Contacting Partners

BillyMac

Here's the protocol for my local board:

Officials are expected to confirm their games. Email addresses for athletic directors, faculty managers, or site directors, as well as partners, are on the Arbiter website. The email should state the gender, level, site, day, date, and time of the game, along with one’s contact information, sent to both the school, and to one’s partner. A confirmation, emailed in this manner, looks professional, and assures everyone that the officials have been properly assigned for the game.

letemplay

Most times I also include my wife on the list of people to contact regarding my schedule:rolleyes: Although, I will admit more than once over the years calling her from a gym with the ole "by the way, I have a game tonight at ____ School" Those always turn out good:eek:

keith_15

Be sure to find out what is protocol in your association. But most have it where the R contacts the crew. However, if you haven't heard from them by the day before I would reach out to them, introduce yourself, ask them things like what time are they getting to the game site, do they have a long or difficult commute, are they coming dressed in their uniform or will they change in the coaches office/locker room. Also, be sure to give them contact information of your own so that they can contact you at a moment's notice.
Being your first game, remember two things: Look sharp - Work sharp. Smile every time you can.

jTheUmp

I usually email partners about 4-5 days before a game, and confirm details (date, time, location) with them.

I email ADs (and athletic secretaries, if I can find their email addresses... athletic secretaries run the show anyway) on the Monday of the week of the game. (for Monday games, I email on Thursday or Friday before the game). Here's a my email template, replace the capitalized words with details as appropriate:

AD_NAME,
ASSOCIATION_NAME has assigned PARTNER and I to officiate DAY's GENDER's LEVEL's basketball game(s) against OPPONENT.

According to my schedule, the (first) game starts at TIME, and is being played at LOCATION. I plan to arrive at approximately ARRIVAL_TIME.

If there are any last-minute changes, please give me a call at 000-000-0000.

Thanks. I look forward to working at your school.
-jTheUmp

Doesn't matter if I'm the R or the U... about 90% of the time I end up being the one who contacts the school.

Stat-Man

Thanks for the replies and examples.

I will contact one of our association trainers to see if there is an approved protocol for our area/association and proceed from there.

Raymond

Through your career every once in a while you'll come across jerks who find it bothersome to contact their partner(s) before games. When my crew chiefs haven't contacted me by a certain time I will contact them via text and email. If I don't get a reply then on the day of the game I will call them.

DRJ1960

Our assigner "desires" that we contact him if we haven't heard from partners in a timely fashion....

grunewar

DRJ1960 wrote
Our assigner "desires" that we contact him if we haven't heard from partners in a timely fashion....

If we haven't heard from one of our P's by game day, we "must" call our Assignor.

BktBallRef

badnewsref wrote
through your career every once in a while you'll come across jerks who find it bothersome to contact their partner(s) before games. When my crew chiefs haven't contacted me by a certain time i will contact them via text and email. If i don't get a reply then on the day of the game i will call them.

BillyMac

If we don't confirm our assignments with both the school, and our partner, and then somebody, either our assigning commissioner, the school, or our partner, screws up, then we are considered part of the problem, even if we did nothing else wrong. When something goes wrong (wrong site, wrong date, wrong time, no partner), the first question that our assignment commissioner will ask us is, "Did you confirm your assignment?".

JetMetFan

BadNewsRef wrote
Through your career every once in a while you'll come across jerks who find it bothersome to contact their partner(s) before games. When my crew chiefs haven't contacted me by a certain time I will contact them via text and email. If I don't get a reply then on the day of the game I will call them.

I've already had two college games where I didn't hear fom the R and reached out to the crew on my own (I was U2). Our assignor wants us to narc on the guys who neglect to pick up the phone or send an email. Oddly enough, for my high school games there's no protocol at all. All they recommend is calling the school to make sure the game hasn't been moved or canceled. I do that and I also email my partner since I, like others, hate working alone.

BktBallRef

JetMetFan wrote
All they recommend is calling the school to make sure the game hasn't benn moved or canceled.

So the assignor assigns you the game and then his work is done?

That makes no sense to me.

tomegun

In my corner of Nevada the R contacts the other official(s). For high school we have an Assignment Administrator that handles all contact with schools if a game is cancelled, times are changed, etc. This procedure is basically the same for college.

