Tue Dec 13, 2005, 10:52am
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Official Forum Member
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Join Date: Aug 2000
Location: Mississippi
Posts: 1,772
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Sounds in line
Quote:
Originally posted by Carl Childress
Quote:
Originally posted by lawump
Carl...interesting post.
First, as to the original post...we start here in the midlands of SC on Sunday, January 8. We'll go two hours every Sunday for six Sundays. We'll then have 3 on-field clinics on Saturdays...plus we have a state clinic on a Wednesday in February (where the test is given)...plus every member must work two scrimmages before the regular season.
Carl, we went through a similar situation with our local association this off-season. Our umpires (according to a Referee Magazine article, and according to various posts on the various internet boards) were the lowest paid umpires in the nation at around $35 a game. And frankly we were sick of it.
The South Carolina High School League says in their manual that umpires are to be paid $35 a game (or somewhere around that...I forget the exact amount but it was within a dollar or two of $35). Our local association (including myself as Vice-President) felt that we were grossly underpaid compared to umpires in neighboring states and compared to other officials in other sports in our state.
To solve this problem, I noted that the same SC High School League manual goes to great lengths to tell us that we (umpires) are independent contractors and not employees of the League.
So, I gave a legal opinion that the High School League's statement in their manual (that we were to be paid $35 a game) only constituted an "offer" and that we (our association) were rejecting that offer.
We then sent a letter directly to the 27 schools we serviced offering to provide umpires for their games at a new fee of $50, $55 or $60 depending on the school's location. While we were professional and cordial in our letter...we pretty much made it clear that it was a "take-it-or-leave-it" situation.
As I pointed out to our association board of directors: while it was possible that some schools on the outskirts of our territory could leave us and go with another association, the vast majority of the schools have to use either us or youth league umpires.
So, in addition to my legal opinion to our board of directors, I also gave a business opinion that the "supply-and-demand" model was way out of whack. Simply put: there is high demand for our services, but we're the only association who could supply the services we provided.
Needless to say, of the 27 schools, we had one complaint...and that school was an "outlier" school that decided to go with another association.
So now we have 26 schools paying $50-$60 a game instead of 27 paying around $35. I'll take that swap any day of the week.
Just another war story from the local association battle front.
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Texas athletics is governed by the UIL, which sets a maximum fee. Schools may pay less if officials agree. We get $40 for varsity games, a percentage of the gate (schools often don't pay that) and mileage at state rate (48.5 a mile this year).
Our proposal was for:
Varsity
$40 game fee (state mandated)
$10 gate (regardless of number of paid admissions)
$25 mileage (regardless of the distance travelled)
Subvarsity
$40 game fee
$25 mileage (regardless of the distance travelled)
They replied:
No, to everything. Instead, they said:
Straight UIL maximums for varsity except they had no intention of paying the state-mandated mileage allotment: "Hey, the school boards set our mileage limits, not the state."
They agreed to raise the subvarsity from $25 and $30 to $35.
No dice with us.
We have two associations in our area. We agreed to negotiate collectively and voted to turn down the "counter offer."
We've given them the phone numbers of the two nearest chapters. One is in Alice (120 miles from the center of our area) and Corpus Christi (150 miles from the center). For some schools, you could add 40 miles. Those are one- way distances. If two officials from Corpus called a game in Edinburg, the home school would owe the two-person crew $225.50 - if the other chapters had sufficient umpires.)
We serve 44 schools and one juvenile detention center.
The UIL requires that the superintendent of schools to notifiy the state whenever a varsity contest is officiated by anyone other than a TASO (our officials state organization) member.
They may legally hite scabs (youth ball uumpires and coaches) for their JV, but they will have great difficulty finding "legal" umpires for their varsity.
Scrimmages start the first week in February. We won't call those because the UIL constitution states that if a chapter accepts scrimmages (which are paid at $50 for three hours), the chapter must provide umpires for JV and varsity.
The point: We asked the UIL office in Austin whether our proposal was within UIL guidelines.
They assured us it was.
Both chapters are meeting on 22 December to finalize our answer.
We live in interesting times.
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Doesn't make sense for the schools. That sounds right from the officials point of view. I know when I was in TX in 80's they paid mileage and it makes a big difference since you had to drive many times 100 miles + just for one game.
And now that gas has gone sky high, our association is also thinking about adding a mileage fee.. I can't afford to sacrifice my time and my family time if I'm not going to be compensated for it.
I look forward to hearing what happens
Thanks
David
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