Assignor Fees

[LMSANS]

To twist this question a little, who is paying an assignor's fee?

In my association, we pay the assignor a %, and then if you turn back a game you pay the turn back fee. A double whammy & you didn't even work the game.

[yawetag]

Split this one away from Turn-back Fees, simply to keep the discussions from merging too much.

My association charges a fee for each season, then charges a 5% assignor fee for each game that's paid by the association.

[semper_fi_72]

Have you ever worked as a Assignor?

If you haven't you have no idea what kind of problem turnbacks can cause.

If you take a game and then tell me you can not work it, you are causing me to do more work or even having to work the game myself since I am obligated to have a umpire at the game.

Cause me to jump through hoops, there will be a fee.

Find your own replacement and contact me with that, fine, your off the hook.

[umped up]

To twist this question a little, who is paying an assignor's fee?

In my association, we pay the assignor a %, and then if you turn back a game you pay the turn back fee. A double whammy & you didn't even work the game.

We are charged $4 per game and a check is written from me to him at the end of every month. No turn down fees, just less games if you do it more than a few times without good reason.

[KLAH316]

All of the associations that I am an independent contractor for have annual dues that cover their costs.

I don't pay anything else to them.

[mstaylor]

We pay an association fee that includes our state dues. Then we pay an assigner's fee. No turnback fee.

[cyclonehokiece]

Association fee and then 3% for baseball, 5% for softball. USSSA pay your license fee, the assignor is paid by the organizaition.

In Wisconsin and Iowa, schools paid us directly, so we paid nothing to assignors except a small fee (like $10). Everything else was paid to the school right to the assignor.

[Kevin Finnerty]

High school, MSBL... $3 per game. I usually pay it as soon as I get my original schedule. And guess what? I am first or near first in line for last-minute game assignments. Some of them are great assignments. So far this season, which is a little over three weeks old, I have already been given five extra D-I varsity games and a JV eval game. Two of the varsity games were three-man tournament finals. There will surely be more of them, too.

There are a number of ways to be a go-to guy, and one of them is pay your fees early. Another is never turn a game back. My next turn-back will be my first one.

[LMSANS]

Have you ever worked as a Assignor?

If you haven't you have no idea what kind of problem turnbacks can cause.

If you take a game and then tell me you can not work it, you are causing me to do more work or even having to work the game myself since I am obligated to have a umpire at the game.

Cause me to jump through hoops, there will be a fee.

Find your own replacement and contact me with that, fine, your off the hook.

No I haven't and I never hope to. I'm not saying it's not earned.

I actually asked the question on the other topic because I was trying to see if there was a correlation between assignor fees & turn-back fees.

I work several leagues that the assignor gets paid by the league. No turn-back fees there. My HS association is the one that gets both assignor & turn-back fees.

[Kevin Finnerty]

The charging of turn-back fees is a great way to do it. In fact, they should be doubled if the turn-back is within 72 hours of the game.

And, to the guys in my unit and other associations who turn back games: Keep 'em coming! I think I pick up two dozen games a year that way.

[grayhawk]

HS: $60 Annual Association Dues. $3 per game to the assignor. Don't know about turnback fees - never turned one back (nor have I ever declined a game). Assignor invoices (through Arbiter) twice per season. I pay immediately.

USSSA: $100 Annual Association Dues - taken from first payout. No assignor fee, but there are fines if you decline or turnback games. Never declined or turned back.

Pony: Depends. Paid $20 to one assignor for the year and no further fees. Another assignor takes no fees, but it's less organized.

IBOA: $25 Annual Dues - not sure about anything else. Have not worked a game for them yet. Will work fall games there.

[IABlue]

Association fee and then 3% for baseball, 5% for softball.  USSSA pay your license fee, the assignor is paid by the organizaition.

In Wisconsin and Iowa, schools paid us directly, so we paid nothing to assignors except a small fee (like $10).  Everything else was paid to the school right to the assignor.

This.Our high school group charges a fee from the schools to provide them with officials for the varying sports.  I believe it's like $175 for baseball and softball.  So the schools pay our organization directly.  The umpires pay annual dues of $25.  That's it.  Doesn't matter how many or how few games we work.  Not sure I could ever be part of a group that's taking a bite out of me for every date worked.  I would certainly go out of my way to work as many games that I could find that were outside of that organization.Our college group has no annual dues whatsoever.

[Pops]

The association which assigns HS games charges us a $30 membership fee per year. The state HS association charges $45 per year to re-license us. The high schools pay the assigner for his work in getting them officials for every game. The home team HS pays us directly for doing their game. No other assigner fees.

The local youth league umpire association charges us a $35 membership fee. The local youth league supports the assigner with a small annual salary and pays umpires every 2 weeks. No other assigner fee.

[mstaylor]

We have our next year's dues and the current year's assigner's fees taken out of our closeout check. At the beginning of the year everyone starts with a clean slate. Years ago each umpire wrote a check for dues at the beginning of the season and another at the end for assignor's fees. The problem was some guys had trouble doing this and the assignor was constantly chasing guys for money. He finally said be paid up or no schedule. At the time we were a baseball/softball group. When we split we went to the current system.

