Strategies to deal with abuse of officials The following were presented at the Our Sporting Future forum held in Sydney in March 2005, organised by the Australian Sports Commission. Basketball Australia Michael Haynes, General Manager - Community Basketball Retaining officials is as much, if not more, of a challenge for sporting associations as attracting them in the first place.  With the support of the Australian Sports Commission, Basketball Australia undertook a number of initiatives during the Year of the Official aimed at the retention of officials. The introduction of fair play awards at our national championships was very successful and has been adopted by a number of state and local associations.  During the championships each team was assessed for its fair play -- this included the coaches, players and spectators.  The team rated as 'fairest' was presented with the award at the closing ceremony.  These awards focus on rewarding the 'good' rather than penalising the 'bad' and make a clear statement that officials (referees, scoretable and statisticians) are valued in our sport. Even though some officials get paid, that is not a retention strategy.  Tangibly valuing them and acknowledging their important role is a much more potent retention strategy.  Some elements of this strategy were: making announcements during national championships (hourly) of the importance of officials and that abuse of them would not be tolerated preparing guidelines on how to approach spectators whose behaviour toward officials was inappropriate ensuring a safe place in the association for officials to change, relax,