Fined by Your Assigner
 

Does your assigner levy fines against those in your association for any reason (turning back games, etc.)? If so, what reasons?

Our assignor does not have the authority to do that (in my HS games). The Board does however, and we do levy fines for no-shows and for a few other things - had a guy show up for a JV game in shorts, things like that.

All fines are made known before the season starts.

No shows and turn backs (after acceptance).

The authority comes from the ability to withhold or withdraw assignments.

we get one free turnback in Arbiter, The game doesn't have to be accepted either. If you have marked your self as available and get a game assigned, and have to turn it back, it costs you $5. I guess our assigner was having a lot of officials that were leaving themselves open and then cherry picking the games they wanted and didn't want and causing a lot of assigning issues.

Follow-up, bg: Does your assigner do that with "pending" games, too (assuming he uses them)?

not sure what you mean by pending. In Arbiter, if you have a date open our assigner will assign you a game and it awaits your approval. That is what I would call a "pending" game. If we turnback a pending game it costs us $5. If we turn back a game that we have approved it costs us $5. I think that answers your question?

Actually, take a look at the calendar ("blocks" tab). On the left column, you'll see a "legend" column. Assigned games are in dark blue; pending games are in light blue.

Pending games just appear on your calendar with light blue dates, but they don't appear in your schedule. Once they're assigned, they're in your schedule to approve/decline. My basketball assigner uses pending assignments. (My soccer assigner does not.)

Does anyone else get pending assignments?

In N. Texas our association (400 officials covering N. TX & DFW) has authorized our Assignor to assess fines in several situations. Fines can be assessed for the following: 1.) No shows = Up to the amount of the game fee they would have received; 2.) Turnbacks = $10 if > 24 hours prior to game & $25 if < 24 hours; & 3.) Paying Local Association dues late = $100.

We pay annual dues in the amount of $150 to a State governing body called UIL ($50) and a Local Association ($100). The local dues are due each year no later than April 1st.

It always seemed odd to me that our local dues had to be paid so early. No general meetings took place and printed materials were not disbursed until September each year. Then someone told me that doing it this was allows our Board to show prospective new schools that we have sufficient officials to cover their games during the upcoming season. I must assume the rationale behind the large fine for paying Local dues late is to boost our roster numbers for the Board's talks with these prospective schools.

In Like A Lion, Out Like A Lamb ,...
 

Our local dues are due March 1.

Dues, Fees, And Fines ...
 

1. Missing an assignment
2. Turning back an assignment
3. Not meeting financial obligations

Our HS assignor has configured Arbiter to automatically "Accept" games that they assign. Assigned games initially appear on our shedule as "Notified". But once we go into Arbiter and look at it...it automatically changes to "Accepted".

In another HS association where I worked previously, they posted games and we could "Accept" or not. As I recall...it was not a very good idea to NOT accept their games.

I also work in a semi-pro league that also uses Arbiter. They post their games normally...and we can "Accept" or not. I don't work DI ball...and so I "Accept" all of their assignments. But I would imagine it's a different story altogether for someone that has a full DI schedule. :)

A Phone Call ??? How Quaint ...
 

Our pending assignments show up on Arbiter with just a start time. No other information (site, teams, partner). We cannot close out a pending assignment date without a phone call to our assigner.

One cool feature of the Arbiter that we use. My Catholic middle school assigner can "see" my Arbiter high school assignments which allows him to avoid schedule conflicts. My high school assigner cannot see my Catholic middle school assignments.

Bainsy, I could be wrong...but I believe what you are describing is a game that you have been temporarily placed in...but your Assignor is not ready to release it yet. It's like keeping your finger on a chess piece until you determine if that's what you really want to do. In other words, the game has not been assigned to you yet...and so it is not a "Pending" assignment.

Once your Assignor is ready...they release the results. I believe it is then that the assignment should show up on your schedule...either as "Notified" (if Assignor has elected to set-up Arbiter to automatically accept) or as "Pending" (if your Assignor has set-up Arbiter to allow officials to accept).

My assignor gets an assignment fee of $1.50 per game assigned. He assigns around 7000 games a year with 400 members. Do the math.

He is appointed by the Executive board to perform these duties.

We use Arbiter and there is no penalty if a game is declined.

The settings used are: notified, accepted or declined. When you are assigned a game you have a respond by date which is normally 24 hours prior to the actual game date.

If you do not accept by respond by date it goes by into the assignor queue to assign to someone who may not have a game assigned.

The question I have is

1. If this is a paid position, where does the fine money goes? Does it go to the assignor (pocket) or the association's scholarship fund?

Last comment: I agree with most of the fines, missing assignment or being late. But, to fine me for not accepting a game. Where do we draw the line as Independent Contractor?

Essentially, you are treating me like an employee.

That's a great feature...whether or not Assignors can see information from another group. You can also control how much information different Assignors can see from your other groups / leagues. You might be OK with allowing the Assignor from another group seeing where you will be and when on a specific date. But you might not necessarily want them to see that you will be there to do a couple of middle school games.

Having the different officiating groups all using one system for assignments really helps with stress reduction. In previous years I can remember what a hassle it was to have to constantly update two different internet-based assignment applications. I really had to stay on top of new assignments...because neither Assignor had a reputation for being very forgiving in the area of turnbacks.

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.

In NC, we're fined $20 if we turn back a game.

We use Arbiter. You're ok if you catch it during the time it's "pending" (we have a new assigner this year, and he's getting used to it, so that time has been very short, if any). But once it's published, and you reject it, you gotta pay the fee.

It's the same way in Football too (the Football assigner used to be the basketball assigner as well, and that's where it originated). But no other sport, as far as I know.

Post-mortem: The assigner approached me at our annual spring meeting Saturday. While he's bound by the rules of the board, he said I made a good case, and we'd talk about it. He didn't sound too interested in collecting a fine, particularly under those circumstances.

This is good to know, hear, and believe.

Sounds like it worked out for both of you. You might send him a 'thank you for the conversation' email if you have not already done so. Getting on the bad side of assignors generally have two outcomes, neither of which is desirable.

Candy's Dandy ...
 

What? No box of candy?