Club umpire allocations for 2011

This year, the club’s internal umpiring appointments will be done a little differently.
In recent years, after the draw was received and the games for which our club needed to supply an umpire were known, teams were assigned games, and one of their players would be selected to cover it from within the team.

However, as several members in the club have expressed interest in learning how to umpire and with the same people always needed to cover games, as well as issues of contacting teams and management every week, 2011 will see a partially revised allocation system, as follows:

1. The draw will be considered and any games for which we must supply umpires listed on the site. Those who are available and interested in umpiring a given game will then be able to “book” these games, and be allocated to them.
2. If no members have volunteered by a deadline of the Thursday evening prior to the game(s) in question, those allocations will be made by default to a given team, from a rote of all teams, from which the team(s) will decide on a member to umpire for them.
3. All allocations, whether of individuals or of teams, will be posted on the website by the Friday afternoon before the relevant games take place.

This gives individuals a chance to get involved at a time suitable for them, and allows our club to cover its required duties without skipping a beat, whilst not unfairly burdening one team over another. It also ensures that all players and team management are aware of who should be umpiring which games via a public venue, so that there is no confusion in communication over these duties.

Provided the umpiring coordinator is aware of this, teams may of course switch duties. For example, one team may cover 2 weeks, then a second team covers the next 2 weeks, and so on, thus placing all of their obligations in one block. As with the last years, this rote will also be planned to ensure no players are umpiring at the same time their teams must play and unjustly missing parts of their season. We will review the success and utility of this system midway through the season to judge its effectiveness and whether to continue using it.

As a final reminder, those members of the club who have umpired games as part of a club allocation are advised to email their name and the details of the game (teams, date, time, score, any important notes regarding player/spectator behaviour, etc.) they umpired to the umpiring coordinator, preferably within 2 days of the game in question. This allows us to properly recognise contributions made to our club by individuals, and assists with recordkeeping in the case that games are disputed or must be revisited for other purposes.

We thank all our volunteers in advance for their help in fulfilling the expectations of our club, and look forward to a year in which the club is renowned for the range of its members’ abilities.