AB & Doc Moore,
Thanks for your feedback.
Our rating system is done POST SEASON. We get (I just got mine) a form in the mail with every official listed and then you rate the ones you've worked with. The score is on a 1-10 scale and if you give a guy a 6 or lower, you have to provide some feedback or the score doesn't count.
Pretty generic system. In my view, doesn't provide enough detail and if you don't keep some notes during the season, you pretty much have to rely on memory. (ouch!)
The ratings then determine who qualifies for Championship, Playoff, Varsity, JV, or Frosh/Youth assignments.
AB, the book sounds pretty comprehensive. Also sounds really convenient to turn in game reports via eamil. When you say "game cards" what is it that you have to turn in?
Doc, your assignor must have the same software that mine does. I think the algorithm goes something like this:
(take the furthest school from an officials home and work, combine with the worst traffic scenario, then add 1 official that throws the most flags in a game, plus 1 senior official that either can't see or runs the 100yd dash in about 5 minutes [maybe you'll get a 2fer if you're real lucky], mix in a Ref who is was an ex-general in the Army and believes in barking orders, and add a rookie wing man that is confused about the term "forward progress". Also, make sure that the chain crew all have kids on the team and could care less about chain administration. And, choose a field where ducks and geese could spend the winter because of the inverse crowning affect in the center of the field. Don't forget a PA announcer that chooses each of your games as his debut into the field of public relations and feels obligated to befriend the crowd by pointing out all of the bonehead calls made by the pinheaded officials. Oh, and choose a locker room the size of a bathroom stall with either an inch of water on the floor or a pile of 30 day old soiled gym clothes.)
Doc, if you get games like this, maybe you're in my association! If you don't, tell your assignor that he's got a bug in his software.
