NASO Continues to Build CBOA Relationship

The partnership between NASO and the California Basketball Officials Association remains strong, dating back to 2006 and featuring more than 2,600 CBOA members who also fall under the NASO membership umbrella. That first five-year agreement that was signed nearly two decades ago has been renewed several times since, most recently in February 2021, and calls on NASO to produce a full-scale basketball officiating instructional program alongside the insurance and support that come with every NASO membership.

NASO understands it is incumbent on it to cultivate its relationships and develop not just a business investment, but an emotional one as well, with the large groups and members it serves. Earlier this spring, Ken Koester, NASO’s director of business development and the point person driving the CBOA relationship, traveled to Southern California to meet with the CBOA board of directors and executive council for their first face-to-face meeting since

April 2019, a break caused by the COVID-19 pandemic that stifled all such activity beginning in the spring of 2020.

While in California, NASO and CBOA discussed numerous items related to their relationship, including strategic planning, while receiving reports and updates from the numerous CBOA local boards and units scattered throughout the nation’s most-populous state.

“NASO is so committed to this long-standing partnership, and we are grateful for the opportunity to be involved in their leadership meetings. We share a common goal of trying to educate, support and protect one of the largest basketball officiating groups in the country,” Koester said.

“CBOA continues its efforts to evolve and serve its membership and member officials. The meetings gave me a chance to reconnect in person with so many leaders within CBOA, while at the same time meeting so many new faces. While Zoom meetings can be beneficial and have positives, you definitely miss the in-person interaction you get with onsite meetings. It was great to reconnect and share some personal time with so many individuals in that organization.”

The opportunity to reconnect on a personal level was even more crucial this year as the 41st annual Sports Officiating Summit took place from July 30-Aug. 1 in the CBOA’s backyard at the Mission Inn in Riverside, Calif. With its accompanying State Day on July 29, this year’s Summit provided a perfect backdrop to showcase to the officiating world at large the strong symbiotic relationship between the CBOA and NASO.

“Given the Summit in California, it was critically important to visit and update on the continued efforts of NASO and the CIF (California Interscholastic Federation) and bring an incredible event to Riverside,” Koester said. 