Paying Assignors

[ChuckElias]

There have been some comments about this in another thread, but I thought it deserved it's own discussion. In some associations, apparently, the officials "kick back" a fee or a percentage to the assignor.

In my area, the HS assignor is hired by the ADs. The assignor is paid one game fee for each team's schedule that he assigns. (My assignor is male, so I'll keep using "he"; no slight intended.) So he gets $64 for assigning all the officials to ABC High's Boys Varsity games for the entire season. He gets another $64 from ABC High for assigning officials to their Girls Varsity games for the entire season. Likewise, he gets $64 each for assigning officials to XYZ High's Boys and Girls Varsity games. He gets $42 for each JV and Freshman schedule he completes. So he receives $296 from each school that he assigns. The officials pay no assigning fee.

My question is twofold: how common is it for HS officials to pay a fee for receiving assignments? and if you pay a fee to get your assignments, who chooses the assignor?

I feel like, if every person in my association is going to pay the person, then my association better have a say in who that person is.

Any thoughts?

Chuck

[Dubby]

Our association works with the conferences in the area. Each conference gives an association all of there games. Our area has 3-4 main associations and they do trade games among themselves, especially if one group doesn't have enough quality people to fill all assingments for a particular night. The assignor is paid by the association through our dues each year. I'm not exactly sure how much we pay him but it's worth it. With 125 officials he has a lot to do. We actually have two assignors. One does less than varstiy games and the other does just varsity, at least until the week of the game. Our dues are $25 a year.

[DrakeM]

In Utah, we pay dues to the Utah High School Activities Assoc. and each area (SL, Ogden, Provo, Southern Utah) has their own association that also receives dues from each official. I believe that the assigner is employed by the UHSAA since he assigns all Varsity sports.
We've had the same assigner for about 7-8 years now.

For SL County games, (rec ball) we pay a local "association" and since we don't have any formal training programs and aren't given rule books or materials,
it basically goes to the assigner. Probably around 2 grand or so per year. Not much actually for all the headaches.

[JAdams]

In SW Ohio, our assignors work for a league's AD's. Most assignors have both the boys and girls schedules, and most do it for both varsity and junior varsity. Ten teams in a league, ten home games, two games per home date (five officials per date), both boys and girls... 1000 games/year for one league. And most assignors around here assign for two-three different leagues. Don't know what they get paid, but it's not enough. The association that each official is a member of doesn't have anything to do with the assignors.

[cmckenna]

Chuck,

We pay our assignor on our board as well... It is a percentage of your game fees....

Our assignor is elected to the board just like the other positions...

[NCAAREF]

In our HS association we pay no fee to any assignor. The HS Conference that governs our section assigns the games and the leagues pay them to do so. The independent and Catholic leagues are assigned by an independent agent and again they pay them a fee to do so.

[Rick Vietti]

In Northern Nevada we pay a percentage per assignment. This goes to the association to go to the assigner. Now this year we had assignment by committee (board members, not just one assigner)and I am not sure who got the money.

[nvfoa15]

I don't do basketball here in Northern Virginia but I do football, FP and SP softball, however, I believe that the local BB groups operate under simular conditions.

For FB (rec leagues to HS) each official pays dues to the association. The amount includes what the local charges plus what the state charges plus the insurance that the state provides. For each game assigned the Commissioner(assignor) assigns to an official a fee (10%) is deducted. II can't remember if he gets all of it or a part of it). Thus for a 5 man varsity crew plus timer ($65/man plus $30 timer) would be $35.50. He also recieves a one time booking fee from each school/league to assign the games, I don't know if this is a flat fee or a percentage of the contract. He also gets any fines assessed the school/league for cancellation without proper advanced notice (stipulation of the contract). Each official will get up to a full game fee also for such cancellations. The secterary/treasurer is also paid a flat fee for his services. These offices, and others that comprise the board of directors, are elected by the general membership.

For HS FP (rec leagues to HS) the situation is the same although I don't know all the particulars. Each official has a 10% fee deducted from each game fee. Unfortunately for this association, these "officiers" are not elected by the general membership (a bone of contention for some members). This group also assesses dues but here it gets a little complicated. The association has its local dues, the state (VHSL) assesses each official a fee per sport but asseses the insurance on a yearly basis (school year July to July). I paid my insurance through the football association. So for me my dues to the softball group would be the local assessment plus the state assessment for FP only. (This association also does baseball and basketball. I only officiate FP).

