Clinic Guide Lines

The following guidelines should be followed when planning an I.A.C.A.O. sponsored I.H.S.A. Certified Officials Clinic.

Clinic Setup

The following items should be discussed and decided 10 to 12 months prior to the actual Clinic date.

  1. Choose 2 Saturday dates, which are approximately 3 or 4 weeks prior to the start of the I.H.S.A. sport season.  The Saturday just prior the first day of practice is a good target date.
  2. The Clinic Chairman shall report on the status of their Clinic at each I.A.C.A.O. Board meeting prior to the Clinic.
    1. The Clinic Chair shall periodically present copies of Clinic associated bills and invoices for approval and payment.
    2. A complete final financial and overall clinic report is due at the first I.A.C.A.O. Board meeting following the Clinic.
  3. Recruit the appropriate I.H.S.A. Certified Clinician(s) for the Clinic. The Certified Clinician(s) selected will then become Clinic staff member(s).
  4. The Clinic Chair should contact several centrally located High Schools to determine if their facilities are available on the selected dates. 
    1. Be certain to inform the schools that the Clinic will be an I.H.S.A. Certified Clinic. 
    2. Determine if the school will charge a facility rental fee.  Most schools will only charge a minimal fee for any official I.H.S.A. function
    3. Some schools may charge only for the cost of custodians, others may charge for the custodians plus a facility rental fee.
    4. Some schools may charge a fee for the use of Audio-Visual equipment, and an AV operator.
    5. Determine if the school will allow I.A.C.A.O. to provide the required food service help, or if school personnel must provide this service.  Starting at 6:00am we require that someone either from the Clinic or school staff be available to make coffee and set up the continental breakfast. The same staff will work until after lunch has been served, and the cafeteria area cleaned up, usually around 2:00pm.
  5. Discuss the potential clinic dates and locations with the I.A.C.A.O. Clinic Coordinator (Vice President) and your Clinic committee. 
    1. Choose the best date and site. 
    2. Obtain and execute a rental agreement contract with the school Business Manager.  The rental agreement shall indicate:
      1. If applicable, the rental fee
      2. The hours we will be allowed in the facility
      3. The rooms we will be allowed to use
      4. Personnel the school will provide
      5. Any equipment the school will provide
      6. Any other special criteria pertinent to the use of the school facility
    3. Inform the Business Manager that the I.A.C.A.O. has liability and medical insurance coverage either under the National Federation of State High School Associations policy or a private insurance vendor. A copy of the N.F.H.S. insurance coverage can be obtained either from the I.H.S.A. web site (www.ihsa.org), directly from the N.F.H.S. or the private insurance vendor.
    4. Provide the school Business Manager with a copy of the appropriate insurance coverage certificate.
  6. Organize the Clinic.
    1. Either the I.H.S.A. Certified Clinician or Clinic Facilitator shall complete and submit a Certified Clinic application form to the I.H.S.A. office.
    2. Verify that the Clinic is properly listed on the I.H.S.A. web site as Certified Clinic.
    3. Request that the I.H.S.A. schedule an I.H.S.A. Rules Interpretation Meeting for the date of the Clinic.

                                                               i.      A combined Softball and Baseball Clinic will require an Interpreter for both sports on the same day at the same location. 

    1. Choose the overall Clinic format.

                                                               i.      Separate sessions for baseball and softball

                                                             ii.      Separate sessions for new officials

                                                            iii.      Beginning officials with 1 to 3 years experience.

                                                            iv.      Separate sessions for experienced officials.

                                                              v.      Combined sessions for all

    1. Plan for the possibility of providing a signer for Hearing Impaired Officials that may signup to attend the Clinic.
  1. Contact the previous Clinic Chair to determine the location of I.A.C.A.O. owned clinic equipment and resources.
  2. If the following year Clinic Chair has been assigned, encourage the incoming Chair to become actively involved in the current Clinic organization and planning.

9.       Unless previously approved by the I.A.C.A.O. Board of Directors, the I.A.C.A.O. shall not pay a speaker either an honorarium or expenses.

10.   Invite officials equipment vendors. At previous clinics the vendors have included:

a.      Honig's Whistle Stop

b.      Parsons (POS+)

c.      Hyatt Officials Supply

d.       Referee Magazine.
While vendors are not charged for attending, we do request that they extend the lowest possible prices to the attendees. Most have an beginning official's package, which provides the basic uniform and equipment at a discounted price.

