The Ref Stop

referee appointment officer (ref sec)

Status
Not open for further replies.
S

svenny76

RefChat Addict
Hi All

I've just taken over the role of our Women's county league referee appointment officer.

Are there any referee appointment officers on here who could send me any templates that may be of use to me when it comes to closed dates and databases??

I don't have anything at the moment, so before I go about trying to create one which may or may not work, just wondered if any one had any tried and trusted spread sheets they wouldn't mind sharing.

Thanks
 
The Ref Stop
Hi @svenny76

Congratulations on your appointment.
Can't help with what you are after, but, as a Somerset based ref, would be interested in being added to your database.

Jeff
 
When you applied for the job was there many applicants?? To get the job offered with no idea on how to proceed going forward is a bit worrying!! Surely there is something historical from the previous incumbent? Just saying!!! :)
 
Sheffields Finest said:
When you applied for the job was there many applicants?? To get the job offered with no idea on how to proceed going forward is a bit worrying!! Surely there is something historical from the previous incumbent? Just saying!!! :)
Click to expand...

Sometimes you don't want to be using the same systems as your predecessor. When I took over only around 30% of games had been covered in the previous season, so I'm not entirely sure he even had any kind of record keeping. So I wanted to start afresh, and I got coverage up to 98% after just one season and kept it there. Would have been 100% except for no-shows and referees pulling out at the very last minute.

@svenny76, I just had a spreadsheet with referee names in column A, and other details such as location, Post Code, CFA, level, whether on promotion or not, whether they drive, etc, in the next columns. Then each of the next few columns would be the date of each Sunday throughout the season.

If they closed the date I turned that cell red. If they got a county appointment I turned it blue, and if I gave them an appointment I turned it green. So on any given Sunday I knew that anyone who had an unfilled cell was available, although in reality this was often because they had forgotten to close it ... :mad:

Tips from me ...
  • Drum into all referees the importance of closing dates. Keep a record of anyone who withdraws and the reason why so that you can spot who is messing you around and get rid of them if necessary
  • Get as many promotion candidates on your panel as possible. They are less likely to mess you around as a wrong word from you to their CFA could scupper their promotion even if they have had three observations at Well Above Standard.
  • Make sure you get on a list of county appointments from your CFA, but also make sure you tell the referees to let you know if they get a county or FA appointment
  • Be prepared for some wacky referee marking by clubs. Don't ignore it and just accept the mark, try to challenge it and point out the error of their ways. If they won't change and keep marking lowly when they lose then don't give them the better referees, give them the lowest performing ones who are not going to be affected by the mark, or don't give them anyone.
  • Overall be firm but fair
If you want my template spreadsheet drop me a PM and I'll fire it over.
 
I've not said I don't know what I am doing, have I??

I've merely asked for some assistance if anyone already had things set up before I created my own version, you know, perhaps some one on here is doing the role already, and may have assisted me.

And no, there no other offers, hence me with no experience volunteering for the role.

And no, I wasn't given anything apart from a list of emails, hence I've come on here to ask if any one had anything

But thanks for your comments, supportive as usual.
 
RefJef said:
Hi @svenny76

Congratulations on your appointment.
Can't help with what you are after, but, as a Somerset based ref, would be interested in being added to your database.

Jeff
Click to expand...
Thanks Jeff, drop me a private message with your contact details mate, and I'll add you to my list
 
RustyRef said:
Sometimes you don't want to be using the same systems as your predecessor. When I took over only around 30% of games had been covered in the previous season, so I'm not entirely sure he even had any kind of record keeping. So I wanted to start afresh, and I got coverage up to 98% after just one season and kept it there. Would have been 100% except for no-shows and referees pulling out at the very last minute.

@svenny76, I just had a spreadsheet with referee names in column A, and other details such as location, Post Code, CFA, level, whether on promotion or not, whether they drive, etc, in the next columns. Then each of the next few columns would be the date of each Sunday throughout the season.

If they closed the date I turned that cell red. If they got a county appointment I turned it blue, and if I gave them an appointment I turned it green. So on any given Sunday I knew that anyone who had an unfilled cell was available, although in reality this was often because they had forgotten to close it ... :mad:

Tips from me ...
  • Drum into all referees the importance of closing dates. Keep a record of anyone who withdraws and the reason why so that you can spot who is messing you around and get rid of them if necessary
  • Get as many promotion candidates on your panel as possible. They are less likely to mess you around as a wrong word from you to their CFA could scupper their promotion even if they have had three observations at Well Above Standard.
  • Make sure you get on a list of county appointments from your CFA, but also make sure you tell the referees to let you know if they get a county or FA appointment
  • Be prepared for some wacky referee marking by clubs. Don't ignore it and just accept the mark, try to challenge it and point out the error of their ways. If they won't change and keep marking lowly when they lose then don't give them the better referees, give them the lowest performing ones who are not going to be affected by the mark, or don't give them anyone.
  • Overall be firm but fair
If you want my template spreadsheet drop me a PM and I'll fire it over.
Click to expand...
@RustyRef , thanks for your advice mate, I'll create my own with the advice above, I know the previous guy struggled as he didn't really have many contacts and wasn't a referee either.
 
svenny76 said:
@RustyRef , thanks for your advice mate, I'll create my own with the advice above, I know the previous guy struggled as he didn't really have many contacts and wasn't a referee either.
Click to expand...

