Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul Copioli
8. Those of you complaining about the quality of reffing, become a ref. I will do this next year as I have never reffed beofer and will now start. At Detroit, the reason the reffing is much better than other places I have witnessed is the refs are mostly involved with FIRST teams or are FIRST team alumni. We need to increase the talent level of the referees from within. We must become a part of the solution..
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I do mostly agree with this, however, I have seen some people, who were FIRST alum, fail..horribly. I do agree with you though. There are some rule hounds that can do a great job, but they never want to be involved with the reffing of the event, they want to be involved with the Driving, Coaching, and Strategy.
Also, it is very hard for an adult my age to be able to get a ref position on the Eastern Seaboard. Most regionals here tend to have some bias in the selections. I have seen numerous well qualified students be passed over for Sponsors, Friends of the VC, or VIPs. I have seen it at NJ, UTC, Philly, and Boston. I have a strong knowledge of how an event should run and the rules for the game (while I certainly don't know the most about it, I can understand the game and have been involved in Reffing offseason events), but I have been passed over before as well as some other high profile CD'ers with a strong knowledge of gameplay. For some, there is no point in even trying because they know they will be passed over if the RPC finds someone who might be interested in sponsoring the event.
This may sound very stupid and crazy at first, but it might help. If they were to start an incentives program for Refs (ie, if they make a certain % of correct calls, they get X, and if they don't, that X decreases). It will never happen, but it is certainly an idea.