA & BAFRA Rules Committees
January 2007

The 2007 BAFA rules formally came into effect on 1st March, but in practice they will apply only when BAFL teams start playing pre-season games.

The rulebook is currently at the printers, but for those of you who want an advance sight of it, you can find it on the web at http://www.bafra.org/rulesctee/rulebook/2007/index.htm. A summary of the changes is given below. We will discuss them all, and in particular the timing rule changes, at the Convention.

Remember that the rule changes do NOT apply in the remaining BCAFL games.

The following table lists all the rules changes adopted for 2007 (including NCAA changes introduced in 2006). The changes take effect from 1st March 2007 (except for the remainder of the BCAFL season).

Acknowledgements: BAFA thanks Stephen Bowness of the NZGOA for his notes on the NCAA rule changes.
The full text of the rules can be found at http://www.bafra.org/rulesctee/rulebook/2007/index.htm
Questions about the changes should be addressed to rules@bafra.org.

Jim Briggs
rules@bafra.org

JOHN SLAVIN TROPHY

Here are the teams with the top 10 best average scores. For a full set see http://www.bafra.org/info/jst/index.htm.

A formal announcement of the winner will be made shortly.

Roger Stangroom
secretary@bafra.org

BAFRA BOARD REPORT

The BAFRA Executive Board met for its regular (normally quarterly) meeting on 3rd February. Here are some of the topics discussed.

• Peter Parsons has been appointed to the Rules and Mechanics Committee.
• Progress on setting up a section within BAFRA specifically for flag football officials has stalled for lack of someone with the time to drive it forward. We are looking for a volunteer with an interest in helping form policy and procedures.
• We agreed that we want to establish a junior (i.e. under-18) category of membership, but recognised that to do so we need to follow the principles and best practice of child protection. At the moment, if a convicted child molester applied to join BAFRA, we have no means to keep them out, so we need some sort of vetting procedure. Our intention is to base this on self-declaration rather than CRB checks. Jim B and Roger are working on this.
• We had a lengthy discussion about the details of establishing BAFRA as a company limited by guarantee. Jim B is finishing off the draft of the 3 documents that will together make up the new constitution. These will be available on the website before the AGM for people to look at. We'll answer any questions people have at the AGM. We are then looking to hold a referendum early in the summer with a view to establishing the company in the late summer.
• Davie is working on a health and safety policy that will be put to the AGM for approval.
• Jim W has been working on getting BAFRA mentioned in some newsletters.
• Roger reported that we currently have 69 active members. It was agreed that anyone who rejoins after the annual exam would need to go through the rejoining procedure, including a competency test and 10 games to requalify. Membership status changes will be published in Newsflash.
• Charlie is reviewing our insurance policies.
• With the entry of Cornish Sharks into the BAFL, Pete will be looking for crews willing to do a weekend double-header in the south west of England.
• The Selection Committee will be asked to review the criteria for selection and retention of officials on the Elite Programme.
• We agreed some of the details of the arrangements for the Convention. Davie noted that the recent training day for rookies and newer officials had been a great success.
• We will be looking for new members for the Selection Committee this year.
• It was decided to put off a new edition of the Mechanics Manual until next winter.
• We are running a pilot scheme to evaluate the usefulness of putting videos of games on the web for training purposes. Roger and Keith Wickham are leading on this.
• We reviewed the results of the 2006 members questionnaire and came to the conclusion that:
  • Our members are generally "satisfied" with what BAFRA does for them and what it demands of them.
  • Members would prefer a few more, better games closer to home, but basically scheduling is OK.
  • Members are reasonably happy with current game fees.
  • Family and health problems are the biggest cause of drop-outs from games.
  • Email is a reasonably effective mode of communication with our members.
  • The higher levels of the game (BAFRA and the leagues) are felt to be better run than the teams (game management and coaches), but that BAFA has a PR problem.
  • Our members like us to keep them informed (Newsflash).
  • Officiating is a good thing to do.
  • We need to do more training.

SOUK Report

I represented BAFRA at the first meeting of Sports Officials UK held since we joined the organisation late last year. There were people from about 10 sports there – the ones who did the most talking were from soccer and rugby union.

The agenda was mainly about SOUK providing formal support for a couple of initiatives on the education side. The one that we might be able to use is a proposal (at present in its very early stage) that SOUK should operate its own "generic officiating" courses, probably delivered by local colleges. The idea would be that officials from any sport (and especially the smaller ones) could sign up for a course that might include such topics as communication skills, fitness, etc.

A more interesting proposal concerns the 2012 Olympics. Evidently there are a number of Olympic sports that are struggling to find enough officials to cover the games. This may even include major sports like athletics. There is a suggestion that other sports might "lend" officials to cover some of the (presumably) lower slots (e.g. trackside judges). Such officials would get the full Olympic village experience. What do you think?

After lunch we had a "technical committee" meeting. This was solely about the National Occupational Standards for officiating qualifications. It was interesting to hear people talking about what their officials do, and everybody was keen to know how we did various things in American football (health and safety rules was one of the topics we discussed).

All in all, an interesting meeting.

Jim Briggs
president@bafra.org

RANDALL LISS - MINE HOST

Lesley and Randall Liss opened their guest house in the Wye Valley on 1st March. Members can visit their website at http://www.inglewood-house.com. I had a look on the website and it looks really nice and prices are very reasonable.

Pete Thom
operations@bafra.org

DISCIPLINARY CASES

GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS

PLAUDITS FOR SABRES AND CELTICS

The crew would like to extend their appreciation to both Sheffield Sabres and Leeds Celtics for the excellent way they played in difficult conditions and for joining the other officials in not laughing (too much) at the touchdown signalled beautifully by the back judge sitting in the muddy shallow-end of the endzone.

Keith Alldritt #323 ROGER'S RHETORIC

The opinions expressed in this Newsflash are those of the contributors, and are not necessarily those of BAFRA or its Directors.