BillyMac

Cancellations due to bad weather are a "free for all" here in my little corner of Connecticut. Athletic directors are supposed to contact the officials, and then the assignment commissioner, who then makes the change on Arbiter. In reality, athletic directors seldom contact the officials, and just contact the assignment commissioner. Because of this, officials are expected to try to contact the school (good luck if it's after office hours, or if it's a Saturday, or a school vacation day), and keep their eye on their Arbiter schedule, when bad weather is in the forecast. Communication between the officials, and the assignment commissioner, is discouraged because he's so busy with athletic directors, and Arbiter changes. There is seldom, if any, communication between officials assigned to the game. There has got to be a better way?

BktBallRef

tomegun wrote
For high school we have an Assignment Administrator that handles all contact with schools if a game is cancelled, times are changed, etc.

Exactly. The assignor communicates with the AD and assigns the games. Why wouldn't he have the same responsibility in the event of a time change, site change, or cancellation?

That's why I pay him a booking fee. It's not my responsiblity to confirm that the game he is sending me to work is still being played.

BillyMac

BktBallRef wrote
It's not my responsibility to confirm that the game he is sending me to work is still being played.

Maybe once, every other year, my email confirmation (or a post card back in the olden days), will "spark" something in the mind of the athletic director: holiday, or winter, vacation; Martin Luther King Day; mid year exams; boys and girls site, or time, conflict; home and away site mistake; Saturday game; conflict with another school activity (holiday concert, holiday dance); no subvarsity game, leading to an "odd time" varsity start; games that were changed (site, or time) where he forgot to contact my assignment commissioner; etc. Over thirty-two years, my confirmation has prevented about a dozen such "mistakes", "mistakes" not created by, and having little to do, with my assignment commissioner, "mistakes" that may not have been prevented without my confirmation with the athletic director.

gordon30307

In my neck of the woods the vast majority of games are on the arbiter. You get an email reminder. Most assigners require that we confirm games with the school. If there's a discepency that I learn of I'll contact my partenrs. Other than that my partners are adults and I assume that they will act as such and show up on time which is at least 45 minutes prior to a varsity contest and at least 30 minutes prior to a lower level contest. Notice I say "at least". I consider myself "late" if I don't meet that criteria.

JetMetFan

BktBallRef wrote
So the assignor assigns you the game and then his work is done?

You got it. Surprisingly, we don't end up with uncovered H.S. games all that often.

I remember it being the same for the NYC Catholics and private schools, at least in Manhattan and The Bronx.

I haven't worked the last two leagues for 7 or 8 years but if memory serves me correctly I didn't even get the name of my partner with those assignments (it was still on paper, no assigning program). All I'd get was the game site, date and time. The schools knew who the officials were and if someone was missing they'd call the assignor.

One thing I will add: thanks to Mr. Camron Rust and Reftown I get a confirmation e-mail at the start of every week for my girls' H.S. games in NYC. 🙂

Raymond

gordon30307 wrote
In my neck of the woods the vast majority of games are on the arbiter. You get an email reminder. Most assigners require that we confirm games with the school. If there's a discepency that I learn of I'll contact my partenrs. Other than that my partners are adults and I assume that they will act as such and show up on time which is at least 45 minutes prior to a varsity contest and at least 30 minutes prior to a lower level contest. Notice I say "at least". I consider myself "late" if I don't meet that criteria.

In this region of the country there have been too many occurences of a single official showing up at the wrong site or mis-reading the date/time, including NCAA games. So supervisors at all levels around here expect the crew to contact each to ensure everyone is on the same page. Being right and being an 'adult' are no help when game time is upon us and there is an official missing.

JRutledge

gordon30307 wrote
In my neck of the woods the vast majority of games are on the arbiter. You get an email reminder. Most assigners require that we confirm games with the school. If there's a discepency that I learn of I'll contact my partenrs. Other than that my partners are adults and I assume that they will act as such and show up on time which is at least 45 minutes prior to a varsity contest and at least 30 minutes prior to a lower level contest. Notice I say "at least". I consider myself "late" if I don't meet that criteria.

I still contact my partners if I am the Referee and it is required at the college level. Just usually want to touch base so that they know when I am showing up or any other items that might be not known. And the thing I hate about Arbiter is the schools do not use it or put the correct information on the site. In one of the conferences the assignor for some strange reason does not want us calling the school. Well I went to the wrong school or site for the game and thank God I went early enough to get to the other school. And the problem was the school did not make it clear on any website where they played their games. I wish they would blow up the Arbiter honestly for this reason.

Peace