Fellow Official,

Here is another ECBOA update:

• The ABC Camp just wrapped up, and by all accounts it was a tremendous success.  Several of our younger and veteran officials took part in this camp, which was held at Lynn University.  The campers received training from many of our seasoned officials, and they also received an ECBOA evaluation.  A special thanks to John Fouchet and Mark DeAtley for all of the hard work they put into the camp, as well as all of the clinicians and evaluators who assisted.

• We also had a training event at a woman’s team camp at Palm Beach State College, which was led by Tony Payne.  Tony advised that it was very successful and we had a good number of our fellow officials attend and officiate.  A specail thanks to everyone who took part in this event, including those who came to provide instructional assistance.

• Many of our officials are attending other various camps around the State in an effort to improve their officiating skills.  I want to applaud everyone who has attended a camp and encourage you to share some of the things you’ve learned with your fellow officials.

• Jim Marzullo, Erik Benz, and Joe Erwin attended the FHSAA Leadership Conference in St. Pete.  The FHSAA advised that they will be using Arbiter for both registrations and testing this year.  In addition, access to the rule books will be through Arbiter (no more hard copy’s), which is expected to go live in July.  Also, there was a lot of good dialogue on training, communication, and recruiting new officials.  Further, we were advised that the State is keeping the 14’ coaching box, and not expanding it to 28’.

• Starting this season we are requiring our members to have a current picture of themselves on Arbiter.  You can either upload a current picutre of yourself, or we will be happy to take one for you at one of our general meetings.  Headshots are preferred, and we reservce the right to reject any picture which may not be clear or is inappripriate.   We want to make sure we put the face with the name, and want everyone to display a professional image of themself.

• We have decided to eliminate the Saturday preseason varsity evaluation session this year, and will only be holding evaluations for new officials to determine their initial placement.

• Please be sure to check out our training page.  We have added some and will be adding more training materials to the site.  We are making a concerted effort to upgrade it with current information.

Thanks and enjoy the summer!

Joe Erwin, President