Quote:
Originally Posted by JRutledge
Look, he said he decided to change associations and did not say that he was made to move or was fired from one or the other. None of us are going to know the entire story or claim to know the entire story. I am just saying that based on what was said here, Welpe made a decision and is complaining here partly about the decision. Who gets games is out of all of our control. I know when conference assignors are fired in my area or die (which happen recently) then I cannot control that outcome as to who gets the conference. It could mean realistically I would be out of that conference, but that is nothing I can control. Then again I do not have to put all my eggs in one basket either to work games. I work for enough people that if I get fired from one or the assignors die or are fired, I can get other games. There are people in my area that will work for one or two assignors and if something changes or they do not get moved up their immediate claim is "politics." Not that they go to other assignor's camps or think that because they work for one guy that the others guys may not respect the choices one assignor makes to hire people. People around here think you work for one assignor the others should just fall in line and give me games when in some cases certain assignors do not like each other or think that the quality of the games in one conference is subpar to another conference. That is not politics that is knowing the landscape and adjusting to that landscape.
I do not claim or try to claim I have intimate knowledge of his situation or the specifics of why he made that decision or why one group lost games to the other. I guess to me politics are not about personal decisions or unforeseen situations that come up in this business. Politics if present are about what others do to you to prevent you from working or the structure that keeps you from moving up the ranks. That is not what he stated in his OP. If there is more to the situation I would certainly like to hear it if he wishes to share.
I think we need to stop being so sensitive to what people read into your words. Not everyone here is going to understand all your personal situations.
Peace
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For most of us, politics is local and personal. Who did I piss off? Did I do the right camp? Did I work enough of the crap games this year? Did I attend enough meetings and make sure the right people saw me there?
For some, however, it's political stuff that happens way over our heads. Did they negotiate a decent pay rate? Did our association hold on to the Metro Conference? Did I pick the right association?
Picking the right association can be like picking a route home from work only to find that there is an accident in your path costing you an extra 90 minutes on the drive. It wasn't a "wrong" choice, except in hind sight.
For me, it's easy. There's only one association for high school basketball and we cover a very large area. For you, it's easy, because your conference assigners aren't tied to the association network directly. But when the "right" association for your local games changes due to high level pissing matches, that's not so easy. It's easy to judge from afar, though.
Welpe is relatively new to basketball, and this is the sort of association level politics that tends to drive good officials away. If it's stuff they have control over, it's one thing. Get your face seen, get your name known, go to meetings, work the 7th grade girls games three towns over. But when they pull that rug out, you can expect a bit of frustration from decent officials who just want to play "the game" and get games.