Questions for HS assigners (not assignor)

[Mizzou2016]

Recently our HS association discussed the topic of whether our assignor should be paid - currently the president of our association assigns all baseball and softball and I'm sure spends a great deal of time doing so. Dues in our association are only $20 and go mostly towards the arbiter fee.



I have a few questions for anyone on here who assigns or knows the process from their association:

1. How much are your dues?

2. Are you paid? And how much? Is it a season flat rate or paid by the game?

3. Do the schools pay you or does it come from association dues?

4. Do you have other duties (e. g. evaluating, training, discipline)?

5. I would like to see more training and evaluations in my group. Is there a good way to address that?



Thanks for the input - feel free to send me a PM if you don't want to broadcast some of the more personal info.

[grayhawk]

We pay $135 for dues, which includes NASO insurance. The assigner gets $3 per game per umpire. As far as I know, he's not paid by other sources. Training, evaluations, ratings, etc are run by other members. We have an Instructional Chairman, Evaluations committees, ratings chairmen, ethics committee, nominations committee, etc.

[noumpere]

The schools pay the assigner.  Something like 6 or 7% of the game fees.

[RichMSN]

I assign all varsity sports for 21 high schools where I live.  I also have other duties (which take considerable time) as the commissioner of a conference.  I'm paid a fixed salary per year.....but I also have a full-time job that pays the mortgage.

I'm not sure what the rate per game comes to, cause I'm too lazy to calculate that.  My biggest sport is basketball, where I assign 348 3-person crews.  I assign volleyball, football, basketball (girls and boys), wrestling, track and field, baseball, and softball.

Nobody should assign for free.  In the end, it doesn't matter who pays the assigner -- there's no such thing as a free lunch -- either the schools pay and that mean less money to pay the officials....or the officials pay a percentage of the assignments.

[umpstu]

$125 for dues.  And the assigner is paid and absolutely should be.  I assign a couple of tournaments and it isn't easy.  I will say this.  The assigner shouldn't be double dipping.  If he is paid by the conference or league he shouldn't be screwing his fellow umpires.  Don't be greedy.

[maineump]

Recently our HS association discussed the topic of whether our assignor should be paid - currently the president of our association assigns all baseball and softball and I'm sure spends a great deal of time doing so. Dues in our association are only $20 and go mostly towards the arbiter fee.



I have a few questions for anyone on here who assigns or knows the process from their association:

1. How much are your dues?

2. Are you paid? And how much? Is it a season flat rate or paid by the game?

3. Do the schools pay you or does it come from association dues?

4. Do you have other duties (e. g. evaluating, training, discipline)?

5. I would like to see more training and evaluations in my group. Is there a good way to address that?



Thanks for the input - feel free to send me a PM if you don't want to broadcast some of the more personal info.

I am a member of our HS E-Board and our assignor is paid.

- Our dues are $65.00. That fee covers the board liability insurance, books and FED test. Individual insurance is up to the member

- The assignor is paid. I believe it is $8.00 per game, and is paid by the schools. he bills them directly.

- The assignor's only other duties are handling ejection reports, reporting to the state association as needed and sending in our names for state playoffs (if the member qualifies).

- We have specific training people, as far as our meetings, clinics and new members training. The evaluations are done by another individual. He pretty much compiles the information that is gathered. Our evaluation system is very much controlled by the member being evaluated, and has a peer component as well.

 

[HuskerUmp22]

$125 for dues.  And the assigner is paid and absolutely should be.  I assign a couple of tournaments and it isn't easy.  I will say this.  The assigner shouldn't be double dipping.  If he is paid by the conference or league he shouldn't be screwing his fellow umpires.  Don't be greedy.

Exactly. Which is why I recently decided I won't work for this one individual who does this. 

[RichMSN]

I've changed my thinking on this -- as an umpire, all I look at now is what I receive for the game and whether I think that's a fair rate.

As an assigner, I have no business collecting from officials -- I already get paid by the league.  And I don't pay the officials anyway.

