Is half a book better than none.

[Mark Padgett]

Our local kids rec league uses parents - one from each team (and it's a league rule to have one from each team) - to run the clock and work the book. We ask for "volunteers" before the game starts. If one from each team doesn't come down to the table, we tell them we won't play the game. That threat hasn't failed yet.

Of course we sometimes get people who have no idea what they are doing, but we quickly show them how to just keep personal and team fouls plus the running score and timeouts. We tell them they don't need to track individual points because we don't care. That makes it a lot easier. The clock person has to only start/stop and keep the team points and quarters. That's pretty easy also.

BTW - I usually tell the clock person that I'll only yell if they forget to start it, but if they forget to stop it and let it run, that's OK. I also tell them they'll get out on time, because I don't allow overtime.