11.   Solicit each I.A.C.A.O. member organization to recommend speakers, and the topic they are qualified to present. Then attempt to fit the available talent into the chosen format of the Clinic.

a.      Clinic speakers must be knowledgeable, experienced officials, and, in addition they MUST BE PROFICIENT PUBLIC SPEAKERS.

b.      An I.H.S.A. Certified Clinician must present the required topics of ���Professionalism��� and ���Conflict Resolution���.

c.      Remind Presenters that I.A.C.A.O. Clinics are based on National Federation High School Rules and Mechanics, not collegiate.

d.      Assign a ���Presider��� to introduce each speaker and help each presentation session to proceed smoothly.

e.      The use of video and/or Microsoft PowerPoint��� presentations is encouraged and recommended.

f.        Each clinic presenter is required to provide either a written outline or the text of his or her presentation. In order to be included in the Clinic notebook all presentations must be provided to the Clinic Chair no later than 10 to 14 days prior to the clinic.

g.      Assemble the Clinic notebook and binder.  Binder covers are required for the Clinic notebook.

h.      Each I.H.S.A. Certified Clinician along with their I.H.S.A. registration number must be listed on the index page of the Clinic notebook.

12.   A Clinic brochure must be designed. The brochure shall be provided to the I.H.S.A. in time for mailing with the rulebooks.  It must be printed on 8��� by 11 paper. It can be printed on both sides and folded in half but it cannot be a trifold. One side should contain a registration form, and as much Clinic information as possible. The other side should provide additional Clinic information, such as topics, speakers and the date time and location.  Stress that it is an I.H.S.A. ���Certified Clinic.���  Point out that clinic pre-registration can be completed online with a credit card at www.iaco-official.org.  It may be advisable to post a printable version of the Clinic brochure on the I.A.C.A.O. web site.

Check with the I.H.S.A. Officials Department to determine the quantity of brochures required and the date when they are needed. The clinic brochures can be printed by a local print shop such as Kinko���s, or by the print shop in a local school.  Some schools can produce a quality job while using it as a school fundraiser.

13.   Prepare a Clinic press release. The Clinic Coordinator has samples of previous press releases that may be used as a guideline. About 3 months prior to the Clinic send a copy of the press release to Referee Magazine. About 6 weeks prior to the Clinic, send the press release to all of the local newspapers. Invite local sports writers to attend the Clinic as our guests.

 

Clinic Support

 

1.       Arrange for food service.

a.      Assign a qualified staff person to make coffee and pick up donuts and sweet rolls for the continental breakfast. The I.A.C.A.O. owns its own catering size coffee pots.

b.      The same person should also pick up orange juice, and some milk.

2.       Arrange for lunch.

a.      I.A.C.A.O. has a contractual arrangement with ���Lee and Eddies��� catering service. They provide Italian Beef, Fried Chicken, salads, rolls, condiments and Jell-O for a very reasonable cost.

b.      Unless special arrangements have been with the host school, appoint someone to pick up the lunch soft drinks.

3.       Line up your Clinic Staff (Non-speakers).

a.      Co-ordinate the advance registration process with the I.A.C.A.O. Webmaster.

a.      Designate a Clinic Registrar

                                                               i.      To have overall responsibility for the registration process

                                                             ii.      To process advance registrations

                                                            iii.      To co-ordinate the walk in registrations.

b.      Assign staff to check in all attendees.   This staff should arrive about 30 minutes prior to the doors opening, and stay there until about 11:00am when registrations are closed

                                                               i.      In order to make change, provide a ���bank��� of about $100.00 cash.  Caution; NEVER LEAVE THE BANK UNATTENDED!  

                                                             ii.      Badges should be printed for all of the advance-registered attendees.

                                                            iii.      Provide an alphabetical listing of all pre-registered attendees. Check off pre-registered attendees as they arrive.

                                                            iv.      Hand out Clinic notebooks

                                                              v.      Process the walk in registrations. Extra staff may be needed to process walk in registrations.

c.      Conference Assignors, host school staff, I.A.C.A.O. Clinic staff and I.H.S.A. staff are not charged admission to I.A.C.A.O. clinics.

d.      The I.A.C.A.O. Treasurer shall be responsible for accounting for the Clinic receipts.

e.      At approximately 9:30am the Treasurer and/or the Registrar should plan to provide a count of the pre-registered and ���walk in registrations��� for the final meal count.

