SPECIAL NOTES ON ASSIGNING
Offers are made via ArbiterSports.com. This section covers this assignor’s expectations for utilizing this tool for assigning.
CALENDAR BLOCKS -- A referee who is willing and able to work on a given day informs the assignor by providing an open calendar day in the Arbiter. It is the understanding that if a referee provides an open date that he will accept any assignment the assignor shall offer. Therefore, it is important that the referee keep their schedule up to date in the Arbiter.
One only needs to block Saturdays and Sundays.
Reminder of some schedule conflicts to block:
(1) Your playing schedule (including State Cup)*
(2) Your practice schedule (if Saturday or Sunday)
(3) A band trip or competition
(4) A choral trip or competition
(5) Cross country meets
(6) Prom or Homecoming
(7) Girl Scouts
(8) Boy Scouts
(9) Trip to Kings Dominion
(10) SATs
Even if you send me a note that you “can’t ref next weekend,” you will still need to block that in ArbiterSports.com.net. I cannot possibly remember the content of every email or conversation of every ref.
STATE CUP --
CHECKING EMAIL -- Generally, a referee has four days from the time an offer is made until the time the offer expires. The expectation is that every referee will check email at least once every 2-3 days. When an assignment offer is made an email notice is sent to the referee. However, the referee should always log into the Arbiter website every 2-3 days and check their schedule.
(a) Players -- If you are currently playing on a team that will be participating in State Cup please inform me of this so we can schedule around that once games begin. For now: Block the first two Saturdays for State Cup. If you advance after the first two weeks and have accepted games for the third week, contact me immediately after you win on Saturday to turnback those games.
(b) Referees -- If you have been contacted to referee in State Cup I have no problem with you accepting games from me then later giving back an assignment for State Cup games. Enjoy the assignment and grow from it.
SCHEDULES
Playing schedules online:
PWSI schedules are at http://www.pwsi.org/
SFL schedules are at http://www.sflsoccer.org/
NCSL schedules are at http://www.ncsl-soccer.com/
ODSL schedules are at http://www.odsl.org/
WAGS schedules are at http://www.wagsl.com/
OFFERS
ACCEPTING AN OFFER -- When the referee receives a game offer in ArbiterSports.com they must log in and click on ACCEPT. Once accepted, the game belongs to them and they cannot unassign themselves from the match.
DECLINING AN OFFER -- If a referee receives an offer and cannot accept the match, they do so by clicking on DECLINE. However, because a referee is expected to keep their calendar up to date, declinations should rarely occur.
Generally, a referee who declines two or more offers in a season is deemed not to be interested in refereeing and no further game offers will be made.
It is good practice that should a declination become necessary that the referee uses the popup form and includes a reason for declining. "Something came up is not a valid reason."
EXPIRED OFFERS -- If a referee does not accept or decline an offer within the four day window of acceptance, the offer expires and a calendar block is automatically entered on the referee’s calendar which keeps the referee from being offered more assignments for that date. Like declinations, a referee who allows two or more offers in a season to expire without acting on them is deemed not to be interested in refereeing and no further game offers will be made.
TURN BACKS -- Referees are expected to honor their commitment to an accepted assignment. Occasionally there are valid reasons for not being able to honor an assignment, usually involving illnesses.
Likewise, there are soccer reasons, usually a rescheduled game in which the referee is a player, which will conflict. These will be accepted as a valid reason for a turn back so long as the referee notifies the assignor within 1-2 days after the game has been rescheduled. This means the referee has to check their schedule online on one of the league websites immediately following their own canceled game and cannot simply claim on Friday night that the "coach just informed me."
Within 48 hours of an assignment, e.g., Thursday for a Saturday assignment, a referee who needs to turn back an assignment MUST make personal contact with the assignor. Sending an email or leaving a voice message does not constitute notification to the assignor.
An email on short notice (less than 48 hours) may mean the match will not be covered, the referee may be fined for being a no-show, and the referee will not receive future offers. Bottom line: Less than 48 hours you must call and talk with the assignor. Leaving a voice mail is the same as leaving an email -- it does not guarantee the message has been received.
