The point that I have (tried) to make to my local RA :
Technology and life has moved on. The people that attend the local RA are the 6 members of the board. Now top of the list I support the RA am a member and get the benefits. Drawback - the 6 board members are all over 60 (no offence), they are all retired and it seems as though they are trying to keep it going but for their owm benefit.
The bolloc*ing email that we received when no-one supported the Local RA Golf Day (suprisingly at the GC that one member is also on the board of) disgusted me. It was arranges for a Wedensday between 11am and 4pm. Err, sorry, but guess that the majority of referees are probbly at work trying to pay their morgage, and are not retired, living of final salary pensions and loving the equity their houses have provided them with, with all day to do nothing.
But as I say, when they were younger, a monthly meeting was their forum. a get to gether for a chin wag, some advise and to air their grievences was their refchat.
I asked recently about a fellow RA member (senior member) who whilst as an AR whacked his flag across his chest. The advise receied was that "I donlt care what the memo said - I know what it means, the ref knows what it means and so does everyone else".
Yeah great!
At a meeting you will meet others, who have their experiences to draw on, and their own opinions of things. And TBH, from the 7 at the last one I went to, all were taken with a pinch of salt. one was een talking abouta game he was watching in 1935 - the D had not even been added to the pitch at that time!
On a on-line forum we have probably 400+ members active, with a variety of levels from 8 and 9 (who can bring somthing, sometimes) through to assessors, mentors, FL officials and even the input from the odd FIFA official too (!)
When did you last have the ability to as a L7,4, 2, NL and FIFA the same question at the same time? It wasn't at my last meeting that's for sure.
After speaking to one of the board about potentia ways to improve the attendance by changing the day, time and or location of the meeting here I was asked if was being serious. Fact is, from my experience they are old boys clubs that old boys run, how they want to run it, so they can have an excuse to get out of the house for an evening and have a beer with the old boys (before driving home), for some it is maybe their only reason to get out of the house if they are on their own, and none of the above have officiated a game for many seasons. Besides I bgrudge my subs going to the local Conservative club to line their pockets in room hire fees, bt again, the chairman is a member....
And the AGM for the national RA is just as bad. The first point made is that "hearing aids can be tuned to their T setting". My first AGM I was horrified at the fact that those in the room passing ammendments that affect ALL members had an average age of 50 plus, and a lot ha not officiated for years quite obviosuly (the sticks and walking fames gave that away). Not to bemtion Mr O'Tool's open letter about the way it was being ran and finacnes etc......
One question was posed "surely people do not pay theur annual subs JUST to get the physio cover, do they?"Answer - yes, they probably do.
But for all ov the above, despite the ways in which the locals are ran, it is worth my annaul fee just to get the Saturday conference workshops.
Just a shame that last year they discovered that 12 of the 20 or so officials invited to present them were not members of the RA themselves (NB they were forced to pay their annual membership fee beore they could present their courses!).
So, I think that life has moved on and they under 30's of the worlds do not have the want, need or time to attend a meeting with older people to discuss things, when they can get the knowledge of 100's from around the world in one click. It is a shame that the old boys can not keep their loving local socities afloat no matter what they try. Everyone is time short, and if they have a question or want an answer, it is wanted immediately - not in 3 weeks time.
