Potomac Rugby Referees Report of the Allocations Officer for The Allocations Officer for was Mark Handel, who worked without assistants this year. Brei Gussack (President) helped when he was travelling and oversaw both incoming and outgoing exchanges. Andy Burke (Referee Development) provided many of the assignments for Reviewers. Allocations went more smoothly than in, with most people more familiar with the web site. The biggest problem, besides the large number of assignments, remained referees changing their availability on short notice. Game cancellations were a mixed blessing; creating more work but leaving very few A games uncovered. For we continued making assignments using the ArbiterSports web site. The site is not without its annoyances, but is still better than the alternatives we ve found. Use of the site has made billing and tracking much easier. Clubs now enter their own schedules, reducing labor at the start of each season. It is easy for the assigner to see travel distances and to review an official s travel and game history when making assignments. Referees can now submit their expenses immediately after their matches. Over the course of the year, about referee assignments were made (a day at a tournament is a single assignment). This was about a % increase from the previous year, similar to the total. In addition, about 8 combined assistant referee and reviewer assignments were made. Tournament days held steady. Tabular breakdown of these assignments can be found following the report text. Our peak week had over members and guests officiating on a one day. MARR, USA Rugby and exchange appointments made up about % of local assignments. Outgoing appointments of Potomac officials greatly increased this year, taking our referees away from us, but are not handled by the Allocations Officer. Only a very small number of A games went uncovered because of referee shortages. Tallies of uncovered matches are included in the first table Late cancellation by referees was a big problem, continuing from last year. Too many of the reasons given by referees were for events they knew about in advance or simply choosing to do something else on a non-emergency basis. Unlike late cancellations of games, late cancellations by officials have a cascaded effect that great disrupts assignments and added significant labor for allocations. The Board continues to discuss penalties for our members if this continues. A problem in making Saturday assignments remains covering clubs who are at great distance from the DC/Baltimore/Annapolis region. Chambersburg and Pittsburg, PA; and Salisbury, MD, still present challenges. We can t assume that anyone who is available on that day is also available for a distant match. The distant assignments required ad hoc plea, but usually someone volunteered. Most (about %) of the Spring HS/U matches are on days other than Saturday. We can not support any further increase in HS/U Saturday matches; this was our largest group of uncovered A games. Weekday assignments pose different problems than do those on weekends. Changing work schedules prevent most referees from providing availability far in advance. This means that almost all assignments are done with an ad hoc call after we have the match schedules in hand. The geographic distribution of matches is also different on Saturdays than weekdays because the Baltimore area has seen a growth in HS/U not matched by the senior clubs. Traffic makes travel from the DC area to the Baltimore area almost impossible in the afternoon. Our pool of Baltimore area referees has increased and we can almost meet weekday demand. B games are not broken out separately in the table, but are about % of the match assignments, a significant increase from. The Society makes no secret that it does not have sufficient resources to cover many lower-side games. As a result, most clubs no longer submit referee requests for these matches. The tallies for uncovered lower-side matches only refer to those for which clubs did submit requests. Lower-side (B) games provide both problems and opportunities for the Society. When the Society is able to cover a lower-side game and that game is of reasonable duration with fresh players, it provides an excellent training opportunity for junior referees. However, neither the Society nor the clubs are able to keep up their side of the bargain. As noted above, the Society doesn t have enough referees to cover the lower side games. When the Society does manage to assign a referee to a B-side game, they often find a disorganized affair with many players in their second match, which is then less than
