Assignor an active official

[rskinner]

My vote is YES to both situations. Here's my rationale:
1. In NH, our association has less than 200 members working games, most of which start at 4 PM. The state is broken into 6 regions, each of which are assigned by a member living in that region. As working assigner, I handled 283 games with a core of 26 umpires with only 65% availability, in 43 game days. Our assigners have to work in the district they live. That's how I get to know my talent to insure the product on the field is credible.
2. We have had active coaches on our board, one of whom was a respected member of the Executive Board of the NHBUA. We encourage this because we feel this will help insure our membership will use the association mechanics and the product will be checked by another pair of knowledgeable eyes. We have also had some problems with a member coach taking advantage of his situation. This was quickly rectified by the assigner and the veteran umpires in the region in which he coached.
Good Luck!