[Jon Stratis]

Speaking as one of the individuals actively working to increase key volunteers (specifically LRI's) across MN... it's not as easy as people seem to think. We get plenty of inspectors, but not all inspectors would make for good LRI's. Since I became an LRI here, I've worked every year (literally) to identify and train new LRI's. You can identify someone who might be good for it one year, work the next year to train them, and then, finally, get them in charge of an event... but even then we do everything we can to have another experienced LRI there to back them up in case something horrible goes wrong. So, realistically, it takes another 2 seasons after you've identified someone before they're really running on their own. It's part of our focus on providing high quality events - throw someone into a situation they aren't completely prepared for, and the outcome won't be as good for the teams.

Now, all that said, I'm (personally) finally getting to the point where I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. For the first time EVER, we'll have 4 different LRI's FROM MINNESOTA in charge of the 4 Minnesota events. All previous years, we've imported LRI's from Wisconsin or doubled up. I also have a couple of people identified for training this year so we can have them ready to go when districts hits (whenever that is, I have no information on that!).

But that's just one key volunteer position. As Tanis said, we only have 2 FTA's returning for this year, and last I heard only 1 Head Ref.

Lets put it this way... would you want to attend a district with a head ref who got the job because someone was desperately needed for the position, or one who got the job because they had been reffing for years and were identified as a good fit for the position?