I have a question, as a mostly amused (and entirely foreign) spectator. Assuming TASO wins the lawsuit in overwhelming fashion, is that going to mean that literally everyone at UIL who had any knowledge of this little happening is going to resign or get fired?
If not, I suggest that a beer summit is exactly what you need at this point (admittedly, perhaps not with the two people at the top of the pile, but UIL is surely more than two men, if only because they don't seem to be the kind of people who do their own correspondence), along the lines of "how can we work together in the future?" You're confident you're going to win in court, that's all well and good; but what happens next? If this victory comes at the expense of any positive relationship with anyone at UIL, anyone who might subsequently fill the top jobs, it may well turn out to be a pyrrhic one...
Osric: TXMike is spot-on! Win , lose, or draw, the UIL is not going away. We all understand that. If TASO is fortunate enough to prevail against the UIL minions at the Federal Court level, then it will take 2 to 3 years for it to ever reach a trial jury, more especially with the Federal Court dockets backed up and with all of the vacant judgeships that need to be filled. Until then, the UIL and TASO will have to try to somehow cooperate with each other. But in light of the anticipated restraining orders that would, in all probability, be put in place against the UIL curtailing any officials organizing and registering activities on its part, there would absolutely be no desire on the part of the UIL egos involved to even begin any form of the negotiation process. But the bottom line would be that if TASO is successful, albeit so briefly, it would once again control its own destiny without having to worry about the immediate undue influence of the UIL.
Conversely, if TASO were not to prevail, then I'm afraid it would be "game, set, and match!" And then we would be at their total control, if not outright abolished and done away with. The egos in the leadership at the UIL will not allow for any kind of "beer summit." This was tried in principle after the Texas State Court dismissed the original lawsuit on a technicality. TASO had called for a private meeting with the UIL, but the Executive Director of the UIL arbitrarily and without permission invited members of the UIL Legislative Counsel among others and never even notified TASO in advance. Our TASO representatives felt rather waylaid by this show of force, thus conveying to TASO that the only negotiation the UIL was up to was pretty much "the UIL way or the highway!"
TASO remains in court because it is the only possible hope that they have for self-preservation. For more than 50 years, TASO has controlled(with advice and consent of the UIL) high school officiating activities within the State of Texas. The UIL, and more especially Dr. Breithaupt, wants to do away with TASO so they can then envelope all of this officiating directly within its domain for its own clandestine purposes, and have none to benefit the high school official. It's really just that simple!
