The Ref Stop

Local RAs

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Adam Butler

Member
Out of curiosity, how many people on here make use of their Local Referee's Association? This season will be my 5th in refereeing, and tonight I went to my first ever RA meeting. I was surprised by how few people were there, and how even less were still actively officiating...

The meeting itself was really useful, with an in-depth discussion on the new modifications to the offside rule, and an explanation of the new Sunday league allocation system that has been put into place in the Sheffield and District area.

It's prompted me to sign up for the year, and I'm hoping I won't be the only one.

Thoughts/opinions/stories?
 
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I'm a member of mine too. My first meeting is in a few weeks and as this is my second (first full) makes sense to use it. Great for socialising too
 
I am a member of my local RA. Very poor turn out, a handful of us every month, despite efforts to bring the meeting format up to date
 
Joined last year, now the secretary! Same story for us, a core of dedicated members but do struggle for numbers despite 40+ paid up members!

We've moved venues this season to the local ryman league stadium, using social media more and revamping meetings. Challenge to all ra's is keeping members incentivised!
 
@Charlie Jones and I were at the (fortnightly) Barking & Dagenham (East London) Referee Society last night

We had a great presentation & discussion from an active Football League AR using the PGMOL videos wrt the 'new' offside

We had a few new faces which was great - remember that the first season is free for new members - approx. 25 in the room

I hear some RAs get 50-100 members turning up ... we have a small geographical reach with other societies close by ... so 20-25 is very good for a fortnightly group ... I'd still get something out of each session if there were only 4-5 in the room ... where else (other than at matches and on here!) can I have a good chat about ref-ing and take things away to help me improve ...
 
just to second what @Alex71 just said, I had a great time with the Football League AR explaining the new 'interpretation' of the law! I had previously attended a meeting at the Romford Society and that had the Essex CFA Chairman there speaking all things football!

I think 1 thing that may not help attendance is the month sabbatical in between each meeting. As alex said, B*D is a fortnightly venture.
 
Fortnightly? That's a bit of a commitment. What with refereeing mid week and other meetings and commitments I think that often could be a struggle in most areas.
 
Mine is actually very good, despite it being incredibly old fashioned.

I don't mind that, but I can see why it would put some younger referees off.

Like many others the regulars are all 'of a certain age', but you have to remember these guys have kept the associations going when they would have otherwise folded, and that deserves a huge amount of respect.
 
I'm Vice president of my local RA. We meet last Monday monthly between August and April. We have around 30+ turning up on average each month. "Business" is concluded within 15 minutes then we have a 1 hour training session (presentation), occasionally replaced by a guest speaker such as Dave Coote, FL referee. Of the 30+ who turn up 6-7 are no longer active as referees but 3-4 are active as Supply and Contrib assessors. We've also had a good batch of associate members visiting each month from other local RAs. We held a RA-FA evening last year and had more than 50 turn up. We also hold an annual Development Evening with Licensed Tutors delivering practical training. We've had 20+ turn up to these despite it being held in peak school holiday/pre-season game time.

U18s pay no membership fee, non-active members receive a discount.
 
We had 36 at Monday's meeting, including 5 non-active and 3 new members. Had a brief overview of the new interpretation offfside (by yours truly) followed by a presentation on the close season trip to the Donosti Cup where we sent 3 members and a coach. All done by 9:15.
 
Brian Hamilton said:
We had 36 at Monday's meeting, including 5 non-active and 3 new members. Had a brief overview of the new interpretation offside (by yours truly) followed by a presentation on the close season trip to the Donosti Cup where we sent 3 members and a coach. All done by 9:15.
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And how was the take in the room that this is not to be applied at grass roots with CARs?
 
As has been mentioned earlier in the thread, I think the major issue facing RAs is the (lack of) use of social media. With, stereotypically, the majority of members being older, and perhaps less inclined to use social media, there is less of a chance of reaching out to new, young, referees. Further, when I did my BRC 4/5 years ago, nobody at the course made me aware of an RA at all, and I only stumbled across it by chance as I ran the line for the president of our RA at a Sheffield FC Ladies game. The meeting this month was quite useful, and interesting in that there was lively debate which was good, and a nice way to ease back into the season
 
I'm in the process of joining mine, the meetings are held at a place about 10-15 minute walk from home.

The only reason I know about it is because the county RA's details were included in the paper work I was sent before my BRC.
 
Jacko said:
And how was the take in the room that this is not to be applied at grass roots with CARs?
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Their reaction was priceless. Fortunately a high proportion work as ARs at Supply and Contrib.

Adam Butler said:
As has been mentioned earlier in the thread, I think the major issue facing RAs is the (lack of) use of social media. With, stereotypically, the majority of members being older, and perhaps less inclined to use social media, there is less of a chance of reaching out to new, young, referees. Further, when I did my BRC 4/5 years ago, nobody at the course made me aware of an RA at all, and I only stumbled across it by chance as I ran the line for the president of our RA at a Sheffield FC Ladies game. The meeting this month was quite useful, and interesting in that there was lively debate which was good, and a nice way to ease back into the season
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Social media? Not a problem for us. Nearly all of the local RAs in our County have Facebook and a handful have Twitter feeds as well.
https://twitter.com/HeavyWoollenRA
https://www.facebook.com/heavywoollen.ra.1
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HeavyWoollenRA/
 
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I feel that the FA should be more involved.
Last Saturday saw a whole spectrum of refereeing 'incidents' in the Premier League.
How easy would it be to put together a short video file of the incidents for the RA's to discuss. They can be emailed to respective RA's by County.
Discussions of 'incidents', say a 30 minute slot each meeting would be a great training aid.
 
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That would be fantastic. However, sky and bt sport owning all the TV footage is a major fly in the ointment with that.
 
SM said:
That would be fantastic. However, sky and bt sport owning all the TV footage is a major fly in the ointment with that.
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You would hope that in the interests of refereeing development that they would be happy for the various clips to be used.
Of course that rather assumes that Sky and BT actually give a damn about what happens outside the Premier League :-)
 
SM said:
That would be fantastic. However, sky and bt sport owning all the TV footage is a major fly in the ointment with that.
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Sky regularly used to supply clips to The FA for use at PGMOL meetings. These clips also found their way to tutors who would present them at RA meetings. This provision of a library of clips fell by the wayside after the departure of Ray Olivier and Janie Frampton.

I'm pleased to say that a new fileshare facility has been set up and resources should be available soon.
 
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