Published March 2, 2017, in the Badger Beacon newsletter:
Wow. It’s difficult to believe that it’s been six months since my first Badger Beacon Board Member Highlight article.
As many of you know, I wear two hats on the Badger Region Board of Directors; I serve on the executive Committee as the Associate Commissioner/Vice President and am also serve on the Advisory Committee as the Referee Chair.
What’s been happening on the Referee side of things?
We completed our classroom clinics for referees in early January, and we are currently concentrating on performing on-court observations and providing feedback to our referees. I’m excited that we currently have about 145 assignable referees within the Badger Region.
On the flip side, we still need more referees! We hope that the Badger Region’s Serve United program — where we certify parents and other adults to assist with the work crew duties at tournaments — will expose and showcase the fun of working events to adult members. Hopefully, for some of them the excitement will stick and we will yield additional referees from that pool.
I’m also excited that the Scorekeeping division has certified almost 50 scorekeepers at the level of Provisional or higher.
I’ve heard from many coaches that the general quality across the referees within the region continues to improve. This is a glowing compliment not only to the mentors that we send out, but also to the referees who accept their feedback and continue to improve their craft.
As is typical, work crews capabilities continue to be “all over the map,” from great to poor. The more successful clubs place a great deal of pride and effort into getting their members trained. They don’t just do the minimum and only have them go through the training modules or conduct facilitated classroom clinics.
They also have the players practice at scrimmages so that when the tournaments come around, the players are used to the speed of the game as well as have had experience working with the scoresheet and Libero Tracking Sheet.
I’m also looking forward to our Region Family Reunion — Badger Region Championships — where we all get together and see many the many friends we have within the volleyball family.
What we do as a Board of Directors takes a lot of time and effort, but it’s all worth it when we see the players, coaches, spectators, and officials producing some great volleyball events and having an even better time.
As I’ve said before, I’ve found my “dream job” within the Badger Region.
Published in the Aug. 4, 2016, Badger Beacon newsletter:
What position do you currently hold on the Badger Region Board of Directors?
I actually wear two hats; I serve on the Executive Committee as the Associate Commissioner/Vice President, and I serve on the Advisory Committee as the Referee Chair for the Region.
What do you bring to the board?
I bring a process oriented and analytical mindset to both of my roles. I also bring 25+ years of experience as a corporate consultant in the Organizational Change/Instructional Design and Development/Technical Training/Technical Writing discipline.
What do you hear from your constituents?
At this time, my primary constituents tend to be the Professional Referees, Line Judges, and Scorers, as well as the Junior Club work crews. They like the options of having in-person training available as well as the on-line training option. The Professional Referees really appreciate the on-court mentoring program that the Region has set up where referees are observed and given immediate feedback on their performance by highly rated referees from the Region.
What would you like to see the Region do more or less of?
I’d like to see the Region continue and expand the referee mentoring program as well as the highly successful Scorer monitor program. The Scorer monitor program provides mentoring to Junior Scorers at Badger Region tournaments during pool play matches. I’d also like to see the Region work on programs to cultivate and capture the interest of younger players (6-10 year olds). Not necessarily from a competition standpoint, but from a participation and social standpoint. These young kids are our future and currently there is very little programming available for this age group.
Other important information you feel our members should know about you and what you do.
I’m very passionate about the sport of volleyball. It’s a great sport that is still “under control”. The community of people in volleyball is wonderful. I enjoy the interaction with the BOD as we work diligently to provide oversight and “steer the ship” in the right direction for the good of the game.
I’m also very passionate about human performance improvement and working to help people be the best that they can be.
I’ve found my “dream job” within the Badger Region.