[johnnyg08]

I don't feel like an assigner should have to give up officiating.  It's possible that he/she might be one of the better officials in the group.

 

 

[umpstu]

I don't feel like an assigner should have to give up officiating.  It's possible that he/she might be one of the better officials in the group.

 

 

But the assigner should not be giving himself the big games.  Our board reviews the assignments before they go to the members.

[maineump]

I don't feel like an assigner should have to give up officiating.  It's possible that he/she might be one of the better officials in the group.

 

 

Our assignor does games like the rest of us, and not all the 'best games' either. He travels like we do, does all classes of varsity ball, does some JV and even middle school stuff. He is good to us, and if there is an opening (no matter the level) he will fill it if no one else is available. Our assignments are based on ratings, and he uses the rating he got for his own assignments as well.

[Tksjewelry]

But the assigner should not be giving himself the big games.  Our board reviews the assignments before they go to the members.

Our assistant UIC (who assigns) still takes game, he definitely doesn't take the best games. Usually he's take the left overs, last minute dropped games, or games that the clubs forgot to call in. He doesn't care if he's on an 8u field or a HS field. He'll often give up higher games he's scheduled for to work with lower level Umpires for training. Sent from my SM-G920P using Tapatalk

[johnnyg08]

But the assigner should not be giving himself the big games.  Our board reviews the assignments before they go to the members.

Sure, not all of the time, but he shouldn't have to always work the garbage either.

Why micromanage your assigner?  

[grayhawk]

Our assigner used to work games, and I never heard even a whisper about the games he gave himself.  Wasn't an issue.

[pnewton]

Our assignors are independent contractors, just like us, that are hired by conferences to assign for some negotiated fee.  There are several guys in my association that assign.  The association handles training and has nothing to do with assignors.  We only pay assignors ten or twelve bucks to cover their arbiter fees.  Some assignors still work games, some don't, some only work games for other assignors but not themselves.

[MB_Ump]

For HS we pay $80 for dues and $70 to the assigner (regardless of how many games you get). For our Rec Association, we pay $50 and the leagues are charged the assigning fee ($3 or $4 if we are issuing the check). I prefer how the Rec Association runs.

[umpstu]

Sure, not all of the time, but he shouldn't have to always work the garbage either.

Why micromanage your assigner?  

I'll rephrase it, not all of the big games.  Especially if he's not the good umpire he thinks he is.

 

[MidAmUmp]

$125 for dues.  And the assigner is paid and absolutely should be.  I assign a couple of tournaments and it isn't easy.  I will say this.  The assigner shouldn't be double dipping.  If he is paid by the conference or league he shouldn't be screwing his fellow umpires.  Don't be greedy.

Here's my take, as an assigner...

Charging schools to assign their schedules & umpires to book them games is not double dipping. Each have separate issues that are worthy of compensation.

I get a lot of calls/e-mails from schools says things like - we're thinking about this...would that be possible? Most of their thoughts are usually based on the assumption that umpires have no lives outside of umpiring and they all own helicopters.

On the officiating side, I get a lot of, If you get in a bind I'll work, I forgot my anniversary, I didn't update my availability even tough you've only sent out 162 emails reminding us to do so...I'm not available...sorry.

That said, an assigner shouldn't be getting rich off either group. If your assigner is living beyond his means, you need to be auditing the books.

[umpstu]

Here's my take, as an assigner...

Charging schools to assign their schedules & umpires to book them games is not double dipping. Each have separate issues that are worthy of compensation.

I get a lot of calls/e-mails from schools says things like - we're thinking about this...would that be possible? Most of their thoughts are usually based on the assumption that umpires have no lives outside of umpiring and they all own helicopters.

On the officiating side, I get a lot of, If you get in a bind I'll work, I forgot my anniversary, I didn't update my availability even tough you've only sent out 162 emails reminding us to do so...I'm not available...sorry.

