OFOA Policy and Procedures
Fourth Draft Dec 2012
OFOA Policy and Procedures
Manual
Initial Version
Released 2012
This manualreflects the practices of the OFOA. As a result of annual general meetings or approved minutes of OFOA Executive Board meetings, changes will be required to streamline the operation of the OFOA and to address situations as they arise. This manual will,to the best of the Executive of the OFOA’s ability, reflect the current policies and procedures of the OFOA.
The Secretary of the OFOA will keep the master copy of the OFOA Policy and Procedures Manual and will ensure the most current version is posted to the OFOA website for member’s reference and use.
The OFOA Policy and Procedures Manual is authorized by the President of the OFOA and will be reviewed at least once a year before the Annual General Meeting. Approved updates to policies or procedures will be promulgated under the authority of the President via electronic means to all member Associations of the OFOA and be integrated into the next edition of the Policy and Procedures Manual.
Original Signed By
President OFOADated
Proposed Table of Contents
Goal or Mission
The OFOA was created in 1997/1998?? To unite tackle football officials associations within the Province Ontario with the goal of improving tackle football officiating throughout the province. Throughout the years, the OFAO mandate has expanded to include education and training. OFOA provides a single point of contact for Ontario Football Alliance, the recognized Provincial authority for football in Ontario, for tackle football issues. OFOA also provides a representative point of contact for the Canadian Football OfficialsAssociation (CFOA)
Background
OFOA has a constitution. The most current copy of the Constitution is posted on the OFOA web site, The constitution outlines the operating parameters of the OFOA. The constitution can only be amended by a majority vote at duly constituted annual general meeting of the OFOA. Details on amendment procedures are contained in the constitution.
This is a copy of the OFOA letterhead crest.
Here is a copy of the OFOA crest that is to be worn by on field officials for all OFOA assigned games or when an official is representing OFOA at a Provincial, National or International completion.
Officers
President:
As outlined in the constitution, the President presides over meetings of the Association and the Board of Directors (BoD). In addition the President serves as the initial point of contact for the various stakeholders for football throughout the Province. Depending on the amount of coordination required at any given time, the President may elect another Board Member to act as the liaison between the OFOA and a stakeholder. See Administration for details on records management.
The President is to approve and/or sign any correspondence going out on behalf of the OFOA that deals with policies or could be precedent setting in the resulting actions. Routine correspondence between the OFOA BoD and stakeholders is to be signed/released by the applicable BoD member with a copy to the Secretary for recording purposes.
While the President may normally be seen as the OFOA representative to CFOA, this liaison position should be confirmed by the OFOA membership.
Vice-President
The VP needs to be in continuous communication with the President in order to be kept abreast of current issues and developments between the OFOA and the various stakeholders in order to fulfil the duties of the VP.
The VP is responsible for coordinating the Ken Green Award selection process, to be presented biennially. Another duty for the VP is to coordinate the rule change proposals to Football Canada.
Past-President
In addition to the duties outlined in the Constitution, the Past President is asked to attend all BoD meetings, even after one year in the chair, to provide additional continuity on various issues. The Past President will also serve as the single point of contact to update the OFOA website. Any corrections or additions to the OFOA website are to be forwarded directly to the Past President.
Secretary
The Secretary is to maintain the records of the Association. He/she is responsible for coordinating the creation of the agenda for the AGM and BoD meetings ensuring that participatingstakeholders are provided the final agenda in sufficient time or as directed by the Constitution to allow meetingattendee’s time to prepare for the meetings. Minutes of all meetings are to be prepared for acceptance at the next meeting.
The Secretary is charged with keeping of the records of the Association. All BoD members are to ensure copies of all correspondence are forwarded to the Secretary for filing purposes.
The Secretary should have proper filing system for both electronic and paper records. Copies of all correspondence are to be kept for a minimum of five years. Back-up records, paper and electronic are to be created and provided on a yearly basis to the President.
Treasurer
The Treasurer keeps all finance records for the Association. He accepts all funds and deposits same in the Association bank account. Disbursements of funds are to be done by cheque with a minimum of two signatures. The Treasures is responsible for coordinating the administitraion of getting at least one other BoD member duly registered with the bank as a co-signor for OFOA cheques.
All expenses should be associated with bill or receipt for services rendered.
The Treasurer is to reconcile the monthly bank statement on a monthly basis and have the reconciled bill and bank balance certified by a BoD member. Certification of the bank balance should be via the BoD member’s signature on the reconciled bill to indicate the verification of funds in the Association bank account.
In addition to the reporting of financial status of the Association at all BoD meetings and the AGM, there is to be an independent audit of the Association financial dealings on a yearly basis. The audit should be conducted by at least two members of the BoD (this could include at least one Area Director) and should be conducted prior to the AGM in order that the audit can be reported to the membership at the AGM.
