| RA Magazine
The magazine of the Association originally known as “The Football Referee” has been published in many forms, as a newspaper style broadsheet, as a black & White magazine and recently as a colour magazine. A. Smith, was appointed editor for a single year in 1919, subsequent editors have been H.E. Smith 1923-1930, J.W. Nicholson 1930-31, C.E. Tapplegarth 1931-1939 & 1946-49, C. Jackson 1949-1970, J. Woodbridge 1970-1971, Owen Venning 1971-1974 (when he became General Secretary), Ted Ring 1974-1983, Paul Gresty 1983-1998, Bill Hudson 1998-2004. The magazine was renamed ‘Refereeing Today’ and launched at Conference 2004 which was edited by Chris Hall until October 2005 and then by Julian Carosi. In 2006 the magazine ceased to be published by the RA alone and a new Joint publication, with the Football Association was started with a new title of 'Refereeing. It is currently jointly edited by both the FA and RA and is printed 3 times a year, in April, September and Christmas.
Annual Draw
The annual Grand Draw was introduced in 1976, Ken Anderton was the promoter for 29 years until 2004 when he was replaced by Arthur Smith. Profit for the first year helped to fund the 1976 Conference at Solihull. Thereafter, profits have been put into the RA general fund. In 2006 the proceeds from the Grand draw were used to create the new RA website. In 2007 the proceeds were put to funding the centenary coin which all members will receive when joining from April 2008 to March 2009.
Association Restructuring
Following many years of discussion, Conference 1999 accepted a proposal to consider restructuring the Association. A five member Management Consultancy Team was appointed to make recommendations and their report was published in September 2000. The RA Annual Conference 2001 approved a motion to form an Implementation Team to propose a restructuring based on the MCT report. Their proposal to replace the Referees’ Association and the Divisional structure with a newly constituted Referees’ Association and three independent National Referees’ Associations for England, Wales & Northern Ireland was approved at Conference 2003 in Cheltenham.
At the Annual Conference in 2004, the members of the Council of the previously constituted RA retired and were replaced by the members of the Board of Management of the newly constituted Referees’ Association, the Board of the Referees’ Association of England, the Council of the Referees’ Association of Wales and the Council of the Northern Ireland Referees’ Association.
A comprehensive historical record of the Referees’ Association which contains a list of all the main office holders, Conference venues and membership figures is maintained at Head Office in Coventry and may be viewed by arrangement with the Head of Operations. |
