It’s on him. The schools give the schedule out on time. And I’m here precisely to figure out how much I should be paid for this.

Smoke Filled Back Rooms ...
 

It looks like you service about half of the schools that we service so how about $15,000.00 for an opening offer?

Just don't push a hard bargain and end up like Jimmy Hoffa. I may have seen him at a 7-11 last week? Maybe not?

I'm confident you can do better than assigning officials 72-24 hours beforehand. I'm blown away by that.

I have no idea what you should charge. I just know that I'm about 60% full for NEXT SEASON already. It's not right that your officials find out they have games the same week on the regular.

Where Do I Begin
 

Please don't underestimate this job. It is a 24 / 7 job. You will be attached to your phone. If you are married, please have conversation with your wife. You will receive turnbacks at all hours. If you have 100 officials, you have 100 differnt reasons why guys officiate.

Questions to consider....

What is your turnback policy ??

If you have small college officials will you accept turnbacks so they can work a D3 assignment ???

Do you value availability or ability more when assigning???

These are a few questions to ponder, I will post more as we continue this thread.

I've spoken with the current assignor and the guy who quit before him. Apparently, the commissioner has to approve all assignments. This is what is holding up the entire operation. The guy who quit last year would fill out 1-2 months of the schedule, but none of the assignments would be approved ahead of time. Compounding this issue, during the week of the game, changes would be made by the commissioner.

Armed with this new info, I'm going to decline to be apart of this madness. I appreciate the advice of everyone who had something to say.

I would guess that, to a large degree, the fee is already set -- by the customs and practices in your area. Asking what others earn across the country won't be of much help. Instead, you need to figure out whether you are willing to do the work required for the fee being offered.

It's kind of like officiating fees -- just because BM gets $93.17 for a game in his corner doesn't mean I can get that where I work.

Yup. I was also here to learn stuff about assigning, like the guy who told me I'd be married to a phone for the entire season. Learning that someone gets $31,000 for 70 schools was invaluable. I was picturing $5,000 originally, but right now I wouldn't take the job for less than $12,000.

Let me do my job!
 

Why have an assignor if the commissioner ultimately sets the schedule? We are currently having this battle in my organization -- the 3 presidents (elect, current, and past) want to approve all games. The bulk of our members agree that we should trust the guys we are paying to do the schedule and if they are screwing it up the board can replace them. Unfortunately, some presidents/commissioners just want too much power.

Administrators only really care that when they call the assigner, the assigner responds promptly later that day. Besides rescheduling a game, they have buses to worry about, notifying coaches and everything else in their day.
Whether Cam Rust and Billy Mac work the game or Raymond and Nevada Ref is really irrelevant to an AD. It's high school basketball and some guys are better than others.

Commissioner for us doesnt touch assigning. THAT IS WHAT THE ASSIGNER IS FOR!

That would be the first thing I would fix if you took it.

Four Corners ...
 

Entire State of Connecticut: Varsity Fee: $98.47, Sub Varsity Fee: $63.89 (Junior Varsity, Freshman, Middle Schools).

We're always looking for good officials. Anybody interested? Your two person mechanics have to be impeccable.

Different system here in Virginia. You must belong to an association to officiate VHSL games, and the associations each have a commissioner whose main function is that of assigning as far as the state is concerned. In addition, the constitutions of most (if not all) VA organizations state the commissioner is responsible for negotiating all contracts with schools/conferences. We elect executive boards that are responsible for day-to-day operations of the association. The commissioner/assignor is supposed to be working FOR the association and its members, but in reality they are the face of the organization and determine much of the strategic and long-term planning.

There are at least 2 associations in VA where the organization is actually owned by an individual, and I believe those commissioners are chosen by the owner if the owner himself is not filling that role.

This is the issue I'm starting to suspect. I'm not sure we can fix that. Not in a pretty manner anyway. We don't have "voting rights" in my group. As Raymond mentioned, we're owned by one guy, and he calls the shots.

"we're owned by one guy, and he calls the shots."

Let him do the assigning in the first place (not just final approval), with turnbacks, canceled/rescheduled games, last-minute replacements, late night phone calls about problems, etc., and see how long that arrangement lasts.

Unless you can fix that, you're going to face exactly the same problems as the current and previous assignors. It may not be a headache worth getting into unless you can get (in writing) an agreement that he as to make his say some number of days before the games and that you are free to release them if he has not.

And I'm not sure I'd even do it for $12,000 as you're considering.