Officials,

We, Metro Area Officials Committee, come to you today simply as a point of information as we head toward the 2015-2016 school year. The Metro Area Officials Association is made up of members from the following conferences...

• Suburban Conference 
• Gateway Athletic Conference 
• Metro Catholic 
• Metro League 
• Metro Womens Athletic Association 
• Archdiocese Athletic Association 
• Jefferson County Athletic 
• Public High League 
• South Conference Athletic Association 
• Independents

There is a lot of ambiguity regarding how assignors and assigning associations have conducted business in the past and how it impacts officials. We, the Metro Area Officials Committee, met with all assignors and assigning associations on March 16th at Westminster Christian Academy to go over the attached documents.  

The information and guidelines set forth for all assignors and assigning associations were derived from MSHSAA expectations and several months of meetings from our committee members.  

The committee feels strongly that these guidelines protect the member schools, assignors, associations, and officials.

There will be two informational meetings put on by the committee to help answer any questions or concerns officials might have regarding the attached documents and how it might impact you. The first meeting is April 16th at Francis Howell Central at 7:00 pm. The second meeting is April 21st at MICDS at 7:00 pm.  

I am going to list the items below that are most pertinent to you, the officials, as we move forward (entire list of requirements is attached). We feel that most of these changes will have no impact on officials directly, except potentially more money in your pocket and the ability to work for multiple assignors.

• Officials must be registered with MSHSAA to officiate any contest. 
• Officials must have a contract between yourself and the home school. The assignors will take care of this but wanted to make you aware. Those assignors using arbiter or similar type of assigning system will have the contracts created and signed for electronically. 
• Officials are to receive the full game fee/stipend per the fee structure established by the Metro Area Officials Committee. NO PORTION OR PERCENTAGE IS TO BE TAKEN OUT BY THE ASSIGNOR OR ASSIGNING ASSOCIATION. 
• Officials cannot be intimidated or discouraged from accepting assignments from other assignors OR SCHOOLS. Schools can contract their own officials if they choose to do so. 
• Officials cannot be required to pay membership to an organization to be considered for assignments.

Brian Kessler
Activities Director

Link to Guidelines PDF