Registrar
The Registrar duties are detailed in the Constitution. As the primary point of contact with the FOAs that make up the OFOA for the ongoing operations of the OFOA, the Registrar may need the assistance of other BoD members. With the large number of FOAs (19) within Ontario, the Registrar may utilize the elected Area Directors to assist in the smooth running of the OFOA.
Area Directors
Note that two of the Area Directors mentioned in their AGM report to members that as new members they were not aware of what the Areas director’s duties were and grew throughout the year. We are looking for a better description of duties from incumbents.
The Area Directors are the elected/appointed liaison between the FOAs in their area and the OFOA BoD. Due to the variations in the size and the composition of the areas, the Area Directors may need to use a variety of techniques to ensure effective liaison.
The Area Directors are to work closely with the FOAs within their area to bring forward issues at BoD meetings as well as represent the FOA’s views on issues. In order to do this effectively, each Area Director is expected to develop effective lines of communications with the FOAs in order that information can be disseminated quickly and effectively between all members of OFOA.
Administration
The OFOA attempts to address issues for all tackle football officials within Ontario. The large geographical area to cover and distances involved make travel and face to face meetings very resource intensive in time and money. To this end, face to face meetings are kept to a minimum and are to held to meet constitutional requirements and to address the ongoing business of the OFOA.
A good deal of business is conducted by both telephone and email. To this end, it is a shared responsibility of the OFOA Executive and the Executive of the FOA’s within OFOA to ensure that contact information is kept up to date. The use of Area Directors as a centralized point of contact in the four identified Areas:
The four Areas and their FOAs are as follows:
Western Area (7)
- Windsor
- Sarnia
- Chatham
- London
- St Thomas
- Brantford
- Waterloo Wellington
Central Area (54
- Hamilton
- Lakeshore
- Toronto
- Durham York
Northern Area (4)
- Georgian Bay
- North Bay
- Sudbury
- Sault Saint Marie
Eastern Area (4)
- Kawartha
- Quinte
- Kingston
- Eastern Ontario
It is to be emphasized that there is no attempt to stifle communications amongst OFOA members but an attempt to streamline information flow and more importantly, ensure that information can be shared effectively and efficiently amongst all OFOA members. Judicious use of Area Directors in information exchange can hopefully lead to sharing of limited resources such as training, evaluation etc. Each FOA is a separate entity and due to location, amount of football available and size of the FOA may not have all of the requisite resources to offer their members development of football officiating skills. Use of Area Directors to identify requirements for recruiting, training, development and evaluation may identify potential solutions for a geographical area that may be more cost effective than having one centralized solution that dictates longer travel.
Sharing of Information
Each FOA conducts training and development of officials to meet the demand of the football stakeholders within their respective areas. A good deal of time and effort goes into recruiting and retention of officials. The available expertise of football officialswithin a given FOA has matured over the years with the football stakeholders within that Area. To assist other FOAs within OFOA, the sharing of material produced by individual FOAs could cut down on preparation time at other FOAs and may also highlight an area of concern that if addressed may minimize or eliminate future contentious situations on a football field.
It should also be emphasized that individuals who have spent the time and effort to create material for developing football officials should also be given credit for the material they have produced. It is suggested that any material an FOA may have produced, along with the credits for the individual who has created the material (some FOAs may opt to not want the source named, may want only to have the FOA named or may want to have the FOA and individual named) be forwarded to the OFOA (need to name an office suggest Past President or Secretary). This material will then be posted to the OFOA website under training material for sharing by all.
It is acknowledged that their may be more than one copy of similar material, such as material for a Level 1 course. The OFOA Executive is to vet the training material on a regular basis with the intent of keeping the information current. There could be a number of variations of material to give different perspectives on an issue.
Microsoft Office will be the electronic medium used . Printed material should be in .doc format and slides in .ppt format. Video clips in .mwv .
Dissemination of Personal Information
During the conduct of day to day business of the OFOA, personal information may be available for registration purposes. The OFOA Executive is to pass along the required detailed information for insurance registration purposes or for registration with CFOA. The Executive of the OFOA is to carry out due diligence before passing along any information other than and individuals name, mailing address and phone number (unless a member has indicated an unlisted number).
If there are queries from any other organizations that may require details on the membership of the OFOA, listings will be limited to names and addresses. Requests for members emaildetails will not be supported.
Meetings
Annual General Meeting
OFOA Executive Meetings:
The Board of Directors will meet periodically throughout the year to conduct the business of the OFOA. Scheduling of meetings will be flexible to meet the schedules of the Board members but more importantly be set to discuss/resolve issues as they arise. Normally, the date of the next meeting and the location will be agreed at a meeting to simplify scheduling.
The secretary is to draft an agenda at least one week prior to the meeting and circulate to Board members for their comments and suggestions. A firm agenda should be forwarded to all within 48 hours of the meeting.