minutes of playing time. It is difficult to get a junior referee excited about such an appointment. Lowerside (B) games remain a problem because of both insufficient referees and unpredictable levels of competition. No solution is expected any time soon to either part of the problem. Over the course of a season, we face an uneven demand for referees. The last table shows the ups and downs from week to week on requests for referees to cover Saturday matches. Both seasons have tails at both ends with low demand. We are simultaneously faced with weeks when we are overwhelmed by demand and still have only limited opportunities to give eager referees seasons of good duration. There is no simple answer to the magnitude of our referee shortage, but in some views the shortage is not large. Though we might not have an overall shortage on most weeks, we are often putting referees into matches that because of speed or intensity are over their head. Simply having more inexperienced officials does not solve that problem. On the flip side, MARR has taken over assignments of Div. 's games and is only assigning these games to National Pool, B-panel, and select Cs that MARR has targeted for promotion. Potomac no longer assigns these games, and the loss of these games has limited the number of higher level games Potomac has to assign. It has become more difficult to provide challenging games to referees who are on their way up and those who are at the higher local levels. Allocation procedures require clubs, or whatever entity is taking responsible for paying our fee, to take responsibility for requesting referees. Clubs enter their matches directly into our system with kickoff times (at least their best guess), in addition to the expected location of the match, and the opposition. The range of times that clubs are using for games is making it easier for us to schedule referees who, often because of family commitments, are available early or late, but not in the middle of the day. The Potomac Rugby Union no longer exists; our coverage is simply geographic. The senior clubs now belong to the Capital Rugby Union. In addition, we provide officials for clubs in the Atlantic Coast Rugby League (college men), the National Small Rugby Union, Virginia Youth Rugby (HS/U), Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association (HS), and the Metro Area Varsity Rugby Conference, plus others. In the past, we required that all clubs and players must belong to USA Rugby. That has now become very difficult to check. USA Rugby has also added new requirements for tournaments to be sanctioned. To ensure that our officials have liability insurance coverage, without ignoring real matches or creating excessive work for the Allocations Officer, we have moved to have all of our members become members of the National Association of Sports Officials (NASO). There has been little griping about assignments or travel by members of the Society, and the most of the few complaints that did come in were usually justified and resulted from the Allocations Officer not looking at a referee s history of assignments for the season. Most desperate calls for additional referees or for greater travel were answered. The referees of the Society have been largely cooperative during the past year and the Allocations Officer thanks them. Respectfully submitted, Tigg Mark Handel, Allocations Officer 8 December
Assignment Data Referee HS/U HS/U Jan Jun ARs & Reviewers 8 8 8 8 Jul Dec ARs & Reviewers 8 8 8 ARs &Reviewers 8 8 Potomac Rugby Referees Match. These tallies are extracted from the Arbiter database. Any cell should be considered accurate +/-. Exchange appointments handled through the Society are included, formal USA Rugby and MARR appointments are not. A similar number of games were covered by Potomac referees outside of the area. Uncovered games include only those for which requests were made. No tally was maintained of changes. games are ones originally submitted then having the request withdrawn (these do create work for allocations). AR and Reviewer assignments are now lumped together. only includes games for which clubs were fined for lack of consideration. Tournaments s Tourneys s Tourneys Assignment January June July December Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Tournament. An official assigned for all or part of a day is counted as a single assignment, regardless of the number of matches covered. Date / / / / / / / / / / / / / /8 8 Date 8/ / / / /8 / / / / / / / / Potomac Rugby Referees Saturday Made. (This is different data than last year, which counted requests, not assignments.) Tallies include assignments for officials on Saturdays for games at all levels, including tournaments. Large events with Saturday requirements were: / HS scrimmages at Gonzaga, / HS scrimmages at Gonzaga, / Washington RFC Cherry Blossom Tournament, / the Jesuit Classic and MD Exiles Youth Festival, / Furies Ruggerfest, / Baltimore s Rites of Spring, / Freshman/Sophomore tournament, /8 VA youth tournament, and / MD Exiles Turkey Trot VIIs. There were many weather cancellations on /.
