Assignor Pay
 

I made a joke about becoming the assignor for our local HS group, and apparently some people thought that was a great idea. So I figured I'd ask y'all what the pay is for such a gig, and what are the pitfalls of such an activity.

Relevant facts: 16 Public HS, roughly 15 MS, 15 Private HS. No rec ball.

Questions:
What pay should I request? What is the minimum you'd take?
Main issues you people face?
Anything you'd care to share?

I've until after the season to accept the position, because quite frankly the current assigning system is a damn goat rodeo and I want my name no where near it until the following year.

It will vary widely between organizations. And by widely, I mean WIDELY.

There are a lot of variables.

How many levels? How many slots to fill? What happens with rescheduled games?

You probably need to figure out what makes the gig worth it.

There are a lot variables to this, but the following is simplified. 3 man for all varsity games, 2 man for all MS and JV games. Rescheduled games get pushed to another free date around here, anywhere from next day to 2 weeks.

16 Public HS, Roughly 15 MS, 15 Private HS

Assume JV & V for every school, B&G

Public HS: 32 V teams, 32 JV
Public MS: 60 teams (7th Grade is JV & 8th Varsity)
Private HS: 30 V teams, 30 JV

Assume 24 games per team, assume 9 games aren't assigned by us, leaves us with 15 games per team. And MS plays roughly 10 games.

930 Varsity Games, 2790 slots
930 JV Games, 1860 slots
600 MS Games, 1200 slots

2460 Games, 5850 assignments

There are other factors, such as all-girl schools, schools with no Girl's JV teams, some freshman teams. Playoffs, reschedules.

If I'm leaving anything out, please tell me. I have no idea what I might be walking into. Any thoughts on what you'd expect to paid for such a task?

Assignment Commissioner ...
 

My local board pays our assignment commissioner $31,920.00.

He assigns for about seventy high schools (boys, girls, varsity, junior varsity, freshman), and a few dozen middle schools (boys, girls).

We have about 320 officials on my local board.

We have an assistant assignment commissioner who assigns preseason scrimmages. His pay is $3,000.00 (he's also in charge of our evaluation process).

Our HS assignor is paid a game fee for each team's schedule that he assigns.

So if a school has boys and girls Varsity, JV, and Freshman teams, the assignor gets $88 + $88 + $67 + $67+ $67 + $67 to do all the games for that school.

Non-$$$ Considerations
 

One intangible or two that you might want to think about go beyond monetary renumeration. Does there exist an adequate pool of officials to assign to the games you'd be responsible for. If not, your role as assigner will be a frustrating experience from the start. Or whether, for the amount that you'd be receiving, you'd be able to evaluate and remain in touch with the levels of proficiency of the individuals in your assigning pool in order to match the most challenging games with the most proficient officials. Nowadays, some assigners are jumping into the business concerned only about gobbling up schools and conferences, then "filling slots", regardless of these concerns, and it's disbenefiting our vocation as a whole. Other assigners are going so far as hiring a trainer or training staff to enhance the skills of his/her assignees and identifying personally who's able and who's unable to do what.
Not disuading you. Only expressing some considerations that might come into play about which you might already be well aware.
Hopefully, important considerations like these will play a part in your decision whether or not to become an assigner.

Observations ...
 

Our local assigner is out every night observing officials (as well as using peer evaluations, and evaluations by trained observers). A few seasons ago he missed only one night, his grandson's birthday.

Our assigner gets 6% of every game fee. Regular season has about 2200 games.

Full story:

Our assignments are coming to us with anywhere from 72-24 hours notice. All assignments. This is frustrating the hell out of our refs, and we're starting to lose people.

We lack development, and our top talent is either old or electing a college-only schedule. We could keep the latter if we got our act together, but I'd say inside 5 years we won't be able to provide quality officiating to games that need them. I'm also one of the top officials, and taking this role might take me off the HS court, and that's a big hit as I work a lot of games for this group.

It's a multi-level problem that starts from the bottom, and we'd need several key reforms starting at recruitment, development, and retention. Something that the entire nation is struggling with. But if schedules got better, we could hold on to enough people to allow us to "bring up the bench".

'Nough Said ...
 

https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.n...=0&w=338&h=178

https://tse4.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.o...=0&w=300&h=300

Here we have some JV assignors who were paid a few dollars a game. Then to cut costs it was dropped to 2000 per season. I think you are insane to do less than $5 a game.

Yeah, yeah I know. The ship is full of holes, but it isn't sinking. Not yet anyway.

Abandon Ship ...
 

I assume you mean your current assignor is giving out the assignments at that time. Or, do you mean your current assignor is getting the games from the schools less than a week before and then assigns them. That is...is it all on him or are there bigger problems?

Assigning is a lot more work than some may realize. Don't underestimate the work required.