Friday, July 20, 2012

• An architectural boat tour on the historic Chicago River that showcases over 40 landmarks of modern American architecture.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

• A tour of Chicago on a double-decker bus that has a “hop on hop off” feature that allows for touring any area of interest and covers all major downtown attractions.

For more information, please contact Debbie Wescott or Mary Van de Vaarst.

Located just 20-minutes from downtown Chicago, Rosemont is a town with no shortage of entertainment options. In addition to music venues, top-notch restaurants and the Muvico movie theater, The Park at Rosemont is an eclectic entertainment district that features lively bars and restaurants with live music, casual dining, bowling, and outdoor patios. Plus, Rosemont is just minutes from O’Hare International Airport so you can enjoy an easy and convenient arrival.

Please note: You will be required to provide your email address to Albertsons Community Partners for this challenge, if you choose to participate.

• Potential for more protests grow with careless follow-up procedures…
• Quick actions needed at all levels…

C. Cliff McCrath

The season is well underway and profiles (in power ratings) are beginning to take shape throughout men’s and women’s soccer. Without naming schools, the usual suspects are beginning to rise to their accustomed top spots giving Fantasy Players a leg up, so to speak, on their early season ‘picks’. (I know, I know…college soccer is not in that culture – YET…so accept it as a figure of speech.) In any event, these comments are meant as mere attention-getters. Now that I have your attention, the real reason for this blog is to put the SPOTLIGHT of a serious issue that has already surfaced in several areas and, if not corrected PRONTO, potentially, has grave consequences. The problem? Referees AND Regional Reps are not following-through with the requirements set forth in Rule 12.6.1.1 Read, below, an actual excerpt – from an athletic director – from a game already played:

“Also, as per rule 12.6.1.1 pages 74 and 75, the regional representative was supposed to have notified me, the athletic director, within 48 hours and informed me of the fighting ejections.  This never happened until my office solicited the information yesterday, September 12, 2011, clearly beyond the 48 hour period (the date of the ejections was September 3).  Should I have been notified on a timely basis, I can assure you that I would have kept our student athlete from participating in the subsequent (second) game.

Clearly, the issue here is the failure of the referee to contact the NISOA Regional Rep who, within 48 hours, SHALL contact the Athletic Director(s) of the respective schools to inform them that a FIGHTING EJECTION had occurred. Failure to do so can jeopardize a player’s future eligibility; more importantly, it can lead to his/her school forfeiting future games. RULE 12.11.1 FINAL SENTENCE OF PARAGRAPH FOUR: “ANY GAME IN WHICH A SUSPENDED PLAYER OR COACH PARTICIPATES ILLEGALLY SHALL BE FORFEITED TO THE OPPOSING TEAM!”

In our quest to produce the absolutely best officiating for college soccer, EVERY man and woman, wearing the NISOA badge, HAS TO BE THEIR BEST AT ALL TIMES! That means, BEFORE, DURING and AFTER the game is played.

It is still early enough to do two things for the 2011 season:

1. Check back, over the games you have completed, to see if any paperwork items still need correcting.
2. Resolve to be peerless, in not only ‘calling’ the game, but attending to all the details! I know you can do this!!

I am writing to update everyone on the recent security breach experienced by OSI. On September 6^th, our web host notified us that unauthorized access to a database containing the personal information of some of our web site customers had occurred. The sophistication of the breach has made it hard to determine the exact date(s) of attack, so we are notifying all web customers since our new site went up in November 2010 just to be extremely cautious.  This breach affects only customers who have ordered via our web site, customer information from telephone, fax or mail orders were not affected.

On September 6^th we started to email all customers who had purchased from our web site going all the way back to November 1, 2010. We notified them of the breech and asked them to call their card issuing bank and to report the possibility of unauthorized access to their information. We also asked them to routinely monitor their credit reports. To make this easier for them we will be offering a year of free credit monitoring to all potentially affected customers. Information about this credit monitoring service will be mailed shortly.  Everyone will also be receiving notification again regarding the breach, plus a discount offer for their next order, in the mail.

All three major credit bureaus have been notified – Equifax, Experian and TransUnion. We have also filed a police report. U.S. Soccer was notified on September 6^th and they have been kept up to date regarding our actions. Our web site is currently down while further investigations are made into the attack.

We cannot express enough the regret we have for this situation. For 27 years OSI has strived to earn your trust and respect by selling quality products. We have been selling our products via our web site for 15 years without one security breach. We are sickened that our site was hacked and the negative impact it has had on so many referees, our valued and loyal customers.

We will continue to update everyone affected as we gain additional information. And most of all, we will work tirelessly to once again gain your trust. I want to thank you for your support and friendship.

 

Sincerely,
Marilou Tobin
President
Official Sports International

C. Cliff McCrath

Ladies and Gentlemen of NISOA: This weekend marks one of the more somber and, yet, special times in American history. The college season is well underway and I wish you all the greatest success in managing and officiating games – be they the Game-of-the-Week or “Triple ZZZ” Institute in Backcountry U.S.A. But sometime in the next four days, I encourage you to set aside eight minutes and three seconds to view this video. And may God bless all you do this season.