Howdy,
I'm a relative noobie at umpiring, going into my 4th ASA year and 1st NFHS year. I followed this board for a few months now. One thing that piques my interest is the talk about various tournaments.
I come from New England, so clearly we have a shorter overall season than some parts of the country. We do have some state tournaments for various slow pitch divisions and JO levels and fewer for men's & women's fast/modified pitch.
Some of these tournaments, while in the state that I reside, are a long distance away. Some might be an hour's drive one way, some a couple of hour's drive.
I'm trying to find out about some of the logistics of doing a state tournament. Since I haven't done that yet, national is currently out of the question for me, but perhaps others are interested in knowing more. I was invited to do 2 games at a JO state tournament last year which would have meant about 3 1/2 hours driving round trip. This is when the price of gas was around $4/gal. I also had a commitment to another game the same day, and decided to honor that commitment rather than bolt for the limelight.
There are a lot of people in this forum who've done games at all levels, serve as UICs. I've seen discussions on umpire evaluations, but as far as I know, I've not been personally evaluated - at least not with any feedback pro or con.
So I'm wondering about the "how to" and other questions. I'll note a few, but maybe don't even know enough about the whole process to ask the right questions. Thanx for any inputs, and if I ask a foolish question, have a chuckle, but please still answer it.
Thanx.
- Do you get paid for games and if so, how much?
- Are games 2, 3, or 4 person umpire mechanics?
- Are there mileage reimbursements for umpires who travel long distances?
- If you're going to do a weekend tournament, are there hotel/meal allowances?
- If you are doing a national tournament and are coming from a different state, are airline fares included?
- I assume the strictest of dress codes are in place, including no "silver pants"
and western cut pockets mandatory so no one can see the inner lining of your pockets 
.
- If there are no re-imbursable expenses [other than perhaps a game fee] does that mean that only financially independent people are likely to be officiating the games [especially a higher state or national levels]?
- If you work a state or national tournament do you make money or lose money?
- What path does the rec league umpire take to get to state/national level tournaments?