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I would agree with your point, Billy. We had a great revamp of our observation program last year where all scores and comments for evals would be entered into Arbiter in addition to the observer coming into the locker room post game to discuss things with the crew. We could then see things that we need to improve on. It wasn't always perfect, as there were a few who would come into the room and say everything was great and then hammer guys on the eval. But by-and-large, it was great. I felt like I knew what I needed to improve on to get the games I wanted. This year, they've gone back to no feedback. I've been observed 3-4 times this year and have no idea what the observers scored me or things I still need to work on from their perspective. That is really frustrating because that is a great tool for both the assignors AND the officials.
We do have a shortage in Iowa of officials, so basically if you have a pulse and a desire, you can work varsity games. I've mentioned in the past about how we almost had to do some 2-man for small school ball in the very rural areas. But the guys who want to keep moving up to get (or continue to get) the fun big conference games and important playoff games have no idea where we stand and what to improve on.
In addition to that, we've received at least two emails from the assignor for the girls post season this year who has indicated that under almost no circumstances are we to call him because he is busy with his other job outside of high school athletics. We are only to email if it is imperative. That, alone, makes me understand why some guys would just say "to hell with it." He is the one the evals go to, he is the one making the decisions, but the language he used made it pretty clear that we are not a priority and should not expect him to do anything for us. So there is very little chance of us getting our eval scores or asking him for feedback on what to improve on to get better playoff games unless they plan to send those to us after the season. I can post the text of the email if anyone is curious, it seemed almost unprofessional to me.
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