Here in Tidewater Virginia ASA, the UIC is also the assignor. And believe me, no one here argues about "conflict of interest." Why? Simple; no one wants the job of either "assignor" or "UIC" (they are usually the same person).

Yes, at the present time, I happen to be both, "assignor" and "UIC". I do try not to schedule myself for any games, but like Elaine stated, guess who ended up on the field when there was a last minute cancellation or, even worse, I didn't have enough umpires to fill all the games.

As for tournaments, I would schedule myself because I never took out "assignor/commissioner" fees. This way, all the umpires would get the full amount. I figured if I wanted any fees, I would just work games like everybody else. But, since I am the Tournament UIC, I rarely assigned myself to the championship rounds. Kind of hard to be on the protest committee if I'm on the field.

Can't tell you about any high school associations here as I don't belong to one (yet). But our college associations do the same thing. The assignor schedules himself for games. Again, never heard any rumblings.

[Edited by VaASAump on Aug 11th, 2003 at 03:00 PM]