Hey guys,
Ryan DiMascio here, the guy with this crazy idea.
Although, I'm not sure if:
is the best explanation for it. But any publicity is good publicity, right? All kidding aside, thanks for the shout out, @tpatience
Anyways, sorry I'm late to the thread. Obviously, some things need to be cleared up; so here goes nothing:
The best way I've found to explain Ump Hire is a "Linkedin for umpires", where the primary function is - to create an umpire network as a means to solving some of the umpire community's main problems: recruiting more members, recruiting younger members, training, and evaluating.
We are not trying to disrupt the current system or get the way of "the powers that be" (i.e. assigners, associations, and arbiter). Why fix what ain't broke?
We are simply trying to make everyone's lives easier: help umpires get assigned to more games, help assigners find more umpires, help associations and organizations recruit and train umpires, and help coaches book umpires for last minute pick-up games and scrimmages.
Ultimately, we would like to hook into the Arbiter API and be able to make everyone's lives easier by doing the little easy things that Arbiter refuses to fix like syncing your game schedule with your iCal or Google Calendar, sending you a push notifications 2 hours before a game, etc. Basically, I want to improve the quality of life for umpires.
Thanks for the questions, @Mudisfun I'll assume they all pertain to the "on-demand" part of the platform where coaches can book an umpire for a pick-up game or scrimmage.
We're still trying to get as much feedback as possible before we say for sure one way or the other, but I'll do my best.
1. The umpires set their own rates.
2. The service is completely free to use for umpires and coaches.
3. This benefits umpires because they get more games.
4. Please elaborate.
5. There are many umpires that fly under the radar, which is why assignors are always looking for more guys.
And to address the elephant in the room:
I was in no way intending to "spam" anyone.
Assignors do the same thing when they have games, so I thought to myself, "hey, this is just a platform to help guys get more games... What's the worst that could happen?"