I think I was in a very similar position. I inherited a list of 26 referees, and had in the region of 30 to 35 games per week to cover, and it wasn't rocket science that this wasn't going to work. So I emailed EVERYONE in the CFA handbook inviting them to join, and also asked for help from neighbouring counties as the league covered seven different CFAs. Got the list up to around the 70-80 mark.
 
Would tooling up with Full Time help any? Get the league on there, register referees, use email notifications all seem useful tools but can it help with balanced schedules and minimise travelling and useful stuff like that?
 
Yampy said:
Would tooling up with Full Time help any? Get the league on there, register referees, use email notifications all seem useful tools but can it help with balanced schedules and minimise travelling and useful stuff like that?
Click to expand...

No, you can add the referees on there so they get notifications of appointments and subsequent changes, but it doesn't currently do scheduling. Mitoo had that functionality, although it was fairly basic, just really whether the referee was available or not on a given date.
 
It might be worth investing in some workforce management software (WFM) and incorporating a hackyworkaround to get it working.

Put all your referee's as employee's into the WFM software, inform them to put their closed dates in as TAFW requests and set up a schedule rotation(s) that'll dynamically fill your schedule of referee's each week. If you use the WFM software to full extent, you could potentially start having statistics of your referee's etc into the system.
 
I think Rusty's method sounds the best.

If you were inclined you could probably do something really fancy in either Excel or Access so that would be all singing and dancing, but it's probably massively over engineering things.

I've always wondered why some hasn't created an online system where referees can close dates, and teams can submit marks etc online, a bit like MOAS but for grass roots.
 
zarathustra said:
I've always wondered why some hasn't created an online system where referees can close dates, and teams can submit marks etc online, a bit like MOAS but for grass roots.
Click to expand...

This was always the intention of the Whole Game System. WGS may make it there eventually!
 
Hope so, aside from submitting discipline stuff having to email 5 different appointment ref secs takes up most of my time.

Must take up a fair whack of ref sec time to go through x amounts of emails with closed dates every week/month
 
zarathustra said:
Hope so, aside from submitting discipline stuff having to email 5 different appointment ref secs takes up most of my time.

Must take up a fair whack of ref sec time to go through x amounts of emails with closed dates every week/month
Click to expand...
Agree with you completely - and the problem with emailing multiple people is that I either have to select a specific league to open each date with and risk not getting an appointment, or open each date with multiple leagues and then rush round and close them again when I get an appointment before a second league can appoint me to a match on the same date.

Happily, Essex FA have taken over managing my two main Saturday leagues centrally from this season, so I hopefully shouldn't have this problem any more.
 
All the youth games are appointed by one appointment officer for all of Suffolk. This works really well and it seems more games are being covered this way.
 
My old saturday league constantly voted to NOT having a referee appointment sec even despite a former referee offering to do it.
The league bragged that 99% of games were covered etc etc. Home Managers appointed their own referees which has a few flaws but also has a few benefits. No ref was allowed to just do one team all season at home! Games were usually booked pre season by the organised managers, games were booked on a frantic friday night by the less organised ones. It was often a panic ringing around when there was a missing referee issue. I once called a game off at 10.00 for a frozen pitch, got my part fee etc and was on my way home when another team called to ref theres, got there and their pitch was fine!! Brucey bonus day!!!
One manager used to ask me to ref 4 specific tough hard nosed teams, that was it, he didn't care who reffed the others. That reasoning brought in my own rule of 4 games maximum for any team in the league. Another benefit is that certain teams needed breathing space before I met them again as I was normally harsher than some of the other refs. Time was usually a healer. You could also refuse certain teams too if you felt the need. Not perfect but it seemed to work for all concerned pretty well!
 
svenny76 said:
Hi All

I've just taken over the role of our Women's county league referee appointment officer.

Are there any referee appointment officers on here who could send me any templates that may be of use to me when it comes to closed dates and databases??

I don't have anything at the moment, so before I go about trying to create one which may or may not work, just wondered if any one had any tried and trusted spread sheets they wouldn't mind sharing.

Thanks
Click to expand...
Also starting the new season as a first year Referee Appointments Secretary. I staff the Assistants for the Premier Divisions (Supply) and 4 lower divisions. I'm managing around 100 referees and need to appoint 46 when there's a full programme.
Registration Form
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1CBPJz-P1IV1deGAI-iLwB8UV-jTQ4_zO8NDzC7iVqGU/
August Availability
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/10ICHZDtCA49f885_XxDRrMiS6sF_r7Rd7JUlogsQvCo/
September Availability
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mcsTP-A67-iX0CEKvc53TN0ZjujvEWtTq9_gkYCtivY/

I then use conditional formatting within excel and a few formulas to ensure those giving me most availability receive most appointments. Issued fixtures yesterday and already had 7 sets of back words :)

Oh hello by the way
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top