Football News

I had the pleasure of attending my first football meeting the other night. It was basically an informational meeting for new people wanting to become a football official. I got a good feeling from this group and I'm looking forward to being part of this association.

That is, with the exception of one thing.

They do all of the administrative stuff online. Registration and dues all the way down to game assignments are done online.

When I got home from the meeting, I went ahead and registered. Funny thing, though, all of my Montana information was already loaded into the system. I sort of feel like Paul here -- I am speaking in terms you can understand, for this is a great mystery.

So I updated the system with my Oregon information, gave it my credit card number, hit the OK button and . . . promptly got a receipt listing all of my Montana information. Oy. I was then directed to choose an association group to formally belong to. My group is the Rogue Valley Association because, well, we live in the Rogue Valley. But that group was not on the list of selection. Grrr.

The very next morning I called the support line for Oregon officials and spoke with a very nice lady named Ronni. She assured me that she would take care of the problems and let me know when that happened. Later in the day I got an e-mail from her saying that yes, she had updated my information, added the RVA group to the site, and added me to the RVA group.

The next step is for me to get into my group and block out days that I can't work games. Obviously Sundays are out, but Thursdays are also out what with out of town meetings, and other parish activities in the evenings. But the system is not recognizing me as a valid member and instead tells me to contact the RVA administrator for help. My vocabulary is going beyond "Oy," and "Grrr" at this point. I've got an e-mail into him to find out exactly what is going on.

What was wrong with simply mailing in a check and getting a list of game assignments at the meetings? Frickin' computers.