[Green]

Our group, at one time had each official on a posted list, six list in all. The first one was considered our best officials. The lists were revised at the end of each season.

Assignments where made according to what list the official was on. A crew (for a varsity game) might consist of officials from three lists to give balance to all of the games assigned for that particular day. A game that was considered to be high profile would have officials from the top two lists.

During the section playoffs, assignment were made from the lists, starting from the top down. With four divisions (eight teams in each) in the first round, a number of official were assigned. Obviously, less in the next round.

The upside of having lists, is that an official has a goal to strive to and when reached has a feeling of accomplishment. The downside, is that over a period of time some of the officials didn’t maintain their skill level or in some cases were moved up because of who they knew and not their skill level. Another downside, is that once moved up rarely was an official moved down. So, an official working his way up the ladder had to wait for someone to quit, moved out of the area, die or whatever to advance.

A new approach was used, no lists. A breath of fresh air for some officials a disappointment for others. The downside, no goal or list to shoot for, just ones playoff assignment would indicate where they stood in the ranging. No one knew where they stood.

A change was made, each official is ranked by a committee of officials into a number of levels.
Assigned Playoff games — Assigned to Varsity level — Assigned to JV - Freshmen
The commissioner of officials (solely) decides which officials will be assigned Playoff games.
An official is the only one aware of his or her ranking. If an official feels he or she should be ranked higher, they can appeal.

The upside, an official has a goal to shoot for and the feeling of accomplishment and he or she knows were they stand. If their skill level falls off and is moved down in the ranking, they’re not embarrassed in front of their peers which would happen on a posted list.

I mentioned in another post about attracting new officials, that management has to step up. In this system, a new official is well aware they can move up in the ranking system without someone leaving the group. It’s possible but not probable, that most all of the officials could be ranked, Assigned Playoff games.

How does your group rank officials?

[Edited by Green on Nov 9th, 2004 at 02:45 PM]