NOCRA Referee Survey We would like to know your thoughts on how we assign games. Please take the survey below...
Our Goal it to assign you to games in the most efficient way, with the games refereed and managed in a professional manner.
There are three challenges we face this year. (1) the growth in our membership and number of games we are assigning; (2) contacting referees, it appears that texting and social media are additional forms of communication that we may have to accommodate; and (3) referee availability, coverage, declines and turn-backs. We would like to know your thoughts.
Self assigning has changed considerably over the last 5 years, especially from the Arbiter protocols. Arbiter used to limit the amount of games refs could self assign each day, that is no longer the case. Unfortunately some refs will self-assign six (6) games in a row, which is not permitted in State Cup, and definitely not acceptable to the tournaments and leagues we serve. This creates more work for our assignors and again our goal is to be efficient to keep the costs of assigning down for the membership. The majority of games all associations assign are u14 and younger and many experienced referees will not self-assign these, although it is vital that our new members and those with less experience have an experienced referee on the match to manage it and provide feedback and advice.
In the past referees did not see games on self assign unless it was made available for self assign, they have the proper rating and without schedule conflicts. Arbiter changed this, for example: referees that are available for 1 of the 3 games will see the set on self assign, yet when they try to assign an error message is presented. If the referee is not rated for the set, the referee will be presented with the following error message. I am sure it is confusing and frustrating to our referees and it is the same for the assignors. Think about the amount of new officials that join us every year that have to educated on Arbiter and self assigning.