Justylove
RefChat Addict
I thought i'd put down some thoughts on appointment secretaries and their importance for some of the new referees coming through the ranks. I'm not an appointment secretary myself, so its written purely from a referees perspective!
Who Are They & What Do They Do?
The appointment secretary is the person that has control over where and when you referee, they are the ones that give you games. As you start your career, getting to know who they are and for which leagues they appoint is a crucial first step.
Good appointment secretaries will make sure as a new referee you are looked after, they will select games for you to referee based on their knowledge of the league and the teams and your level of experience. As you work with them, they'll gradually move you up to more challenging games to help test you out. They will never give you a game where they know it will be beyond your ability.
I'm going to assume for the purposes of this, that you have one league that you focus on per day as a starting point for each day (i.e. you referee on a Saturday and a Sunday and have one league for each that never conflict). I'll cover juggling multiple leagues with multiple appointment secretaries later.
Closed Dates
This is a term you'll hear a lot. "Send in your closed dates for next month by the 25th of this month" simply speaking, give the availability of when you CANNOT referee a game. Each secretary operates slightly differently, some will assume if you don't provide closed dates, you are available and will appoint you to games. Others will not appoint you at all if you have not provided them. Getting into the habit of providing these dates and updating them as they change is a great practice. You have been rostered on to work on the second Saturday of next month which you'd given as an open date? Drop the secretary a mail letting them know as soon as you know.
Certainly at local league level, the appointment secretary will likely be waiting for some of the higher level leagues to appoint their referees, then seeing who they have in their pool of available referees.
Honesty & Communication
Being honest with the appointment secretary is critical. I've had conversations over the years with mine at various times to say "I can do a game for you this Saturday, but it needs to be as local as you can to my home as i've got an event I need to get to in the evening" Most leagues are short of referees, so they'll bend over backwards to help you.
Likewise, if you get an appointment and you've forgotten to close the date, be honest and tell them as soon as you know. This gives them time to fix the issue. Don't wait until the day before the game. Try not to be the referee that does this every month though!
Injuries happen - you could be doing a game on a Saturday and hurt yourself, meaning you need to come off the game on a Sunday. Again be honest and try and give an idea of how long you think you will be out for. "I sprained my ankle, I think its going to be a couple of weeks, can you please also take me off next weekends game?"
Moving Up - Multiple Leagues
As you progress and move up from a L7, more leagues will become open to you on the same days. This will mean juggling multiple appointment secretaries. You may get invited to join the local Supply League as an AR, you may get appointed to county cup matches. As a current Level 5, I have 4 different appointment secretaries, one for the Supply League, one for the 'county leagues' including the Step 7 league, one for county cup competitions and finally one for the grassroots, local league. Making sure that all of them are kept updated is critical. A blanket email with closed dates and updates - "i've been appointed to <x> league on <x> date so its now closed" is clear for everyone.
When dealing with multiple appointment secretaries, you also should not be closing different dates for different secretaries. If you are an AR on a Supply League, you should not be closing dates with that secretary, simply because you want to do a middle rather than a line. Those are the things that do get noticed and will give you a bad reputation. However, being honest with the secretary works here as well. I got injured when doing my 6-5 promotion and was concerned I was not going to get my required number of middles in. I spoke to the secretary for the Supply League, as i'd done my lines and she was fine about not appointing me on the line for a couple of months - it swung both ways as once I was through the games I needed, I offered to do a few more than normal to make up for it, which she took me up on, a win-win for all concerned.
Another thing i've found works well. If your game gets called off after the appointment but before arriving at the ground, i always make a point of calling the appointment secretary for the league in question, telling them and asking them if they need me to go somewhere else. If they say no, I let the other secretaries know that they can call on me if they are short themselves. Sometimes the answer is "no, have the day off" especially if your game is off due to the weather, other times you'll get another game.
Conclusion
Appointment Secretaries are the most important person you will deal with week in and week out. They quickly work out what type of referee they are dealing with. Are you reliable and will fulfil your appointments, or will you cry off at short notice? Are you one of their go to people that if they are short they can call you up and ask if you can help them out? Do you have the ability and temperament to do the bigger games, like a title decider, or the "needle matches" where a firm hand is required?
Their perception of you over the course of your engagement with them, will define how much trust they put in you. They have a big say in who gets the end of season cup finals, they'll be looking at rewarding the referees who have worked with them over the season to make their life easier, over the unreliable, disorganised one who constantly causes them a problem. The more you work with them, the more they'll support you in making sure you are looked after as you progress.
