Letter from your NEW President
Dear NISOA Members:
I am incredibly excited and proud to officially begin my first term as President of NISOA this year, replacing the leadership of our outstanding outgoing President, Gary Huber.
For those who do not know me, I have worked with the NISOA Board as its Vice President the past two years, and I was on the Michigan IOSA Board from 2007 - 2019, serving as its president from 2013 - 2019. In those roles, I connected with other organizations and members within NISOA, modernized the processes within my local chapter, managed local conference assigning, and worked with the NISOA leadership to help execute many of the changes you have seen result in the last two years. I am inspired every day by all the people who make NISOA such a great organization to serve within the college soccer community.
As incoming President, my goal is to push even further. We want to promote and refine the value and delivery of our educational programs, while continuing to strengthen the membership and local chapters, and providing advancement and mentoring to referees catered to their particular skill set and the college game.
Under Mr. Huber’s and our volunteer Board’s leadership over the past two years, along with significant hands-on execution from our hired staff, including Tori Penso, Lance VanHaitsma, Tom Richardson, Mark Cahen, and our new Communications Team, NISOA produced several amazing events to bring education and inspiration to the membership. With the real threat of the Covid-19 pandemic last year and this year, the NISOA Board and its membership quickly and successfully pivoted to online-only training that includes over 54 hours of college soccer referee educational content, 13 videos and 26 workouts from the NISOA Fit program, five Professional Development clinics, four Rule Change clinics, two Joint ECSR clinics, and over 5,550 views of program content. We also expanded our referee and game management knowledge by leaning on the experience of several highly successful professional referees during our Fireside Chat series, including Howard Webb and Dee Kantner, which was hosted by Chris Penso and has had over 2,200 program views.
Even more impressive than the results above during these difficult financial times, we were still able to give back to the membership monetarily, including: (1) a $25 dues credit for all 2021 renewing members; and (2) a $10,000 stimulus program where we awarded monetary prizes for members correctly answering online rule change quizzes in 2020. Not only did these programs give back in a time of need, but they also drove over 11,300 program content views and almost 5,000 rule change quiz entries.
In 2021, NISOA will not focus its energy on fighting the old, but instead on building the new as we look to innovate and push ourselves and our membership. Late last year and for 2021, we kicked off weekly email communications to the entire membership, we launched our Instagram (@nisoareferee) account, we brought on Dr. Amanda Ross as our Director of Assessment, and we launched RIDE - Referees for Inclusion, Diversity, and Equality to better listen and provide opportunity to the wide variety of our membership. We also have a newly revamped website coming in early 2021 with several features that will benefit the membership. We did not come as far as we did in 2020 to stop now. In 2021, we look to consistently bring the best education, training, mentoring, and opportunities for advancement in officiating the college game for our members.
I am honored to lead and work with such an amazing team of soccer professionals. But, nothing we do would be possible without such a strong community of referees passionate about giving back to the game and their fellow referees. A two-year term is a short period, but I am confident that we can continue to push forward and serve our members, the local chapters, and the college soccer community as a whole.
I look forward to a great two years serving as your NISOA President.
Thank you,
Marc P. Lawrence
NISOA President
