Movement Policy?

[ozzy6900]

Originally Posted by dash_riprock

I am a member of the same association as Rags (the original poster on this thread). Rags is leading a movement to bring about much needed change to our organization. It will be difficult to displace the "old guard." Here is what we are up against............

I think that your biggest problems are with your assigning and control by the coaches.

Our association is like a contractor. The association has a representative to the State Board but the association, actually our assigners, contract with the schools. The schools send the Varsity schedules to the Varsity assigner and sub-Varsity and middle schools send the schedules to the JV assigner. The assigners then use The Arbiter to set the assignments to us (the sub-contractors). If you become "free" on a "blocked" day, you must call the JV assigner first because the JV schedule can get pretty messed up with all the cancellations and changes. As a matter of fact, the Varsity assigner will not assign you unless you have talked to the JV assigner first.

Coaches are welcome to speak to the association about an umpire. We actually have a liaison set up for this. Coach's input is not a factor unless you really are a screw up. Complaints are forwarded to "The Better Officiating Committee" and they will determine if there is a need for a "look" at the umpire in question. They do a very good job as last year there were only two complaints from Head Coaches. There is no "blackballing" by coaches but there are many umpires that will not work for certain schools.

So pretty much, we service our customers (the schools) and our association runs itself. Oh yes, our assigners get a percentage of our game fee for doing their job. It's not a big cut but because of our size, it adds up. I admire them because I know first hand that their phone rings all hours of the day and night so they should make something for that.