Umpire Recognition

umpbrian · #1 (**permalink**) Thu Dec 15, 2005, 11:10am

For those of you who work out of an association, what does your group do to recognize officials who have shown great work throughout the year or the rookie that has made great improvements. Our association is looking to change some of the things that it does and I am looking for ideas. Thanks for any help that you can provide.

Skahtboi · #2 (**permalink**) Thu Dec 15, 2005, 11:57am

My association puts on an end of year/Christmas banquet, where everyone who is a member in good standing shows up with a wife/husband or a date, and are fed a dinner. There, everyone receives a token of appreciation, such as last year a flipping coin. There are also various awards that include plaques being given to the receipients. The awards are such things as "Rookie of the Year," "Most Improved"....etc. There are also drawings for a bonus check of $50, $75 and $100.

ozzy6900 · #3 (**permalink**) Thu Dec 15, 2005, 01:19pm

In our association, if you are not lying on the table with an apple in your mouth, you have been accepted. Your reward is we did not eat you!

But seriously, we recognize our hard working umpires with little tokens of wood, plastic and marble. We also allow them to cut the first piece of the "main course"! Oh that's right, I was just kidding about the cannibalism!?!

briancurtin · #4 (**permalink**) Thu Dec 15, 2005, 01:31pm

Quote:

Originally posted by ozzy6900
But seriously, we recognize our hard working umpires with little tokens of wood, plastic and marble.

Are those tokens transferable to Chuck E Cheese tokens?

ozzy6900 · #5 (**permalink**) Fri Dec 16, 2005, 07:06am

Quote:

Originally posted by briancurtin

Quote:

Originally posted by ozzy6900
But seriously, we recognize our hard working umpires with little tokens of wood, plastic and marble.

Are those tokens transferable to Chuck E Cheese tokens?

I think they are made from Chuck E Cheese tokens!!

largeone59 · #6 (**permalink**) Fri Dec 16, 2005, 07:15pm

our association just started doing this this year: we're giving recognition for years of service to people with 30 or more years with the association.

we gave it to a couple of guys last year. it was funny when they said the first game they worked for the association, they got paid $6.

FVB9 · #7 (**permalink**) Mon Dec 19, 2005, 08:44am

We have an annual golf outing/awards banquet where we give awards to top rookies, top umpire, most improved, top HS umpire, top college umpire, etc...about a dozen in total. We have the awards custom made at a nearby vendor, so it's not a lame trophy or certificate, but something they can really put on their office wall.

We then log them all on our website so guys can get the continual recognition. We also drop about $600 in paycheck bonuses and Rolling Rocks, whether it be a coach emailing the Assignor with a "nice game" compliment, or if the umpire drops everything he's doing to cover a last minute game. Much of these cash awards are funded by our kangaroo court.

Umpires are funny, and egos need to be stroked...this is a very easy and successful way to do that.

FVB9 · #8 (**permalink**) Mon Dec 19, 2005, 08:44am

We have an annual golf outing/awards banquet where we give awards to top rookies, top umpire, most improved, top HS umpire, top college umpire, etc...about a dozen in total. We have the awards custom made at a nearby vendor, so it's not a lame trophy or certificate, but something they can really put on their office wall.

We then log them all on our website so guys can get the continual recognition. We also drop about $600 in paycheck bonuses and Rolling Rocks, whether it be a coach emailing the Assignor with a "nice game" compliment, or if the umpire drops everything he's doing to cover a last minute game. Much of these cash awards are funded by our kangaroo court.

Umpires are funny, and egos need to be stroked...this is a very easy and successful way to do that.

umpbrian · #9 (**permalink**) Mon Dec 19, 2005, 12:19pm

Quote:

Originally posted by FVB9
We have an annual golf outing/awards banquet where we give awards to top rookies, top umpire, most improved, top HS umpire, top college umpire, etc...about a dozen in total. We have the awards custom made at a nearby vendor, so it's not a lame trophy or certificate, but something they can really put on their office wall.

We then log them all on our website so guys can get the continual recognition. We also drop about $600 in paycheck bonuses and Rolling Rocks, whether it be a coach emailing the Assignor with a "nice game" compliment, or if the umpire drops everything he's doing to cover a last minute game. Much of these cash awards are funded by our kangaroo court.

Umpires are funny, and egos need to be stroked...this is a very easy and successful way to do that.

Could I get a link to your web site so that I could view the awards to get some ideas.
I appreciate all of the postitve input that has been given to me on this subject. Thank you.

FVB9 · #10 (**permalink**) Mon Dec 19, 2005, 02:24pm

http://www.fvbumpire.com. Go to the Hall of Honors page (linked on homepage). Good luck.

umpbrian · #11 (**permalink**) Mon Dec 19, 2005, 03:40pm

Quote:

Originally posted by FVB9
http://www.fvbumpire.com. Go to the Hall of Honors page (linked on homepage). Good luck.

Thanks for your help. Your web page is very informative and looks great. How many members do you have in your association and what levels do you schedule for?

Brian

FVB9 · #12 (**permalink**) Mon Dec 19, 2005, 06:17pm

Brian, we're at about 310 and assign everything from D-III College down to instructional Fall Ball. I'm glad you like our site, as we put a lot of effort into it. There are even more benefits that lie behind the member firewall, such as online evals, game requests and fully detailed member directories.

Best of luck

gotblue? · #13 (**permalink**) Mon Dec 19, 2005, 07:05pm

I like how the Association gave the same guy "Rookie of the Year" in three different years! If you had not entered the parenthetical information, I would have thought that you were starting to put this guy in the category of being a candidate for having, instead of 25 years of experience, one year of experience 25 times (I think that is how the saying goes).

umpbrian · #14 (**permalink**) Wed Dec 21, 2005, 10:13am

Quote:

Originally posted by FVB9
Brian, we're at about 310 and assign everything from D-III College down to instructional Fall Ball. I'm glad you like our site, as we put a lot of effort into it. There are even more benefits that lie behind the member firewall, such as online evals, game requests and fully detailed member directories.

Best of luck

If you don't mind me asking, are you guys paying someone to keep the site up and how much per year for everything included. Do you use assigning software?

Brian

FVB9 · #15 (**permalink**) Thu Dec 22, 2005, 07:31am

Brian, one of our members was going to school for web development and this was one of his first projects, and I think he nailed it. He set it up where even the most illiterate (like me) can easily add or edit pages, and we pay him a nominal stipend to do some of the heavier maintenance.

As far as assigning software goes, we've talked to the Arbiter several times, but we assign over 11,000 games with over 200 clients, 300 working umpires, and 400 client/rate combinations...and our process is pretty efficient. I work 60+ hour weeks at my real job, so the thought of converting our process to the Arbiter and dealing with learning curves, member instruction, GE firewalls, frequent DSL outages and the like doesn't work for me. We currently use macro, lookup table and filter driven Excel and Access models that are pretty slick, can go anywhere on any computer, compliant with the schools, and generate paysheets and invoices in about 5 minutes. It works for us.

I'd be interested in what other large groups are using.