What company do you use for game assignments?

[BillyMac]

We've been using Arbiter to assign games for eight years, for two years to rate partners. The only complaint that I know about is that partners can only rate partners, so Arbiter can't be used by officials to rate non-partners that they may have observed, i.e., varsity officials rating junior varsity officials. Many of us use the contacts feature to confirm games with our partners, and with school athletic directors, and we can also use the map feature to remind ourselves of directions to out-of-the-way schools that we may not have been to for several years. We also use Arbiter to send out "email blasts", and to produce invoices with our game assignment fees. We do not use Arbiter to pay officials. Our Arbiter fee is $1,900.00 per year.

[Brad]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Our Arbiter fee is $1,900.00 per year.

How many officials and games? Just curious.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Our Arbiter fee is $1,900.00 per year.

Originally Posted by Brad

How many officials and games? Just curious.

About 325 working officials. About 70 high schools (boys, girls, varsity, junior varsity, freshman), plus a few dozen middle schools. 4027 games, mostly all two person games, so about 8054 assignments.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

We've been using Arbiter to assign games for eight years ...

What's also nice about Arbiter is that some of our "mini" assignment commissioners also use Arbiter, and they can "see" our high school games and, thus, prevent assignment conflicts. The assigner for my Catholic middle school games actually lives in Florida. He sits on a warm, sunny, sandy, beach, with his adult beverage, with an umbrella in it, and uses his tablet computer to assign his Connecticut Catholic middle school games, without having to worry about conflicts with our high school games, because he can "see" our high school games. What a life.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

What's also nice about Arbiter is that some of our "mini" assignment commissioners also use Arbiter, and they can "see" our high school games and, thus, prevent assignment conflicts. The assigner for my Catholic middle school games actually lives in Florida.

I could save you about $600 and do the same things.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

I could save you about $600 and do the same things.

I have absolutely no idea what my Catholic middle school "mini" assignment commissioner pays for Arbiter. He's not a publicly traded company so we don't get to look at his books, both sets of them. But he does have beautiful home in Florida.

Can Reftown, or any other assignment software, "link" with Arbiter, or for that matter, any different assignment software?

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Can Reftown, or any other assignment software, "link" with Arbiter, or for that matter, any different assignment software?

Doubtful. I would think that most of them wouldn't want to open up such access for competitive reasons.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by Camron Rust

I could save you about $600 and do the same things.

Will Reftown allow officials to rate non-partners that they may have observed, i.e., varsity officials rating junior varsity officials? Arbiter only allows officials to rate assigned partners. We have to use our own software, invented by one of our members, to rate non-partners that officials may have observed. The "non-partner" software is pretty good, but deosn't 'link" with Arbiter. It would be nice if Arbiter would allow us to rate non-partners.

[Adam]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Will Reftown allow officials to rate non-partners that they may have observed, i.e., varsity officials rating junior varsity officials? Arbiter only allows officials to rate assigned partners. We have to use our own software, invented by one of our members, to rate non-partners that officials may have observed. The "non-partner" software is pretty good, but deosn't 'link" with Arbiter. It would be nice if Arbiter would allow us to rate non-partners.

While I would love to see Camron get more business, I know Arbiter allows officials to rate non-partners. Our assigner has set it up so they can go in and self-assign as evaluators prior to the game.

[Camron Rust]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Will Reftown allow officials to rate non-partners that they may have observed, i.e., varsity officials rating junior varsity officials? Arbiter only allows officials to rate assigned partners. We have to use our own software, invented by one of our members, to rate non-partners that officials may have observed. The "non-partner" software is pretty good, but deosn't 'link" with Arbiter. It would be nice if Arbiter would allow us to rate non-partners.

Yes, we support various levels of game ratings systems. It can be configured to allow access by anyone or selected authorized officials.

[BillyMac]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Our Arbiter fee is $1,900.00 per year.

Actually I was looking at the wrong figures. The $1,900.00 is the estimated cost in our association's 2013-14 budget. We paid $1,800.00 for the 2012-13 season.

[BayStateRef]

Originally Posted by BillyMac

Actually I was looking at the wrong figures. The $1,900.00 is the estimated cost in our association's 2013-14 budget. We paid $1,800.00 for the 2012-13 season.

$5 or $6 per official is the typical Arbiter cost.