I hope this has been a valuable read!
Who Are They & What Do They Do?
The appointment secretary is the person that has control over where and when you referee, they are the ones that give you games. As you start your career, getting to know who they are and for which leagues they appoint is a crucial first step.
Good appointment secretaries will make sure as a new referee you are looked after, they will select games for you to referee based on their knowledge of the league and the teams and your level of experience. As you work with them, they'll gradually move you up to more challenging games to help test you out. They will never give you a game where they know it will be beyond your ability.
I'm going to assume for the purposes of this, that you have one league that you focus on per day as a starting point for each day (i.e. you referee on a Saturday and a Sunday and have one league for each that never conflict). I'll cover juggling multiple leagues with multiple appointment secretaries later.
Closed Dates
This is a term you'll hear a lot. "Send in your closed dates for next month by the 25th of this month" simply speaking, give the availability of when you CANNOT referee a game. Each secretary operates slightly differently, some will assume if you don't provide closed dates, you are available and will appoint you to games. Others will not appoint you at all if you have not provided them. Getting into the habit of providing these dates and updating them as they change is a great practice. You have been rostered on to work on the second Saturday of next month which you'd given as an open date? Drop the secretary a mail letting them know as soon as you know.
Certainly at local league level, the appointment secretary will likely be waiting for some of the higher level leagues to appoint their referees, then seeing who they have in their pool of available referees.
Honesty & Communication
Being honest with the appointment secretary is critical. I've had conversations over the years with mine at various times to say "I can do a game for you this Saturday, but it needs to be as local as you can to my home as i've got an event I need to get to in the evening" Most leagues are short of referees, so they'll bend over backwards to help you.
Likewise, if you get an appointment and you've forgotten to close the date, be honest and tell them as soon as you know. This gives them time to fix the issue. Don't wait until the day before the game. Try not to be the referee that does this every month though!
Injuries happen - you could be doing a game on a Saturday and hurt yourself, meaning you need to come off the game on a Sunday. Again be honest and try and give an idea of how long you think you will be out for. "I sprained my ankle, I think its going to be a couple of weeks, can you please also take me off next weekends game?"
Moving Up - Multiple Leagues
As you progress and move up from a L7, more leagues will become open to you on the same days. This will mean juggling multiple appointment secretaries. You may get invited to join the local Supply League as an AR, you may get appointed to county cup matches. As a current Level 5, I have 4 different appointment secretaries, one for the Supply League, one for the 'county leagues' including the Step 7 league, one for county cup competitions and finally one for the grassroots, local league. Making sure that all of them are kept updated is critical. A blanket email with closed dates and updates - "i've been appointed to <x> league on <x> date so its now closed" is clear for everyone.
When dealing with multiple appointment secretaries, you also should not be closing different dates for different secretaries. If you are an AR on a Supply League, you should not be closing dates with that secretary, simply because you want to do a middle rather than a line. Those are the things that do get noticed and will give you a bad reputation. However, being honest with the secretary works here as well. I got injured when doing my 6-5 promotion and was concerned I was not going to get my required number of middles in. I spoke to the secretary for the Supply League, as i'd done my lines and she was fine about not appointing me on the line for a couple of months - it swung both ways as once I was through the games I needed, I offered to do a few more than normal to make up for it, which she took me up on, a win-win for all concerned.
Another thing i've found works well. If your game gets called off after the appointment but before arriving at the ground, i always make a point of calling the appointment secretary for the league in question, telling them and asking them if they need me to go somewhere else. If they say no, I let the other secretaries know that they can call on me if they are short themselves. Sometimes the answer is "no, have the day off" especially if your game is off due to the weather, other times you'll get another game.
Conclusion
Appointment Secretaries are the most important person you will deal with week in and week out. They quickly work out what type of referee they are dealing with. Are you reliable and will fulfil your appointments, or will you cry off at short notice? Are you one of their go to people that if they are short they can call you up and ask if you can help them out? Do you have the ability and temperament to do the bigger games, like a title decider, or the "needle matches" where a firm hand is required?
Their perception of you over the course of your engagement with them, will define how much trust they put in you. They have a big say in who gets the end of season cup finals, they'll be looking at rewarding the referees who have worked with them over the season to make their life easier, over the unreliable, disorganised one who constantly causes them a problem. The more you work with them, the more they'll support you in making sure you are looked after as you progress.
I hope this has been a valuable read!
