One of the major topics listed for discussion at the Hawaii Interscholastic Athletic Directors Association convention at Waikoloa this week is the “Evolving Role of the Athletic Director.”

Not that hard-working ADs require reminders that, more and more in these austere times, they are expected to be productive fundraisers for their schools.

That’s a thought you hope they will take with them to the individual league caucuses this afternoon, where Oahu Interscholastic Association and Interscholastic League of Honolulu ADs are due briefings on the progress of proposed football alliance talks.

Or, more to the point, the lack of same.

There has been so little traction on the proposal since it was outlined in April that it is doomed for the 2016-17 school year.

While that is regrettable and, maybe, understandable given the time frame, what would be truly egregious is if, through prolonged inaction, the Oahu schools were to risk letting the entire $3 million — $1 million a year for three years — slip away.

That’s nearly $35,000 per year for each of the 29 football-playing schools (22 OIA and seven ILH) on the island that community donors have pledged. If the alliance gets consummated, that is.

If it isn’t, well, that’s a lot of chili coupons, car washes and sweet bread sales to line up in the face of mounting transportation and equipment costs.

To be sure there are issues to be surmounted and ages-old fences to be mended to finally bring the classification of high school football into this century.

And there also remains no shortage of short-sighted, “we don’t need their league” and somnolent “one of these days” types.

Which is why this football season will mark the 47th since the rift that tore apart Oahu public and private schools, speeding the demise of the called “golden age” of high school football here.

So it is time for meaningful engagement. Past time, really. Here is an opportunity to seek creative solutions and overcome barriers instead of standing behind them.

On the table is a proposal that would create, for the first time, a so-called “super league” open division as part of a three-tiered public and private school regular and postseason. The 10-team open division would send six teams to the state playoffs, while a 10-team Division I and nine-team Division II would also have six berths each.

In addition to the more equitable competitive balance it creates, the proposal raises the potential for more interest and bigger gates.

There are also elements that will address recruiting abuses and other concerns long clamored for.

How much patience pledged donors will have in the face of inaction by the leagues remains to be seen. It isn’t like there aren’t other worthy causes in the community competing for the money.

Taken together, this is the most comprehensive proposal that has advanced to the leagues in a half century and, with some fine-tuning, one worthy of adoption.

Hopefully sooner rather than later.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@staradvertiser.com or 529-4820.