Mentoring
Referee Mentoring Program
District 2 and some leagues have now been engaged in a mentoring program for a few years. Clinics, training sessions and one-on-one mentoring have been very successful in providing a sort of big brother/sister network for our officials.
An integral part of the program is the mentors. Accordingly, should you have an interest in becoming a mentor and learning more about the program, please contact Ron Marfil marfil4545@aol.com.
The mentoring program has two primary goals. The first is retention. We are working to provide support and encouragement to keep our referees—particularly our newer referees—in the program. The second goal is growth. We want to help identify those officials capable of upgrading in the referee ranks and provide help in doing so.
The program is being fostered through and with various leagues in the district. Those leagues wishing to start a mentor program can contact Ron Marfil marfil4545@aol.com. He in turn will conduct an informational and training session for potential mentors on "whys and hows" of this program.
Mentor Program Notes, Summer 2008
Referee mentoring is alive and well. A number of leagues are going strong with various mentor programs including Almaden, North Valley, DeAnza and Burlingame. Others such as West Valley, Soth San Jose and Santa Cruz are restarting their efforts.
All it takes is a scan of the local referee assigning web sites and subscriptions to a few leagues to note the continuing shortage of referees. We "graduate" about 800 new referees a year, but the survival rate into year two seems to be less than endangered sea turtles.
Retention and growth of referees is a key to our survival as a sport. If we continue to let this go, we will have no referees for games, leagues will be paying over a hundred dollars a game to compete for the tiny pool we have, etc.
Per our District Director of Assessment, assessments are down, and upgrades are down. Where are the senior referees goiong to come from to work those older competitive games?
On the overall mentor front, we in our district have been contacted by associations in Southern California and Indiana recently to ask for help and direction in starting a program in their area. They found us via web surfing and the mention in the D2SRA.org site.
If there are any league ref coordinators out there that want to start or restart a program, please contact me and maybe I can help with some ideas, an information and training meeting or ??? Ron Marfil 408-379-9773, marfil4545@aol.com.