1. OiO Network: An off-ice officials community of practice
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  OiO New Mexico style

Posted by: craigkendall
07-04-2022, 10:13 AM
Forum: Organization
- Replies (2)

Having had the privilege of speaking with a few of you, it's obvious most of us followed the same blueprint for laying out our work. Some folks have fewer OiO's working each game, some have more. In some cases the scorekeeper is also the timekeeper. We have our penalty box folks track line changes and therefore they capture the plus/minus for goals. We added a position we call shots spotter and have them seated in the stands near the broadcast crew for maximum ice vision. One keeps an analog record of shots on goals, the other enters shots into HockeyTech in real time so our timekeeper can update the SOG for each team on the scoreboard.

I'm sure you are similar with subtle differences. I'm going to ramble a little about our likely nuances.

We have a OiO Director role and that person is responsible for recruiting, training, scheduling, evaluating the work, etc.. We also operate with an assistant director of sorts though it's not official. Our trained scorekeepers are sort of our sounding board. When we have some area of the work that requires feedback, this is our go-to group for input.

When we first started to organize, there were lots of reply-all emails going around among the crew and many attached spreadsheets. It was maddening, and, being a web developer/programmer, I decided (early on) enough was enough. So, I built our organization a custom web application that is used to coordinate our work. It has become fairly sophisticated, and is currently being modified to manage the work for multiple leagues (as in we are getting a NA3HL team and there are rumors of an ECHL expansion in the area soon).

While there is general info available to anyone interested in our work, each OiO has their own log in and administrators have access to a lot of admin functions. We track which OiO's are trained and ready for which positions in each OiO's individual profile. Once home games are added to the system, each OiO logs in and indicates their availability for scheduling. Then the OiO Director has some scheduling tools that allow him to see only the OiOs trained for each role available for each game being staffed. This is the core strength of the system. It makes scheduling much easier.

Another key feature is the automated reminder emails. Weekly during the season, every OiO who is scheduled to work that weekend will on Monday receive an email reminding them they are scheduled to work specific games that week and which role they are assigned. There is also a followup reminder automatically sent out on each game day.

Additionally, the system is built to give the Admins the ability to bulk email the group (or segments of the group) without using a personal email account (and therefore reducing the likelihood of reply-all's as each OiO gets an email to just them). This eliminated the flurry of emails that would happen on any communication.

You can see the public side (look in the footer for menu of public pages) of the site at: https://www.nmoio.org and for anyone interested I'm happy to give a tour of the back end via Google Meet.

How about you? What tools help you stay organized and in touch with your OiOs?

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  We use what we call Quicksheets

Posted by: craigkendall
07-04-2022, 09:12 AM
Forum: Shared Resources
- Replies (2)

I'll start this one off. When we got started we thought we would just simply input directly into HockeyTech what was happening in realtime. That went well for about the first :30 seconds.

We've grown to where we now use a combination of analog tracking (the Quicksheets below) and computer input (HockeyTech) across all our roles during a game. What started out as scratch paper has turned into what I call Quicksheets, specifically designed to gather what each of our roles are assigned and providing a hardcopy history for verification if necessary -- and very unique to how we are organized and capture the game's vital data.

Scorekeeper Quicksheet is the most well rounded sheet and grew out of a need to quickly capture game events, sometimes several happening at once, and then when things settle back down, get it put into HockeyTech. Often a quick one-two punch in almost realtime, but for those times when there are multiple penalties all at once and game play resumes, these have been invaluable.

PTK Quicksheet is all about penalties. We just added this position this year so this one will likely morph some as we use it more.

Penalty Box Quicksheet serves three purposes. 1) it gives a redundant data point for any penalty related data in case it's needed, 2) it ensures the penalty box judge is up on who goes out of the box when, etc., and 3) in our situation, because of their vantage point, the penalty box officials track line changes and plus minus on goals. During intermission, the PB folks convey to the scorekeeper plus minus info.

Shots Spotter Quicksheet is used by our two person team in the stands as the analog capture of each shot while a second official on a tablet enters the shot data in realtime.

Goal Judge Quicksheet is all about goalie changes and empty net situations. We do our best to capture these from the scorekeeper box, but having the back up has proven vital. They capture any moment when a goalie leaves the net and what the shots are at that point in time.

You can tell by the version numbers at the bottom of each Quicksheet they have undergone some revisions based on how our knowledge and needs evolve (e.g. the shots spotter quicksheet was adjusted when we began tracking shots specifically during power plays). I'm sure they'll change more as we keep going.

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Question What's Missing?

Posted by: craigkendall
07-04-2022, 08:44 AM
Forum: Feedback
- No Replies

Well, we're out of the chute here at OiO Network. The initial forum topics are in place. But, what are we missing? Are there areas that come to your mind that would be beneficial to OiO's who are looking for help or just ways to improve?

For instance, are there additional fields to add to each user's profile... say something like "OiO Years Experience" or something like that? Maybe "Involved Leagues" for noting info like NAHL, NA3HL, etc.?

Comment below and let's talk about it.

