Band Of Brothers ...
 

Good point. I bet you guys get together in the off season, with wives and girlfriends, to socialize, weddings, graduations, birthdays, holidays, etc. I get it. Good point, which is why I started my post with, "When in Rome ...".

Yes, but we do not have a shortage of officials in basketball in this state. This is pretty much how it is done in some capacity across the state. You said it was a problem, but it seems to be working here. Again these are the terms and people work about it. I do not know anyone complaining they have a game a year out on a Friday or even Saturday (if they are not a college official). This gives you plenty of time to plan and adjust. I usually block the dates for a particular assignor in November, December and January for the following year. I get the actual game, site and time around July or as late as August for the coming year after the camp season is over. And here is the thing, we do not have the state office giving us games. I know the limited choices I will work on any given date based on who assigned the game or who I blocked the date off for. I do not know if you have the traffic problems with do here in the Chicago area, but that can change your day big time based on where the game is located. But at least I know if I accept a game from someone in the Western Suburbs, I know what my travel is going to be as compared to the Northern Suburbs or a game in the City of Chicago. If I cannot do the game, I know assignors have people that can and willing to fill the contest. They might not get who they want, but they will get someone. And those like myself that have been around get asked first anyway to fill dates. Not everyone is getting asked as early as me to fill dates for the following season.


Again the college official is in a different situation. But we have so many college games around here, that depending on the level you work, you probably work for multiple assignors at the college level. We have all levels including D1 right in our backyard. High school assignors understand this and if they have some of their best officials that work college, they accommodate for them often. One of my first college men's assignors assigns games in both high school and college. He does not give his college staff high school games on Saturdays to cover this college games. I also give him several Friday dates and his stuff is close or not very far when I work high school for him. It works out well.

Peace

Right but that's a completely different issue than giving back a game for a work, family, etc. conflict that one couldn't foresee 15 months ahead of time.

Hell, football isn't even done by crew here. It probably should be, but when in Rome...

Basketball crews I am not remotely interested in, however.

Actually, a lot of changes have nothing to do with how far they are set out. Many changes are because the school changed the time, the date and sometimes the site that could take place a few weeks out. So your theory that having givebacks is really not accurate for where I live. Even when I lived in Central Illinois, where I started officiating, this was not a problem and those games were assigned by mostly ADs at the time and were given sometimes two seasons in advance. Schools knew certain games would be played and wanted to lock in their "better" officials.

And I cannot speak for what happens in South Carolina, but we have weather here that can change everything the morning of a game. We can have snow in the morning that can move a game time or move it to another date in a matter of hours. That is a much bigger issue than having a game given a season in advance.

Again, not the issue here. I see why someone from another state might see this as an issue, but if you lived here you would get over it very quickly. You would have to or not officiate. We have plenty of basketball officials in our state and area, not struggling with this situation at all to my understanding.

Peace

What possible situation that is so much of an issue you see because a game is given 15 months in advance? People usually schedule weddings more than a year ahead of the time and basketball season is often not that time of year those take place. Birthdays never change. My son's birthday is in December and I am working on this actual birthday this year because it is a weekday/school day. A lot of job situations do not drastically change and if they do they are not jobs where the person could not officiate in the first place. Even a baby coming is kind of known in advance. The only thing I can think of is a death or maybe a sickness that might come up that you have to change things. My kid's activities are known before the activity starts months in advance.

I get that this is not what you guys do and that is fine, but you keep hammering things that are almost never a problem that far in advance of the game. Again, I know I am working every single Friday and Saturday of the basketball season as almost a guarantee. If I need one of those days off for something I know months in advance, I either do not go to the even or I get off the game. And I am going to work one or two other days during the week either for a high school or college game.

Peace

Billy:

Now you are starting to sound like me, :D!

MTD, Sr.

The Loyal Order Of Moose ...
 

Ancient Days © 2018 Mark T. DeNucci, Sr.

https://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.U...=0&w=268&h=180

True story. Many years ago, before cell phones were popular and affordable, I took a group of my students to the Loyal Order Of Moose Lodge in town to volunteer at a Red Cross Bloodmobile. One student asked to use the telephone to confirm his ride after the event. We found out the the Lodge telephone was in another room, and sent the student there to make his call. He came back in a few minutes perplexed, he didn't know how to use the telephone. It was an old rotary dial telephone.

When will young'uns not be able to read analog clocks?

Billy:

Thanks for the copyright.

MTD, Sr.

I never hinted that it was a problem in your area. I simply stated (explicitly) that I'm not a fan and am glad we get games no more than 2-3 weeks out here.

As a transfer it would suck to move somewhere over the summer just to be told games for the upcoming season are already filled. And before you say "that is not the assigners' problem," I already know that.

There are non-conference games here that aren't assigned so far in advance. I moved to my state in 2002.....in the summer. That winter I worked over 20 varsity dates. I got those by contacting over 100 schools and taking what was offered.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

If you came here over a summer and either attended a camp or two, you probably would get varsity games on some level if you were an experienced official.

When I moved here (to a totally different part of the state) and was able to go to camps in the summer of 2000, I had probably 15-20 varsity games in the area because I was able to prove my ability at camps in the off season. And this is when we have paper contracts when it was harder to give all those games to just anyone and make changes. I would get calls all that season to cover a game or to take a reschedule.

I had a really good friend with his girlfriend (now his wife) who were both officials come to this area from out west with experience as an official. They attended a few camps and both worked multiple varsity games their first year transfering to this area as well. That was probably the mid-2000s and now both are working D1 college. If you are talented they will find you and use you.

Just because the games are scheduled to some, does not mean all the assignments are made that early. The reason for camps here are to decide who is going to move up and who might need a change in their schedule.

Peace

Summer Of '42 (1971) ...
 

We don't have a great high school camp system here in Connecticut.

If a new official is transferring over from another IAABO board, one is guaranteed a similar schedule.

If a new official is from a non-IAABO association/organization, one will be observed as soon a possible, as early as preseason scrimmages, by either trained observers, or our assignment commissioner.

One's assignments will be based on these preseason and early regular season observations.

This is possible because our assignment commissioner only tentatively assigns three or four weeks in advance, and only confirms these tentative assignments about two weeks in advance.

Which sucks, especially for officials who are in the military or in other types of jobs that causes one to get transferred.

Actually, this is not uncommon for people in those situations to get games. I think the point some of you are missing is that any assignment made can and will likely change on some level. It is not like every game is assigned and nothing changes. The schools do not even have their finalized schedules until the fall in many conferences.

Peace