What would you do if an association member robbed a convenience store? Unfortunately, not everyone who joins an officiating group is an upstanding citizen. Here are other misbehavior possibilities your organization may have to deal with:
• An official swipes a valuable stopwatch out of a coaches office after a game.
• Officials clog a toilet and basin in a dressing room, cleaning mud from their shoes and the overflow ruins a hardwood floor. The school lodges a formal complaint with the state governing body.
• An official orders a band director to stop the halftime show because it‘s encroaching on playing time and the subsequent hubbub from irate parents also reaches the state office.
• An official is charged with domestic abuse after violating a restraining order by allegedly stalking his ex-wife.
• An official is charged for embezzlement at the business where he works.
What are you going do about it? Well, the misdeeds present an interesting dilemma. One way to deal with any untoward behavior by association members is to ignore it. The smoke will blow over. But a salient premise about officials has been overturned. In the public’s eyes, we are supposed to be nearly divine in terms of integrity and upright morals. A taint of one person is a taint of the group.
“We can’t anticipate all sorts of wrong-doing and make a policy to fit,” is one response. That’s true. One size does not fit all when trying to set a procedure that deals with people who stray from the straight and narrow. However, your conduct policy should address as much as possible.
You can also form a contemplative, damage-control body that meets in an emergency and acts on matters that could prove detrimental to the association’s welfare. The recommendation is to ask three individuals to serve as an ad hoc tribunal to meet after something bad happens and recommend a path for the association to follow.
Select three stalwarts and tell them (and your association) they will only gather if a situation arises. Tell them they may have to do some investigating — to substantiate charges, for example — as well as recommending. Their ultimate responsibility is to advise how the membership should proceed. They would not mete out punishment nor create policy. They are reactors only, operating in the best interests of the association, trying to salvage their constituents honor. |
