Manual: Concepts-SelfAssign

Overview

What is the SelfAssign concept?

SelfAssign is a process that enables a Referee to assign himself or herself to an available Assignment

Why use the Concept?

SelfAssign moves the match assignment process closer to the Referees, empowering them to maximize their schedules. After all, only a Referee knows his or her moment-to-moment availability and, thus, can more easily adjust his or her schedule. Basically, SelfAssign eliminates those "availability forms" that go out-of-date the minute they get turned in.

How is the concept implemented?

Each Assignment on each Match is associated with a series of characteristics like League, Level, Division, and Ranks. When a Referee wants a particular Assignment, he or she requests it via Referee: SelfAssign . The Site then dynamically evaluates a series of conditions called Rules that must all be passed in order for a Referee to qualify for the Assignment.

What Rules?

The basic Rule that must be passed before a Referee can SelfAssign an Assignment is that no other Referee can already have the Assignment. Obvious, eh?

However, some of the other Rule variations are substantially more complicated. That said, each Chapter can implement its own unique combination of Rules that must ALL be passed before a Referee can take an Assignment without an Assignor's involvement (the applicable Rules for the Chapter are specified at Setting=Rules.Mandatory). There are an additional set of Rules called Conditional Rules (set via Setting=Rules.Conditional) that apply when the Assignment is sufficiently in the future, but are suspended as the Assignment Date nears.

The number of Rules in effect at your Site depends on your Chapter's requirements. For example, the following Rules are in effect at one or more Sites:

1. Only Positions requested by the Organization can be taken
2. The Match Ranking must be equal to or less than the Referee's Ranking
3. The Match must be scheduled for a future date
4. The Referee may not have too many Assignments in a single day
5. The Referee may not have too many Assignments during a single week
6. The Referee may not have too many Assignments during a single month
7. The Referee may not have too many Assignments in a single session/season
8. The Referee cannot have officiated the same Team within a defined number of days (e.g. 14 days, 30 days, etc.)
9. The Referee must have all the required MatchReports filed
10. The Referee must be USSF/NISOA/NFHS/AYSO licensed
11. The Referee must be 2 or more years older than the Match Participants (usually applies to Youth matches only)
12. The Referee must have signed up for a balance of Centers and Lines

Sites that use SelfAssign experience excellent distributions of Assignments across eligible Referees IF they spend a little time considering all of the ramifications of the Rules. Furthermore, the "no show" rate disappears almost completely because the Referee can manage his/her own schedule and it eliminates phone calls and missed Email messages. It's also been a pleasant surprise to see how Chapter participants work together to meet the requirements of the Organizations providing Assignments to the Chapter.

Comments

Be careful when implementing SelfAssign. We recommend starting with a small sample of Matches (e.g. a pre-season tournament, etc.) until your Chapter gets a feel for how it works. Then, when you think the Rule combination is appropriate, simply add in the available Matches and watch the system work.

When done right, a SelfAssign Site can help you put Chapter personnel, like Assignors, back to work where their energies are better spent; for example, in developing new Referees, training and working with existing Referees, evaluating training programs.

Be wary if anyone tells you:

That'll never work! It just can't because....

They either don't understand or are afraid of change. Instead, check directly with other Sites. In almost every situation, it works more effectively than manual assignment (in other words, we're referring to the need for many Assignments, NOT for the two or three centers for the local "high profile" matches). Remember, SelfAssign is designed to fill the 95% of the Assignments that a Chapter just needs coverage for and it permits Assignors to focus their energy on the remaining 5% "high profile" Matches that require (for whatever reason) manual processing.