To the Virginia officials ...

[Rich]

Originally Posted by crosscountry55

This is an interesting point. Happened a lot in the pre-internet era of assigning, but decreased when assignors gravitated to the monopoly that we know of as Arbiter. Now that Arbiter is experiencing some competition from other applications, it stands to reason that the "game-shopping" problem is on the rise again.

Integrity. If you accept an assignment, honor it. If you're lucky, your assignor has a policy where if you're offered an upgraded game, all you have to do is contact him/her to ask for relief. Good assignors are happy to provide relief if they have replacements available.

Game-shopping and turnbacks, without approval, are a reputation killer. Your short-term gain will turn into a long-term loss.

(Here's my rant for the week as an assigner who also has 5 games of his own this week as well as a full-time day job.)

Know what your assigner sees as an "upgrade."

I recognize all these things are local, but...

For me "varsity basketball game" is a class upon itself. Someone wanting to get off to work bigger schools, boys versus girls, or closer to home....is going to find themselves not working for me for long. Same for those who drop me for college games without asking me first or bringing me a qualified sub. I want you to work your college game, but don't expect me to assign the same game TWICE. I get paid to assign it ONCE.

I had a partner tell me "something came up" last year. I drove my hour plus to my game and on the way home stopped for a bite. Watching the highlights, I saw that original partner working at another school closer to home. When I assigned my conference last summer, one of my officials listed him as a preferred partner (I tend to hire crews when I can) and I said, "Find someone else."

Just this week I've dealt with:

(1) A crew on Monday saying, "Sorry for the short notice, but we have a college game on Thursday and won't be able to work your game..." No subs, no "is this OK" from them, nothing. Just...."here you go"

With most of the area working 3-person crews now, few good officials have nights off. It's harder to find subs than it was just a few years ago.

(2) A crew double-booked and dumped my game 2 days before it was due to be played. They signed my contract 9 months before the other one and "just realized" that they were double booked. Then they told me that the other assigner told them that he really needed them and since I didn't say anything, they were going with that game. How could I say anything? I found out they were double booked from OTHER PEOPLE who called me to let me know -- I didn't find out from them until the next day.

A small minority of officials think that their schedule is the only thing in the world and that I sit at their beckon call to find replacements when they feel like not working. People that are high maintenance like that could be the best damned officials in the world, and I am much better off without them.

As an assigner, I would rather have a reliable average official than a great one who gets rid of half my games.