Assignment Overview & Rankings

SBSRA Single Referee Call In: 310-955-9905 option 1

The Basics

SBSRA has three Cal South certified Assignors, Gabriel Goldsman, Veto Galati, and Chris Nevil.  By having three assignors, SBSRA has the bench strength needed to ensure there is never a breakdown in the required assigning coverage.

Gabriel Goldsman is the primary assignor and assigns all matches for SBSRA except for the Weeknight MB 7v7 matches.

Veto Galati assigns the Weeknight MB 7v7 matches.

While Chris Nevil is not currently assigning any matches he is on call to back up either Gabriel or Veto if and when required.

Members must be on the current year’s Cal South ROL in order to receive any assignments from SBSRA.

Read about Getting Match Assignments if you are new to the Association or just want a gentle reminder.

How Assignments Are Set

Assignments are based on matching the games to be covered with those referees who are available, along with the rating/ranking of each referee’s ability to cover the competition level of a particular game.  

Availability

Each member is expected to communicate his/her availability to the Assignor by updating his or her Availability by “Blocking” the time he or she is not available to work matches in the Arbiter system.  Blocks can be set as far in advanced as the member wants and can be updated as the member’s schedule changes.  Members must keep his/her availability status current by changing their blocks in the system.

Time Blocks: When you block from 8 AM to 10 AM that means you will not be assigned a match until 11 AM or so. This is because Arbiter adds travel time and the 30 minute arrival time to the 10 AM time. If its tournament season, increased travel time could mean you may not be assigned a match until 12 noon or later.

Assignment Notifications

SBSRA utilizes the Arbiter system to notify its members of their assignments.  SBSRA members receive an e-mail from the Assignor through Arbiter with a link which allows the Member to accept or decline any and all assignments.   All assignments (Referee and Assistant Referee) for any particular date can be found using a valid member login.

Accepting an Assignment

To accept the assignment, the member clicks the accept button. If declining, the member clicks on the decline button.  While declining an assessment for a match assigned based on the referee’s availability is frowned upon and causes extra work, it is important that it is done as soon as possible to permit games to be reassigned promptly. Unconfirmed assignments create undesirable stress and last-minute work by the Assignor.

Failure to Confirm

Failure to promptly confirm one’s assignments by the Wednesday before each weekend or by the “accept by date” listed in Arbiter may lead to reassignment of games without notice. It is of course highly undesirable to require the Assignor to deal with a large number of late reassignments.

Turning Back a Confirmed Match

If a Referee can not fulfill a confirmed match, it is the Referee’s responsibility to properly turn the assignment back to the assignor in time for the match to be reassigned.  If a member can not honor a match commitment, notification needs to occur as soon as possible.  While all turn backs are frowned upon, late turn backs cause additional issues for the association and increase the risk of a service failure because they may not leave enough time to find a replacement referee.   If you have to turn back a match assignment with less than 12 hours before the start of a match, it is the referee’s responsibility to get a verified response from the SBSRA Assignor before your match obligation is transferred back to the assignor.  (Note: Its good practice to do this for any and all turn backs.)   Just sending an email or leaving a phone message on the SBSRA hot line (310-955-9905) in regards to a late turn back (less than 12 hours) is not acceptable and does not transfer the responsibility for covering the match from the assigned referee.

Failure to Honor Game Assignments

Not showing up at a game that you have been assigned, after confirming that assignment, is considered by SBSRA a serious breach of proper conduct, since it results in other members being forced to cover extra games at the last minute, or some games to be uncovered. Such poor performance reflects on the Association and its membership as a whole, and may affect whether SBSRA receives future assignments from league and tournament organizers.

Sanctions for No-shows

Fines or suspensions may be levied by the Board in cases of no-shows per the Bylaws, subject to appeal by the sanctioned member.

Rainouts

Game cancellations due to wet fields are commonplace. In rainy weather, referees should determine if their games have been cancelled or rescheduled before going to the fields by checking their e-mails, the league Web sites, the Assignor, or any other source of relevant information.

Rankings

The ranking process is led by the VP Rankings are updated at least once a year but can be updated/adjusted throughout the year to ensure they are as accurate as possible. Rankings are based on various factors, such as badge level, fitness, game management, experience, knowledge of the Laws, membership conduct, meeting attendance, and being in good standings in the association. All SBSRA members receive a CR ranking between 100 and 799. This is a ranking for Refereeing during a three match set (two ARs and as Referee). Each group or level aligns with the different levels (age group) the member can be assigned as Referee with 100 being Adult 11v11 and 600 being U9. 700s are inactive (injured, etc.) members. A PDF showing the different ranking levels by the different divisions (age) can be found on the Members page. Each year, the VP selects three board members and at least three general membership members to serve on the rankings committee. Both the board and general member committee members shall be rotated each year so there is at least one new board member and one new general member on the committee each year. Except for the VP, all efforts should be made to ensure no member serves on the ranking committee for more than two years in a row and any member has to be off the committee for at least one year before being selected to be on the committee again. This results in the ranking committee membership changing every year ensuring the variety in perspectives and inputs ensuring the rankings are not biased or determined by the same committee members year after year. Once the rankings are completed they are presented to the entire Board for review. The Board reviews the changes in the membership ranking from year to year to ensure consistence in the process and to provide feedback or questions about any specific change in a member’s ranking or about a new member who may have been ranked for the first time. The ranking committee utilizes the Board’s feedback to determine if any action should be taken. This could include obtaining additional information on the member in question, requesting an assessment, or talking to the member in question about she/his rankings. Once the rankings are finalized, they are provided to the assignor for use in the assigning process. The results of the rankings may be discussed with the VP, Referee Coach and/or Member at Large on an individual basis. These discussions only involved information about the specific member asking about her/his rankings and will include feedback on how that member can improve her/his ranking.

A table showing the number of referee per Level is shown below. A review of that table shows a positive trend in the number of members moving up in the rankings. The Board correlates this trend to the improvement in Training, the hosting of CORE sessions and the related increase in USSF Grade 7 members, and above all the dedication to professionalism form the SBSRA membership.