There is an expense of time and resources to hold an Executive meeting as members of the Board could be coming from a distance throughout the Province. In order to make the meeting as effective as possible, items for discussion should be shared electronically ahead of time with the expectation that Board members will review the items and come to the meeting prepared with comments or positions that can be discussed/debated at the meeting and hopefully have an agreed way forward.
The President will chair the meetings or in the absence of the President, the Vice President will chair the meetings. Minutes will be taken by the secretary and the first item on the agenda of each meeting will be the formal acceptance of the minutes of the previous meeting after review by all Board members. The approved minuets are to be kept by the Secretary for futur4e reference and also to aid in tracking ongoing or unresolved issues.
Board members are encouraged to car pool wherever possible to attend meetings to minimize expenses to the OFOA. Board members will be reimbursed for travel expenses. As Board members are utilizing member’s funds, the most economical means of transport are to be used.
Area Representatives are encouraged to attend Board meetings but as a normal course of events will not receive compensation for travel. Area representatives are encouraged to poll their respective FOAs prior to OFOA Executive Meetings and if there is an issue that they believe needs to have their representation at the uncoil g OFOA Executive Board meeting, they should forward the details to the President ahead of time for approval to be reimbursed at the going rate to have their transportation expenses covered for that meeting.
Operations (Bill, I believe most of this is covered off in a policy you drafted but I cannot find a copy. Would it be possible for you to send the current edition to me. I have found a copy of what was presented a few years ago at an AGM but am not sure of its status.
Registering of officials
Yearly update for insurance purposes
Registering new officials
Provincial training courses
How to organize
Ordering manuals
Follow registration of qualifications
Association Training
Ordering materials
Registration of attendees
Sharing of training material
Awards:
There is only one current OFOA award, the Fox 40 Ken Green Award. This Award is presented at the biennial OFOA conference. The criteria to be used in nominating an Official for this award are as follows:
• Outstanding on-field performance at any provincial level of football
• Involvement and leadership in training education and certification programs
• An active participant with local and provincial football officials associations' executives
• A strong commitment to the development of football through officiating
• Has gained the respect of his fellow officials
• Minimum of 15 years officiating experience
• Minimum of 10 years working at local association level, on Executive or Advisory Board
• Some experience at provincial or national level
OFOA Representation at National and International Competitions.
Paul H; Can you take a look at this area and add whatever in order that everyone knows what could be funded and how to apply. May need a new section and I leave it to your good judgement,
OFOA is asked on a yearly basis to provide representation at CFOA sponsored national events as well as CFOA sponsored international competitions. While there is national funding for attendance there is also some OFOA funding.
In order that all members of OFOA can benefit from attendance at these events, all members of OFOA should be encouraged to apply to officiate at these events. The OFOA Executive in conjunction with CFOA are to determine what the particular event is seeking with respect to qualifications of the officials.
The OFOA Executive will then determine what the selection criteria will be for OFOA members and solicit nominations from FOAs. It is expected that the OFOA representative at these competitions will further their individual development with experience. There may be training material, copies of videos, different approaches to assigning, evaluating etc that the individual will see.
The successful OFOA participate is expected to provide at least one training session to his/her local FOA on how the National or International competitions has assisted the individuals development and a few areas that could be helpful to other officials in their development. A copy of training material produced by the individual should be forwarded to OFOA within 6 weeks of completing the sponsored completion in order that OFAO may share the information with all OFAO members.
Conduct of Games
The OFOA is currently made up of 19 Associations that provide tackle football officials to the various leagues throughout Ontario. The areas covered by each Association as well as the Leagues they cover has evolved over the years using “gentlemen agreements” with respect to which Association covers which leagues. This appears to have worked well in the past and is the spirit of cooperation is certainly encouraged for the future. Each Association negotiates with the leagues that it services to negotiate rates for services p provided to include game fees, travel, etc.
All Star Games/Exhibition Games involving Teams from different Areas
From time to time, there will be All Star or exhibition games organized that will involve teams from areas that are covered by more than one Association. In the spirit of cooperation amongst OFOA member Associations and also to provide more opportunities for OFOA members to work on mixed crews (use of mixed crews {crews compromised of members of more than one FOA within OFOA} is strongly encouraged to further develop officials and to develop consistency throughout the Province). Before any FOA assigns members to games that involve teams from areas covered by multiple FOAs, you are strongly encouraged to contact the other FOAs and offer up positions on the field. It is acknowledged that there may be differences in fees and travel compensation. Liaison with the FOAs before agreeing to officiating these types of games should provide sufficient lead time and knowledge to reconcile rate differences and thus inform the game organizers of what the fees will be for the game prior to agreeing to work the game. Note for uniforms for mixed crews, see uniforms below.