[jkumpire]

This year I started in my association asking for a general evaluation from coaches and AD's of the umpires we sent them to. It was for the most part a disaster.

The main reason was we only got responses from 3 schools in SB, and 2 in BB.
We got specific answers to questions, but for a couple of coaches it was a gripe session about guys they don't like.

IMO, there should be only umpires evaluating umpires, and in my state there should be state association representatives looking at umpires during the season. IN our state coaches do have a chance to rate umpires, but the results are not made public. It seems some umpires figured out who gave them a bad rating, and called up AD's about it, so the state association refuses to reveal ratings.

In my system (in a perfect world) Evaluator A, a retired umpire, with video camera in hand comes to a game.

Evaluator shoots video, and evaluates on a standardized form. He then meets with the umpires after the game, shows the video to them, and hands them a copy of the evaluation. Umpires with a bad grade for a game, or with under 3 years experience get looked at again later in the season. Good umpires get looked at every other year.