Assignments

[Freddy]

Originally Posted by The_Rookie

. . . it creates double work for him to issue schedules more than 4 weeks in advance because of changes by the schools and changes by the officials assigned.

Changes by the schools aren't much of a problem here. What grinds our assignor's gizzard is when guys dump previously accepted games for a non-work or non-health related or non-good reason. If it becomes known you dumped a game in order to upgrade to another--that's pretty much grounds for getting the rest of your games taken away or none scheduled next year.
He's generally quite understanding, but if one tries to leave him out to dry . . .

[Rich]

I already have 40+ varsity high school games scheduled for 2012-13.

Wisconsin is a strange, strange place.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by RichMSN

I already have 40+ varsity high school games scheduled for 2012-13.

Wisconsin is a strange, strange place.

The problem with our system is this: I travel for my day job occasionally and I've had to find a fair number of subs the last 10 years. One assignor felt I was too high maintenance because of it (that's passed and I get a *lot* of games now from him after we got to know each other), but like I said -- the day job pays the bills and I don't know when I'll be traveling 1-2 years from now.

We don't have *an assignor* here, so conference commissioners do the assigning. I work for about a dozen assignors and they start very early in assigning -- if they don't the better officials will have already booked and they'll have trouble finding crews on the busier days. Reminds me of how the presidential primaries and caucuses keep getting earlier and earlier.

I'd hate having a central assignor, though. I had that system in Tennessee. When I got promoted to the varsity staff, I was told I could only work varsity games and then some weeks I only got 1 or 2 dates and I couldn't fill in with JV or freshman dates around it. The previous year (before I got promoted) I was at the top of the subvarsity food chain and could work every night if I wanted to. I asked the assignor why it was better for me (I, frankly, needed the money as I was a student) to be forced to pass on subvarsity games and they couldn't understand why I wanted to work those games when I had "a varsity schedule." Some schedule! I finally came to an understanding when they found themselves short officials and eventually worked whatever I wanted.

Here I fill my own schedule -- if I want to be Steve Welmer and work 6 days a week, I just have to hustle and put together my schedule in that way (and have enough assignors and schools (who hire their own non-conference officials) willing to hire me).

[Welpe]

I just got my assignments for the rest of the season a few days ago. The chapter I currently belong to assigns a half season at a time.

The previous chapter I belonged to had regional assigners for subvarsity. The assignor for the region I worked in would put his games out a few weeks before the seasons starts and then in mid December. Once those were published, we would go online and request the games we wanted to work.

[cmhjordan23]

In our Association, our assignor has no problems with us upgrading to a higher level game if available. But we only do so when we find our own replacement. Around here, pretty easy to find someone to cover.

[Raymond]

One month at a time around here which is fine with me. I would hate having to close out dates more than a month in advance.

[grunewar]

My last Scholastic Assignor would give games out a week/maybe a few days ahead for us "lessor officials." Don't know what they do for the more senior guys, but they were probably treated better.

New Scholastic Assignor has given me games 30-60 games in advance which is very nice, when you're used to the other. Plus, it helps me plug rec games in when I can.

One of our Rec Assignors uses the "Self-Assign" feature in Arbiter and has all of his games for the entire season "assigned" literally an hr or so after posting them as available....... Good to be him!

[bainsey]

It's typically a month or so here, notwithstanding any last-minute necessary changes (weather, etc.). Due to my work schedule, if I get two afternoon assignments in a week, I block the rest of the week.

[Scuba_ref]

We get our assignemts two weeks in advance they come out on Sundays - Christmas Day I received my assignments for the week of Jan 11th.

[Moosie74]

Originally Posted by bainsey

It's typically a month or so here, notwithstanding any last-minute necessary changes (weather, etc.). Due to my work schedule, if I get two afternoon assignments in a week, I block the rest of the week.

I too am from Maine and we get them a month at a time or maybe even the same week. As a first year official that is something that I am trying to get used to, I do HS softball and we get the schedule for the entire season before it starts so this is a huge change for me.

[Terrapins Fan]

At this point in time, we are getting our schedule 2 weeks at a time. usually a month at a time, but not this year.

In the past we have gotten an entire season, but that was before Arbiter, 4 or 5 years ago.

[tomegun]

We have crews here and crew chiefs assign games. I have sent out assignments up to mid January for my crew. That is acceptable in Southern Nevada. It is a blessing and a curse to assign my crew. There are officials I want to give a shot, but we are a deep crew. Nobody is guaranteed to always work boys varsity because there are too many officials on my crew that are capable - even if we have two sites on a given night.

I am proud of the fact that Southern Nevada is a place that will not hold good officials back. If you can work and you move in from another area, you will work period. If you start out and you have "it" you will work the appropriate games period. After moving around during my Air Force career I view this differently than some places do. I HATE the sense of entitlement that some officials have. What is the difference between a not so good second year official and a not so good 12 year official? 10 years, 10 hard-headed years, and that is it. Sorry if I went on a tangent with my answer.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by tomegun

We have crews here and crew chiefs assign games. I have sent out assignments up to mid January for my crew. That is acceptable in Southern Nevada. It is a blessing and a curse to assign my crew. There are officials I want to give a shot, but we are a deep crew. Nobody is guaranteed to always work boys varsity because there are too many officials on my crew that are capable - even if we have two sites on a given night.

I am proud of the fact that Southern Nevada is a place that will not hold good officials back. If you can work and you move in from another area, you will work period. If you start out and you have "it" you will work the appropriate games period. After moving around during my Air Force career I view this differently than some places do. I HATE the sense of entitlement that some officials have. What is the difference between a not so good second year official and a not so good 12 year official? 10 years, 10 hard-headed years, and that is it. Sorry if I went on a tangent with my answer.

I lived in 6 states in 8 years (before landing here for the last 10) -- trust me, I know what you're talking about. I've always been able to pull myself up in a few years, but it's pretty much always been a struggle to build my schedules up to where I thought they should be. Even now, the state lists me as a 10th year official when it's actually my 25th season.

[BillyMac]

Back before Arbiter, we used to get our entire season of high school assignments by "snail" mail.

Since we started using Arbiter, we get our high school game assignments about two weeks in advance. We can see the time of "pending" games about a month in advance, but don't know where the game is, or who our partner will be. This allows our high school assigner to figure out which games will need a top notch crew, and make some adjustments throughout the season.

My Catholic middle school assigner also uses Arbiter, and he can "see" my high school game assignments on my high school Arbiter site. He then schedules my Catholic middle school games around my high school assignments, but doesn't post "pending" games, just assigned games.

[rickman5]

I've been in two different associations in Georgia. One assignor gave us game till January at the beginning of the year and everything else after that. In my current association games are scheduled two weeks at a time. I liked the half season schedule way more.