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  John Locke Introduction

Posted by: johnlocke
07-03-2022, 08:20 PM
Forum: Introductions
- No Replies

Hi, I'm John Locke.  It was Craig and my frustrations with LeagueStat in our first two years of off ice official work with the New Mexico Ice Wolves that got this community of practice going.  Hopefully this effort will result in questions answered, insights gained, and more fun had by all! 
I played organized hockey in Washington D.C while stationed at the Pentagon in the mid 80s on an adult beginner league so I'm much more of a fan that a skilled player.  I got into the OIO stuff when my wife saw an add  on Facebook that the New Mexico Ice Wolves were looking for volunteers to support the team in their inagural year-2019.  Been working at it ever since.

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  About the OiO Network

Posted by: oionet
07-03-2022, 11:36 AM
Forum: News & Announcements
- No Replies

Across the world, there are countless scores of volunteers, and some paid individuals, who sit quietly near the ice and meticulously monitor and record the real-time actions on the ice that translate into statistics providing hockey players, coaches, and managers with a ready-reference for the quality of play.

The OiO Network has been established to provide these individuals with a community of practice where everyone can share, learn, and grow individually, as an organization, and as a whole for the great game of hockey.

OiO Network is the passion-child of two volunteer off-ice officials in New Mexico, USA who established a group of OiO's to work the NAHL's New Mexico Ice Wolves home games. After 3 years of cobbling together an organization based on limited information available, the duo decided to reach out to other teams in the NAHL and see if there was interest in creating a networking group where we could learn from each other, help solve common issues, and work together to improve off-ice officiating in our circles of influence.

While the interactions between OiO organizers on the OiO Network are public, the group is a closed group -- meaning, we welcome everyone, but you can't just create an account. To be added to the group you'll have to send the group organizers a request to join and be approved before you can post, access our shared resources, or participate in our forum discussions.

We're excited to see where the OiO Network goes! Thanks for joining in!

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  Hi! I'm Craig. One of the founders of OiO Network.

Posted by: craigkendall
07-03-2022, 11:29 AM
Forum: Introductions
- No Replies

(NOTE: create your own thread to introduce yourself, but feel free to comment here on my thread about my story.)

Well, let me get things started off here. My name is Craig Kendall. I live in Placitas NM and am the Asst. Director of Off-Ice Officiating (a totally made up title FYI) for our New Mexico Off-Ice Officials group (a loosely formalized group mind you).

My first taste of hockey was as a boy watching Air Force Academy home games.

My second taste was living in Denver in 1996. I came home from a late work meeting and lucked onto the first OT period of the first game of the 1995-96 Stanley Cup finals. I was immediately hooked.

Shortly after the Avalanche won that Cup series, I relocated to the Nashville area just about the time when a new NHL franchise was announced for Nashville. At the same time, my son, who had been playing soccer, decided he wanted to play hockey and started in our area inline league.

He went through his inline phase, transitioned to ice hockey, and played in the Nashville area high school league. He was a goalie before it was cool so teams were delighted to have a player who wanted to be a full time goalie. So dad got involved helping as an assistant coach, head coach, and eventually being the president of my his inline league and the Nashville high school ice hockey league.

When it was announced that there was a new NAHL team forming in the Albuquerque area I jumped at the opportunity to become involved as a volunteer. About to start my fourth year off-ice officiating and coordinating for New Mexico Ice Wolves games in addition to occasionally scorekeeping for one of the adult hockey leagues.

We had little to go on here in ABQ when the Ice Wolves came to town, and what we did have was years old. After three years of searching for a place like this to no avail, it just made sense to reach out to other teams in the NAHL to see if there was any interest in building a community of practice. Now, here we are!

Off-ice Officiating Leagues
NAHL: New Mexico Ice Wolves
NA3HL: New Mexico Ice Wolves (affiliates)
Local: Adult Hockey

Who I Pull For
Colorado Avalanche (since 1996)
Nashville Predators (when they are not playing the Avs)

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  Forum Rules - for our sanity and your protection

Posted by: oionet
07-03-2022, 11:02 AM
Forum: News & Announcements
- No Replies

We've attempted to keep our rules mercifully simple.

By participating in the OiO Network Forums you agree to abide them. We want to maintain a great cooperative community so you:

  1. Agree to be polite, helpful, and respectful.
  2. Acknowledge this forum is for discussion and mutual assistance among members.
  3. Understand we are not an official entity of any hockey league (NAHL, NA3HL, etc.), but we function as an agent of improvement for the off-ice officiating for all hockey leagues.
  4. Recognize that while such forums can devolve into name-calling, profanity, personal slurs etc.. (This includes any discussions agitating rivalries between any particular teams -- this is about the work of OiOs not about team promotion or such.) While we expect lively, thought-provoking interaction, administrators and/or moderators will quickly quash any interactions that violate the rules. Repeated violations will result in loss of posting privileges. Return of privileges will be at the sole discretion of the forum administrators.
  5. Know that as administrators we hope we never have to invoke rule 4!

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  1. OiO Network: An off-ice officials community of practice