Lawsuits from Assoc. Members

[Raymond]

Originally Posted by Rich

Training and networking. Our associations don't assign, but we have them. I sit on the board of two of them, matter of fact.

In VA all public school games must be assigned by a sanctioned commissioner. A sanctioned commissioner must belong to an association that has contracts for at least 6 public high schools. Officials, however, can pay their state dues and get certified through a non-sanctioned association or as an indepedent.

So if there is, for instance, a public school Christmas tournament, the organizer is not allowed to just go out and hire officials on his own, even if the officials are certified by the state. The games must be assigned through an association commissioiner.

It's a bullcrap rule that was put in place after my association lost its public school contracts but was still hired to work the big in-season public school tournaments.

[johnny d]

In Illinois, officials are sanctioned/certified by the state, specifically the IHSA, not through local associations. In the Chicagoland area, there are no assignments made by officials associations. Officials associations are for training and developing purposes only. Each conference hires their own assignment person who is responsible for assigning officials to games for that conference. We do not pay any of the assignment people dues to be part of their staff. The assignment chairs can hire any IHSA certified official they want to do their games. This is great for us as officials because there are multiple people to work for, thus minimizing politics and the good ole boy networks. I think it also minimizes the likelihood if not the liability of anyone being sued over games or lack thereof since as an official you havent paid any money to belong to a club you cant really have any expectation for getting games from any particular assignor.

[Rich]

Originally Posted by johnny d

In Illinois, officials are sanctioned/certified by the state, specifically the IHSA, not through local associations. In the Chicagoland area, there are no assignments made by officials associations. Officials associations are for training and developing purposes only. Each conference hires their own assignment person who is responsible for assigning officials to games for that conference. We do not pay any of the assignment people dues to be part of their staff. The assignment chairs can hire any IHSA certified official they want to do their games. This is great for us as officials because there are multiple people to work for, thus minimizing politics and the good ole boy networks. I think it also minimizes the likelihood if not the liability of anyone being sued over games or lack thereof since as an official you havent paid any money to belong to a club you cant really have any expectation for getting games from any particular assignor.

I have one assignor who's particularly difficult to work with. So I stopped dealing with him and just fill up my schedule with other assignors. Easy peasy.