[yawetag]

Originally Posted by HokieUmp

Why should that fall on the umpire(s)? Isn't there a contract in place between the school/school district and the assignor?

I don't involve myself with the contractual side of our organization. I'm assuming, however, the contract states that the school will pay a game fee if the game is canceled after the umpires call the school.

Originally Posted by HokieUmp

Here, if it's a rain issue, we have a website that is updated - like today, for example, where most of our games were killed - or we can call the assignor, quickly give name and place, and he'll let us know.

If the assigner knows, Arbiter is updated or a phone call is made by him. In instances where dozens of schools are canceling, how is he going to find time to not only field calls from all the schools but also call each umpire involved?

In the several games I've had canceled before leaving, only two were discovered by me when I made the phone call. The last one I had, the A.D. said "I just canceled the game and called [assigner]."

Originally Posted by HokieUmp

If a game is killed for other reasons, it's still not on us to call around. Two years ago, my partner and I show up at a private school for a JV game. There are guys on the field, but it's an obvious practice situation - shorts and T-shirts. It's the varsity team, and the coach says "Yeah, XXXX got rid of their JV team this year, so the game was canceled."

Really? Thing is, it wasn't - since they didn't bother to tell the assignor, that game was still on the schedule, so they owed me and my partner a game fee. I'm thinking they've tightened up their process for canceled games a little since then.

In my organization, you would have called the assigner. He would then ask, "Did you call the school before leaving for the game?" You would respond, "No, I didn't." At that point, you're screwed.

Had you called, you tell the assigner the name of the person you talked to, what time you called, and what they said. That information is passed to the school along with the bill.

I don't see how it's "calling around" either. We have one number to call; it's most often the A.D., his secretary, or an "activities hotline" number that's updated with the game status. The calls take no more than two minutes.