Arbiter Mandate
 

I had seen a thread a week or so regarding mandates by the State governing bodies on officiating. GHSA has issued a mandate requiring us to use Arbiter for all registration and assigning of officials.

I was wondering if any other states have made this move. If so, how successful or unsuccessful has it been? What the reasons given for the mandate? What did the governing body get out of the move?

Everybody does it
 

In Kentucky, I believe all sports use Arbiter. (I know basketball and baseball do) Part of our state dues go toward the Arbiter user fee. I have no idea how much the fee per official is.

Here, in SE PA, there is no mandate for school basketball, the only state-sanctioned sport I currently work. Some basketball assignors use it, some don't.

I can only speculate about what a governing body would get. Increased consistency and accountability, as people have to accept/decline assignments? Ease in pre-game communication among partners? A more structured system for submitting post-game incidents in reports? If the state also implements refpay, maybe some more methodical payment.

I dream of the day when all of our conferences and sports use one system for assigning. As it is now, some use Arbiter, some use rSchool, some use RefRanking/Athletix, and some still send out paper contracts.

I'd be happy to move everything to Arbiter -- would be the best thing ever for us.

I agree that the multiple systems is a pain. But, I'd rather move everything off the arbiter than on to it. ;)

+1.

I share your dream. I have to keep an eye on:
*Arbiter (NCAAW & NJ HS)
*Reftown (NYC GV)
*Presto (NCAAW)
*email (NYC BV)

Somehow I have avoided double-booking anyone (knock wood).

The kid from Chester looked good last night. I have some cousins who played at Academy Park.


Our state association hasn't mandated anything. Both my HS boards utilize Arbiter. The previous commissioner on my local board lost his position in 2010 in part because he refused to go to electronic scheduling; he was still using pen and paper and sending out assignment on an Execl spreadsheet.

It's funny - part of the reason I decided not to reapply for the assigning gig I had in 2007 was because the teams insisted I go back to manual scheduling. I refused. The guy doing the job now is STILL emailing out assignments manually 7 years later.

Being retired, I LOVE those emails (or occasionally a phone call) at 8 or 9 am, asking if I'm free that afternoon. Sure! Where, what time? :)

WA State uses Arbiter for all sports.

We get those emails, and we use arbiter for all levels (I think it's mandated for HS ball, but I'm not sure). I started using Arbiter when I moved to my current city. Before that, in the same state, my assigner was using paper assignments. My last season there, I didn't get the last page and thus had no idea that there was a game for me that I missed. This was 6 or 7 years ago.

I have no idea if they're using arbiter now, I imagine they are.

Arbiter is mandated for any games in the Chicago area with almost every assignor. Not a state mandate, but if you want to work in most conferences this way, you have to pay to be on Arbiter.

Peace

Rut,

The official pays a fee? How much?

Bob,

Any experiences you care to share?