[IABlue]

We have our next year's dues and the current year's assigner's fees taken out of our closeout check. At the beginning of the year everyone starts with a clean slate. Years ago each umpire wrote a check for dues at the beginning of the season and another at the end for assignor's fees. The problem was some guys had trouble doing this and the assignor was constantly chasing guys for money. He finally said be paid up or no schedule. At the time we were a baseball/softball group. When we split we went to the current  system.

You have dues AND assignor fees? I would hate to work in your area. Are these guys driving Mazeratti's to the meetings, or what?

[Umpire in Chief]

I have 2 associations.

In VA I pay annual dues and the assigner gets a booking fee directly from the school systems and teams which sign contracts. My dues cover insurance, PONY registration, VHSL registration, and a number of other things.We pay turn back fees and have fines for not being in proper uniform, missing/ being late to meetings, cussing in a meeting, being late to a game, and a number of other things.

IN NC I pay a fee to the NCHSAA and a fee directly to my assigner. I'm not aware of any fines or fees.

[mstaylor]

We have our next year's dues and the current year's assigner's fees taken out of our closeout check. At the beginning of the year everyone starts with a clean slate. Years ago each umpire wrote a check for dues at the beginning of the season and another at the end for assignor's fees. The problem was some guys had trouble doing this and the assignor was constantly chasing guys for money. He finally said be paid up or no schedule. At the time we were a baseball/softball group. When we split we went to the current system.

You have dues AND assignor fees? I would hate to work in your area. Are these guys driving Mazeratti's to the meetings, or what?

No, but the lion share of the dues are state dues, the association just passes it along. The fee is like four or five bucks a game. I don't have a problem paying assigner fees, it is an arduous and thankless job. I have a feeling that will be my job whenever he decides to retire. I don't see anybody else that is willing to step up to do it. I personally enjoy being the interpreter over assigning but I will do what is needed.

.We pay turn back fees and have fines for not being in proper uniform, missing/ being late to meetings, cussing in a meeting, being late to a game, and a number of other things.

If we paid fines for cussing in meetings I would have to work a lot more games to break even. When I teach I can be a touch salty.

[IABlue]

We have our next year's dues and the current year's assigner's fees taken out of our closeout check. At the beginning of the year everyone starts with a clean slate. Years ago each umpire wrote a check for dues at the beginning of the season and another at the end for assignor's fees. The problem was some guys had trouble doing this and the assignor was constantly chasing guys for money. He finally said be paid up or no schedule. At the time we were a baseball/softball group. When we split we went to the current  system.

You have dues AND assignor fees?  I would hate to work in your area.  Are these guys driving Mazeratti's to the meetings, or what?

No, but the lion share of the dues are state dues, the association just passes it along. The fee is like four or five bucks a game. I don't have a problem paying assigner fees, it is an arduous and thankless job. I have a feeling that will be my job whenever he decides to retire. I don't see anybody else that is willing to step up to do it. I personally enjoy being the interpreter over assigning but I will do what is needed.

.We pay turn back fees and have fines for not being in proper uniform, missing/ being late to meetings, cussing in a meeting, being late to a game, and a number of other things.

If we paid fines for cussing in meetings I would have to work a lot more games to break even. When I teach I can be a touch salty.

I would love to assign under your set-up.Let me know when the time comes, I might be up for a move.

[mstaylor]

I would love to assign under your set-up.Let me know when the time comes, I might be up for a move.

Sounds good. :)

[NCAAump2]

My HS group charges (I think) $30 for the spring and $15 or $20 for the summer, and a 5% assigning fee on TOP of that.

College group is a $50 annual fee with no assigning fees.

Youth leagues and tournaments don't charge fees.

[yawetag]

My HS group charges (I think) $30 for the spring and $15 or $20 for the summer, and a 5% assigning fee on TOP of that.

The assigning fee is only for games that are paid through the organization, which includes high school games and a few summer leagues. Other than that, we're paid a certain amount at the plate with no fees attached.

[noumpere]

You have dues AND assignor fees? I would hate to work in your area. Are these guys driving Mazeratti's to the meetings, or what?

If theres an assigner then theres assigning fees its just a matter of how the money flows. You could get $75 for a game and then give $5 to the assignger or the school could give the assigner $5 and you $70 or the school could give the assigner $75 and he could send $70 of that onto you and theres probably some other ways of doing it too.

In a similar vain, dues could be used just for training, room rental, insurance, ect. and be set at say $30 or could include licensing, rule books, patches etc and be set at $40 or could include fees to assigners and be set at $75.

[hckyosgood30]

Our unit simply has us pay our association fee and assignors fee. We have a bracket of dates the later you wait to pay the more $$ you pay. So the guys who are on the ball get rewarded that way. There technically is a turn back fee but with our current assignor if you let him know with plenty of notice and/or have a reasonible reason he's pretty understanding. If you start making it a habbit then he'll enforce the penalty.

[Ump29]

Here is how it happens in our area. There is one umpire association for the province. Umpires pay an annual fee that includes registration , insurance and annual training. I am the assigner for my region. The baseball associations pay me an annual fee to cover assigning for the season not including tournaments which are paid for separately on a case by case basis. The umpires are paid in cash at the field by the home team. The assigning of about 800 to 900 games is done manually on a week by week basis so there are no turn backs (or very few due to some reason that comes up suddenly). Season is from May to September.