LOA's and Fees

[laxfan25]

I am curious as to how your Lacrosse Officials Associations work with the state HS Associations or Leagues in your areas in regard to setting game fees.
In Michigan, Lacrosse was brought under the MHSAA umbrella last season as a sanctioned sport. In the past there was the Michigan Scholastic Lacrosse Association, a private group of coaches and schools that is now defunct.
We have a state-wide Lacrosse Officials org, called MichLOA, that worked with the MSLA to set fees and handle assigning.
The MHSAA does not like to deal with state-wide organizations - they prefer to deal with local associations to better "divide and conquer". Given the small number of lax refs, this has not real been feasible for us on the stripes side.
MHSAA does not want associations handling assigning either. They want independent assigners, who receive a fairly good assigning fee for the games they do. We currently have two assigners in the state.
MichLOA has been very cooperative with the MHSAA to date, providing trainers for their new officials clinics and helping out in other ways in this transition period.
We are about to have our annual MichLOA meeting, and revising the by-laws is a major topic. I'm just looking for any input or suggestions from interested parties out there.
Given the distance from the West side of the state to the East, we are also considering making a separate association for the west side, but I am reluctant to give up the strength and organization of MichLOA and reinvent the wheel. There was talk about an overarching umbrella of MichLOA, with separate chapters underneath - East, West, etc., but the Board to date has not been receptive to that idea.
Any thoughts out there?

[ploaref]

Pennsylvania's state high school athletic association, the PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) does not recognize boys lacrosse as a sport they sanction. Girls lacrosse is sanctioned (go figure). Subsequently, there is NO current interaction between the groups. The "status" of boys lacrosse officials is rumored to be one of the main issues the PIAA is wrestling with regarding whether or not to sanction. We all feel it's a matter of "when", not "if".

[laxfan25]

Pennsylvania's state high school athletic association, the PIAA (Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic Association) does not recognize boys lacrosse as a sport they sanction. Girls lacrosse is sanctioned (go figure). Subsequently, there is NO current interaction between the groups. The "status" of boys lacrosse officials is rumored to be one of the main issues the PIAA is wrestling with regarding whether or not to sanction. We all feel it's a matter of "when", not "if".

So do you have different game fees for different parts of the state? Who do you negotiate rates with? How are assigners selected, or who does the assigning?

[ploaref]

So do you have different game fees for different parts of the state? Who do you negotiate rates with? How are assigners selected, or who does the assigning?

There are 3 LOA's in PA. We are currently talking about forming an "umbrella" LOA to negotiate (hopefully) when PIAA comes into our sport.

Today, the LOA's appoint their own Assignors. We have a crew of, i think, 8 of us here in southeast PA, counting the Youth assignors.

The fees are negotiated directly with the leagues who use our services. Game fees are essentially the same, but by no means uniform. We use three man crews in our area for 75% or so of our games at the varsity level.

[CTLaxer]

Here in AZ we just upped our fees for our women's officials due to rising gas cost. At the last league meeting, it was brought to the board, seconded, and then set. Simple as that.

Officials in arizona are paid quite well. The men's officials are the highest paid officials out of all the high school sports out here. That's done to retain and gain officials. The women's officials are not too far behind. The sport isn't sanctioned out here so we have to keep our fees really competitive.