Public Service Announcement

[crosscountry55]

Originally Posted by Rich

You say "issues" like school are just making stuff up.

I have few schools playing JV2 or FR. Some don't have JV teams. Many of the MKE schools have 4 levels.

I'm not for a second excusing the low pay. But don't think there isn't an issue cause more rural districts do it.

Further, why shouldn't supply and demand not be part of the decision on what to pay people? Till we're all willing to take time off and send a message, what incentive besides good faith do conferences have to fix things?

I've been on the commish side for 3 years. 3-person was brought forward and approved in my first meeting (me along with the outgoing commish) for last season. So schools already increased their spend at the V level by 50% last season as we held the pay at the same level ($60). Expecting schools to then increase again immediately is a tough sell, however we only spent 2 years at $60 and will go to $65 next year with plans to be at $70 within 5 years.

With the state not setting rates, it's a lot more complicated than people think.

There's a lot couched in here, all respectable. I don't mean to be ignorant of the schools' plight. But I do think their budget plight is more perceived and ingrained then anything. It is solvable. Other states, many without state office rate-setting involvement, have solved this. We're just behind, I guess. Sounds like WA and SC are behind with us (actually a little worse).

I highlighted the red sentence for a reason. I think we may be on the verge of a breaking point already. I don't foresee many officials unionizing to force change, but I do see the supply of officials starting to get tapped out in the Milwaukee area. Last Monday an assignor posted an opening for a 5:30 JV girls game on Friday (original official had bugged out, presumably for a varsity game somewhere else). He sent the email again on Wednesday, and again on Thursday. No takers. On a busy Friday night there just aren't that many folks available. The game magically got filled at the last minute, but I'm sure it took begging and pleading by the assignor. I'm thinking....maybe if the assignor had just told the school, "Sorry, I've got no one available for your $40 JV game; you'll have to cancel the game," a message would have been sent. If that were to start to happen routinely, the assignor could tell the conference ADs, "Look, I'm trying to get the games filled, but you're just NOT making the fees attractive enough to new and veteran officials alike; consider $50 for JV and $70 for varsity and you'll attract new talent to the avocation and encourage upward desire. Meanwhile we'll be more encouraged to get involved in training and development in exchange for the pay increase."

Of course they'd fire the assignor, but you can only ignore the problem for so long. Eventually the chickens come home to roost.