Actually, that describes it pretty well, and in Arbiter, it is indeed listed as a "Pending Assignment." They appear as light blue in your calendar, but not on your schedule.

Take another look at the Blocks tab, and see the legend to the left of the calendar.

This is something that is under the offcial's control. I have 4 supervisors. One on top, 2 equals in the middle, and one at bottom of my priority list.

I don't allow my top assignor to see my 3 other schedules b/c I will take his games regardless of previous committments and I always want him to see a clear backdrop on my calendar to show I'm available to work any of his games. My other 3 supervisors have policies in place that allow us to turn back accepted games for certain higher level games. The middle 2 only ask that they get a courtesy call from the supervisor who is "stealing" us. My #4 supervisor trusts that we are being honest and just asks for as much prior notification as possible.

My AAU, Summer Pro-Am, and military intra-murals don't use Arbiter so it's not a concern with them. They just ask for my availability.

In My Little Corner Of Connecticut ...
 

Our assigning commissioner gets an annual salary: $26,250.00. He assigns games for about 70 high schools (boys, girls, freshman, junior varsity, varsity) and many middle schools. We have 325 members.

We also have two assistant assignment commissioners, one getting $2000.00 and the other getting $500.00. They assign scrimmages, Special Olympics, and AAU tournaments.

Our 7% "assignment fee" goes directly to our local board, not to the assignment commissioner.

From the other side............
 

Bainsey ( and the rest of the gang) - I have assigned for the last 7 years using the arbiter. Thought I could answer some of the questions out here.
The pending feature is the assigner's way of "locking you in" on that date.
Other assigner's can't give you game on that date, if you work for more than
one guy.

As far as turnbacks, in my group everybody gets two freebies, but after that any other turnback costs $8, which is the assigning fee I charge the schools.
If you keep your availabilty up to date, you shouldn't have any turnbacks.

I know this will get some people upset, but it makes the membership accountable.

Peace my bros...........

400 members is extraneous.

$1.50 x 7,000 = $10,500 per season.

I had an assignor get upset b/c my job hit me with a business trip (TDY for military folks) even though I gave the assignor over 1 week's notice that I had to give the game back.

To say turnbacks won't happen if you keep your availability up-to-date is a mis-guided thought process.

Multiple, how do you keep track of the two turnbacks? If this is something you have to do manually that would be a pain in the neck.

BNR - can't argue that. The irony is that I assign in the same county as a military base and I get TDY all the time. I give those guys ALWAYS the benefit of the doubt, as I know that those trips sometimes come up on 24 notice

I stand corrected. 1.50 per official assigned a game.

Tome -

There is a feature in the arbiter that allows the assigner to print a report of your tbs........it will state state date / time / as well as the explanation that you put in for turning back game. I can pull it up and then print it out if neccessary. I do have to send a copy of it to the executive board if I am fining guys.....

No they do not. They are not in an authority to do that. All they can do is take away games they have already assigned us. The state however can fine us for not fulfilling contracts with the schools. The assignors have facilitated that as they work for the conferences, but they have no authority to make us pay anything if we choose not to. The state can fine us and can take away our license.

Peace

Ciphering ...
 

$1.50 Per Game Assigned x 7,000 Games x Two Officials Per Game (At Least) = $21,000 (At Least) per season.

Thanks for that insight, MS.

Here's my motivation for starting this thread. As some here know, I was out for a week with an achilles injury. I alerted my assigner right away to block out that week. I had no assignments during that week.

Instead, I had three pending games that week. Pending, of course, is defined as "while awaiting.... remaining undecided." In other words, pending games are not assignments.

My assigner is attempting to see it differently, and wants to fine me for these three dates I never nor committed to, nor refused.

We have the option to accept or decline assignments in all our arbiter groups. Declining is discouraged, but sometimes stuff happens. I've had to decline two games this year, one because of a family emergency where I forgot to update arbiter as we packed to drive to Iowa, and one because I'm not in the habit of updating Arbiter past February. I had to turn back two games for the same Iowa trip, but the fine was waived.

The assignor is out of line, pure and simple. You were injured and unless you worked games for someone else during that same time-frame he has no grounds to attempt to fine you.