Remember the awkwardness of being the new kid on the block? Maybe your experience was the new kid on the baseball team or maybe you moved into a new neighborhood and it was your first day in a new school. Maybe later in life, it was your first day at a new job or you were an established sports official who recently moved to a new city and you are going to your first meeting of your new association. All those situations are awkward, uncomfortable and a little scary.
Some things that make a new person feel welcome to any organization or group include a warm, friendly atmosphere with no pre-judgments, somebody that you can trust and that you know and an acceptance of new and different ideas. Does your association have those characteristics?
The Environment
Imagine you are a new member and you have just walked into the meeting room and everyone is in their little cliques of friends laughing and carrying on. The awkwardness of the event is already making that person uncomfortable. What would make him or her feel better? Maybe the association has someone in the group who keeps an eye out for new members and makes a point to meet them and introduce them during that casual time to some other members and maybe to the association board.
Another tool is to have an on-boarding package. That is a collection of information like phone numbers of members, board members and their responsibilities, meeting calendar and local assigners. Armed with that information and a few introductions, a new person can begin to feel more at ease and welcomed. Included in that package may be a brief resume of association member so that he or she can be connected with others in the association who work the same level of matches and with similar interests and skills.
A Confidante
Depending on the situation, your association may want to assign each new member a buddy or mentor, especially if the new member is young, inexperienced or from a background different from the rest of the membership. Assigning someone to a new member may seem a little extreme, but it just may be the right thing to keep the new member coming back. Obviously, you want to try to match similar personalities and interests in officiating. .
New Thoughts and Ideas
It is a tried-and-true concept that every organization, be it an officials association, business or government, needs some new people to keep ideas moving and flowing, to generate some controversy, to get people talking and to introduce new concepts.
Do new members get looked down on when they introduce new topics or a different approach to handle an old problem? As an association, you can’t let that happen. Yes, some people may have some silly or even incorrect ideas, but they must be respected and dealt with in an open manner. It’s OK that everyone doesn’t agree. Find a way to extract those new ideas and discuss them to actually generate some passion and controversy, and most importantly, to open up the minds of all the members to new ideas.
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