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Bob,
You said "so we reverted back to our old system of selecting an umpire based upon the following criteria: is he qualified? did he work the required number of varsity games? did he attend the required number of meetings and clinics? was he cooperative with the assigner? has he gone in the past or recently?"
I guess I'd start with - with no evaluations done, how do you define what the qualifications are. You need that to know whether someone is qualified.
You need a standard and you need a person or group of 3 or 5 who understand that standard and take the responsibility of doing the observations.
In one of the college groups, we have coaches evaluate us in every game AND we turn in evaluations on each other now. This is better than nothing, but it's not accurate - coaches are biased (they are supposed to be) and I have my own responsibilities during a game - so watching my partner isn't that high a priority.
In my high school group, I am the only evaluator. I try to see every umpire work at least once a year. That's not frequently enough, but softball evaluators aren't paid, so once a year per ump is about all I can afford to do.
I have a set form that I use. There are a number of them available online and I've taken some from this & some from that. I know that the same standard is being applied to each one that is watched. I go over the observations with each ump who wants to. I make the recommendations for post-season and sometimes they even follow those recommendations. My role is to give the best advice that I can so that they can make the decision. Once the decision is made, my role is to support those who make the decision.
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Steve M
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