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Dues and Fees revised 08/14/04
| Just like many other sports officials' organizations, UOA has a membership fee requirement. If you've already looked at the set of equipment that you'll need to go out on the field for the very first time in a game, you're probably wondering how in the world you can afford to pay into an organization, too. We're sorry that this is necessary. Heck, I don't know anyone in the association who "likes" to pay dues. That is just the nature of the beast. We have expenses every year that come around that must be paid. As it turns out, some of our biggest expenses are those for bringing in new officials and getting them "up to speed" quickly. |
| Our dues are the only payments that you must make to the association no matter what. However, there is also an implicit payment which each of us makes every year. That "payment" is really not a cash transaction at all. However, as the culmination of training each year, we provide crews to each of the parks who are hosting "jamboree" events. We do not charge the parks for this service, nor do we pay officials to do these mini-games. Instead, we donate our time to the parks and we use the time to get valuable on-field experience for our new officials as well as some refresher time for all the old heads. This is a mandatory event for all our officials, new and old alike. |
| We operate on the theory that all our officials will be on time to their assignments and will behave in the professional manner that befits a youth sports official. But we don't count on this always being the case. It is an unusual circumstance, but we also have a fine structure which we use to discipline errant officials. This fine structure is not used to punish people for making bad calls. Bad calls are to be avoided, and good training will help greatly in avoiding them. But bad calls are a part of the game and a natural part of the new official's learning experience. We don't fine for bad calls, period. What we will fine for are breaches of good conduct; tardiness or missed assignments; or in the cases of crew chiefs (not a likely role for the brand new official), for failure to perform the required extra duties to the association that come with that job. |
| Our dues structure varies somewhat from year to year. In a typical year, full year's dues will be in the $50.00 - $75.00 range. This is based in large part on how the association did in the previous year and how much we were able to (or decided to) carry over into the next season. The association makes all payments for games worked. Our parks, in turn pay the fees to us directly. Because we understand the need for new members, especially, to be paid quickly to cover their dues and uniform fees, we do make a mid-year payment and sometimes two. This is the first "paycheck" which you can receive. We usually are able to make this payment in about mid-October. So during your first year, you will be "in the hole" for uniforms and fees from about mid-July until this first payment gets done. From that point on, as long as you're in good standing and taking game assignments, you'll likely be "in the black" for the rest of your time with UOA. |