You will not find many actual Little League affiliated leagues in the country that pay for umpires. It is not a written rule of the charter, but they add cliff notes and frown on it. It is up to the UIC to keep a good pool of guys. With that being said, my current position on our LL board is equipment manger. We used communal gear that ranged from the pillow to some moldy CP that was petrified in the shape of a W. I now have a bag sitting in the board room with a new Diamond iX3 set, five Smitty shirts of varying size and color, Smitty adjustable waist pants, plate shoes if they fit, hat, belt, ball bags, brush, clicker, etc. etc. It took me some time as I did not just go buy this stuff retail. The shirts for example I paid $25 for. This will be our communal gear bag for the upcoming season.You use it, you wash it please. I am working on another bag as we speak in the event a new umpire comes along this season and needs gear, we can give him the communal bag at a good price and rotate them through. Our board will actually buy a proper uniform and work with a new umpire to not only get them in some protective gear, but also look the part before they ever step on the field. The catch is making sure they are not a one hit wonder. Can't be giving away gear for one season of work. We just held our district All-Star tournament and everyone noticed how one of the local leagues looked like they pulled a homeless guy off the street and put them in a CP and shinnies that are for a 12 year old. Every LL is going to be different. Instead of my business sponsoring a season and that money going to the general fund, I use that money and buy things myself and put them to use. Not that the league wouldn't buy them, but it allows me better control of getting what I know we need. Like proper communal gear, gear lots, and so on.Our UIC past and present though set a little higher bar then the standard, "Hey Dad, come hold this pillow and ump our game". We luck out here though and have 3-4 older guys that have helped the league our for years so we don't have to pull from the stands that often.