4.       Confirm that the equipment vendors that were invited will be attending and when they plan to arrive. If they wish to set up their area on Friday evening, verify with the school authorities to confirm that the vendors can be admitted on Friday evening. Be present when the vendors arrive to layout and assign their display area.

5.       Make up signs on white poster board for each Clinic session. The morning of the Clinic tape these signs, using double-sided carpet tape, outside the assigned rooms.

6.       Obtain the I.A.C.A.O. computers and projectors. Coordinate their deployment throughout the Clinic.


 

Day of the Clinic

 

1.       Arrive early at the Clinic location. If the doors open at 7:00am, the Clinic Chair should arrive at 6:00am. Have the clinic food service staff there to make the coffee and set out the donuts and juice. Have the remainder of your staff (non-speakers) arrive by 6:30am to help with the signs and last minute details.

2.       Make sure EVERYBODY who enters the building has a name badge, and receives a two-piece meal/raffle ticket. One half of the ticket will be surrendered when they pick up their lunch.  The second half is retained for the raffle drawing.

3.       Staff the registration desk until about 11:00am. At that time close registrations and pick up the registration records, receipts and the ���Bank���.  Along with the Treasurer, the Clinic Chair should count and verify the Clinic receipts. The receipts should be placed in a secure location. You will probably have about $1,000.00.

 

Other Duties

 

It is the Clinic Chair���s responsibility to welcome the attendees. The I.A.C.A.O. President and/or Vice President may also make opening comments. START ON TIME.   During the clinic sessions, circulate through the various classrooms. Your presence in a room will contribute. If you find a presenter in trouble, throw them a life preserver. Help them out.

 

At lunch, supervise the serving. The caterer should deliver the food and set it up about ��� hour prior to the scheduled serving time. Work with the equipment vendors. We do not charge them for attendance, but we do ask them to pay $5.00 each for their lunches. They are usually willing to provide some kind of door prizes. After lunch, ask the host school Athletic Director, or a well known official, draw a door prize ticket from your raffle box. Have that winner draw the next ticket and so on. We usually award the most valuable prize last. Be certain to frequently mention and acknowledge the contributors.

 

At the completion of the lunch break, assist the school staff with the clean up of the cafeteria. Allow them to do their job, but show them we wish to co-operate.  After the classrooms sessions are complete, work with both the Clinic Staff and the school staff to pickup clinic materials and restore the classrooms for Monday morning classes. Again, let them do their job, but show them that we care about their facility.

 

Clinic Evaluation

 

At the completion of each of the final Clinic classroom sessions, in exchange for their name badge holder, provide each Clinic attendee with an I.H.S.A. Certified Clinic/Camp Attendance and Evaluation form. This form requires the attendee to fill-in their name, social security number, I.H.S.A. ID number, plus the Clinic date and location.  The overall Clinic experience should be rated.  In addition, on this form, using their name and I.H.S.A. ID number, each Clinician must be evaluated.

 

After the Clinic classroom sessions are complete, the attendees will proceed to the I.H.S.A. Rules Interpretation meeting. As an aid to forms completion, prepare a slide or viewgraph containing the Clinician names and I.H.S.A. ID numbers.  This information can be projected as the attendees file into the Rules Interpretation Meeting location.

 

There will be some officials and coaches at the Rules Interpretation meeting who did not attend the Clinic. As the co-host (the school���s A.D. is the other co-host), you and the A.D. should welcome the attendees. Introduce the I.H.S.A. Rules Interpreter. The clinic staff should hand out the interpretation materials and assist the Interpreter with the Rules Interpretation Meeting registration. Following the I.H.S.A. Rules Interpretation Meeting the completed Forms should be collected.  Be certain to accept ONLY ONE ATTENDANCE FORM per attendee.

The I.H.S.A. Clinician and Clinic Chair should collect and assemble the I.H.S.A. Certified Clinic/Camp Attendance and Evaluation forms.  The Clinic staff should verify that they were properly completed, i.e. name, SSN#, I.H.S.A. ID#, location, sport and date, and that they have been signed.  To insure validity, it is recommended that the completed forms be crosschecked with the Clinic registration records.

Read through the I.H.S.A. Clinic evaluation forms.  Tabulate and be prepared to share the session and clinic evaluations with the clinic presenters and your staff.  Either the Clinician or Clinic Facilitator should forward the completed forms to the I.H.S.A. office.

Wind Down

At the end of the Clinic day, meet your Clinic staff and your presenters at a local watering hole and unwind. You have all earned it. Compare notes and get ready for next year.

 
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