For SP this is my first year in this organization so I'm not sure how everythigs works.

[Blackhawk357]

We have the regular MHSA (state) dues you pay to keep your rating (license), each local pool (assn.) may charge their own dues as well. The pools contract with the schools to provide officials. The schools consider this a privilege to the pools and the schedules come and go according to each school's mood at the time of contracting (which promotes politics).

In our particular pool, the president is also the chairman of the assignment committee, and does most of the work. The committee meets to go over the schedule and make any corrections they see fit prior to the season. The pool dues are paid to the chairman to offset phone calls (mostly). There are no other costs to the officials, or pay to the assigner. Dues for basketball are $20 per year. Assignments are given to the officials two weeks in advance, and changes are made to the "master" schedule as the need arises.

We meet every Monday evening where we hold our "study club", make final confirmation of that week's games and provide the next week's games to the officials. Until this past season the girls played in the fall and boys in the winter, so we went through this routine for 6 months (if you do only basketball).

[Edited by Blackhawk357 on Apr 1st, 2003 at 09:52 AM]

[kmref]

Upstate NY - High school

Varsity Game fee + $5
JV Game fee + $5

Assignor Elected
Reassignor Elected

Assignments are accepted by Oct. 15th
Any officials that turn back assignments after this date are charged a $5 reassignment fee for each game.

Div. III

Dues based on the number of games assigned

01-10 games $50
11-15 games $75 examples only
16-20 games $100

[LepTalBldgs]

The assignor is an elected Board member. He assigns for all public (and nearly all private) high schools in our area.

At the end of one of our late November unit meetings we received our schedule for the entire year. We had that evening to review it and accept/decline all games. If we declined there was no change fee. If we accepted, we had to pay a $3 fee per game that night. I believe we had about 1,900 games in our unit. I think the assignor's job is difficult and full of politics and possibly hurt feelings.

During the season a few games were cancelled, a few added, etc. and we settle up with the assignor once the season is over.

[rainmaker]

In Portland, our association "elects" a commissioner who assigns all games that are played under OSAA. 92 schools, 6800 games, 350 refs. The association takes the money the schools pay (some organization of schools sets the fees) and keeps some for association expenses, pays some (on a per game basis) to the commissioner, some to the treasurer (he EARNS it managing half a million dollars a year) and then sets the rates to pay officials. In effect, the pay for the commissioner comes out of the per game fee the schools pay.

It's definitely better to have the assignor paid and chosen by the refs. It's also our privilege to have a commissioner who coaches respect and appreciate. We get the best of both worlds.

[Mark Padgett]

Originally posted by rainmaker
It's also our privilege to have a commissioner who coaches respect and appreciate. We get the best of both worlds.

You're absolutely right about Howard. I hope those who come to the NASO conference in June make sure they attend his seminar.

BTW - I notice you didn't mention that I take absolutely no fees for assigning all the games in my rec league, so you get your full pay. Oh wait - you do the same in the upcoming spring league. Don't forget to let me choose my own schedule, old buddy, old pal.

[rainmaker]

Originally posted by Mark Padgett

You're absolutely right about Howard. I hope those who come to the NASO conference in June make sure they attend his seminar.

BTW - I notice you didn't mention that I take absolutely no fees for assigning all the games in my rec league, so you get your full pay. Oh wait - you do the same in the upcoming spring league. Don't forget to let me choose my own schedule, old buddy, old pal.

Actually, Mark, ahem, ... well, I am getting paid for the spring league. But I thought you got something from TBA. Do I now change my opinion of you to Mensch, or Chump?

[bigwhistle]

In Houston the varsity assigner makes in the neighborhood of $20K per year. We pay $2 per game that we work to the assigner. This goes for both the initial assignemt of the games and any subsequent reassignment for the game. There are more games to take care of than any sane person would ever want to deal with. The phone at this house rings nonstop.

Officials who work a 50+ game season will pay over $100 in assigning fees, plus our state and local dues. The subvarsity assigners get $1.25 per game per official.