PROBLEMS ISSUES RECRUITMENT RETENTION SPORTS OFFICIALS

Recruitment and Retention of Sports Officials • 2004FINDINGSThe findings are presented in a number of sections that broadly chronicle thestructures, systems and processes established to recruit, support anddevelop, and retain sports officials. Because the purpose of this research wasto identify issues and problems across the sport system, within the limitationsof researching five major sports, specific sports are rarely discussed, except tohighlight examples of good practice. Reporting findings in this way also servesto protect the anonymity of respondent organisations and individuals andavoids getting bogged down with issues and problems that are of concern onlyto a particular sport or a particular association.It became evident during the study that the identification of talented officialsand their subsequent development and appointment to higher level and elitecompetition was a point of considerable debate and internal politicking withinsport organisations. There is not much consensus about which officials shouldbe promoted to elite levels of competition and as a result matters of internalpolitics within particular sport organisations are not addressed in this report.Nature and extent of the recruitment and retention problemA key research question was the nature and extent of the recruitment andretention problem amongst sports officials. Findings in relation to the extent ofthe problem are presented in this section. The nature of the problem entails amore detailed analysis, the findings of which are presented in a number ofseparate sections below.Most sports have zero to minimal quantifiable data on the extent of theproblem or whether there are trends in increasing or decreasing turnover.Most sports, however, do have accurate data on the numbers of elite levelsports officials (i.e. state, national or international standard). While most sportshave records of the number of people completing formal accreditation ortraining programs, many NSOs and SSOs acknowledged that they areguessing and working on assumptions in relation to truly knowing the exactnumber of officials who are actively officiating each week, how many arerecruited, or how many cease officiating on either a national or state basis.It was evident across all sports that there was a constant challenge to supplyan adequate number of qualified and experienced officials for the number ofgames and competitions over a season, particularly at the grass roots level.Further, the majority of sport participants did not appreciate the enormity of thetask.Griffith University • Griffith Business School • Cuskelly & Hoye 7