That said, an assigner shouldn't be getting rich off either group. If your assigner is living beyond his means, you need to be auditing the books.

Good points.  Our assigner does not get paid by the schools.  He is on a 3 year contract with the association and does a great job.  He does not work games, but if chose to do so it would be welcomed by me as he is the senior white hat out here and has common sense.  I feel he should enforce the turn back fee if they don't meet the requirements of the constitution.  I don't know how much summer college leagues pay assigners, but one of the ones I work in must pay the assigner pretty good as when the commisioner found out the assigner was also charging the umpires he had a fit.  

[umpstu]

Here's my take, as an assigner...

Charging schools to assign their schedules & umpires to book them games is not double dipping. Each have separate issues that are worthy of compensation.

I get a lot of calls/e-mails from schools says things like - we're thinking about this...would that be possible? Most of their thoughts are usually based on the assumption that umpires have no lives outside of umpiring and they all own helicopters.

On the officiating side, I get a lot of, If you get in a bind I'll work, I forgot my anniversary, I didn't update my availability even tough you've only sent out 162 emails reminding us to do so...I'm not available...sorry.

That said, an assigner shouldn't be getting rich off either group. If your assigner is living beyond his means, you need to be auditing the books.

Forgot to ask how the advanced clinic went?

[johnnyg08]

Most of their thoughts are usually based on the assumption that umpires have no lives outside of umpiring and they all own helicopters.

Amen!

[Magic]

Like Grayhawk, Our Membership fee is $135. That includes NASO membership. We pay our Assignor $3/game. It usually works out to $60 or so a season. We make(this season) $76/game. So for approximately 3 game fees, we have our membership and assigning fees paid and Insurance for the year. The Assignor job in our Association is no picnic. I think we are they largest unit in the CIF Southern Section. We have 220+ members every year. 

Don't ever question what the Assignor charges. He should always be compensated. I assign off season Baseball games for the local High Schools as well as Assigning for the local Pony League. It is a complete pain and, sometimes, the little bit of money I charge to assign the games is not worth the aggravation. The problem I  have is most of the guys I have working games for me are my friends. And feel guilty charging them more than I do. So I just  keep the rates the same. 

 

[RichMSN]

I like how we assign here -- I work for a group of 21 high schools and assign their varsity officials.  They are smaller schools, in general.

Leaves me *many* schools and assigners to work for.  I work for 3 in baseball, about 5 in football, and maybe 10 in basketball.

I simply don't work my schools in baseball or football.  I've worked the occasional boys basketball date -- maybe 5 or 6 for an entire season and I choose those *very* carefully.  They're never the high profile matchups and I'm mainly using them to evaluate younger officials or people who want to work more in the conference.  I could observe from the stands, but I'd rather get some exercise in the process.

How much do I get paid a year?  Often times it doesn't feel like it's enough....

Edited October 16, 2015 by RichMSN

[MPLSMatt]

Assigning is tough work, and people who do it should be paid and paid well.  They're the ones who still have to find umps when 1) there was a week of rainouts so there are suddenly more games than umpires available, 2) your local pro team is in the playoffs so NO ONE wants to work because everyone wants to go home and watch the big game and they are the ones who field the call from the pissed of coaches is someone no shows.  It's a thankless gig that for whatever reason, a lot of people think is easy. 

In my association they get paid a chunk from the schools - our dues cover Arbiter. 

 

Edited October 16, 2015 by MPLSMatt

[grayhawk]

There's a group here that assigns baseball from 8U to 18U in the Fall and Spring.  The assigner doesn't use Arbiter - everything is managed with emails and spreadsheets, and the assigner fees are between $10 and $15 per game depending on level.  I don't work these games because I think those assigning fees are excessive, even though the net game fees to the official are pretty much "market rate."  I just don't think an assigner should make that kind of money off of my hard work, especially when he's not even willing to use Arbiter which makes it so that I have to remember to block Arbiter manually when I get assigned games from him.

Curious to know others' thoughts on if these assigning fees seem excessive.