Info on Refpay and 3-person JV crews
 

Worked a JV game with a partner last night that told me that he heard officials in the greater Cleveland area are going to get paid, beginning next year, with an app/site called "Refpay." Sounds sort of like a Paypal type of site.

Anyone use this and can comment about...anything...good or bad?

Also, he told me that after talking to one of the more prominent assignors in the area that he (the assignor) is planning to go 3-person crews on boys JV next year. Any of you working 3-person JV?

Where I work most of our nights are double headers with a lot of them being JV/VG or JV/VB. It the school uses 3 man for their V games then we do the JV games 3 man.

It's part of Arbiter.

Some like it, some don't. I prefer getting a check at the game or mailed to me from each school. ymmv.

I like RefPay, all it takes on my end is to sign in and transfer the funds to my back account.

Cleveland CYO uses RefPay to pay their officials. Through RefPay, I believe you can either request a check, prepaid card, or do an electronic transfer to your bank account. If I remember correctly, requesting a paper check has a fee, performing the electronic transfer does not have a fee, and I am not sure about the prepaid card if it has a fee or not.

Around here, we get paid once or twice a season instead of after games, and we get paid by associations or leagues rather than schools, so RefPay vs check vs direct deposit (one of our groups) makes little difference to me.

My biggest concern about RefPay is that I've heard Arbiter stores passwords in plaintext. That seems like a scary thing when related to anything to do with banking or money.

I prefer getting paid this way - don't tell the IRS
 

Cash Is A Dinosaur, Extinct ...
 

Four, of the seventy, high schools that we service have gone to RefPay. I'm sure that more will follow. I didn't bother me too much to give them my Social Security number, I've been doing that on W-9's (often left at the scorer's table, or on a desk in the coach's office) for years, but it did cause me to pause when they asked for my checking account number. Our assignment commissioner has allowed us to block out these four schools, but as more schools go to RefPay, I'm not sure that he'll be able to continue to allow us to do that.

RefPay is really quite easy and more convenient for me. No need to make trip to the bank to deposit a check and as long as I do the manual transfer online it's free. No muss, no fuss, no waiting for the check in the mail.

3-person JV games are great for providing a training ground for 3-man officials needed on the varsity level. Without it many officials' first 3-person games are real contests, which isn't always the best. One conference around here formerly had 3-man F/JV DH's, which really helped to seed the next generation of varsity officials with needed experience before they were drawn up to the varsity level. Superintendents -- apart from the advice of the AD's and coaches to the contrary -- abandoned that setup as a cost-savings measure. Bad decision. Once 3-person is abandoned, it's very difficult to get back. Some are working on it now, but look's like it'll be a while...

Years ago I would work double header assignments that involved working a JV game as 3 person. That was also before I moved to the Chicago area. I think that still goes on from time to time at many small rural area schools but did not take place at the bigger schools.

I also did know of a few conferences in more central Illinois that were using 3 Person Crews for lower level games. But not sure it was common.

Peace

That's How I Pay My Monthly Official Forum Dues ...
 

Much scarier is MarkPadgettPay®.

All but the smallest schools in my southeast Ohio are 3-man JV. Most schools in the area have the same crew do both the JV and V girls games, boys is always a different crew unless someone didnt show up.

It's now called ArbiterPay
 

That's not true. It's no different than logging into the Arbiter. That password appears as ....... except for the last character keyed, visible for a few seconds.

It's pretty difficult to transfer your game fees to your bank account without having your account number. Giving them your account number is no different than making a purchase or paying a bill online.

But if you prefer, they will mail you a check or credit it to a ArbiterPay debit card, both for a fee.

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3 man JV games - We've had 3 man crews in several leagues for around 15 years. The problem with most associations that are still working 2 man is they don't want to reduce their game fees at all in order to incorporate a 3rd official. That's what it's going to take in most areas to get 3 man added.

That isn't what he's talking about. He's referring to how passwords are stored in the system's database. There are good ways to do it with varying levels of security but storing them in plaintext is the absolute worst way.

I can't say for sure how they actually do it, but if a system can email you your password when you forget, then they might not be storing it in plaintext but are definitely not doing it the best way.

I sent an e-mail to them expressing my displeasure about the password thing. They replied with a link to a forum on their site discussing the matter. Their tech posted in that forum that they do not store the password in plain text in their database. It is encrypted, along with the social security numbers and taxpayer ID numbers, in a manner that allows it to be decrypted, which is how they are able to e-mail it to you when requested.

He claimed they are working on a one-way hash method for passwords so that it cannot be decrypted, but the SSN and TINs must remain in the encrypted format so they can be used in reports, etc.