The Ref Stop

Local RA's

Are you a member of your local RA?

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Samuel

Samuel

Member
Level 5 Referee
I know this is something that is absolutely bored to death but I haven't seen any more recent opinions shared on RA's.

I know that my local RA are constantly wanting to attract the younger refs and it has attracted some new ones but it still isn't enough and I think their worry is, as it stands, unfortunately a lot of the members are at the age where they could go and not be replaced with the numbers we have. So they are trying to future proof the members.

I know the general consensus with the RA is that it is mainly retired refs that occupy them, but are many actually trying to resolve this issue?
 
The Ref Stop
So I'm a member of South Wilts RA, it's great and even includes some former pros amongst our members.

But it took a year and a half of reffing down here for me to even find out they existed. I was doing mostly Sunday mens and county women's so didn't meet many refs to let me know it existed. I think RAs have a HUGE visibility issue. I'm a union member at work and by comparison I found out about them the week I started.

My RA is pretty good, nice Whatsapp chat where we share available games and match experiences and the events I've been to were great.

But yeah, a young ref isn't going to give up money unless it seems worth it, PLUS they need to know it exists!
 
I think the issue mine is facing isn't so much people not knowing about it but more so the average age of attendance. We average about 20-25 people at each meeting and only about 7 "youngsters" counting myself and a another who is 21 as young. Fortunately the secretary is also heavily involved with the Referees academy in Suffolk, which is our feeder into the county CORE group so ha can bang on about it.

But also being in the East of England there are very few local pros and the RDO being a L3 is the highest reputable member so special guests is an issue we have.
 
Samuel said:
I think the issue mine is facing isn't so much people not knowing about it but more so the average age of attendance. We average about 20-25 people at each meeting and only about 7 "youngsters" counting myself and a another who is 21 as young. Fortunately the secretary is also heavily involved with the Referees academy in Suffolk, which is our feeder into the county CORE group so ha can bang on about it.

But also being in the East of England there are very few local pros and the RDO being a L3 is the highest reputable member so special guests is an issue we have.
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Yeah I mean our last guest was the county RDO and that was still pretty good, I suppose it's what you can make it!

7/20-25 actually sounds better than mine! lol
 
I’m a member of my local RA (though joined centrally), but it does seem to operate purely on a word-of-mouth. While the grassroots appointments secretaries go, no notice of the RA appears on their emails to the list of officials.

Probably only go every third/fourth meeting as their guests are almost exclusively SG1/SG2 and once you’ve heard that background story… plus I can’t really justify even more evenings out the house really with weekends, midweek, and training/core / remembering what my friends look like

First one (law changes and catch-up), Xmas (excuse for a beer and eat free chocolates), one before the cup final appointments come out (show your face), last one of season (get a clap from your peers). 😂

We have a massive catchment area, more so after two (maybe 3) societies merged a wee while ago. Probably get 40 people in, lucky if more than two is under 18 and both of them came cos their dad is a ref as well.

Also: meetings on a Monday. Mondays are not for football 😂
 
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I like to show face to all of them, purely for the fact that it's just one night a month to sacrifice and talk to a lot of them. And for the most part I do like the social aspect of the meetings as even though I have obviously seen them all before I like to chat to the little group of u18s that we have to see how their games are going.

I do have some ideas to boost engagement over the season but it's no where near enough to take up half the sessions let alone continuing after that.
 
OnlyUseMeWhistle said:
So I'm a member of South Wilts RA, it's great and even includes some former pros amongst our members.

But it took a year and a half of reffing down here for me to even find out they existed. I was doing mostly Sunday mens and county women's so didn't meet many refs to let me know it existed. I think RAs have a HUGE visibility issue. I'm a union member at work and by comparison I found out about them the week I started.

My RA is pretty good, nice Whatsapp chat where we share available games and match experiences and the events I've been to were great.

But yeah, a young ref isn't going to give up money unless it seems worth it, PLUS they need to know it exists!
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I didn't even know one existed in South Wilts. Do they have a website or do you have contact details please?
 
We have tried everything to promote our RA that we can, but it’s becoming more and more difficult to bring people in. We’ve done all the usual online stuff, done promotion stuff at leagues and even attended referee courses.

As the world is shifting to online, I think it simply makes everything much more difficult. RA nights can be great development, as well as social occasions. But there just doesn’t seem to be the appetite for it anymore. I actually had a call with the chairman of ours earlier this week in regards to it. One of the issues I think we have in our one, is that there are 4 of us within a 25 mile radius. I personally think combining into 1 large one is the most realistic solution, but the older generations are against it as the RA’s have been going for X amount of years
 
Runner Ref said:
As the world is shifting to online, I think it simply makes everything much more difficult.
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I think strangely enough our actually thrived during lockdown with online meetings, and unfortunately when we came out not many people actually wanted to attend.

I guess, like you alluded to, the reality is that the RA isn't as in demand as it used to be and social media is where a lot of referees socialise now instead of in person.
 
Samuel said:
I think strangely enough our actually thrived during lockdown with online meetings, and unfortunately when we came out not many people actually wanted to attend.

I guess, like you alluded to, the reality is that the RA isn't as in demand as it used to be and social media is where a lot of referees socialise now instead of in person.
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Yep, we got a good few joining over Zoom in lockdown. But online just isn’t the same.

We average about 12 at each meeting. Society up the road literally get 4 people each month.

Only way to bring people in is if they brought a rule in to say you must attend X amount of meetings to be eligible for promotion. But that’s highly highly unlikely
 
When I left Sheffield & Hallamshire in 2018 they have a relatively strong RA. Quite a pro active one too. I enjoyed the meetings + they did fitness training etc. I then moved Bristol and was amazed that there is no Bristol RA. Closest one was Gloucester which is joined for zoom meetings during covid, but it's too far to attend in person. Here in Guernsey the RA is very strong. I'd guess that 2/3 of all referees are in the RA.
 
I’d love to join mine and attend meetings but unfortunately it’s always going to be hard to attend Monday nights with work/a young family so not worth the price for me personally. Would be great if the joining fee trickled down from these millions coming down from the PL to grassroots… would certainly be a way to get youngsters more involved
 
I’ve been a member of my Local RA, Bracknell and District, since I qualified 25 years ago, my membership has been invaluable. We have a great camaraderie and get excellent speakers, we meet on the 2nd Thursday every month at 7:30pm at Finchampstead FC sports and social club, if anyone is interested we would love to see you young and old.
 
Refollie said:
I’d love to join mine and attend meetings but unfortunately it’s always going to be hard to attend Monday nights with work/a young family so not worth the price for me personally. Would be great if the joining fee trickled down from these millions coming down from the PL to grassroots… would certainly be a way to get youngsters more involved
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It's free for new members for a year, and youngsters get a discount for a couple of years after that.

You need to get the parents to buy in as they will be running the taxi service.
 
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