Quote:
Originally Posted by crosscountry55
I admire your local board’s efforts to be more welcoming, but until you drop the grade sheets and become more subjective, my guess is that new guys will continue to be on the outside looking in with respect to their schedules.
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Almost all of our 300 plus officials, veterans, rookies, varsity, junior varsity, freshman, middle school, are observed two, or three, times a season by trained observers (twenty-plus experienced guys, and gals, who have served on our board's training committees, and who have been selected as state tournament officials), who write a short report regarding appearance and conditioning, mechanics, team work, judgment, and game management. Feedback is given if asked for.
All of us use Arbiter to rate our partners, on the same qualities stated above. Anonymous ratings numbers (and averages), and comments (if made) can be viewed on Arbiter by officials a few times each season (Arbiter is "opened up").
At the end of the season the observation team gets together, and discusses each official. While peer ratings might be utilized, the observations by the trained team members are given the most (by far) weight. By the end of the meeting,
each official is determined to be varsity eligible, or subvarsity eligible.
We've been doing it this way for about three years, or so (after using a strictly numerical system involving exams, meetings attended, years of experience, peer ratings, availability, etc., for over thirty years), and we all seem to like the new system, that is, I haven't heard any complaints, not a single one.
Observation team members that observe on their off nights get a discount on their annual dues. Most observations are made at game assignments (varsity partner and subvarsity officials). Our assistant assignment commissioner, who gets a stipend ($3,000, he also assigns preseason scrimmages, and Special Olympics tournaments), coordinates all the observations.