NO SHOWS -- Since referees are the only people paid to be at the field, and are paid by the players’ fees, it is important that every effort is made to honor one’s commitment. The worst thing a referee can do is not show up for a schedule assignment. A referee who is a no show will be fined the game fee for that game and any games in the set. In addition, the referee will probably not be assigned any games the remainder of the season.
ARRIVING LATE - Referees are expected to be at the field no less than 30 minutes before the scheduled match. Occasionally the assignor will accept the fact that the referee cannot be there in that time period and make this a condition of the assignment. If a referee is running late, they should call one or more of the scheduled referee crew as shown on their game schedule, as printed.
Referees must be aware of their assignments. Their game schedule is available at all times in ArbiterSports.com. They should print their schedule and take it with them to the field. Reading the schedule wrong, be it wrong time, wrong day, or wrong field, is not an acceptable excuse for missing an assignment.
OPPORTUNITES -- Efforts will be made to assign referees at least every other weekend to multiple game sets. Referees can enhance their opportunities by:
* Attending meetings
* Requesting mentoring and development assignments
* Checking email frequently
* Responding to Open Game Thursday messages
CARPOOLS AND FAMILIES -- The assignor shall attempt to assign referees from the same family, or by request, referees who otherwise carpool together, to the same complex at the same time.
DEVELOPMENTAL ASSIGNMENTS -- If you have refereed two seasons or more and desire to achieve more challenging assignments, kindly let me know and we will work a plan of increasingly more challenging matches with some mentoring opportunities for you as well.
ATTACHMENT - PLAYING SCHEDULES FOR GAMES WE ASSIGN -- If you play for or coach a team that we assign, please respond to this message with that team name. We will "attach" you to your team’s home schedule so we do not assign you during that time. You will need to block your "away" schedule. If you are a parent for one of these players and always want to be at your child’s game, please contact us as well. These teams include:
* PWSI-SFL teams
* PWSI-Rec U12 and below (to U08s)
SFL PLAYERS -- If you play for SFL we have to carefully work around your schedule. If you don’t contact me with your information you will end up getting very few games.
CONFLICTS OF INTEREST - If you have a sibling or parent associated with another team that I assign, you should not be assigned or accept an assignment to their game. Please contact me with the name of the team so I can block you from their games.
MAX GAMES PER DAY -- When I set up an account for you in the Arbiter I use the default value of three games per day. If you would like that to be either two or four games, kindly inform me so I assign the right number for you.
Please note that some of you work for multiple assignors, which is ok. However, this assignor will not use a referee for afternoon games if the referee has worked in the morning for another assignor. The maximum games per day extends across all assigning groups. It is not in the best interest of the game, or the referee, to assign a referee to 6-7 games in a day.
MARK "READY" BUT BLOCK THE DATE -- A number of you have either never checked the box READY (to be assigned) or unchecked it from ready status. If you are not ready to be assigned I still need you to check the box ready but block your calendar dates. Reason: I run a report for available officials and strangely enough, it only checks to see if a date is blocked and not whether ready to be assigned is checked. Check the box (Ready) and block the dates.
BEHIND THE ASSIGNING PROCESS -- Just to share some info, when I begin to assign for a date I sketch out a full schedule and make offers to officials. In a perfect world, because the officials have blocked their calendars, all offers will be accepted. I then take a list of officials who did not receive an initial offer for one week and immediately place them on the calendar for the next week of games. Therefore, no available official will miss more than one week of games.
Although I could break games into single game assignments and ensure that everyone works one game per week, this is not an efficient use of your time. It is better for your to have two games one week and none the next instead of one per week.
I typically break games into two or three "linked" assignments. If you find you can accept just part of a linked assignment, email me and I’ll see what I can do. I typically don’t assign one game at a time but must if that is what the league schedules.
Referees will often see an offer for 2-3 weeks out. That does not mean they will not receive an offer for the upcoming week. It simply means we wanted to guarantee the next assignment. Even if we made offers for the coming weekend, as referees decline offers, that opens up opportunities for other referees.
If you must decline, please feel free to send along a note as to why the calendar was open but the assignment won’t work out. I am pretty easy to work with (IMHO) and pretty flexible but the point is that we communicate. I don’t mind you working with other assignors and can facilitate that -- just don’t give two assignors the same availability.
Thanks for your cooperation. I can’t think of a nicer group of referees that I would rather be working with than the ones of PWSRA.