Define your umpiring Goals

[bbump82]

Gentlemen, there have been a lot of good things said here;

1) Concerning goals: When I started umpiring was when I had had enough of coaching. That was about 4 years ago, a friend at our local LL,( yes Tee, I know, ugh!!) call me and asked if I would be the FU for a 13-14 YO game. I have never looked back. Where else can you still do something good to contribute to our kids, earn no money or respect, get a couple of hours out in the sun & fresh air and go home feeling good about it. At that time I had no goals.

That has all changed, in that short time I have been able to do a boat load of LL games including district, sectional and state all-star games, a bunch of older AAU and some summer Legion games. I want to progress up the ladder because like most of you I'm tried of getting beat up behind the plate (ie. "Kidde Ball"). Goals are important! I have mine (short term is to get HS cert, after my boys grad or quit playing HS), and my long term goal/dream is to one day do JUCO or NCAA. I don't know if I will make it, hell I turned 40 this year.
But like many of you said, they are important, they just need to be tempered in some reality.

2) Money: The money issue for most people I know and work with is a secondary issue or benefit. All of my LL is volunteer, sometimes I can get a shirt or pants out of them, but I do them for the love of the game. The paid games are good, they have allowed me to upgrade my equipment, do some things I might have not done otherwise, but it is not the sole reason I do it.

It is really funny to see the reasons why I decided to start this journey being listed from so many other people, but all of you are right, goals are important. But they need to be realistic, and you need to know what it will take to achieve them, or you will become discouraged and find something else to do.