Affiliated with CABO & CBOC
NSBO
www.nsbo.ca
October 2, 2018
NSBO Membership
Re: Social Media
Dear NSBO Members,
Today’s social media is more accessible than ever before. It is imperative that we be respectful, responsible, professional digital citizens .
As basketball officials, we are looked upon to be leaders in educating players, coaches, and now the general public about the nuances of the rules of our game. We are looked upon to be the experts on rules and often we find ourselves being asked by people to “explain this rule”, or “take a look at this play, what do you think?”. Now more than ever, the coaches, players and fans have access to a means of communication with you. They can send you a direct message with the click of a button. We are encouraging all of our members to refrain from answering these types of requests, deferring to our executive. A good example of how to respond to a request like this is to say,
“I really appreciate your question, but I have to defer to our parent organization, NSBO.
Please forward your question to our executive. You can find our executive e-mails
at: NSBO.ca.”
Along with requests and access to information, comes platforms where people can voice their own opinion on basketball ongoings. I would encourage all of you to stay away from basketball-related discussions online, as personal opinions can be interpreted as a representation of our provincial organization. Our NSBO Vice-President has dealt with several challenging situations this past season where officials have put their opinions in print - it can become messy!. Again, you are urged to keep your personal opinions to yourself. We have a closed group on Facebook for Atlantic Canadian officials, where we can post our opinions “safely”. I say, “safely” as we have to remember, that anything we post online is time stamped forever.
Please be careful with what you post online, especially when it comes to your profession. Social Media behaviour goes hand-in-hand with our operational guidelines and we always strive to stay professional in what we do.
Kind Regards,
Matt Boyle
NSBO President