Assignment Data Referee Spring ARs provided Reviewers sent Fall ARs provided Reviewers sent ARs provided Reviewers sent 8 HS/U HS/U 8 8 8 Potomac Rugby Referees Match. These statistics are extracted from the Arbiter database. They are more accurate than in the past, but any cell should be considered accurate +/- and totals within %. MARR, USA Rugby, and exchange appointments handled through the Society are included. Formal USA Rugby appointments are not. A similar number of games were covered by Potomac referees outside of the area. Some lower-side (B) games listed as uncovered, may have actually been covered but without being included in the tallies. Uncovered games include only those for which requests were made. No tally was maintained of changes. games are ones originally submitted then having the request withdrawn (these do create work for those handling allocations). Referee Tournaments s Tourneys Assignment-Days s Tourneys Assignment-Days Assignment-Days Spring Summer Fall Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Tournament. (The format of this table is different from the earlier years.) A referee assigned for all or part of a day is counted as a single assignment, regardless of the number of matches covered. This year it is based on actual assignments, not estimated. Date /8 / / / / / / / / / /8 / / / / Requests 8 8 8 Date 8/ / /8 / / / / / / / / / / Requests 8 8 8 Potomac Rugby Referees Saturday Requests. Tallies include requests for referees on Saturdays (only) for games at all levels before cancellations and include large tournaments (large tournaments defined as those needing more than officials). Large tournaments in Spring with Saturday requirements were: / the Jesuit Classic, / Washington RFC Cherry Blossom Tournament, / MD Exiles Youth Festival, /8 Furies Ruggerfest, / Baltimore s Rites of Spring, / Freshman/Sophomore tournament and support of a USA Rugby event in Pittsburgh, / VA youth tournament and a VII s tournament at Model School, / a small VIIs tournament at U. Maryland, / s a small VIIs tournament for Navy and the Atlantic Coast men in VA Beach, and / MD Exiles Turkey Trot VIIs. On /, 8/8, and 8/, many members attended training/scrimmage events.
Assignment Data, from prior report for comparison Referee Spring ARs covered w/ review Fall ARs covered 8 8 ( USA) 8 HS/U 8 HS/U Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Match. These statistics are done quickly and may not be exact. MARR, USA Rugby, and exchange appointments handled through the Society are included. Formal USA Rugby appointments are not. A similar number of games were covered by Potomac referees outside of the area. Single-field, half-day tournaments are mostly included in the match totals. Some games may have been covered by society officials, especially lower-side (B) games listed as uncovered, without being included in the tallies. Uncovered games include only those for which requests were made, not cancelled, and intentionally not covered because of CIPP or similar problems. All numbers are probably good within %. No tally was maintained of changes. games are ones originally submitted then having the request withdrawn (these do create work for those handling allocations). Referee Tournaments s Tourneys s Tourneys Estimated Day Spring Summer 8 Fall Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Tournament. The first two columns contain the number of full-day or multi-day tournaments, followed by the number of field-days (a pitch being used for a full day of matches). For the last column, a referee assigned for all or part of a day is counted as a single assignment, regardless of the number of matches covered; it is an estimate based on our typical assignment patterns, not a detailed account of those actually assigned. 88 Date / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /8 / Requests 8 Date 8/ / / / / / /8 / / / / / / Requests 8 8 8 Potomac Rugby Referees Saturday Requests. Tallies include requests for referees on Saturdays (only) for games at all levels before cancellations, but not including large tournaments (large tournaments defined as those needing more than officials). These counts are not significantly different from. Large tournaments in Spring with Saturday requirements were: /: Cherry Blossom Tournament; / MD Youth Festival, /: Ruggerfest; and /: Rites of Spring. The HS B/C tournament became the Freshman Festival and was moved to Sunday.
Assignment Data, from prior report for comparison Referee Matches Spring Fall ( to RSL) 8 8 ( to WPL) 8 8 8 HS/U ( to Acorn) ( S) ( S) HS/U ( S) ( S) 8 Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Match. These statistics are done very quickly and may not be exact. Numbers in parenthesis followed by S are HS/U games on Saturdays, which are also included in the category amounts. MARR, USA Rugby, and exchange appointments handled through the Society are included. A similar number of games were covered by Potomac referees outside of the area. Single-field, half-day tournaments are mostly included in the match totals. Some games may have been covered by society officials, especially lower-side (B) games listed as uncovered, without being included in the tallies. Some late-cancelled games may be inadvertently included. Uncovered games include only those for which requests were made, not cancelled, and intentionally not covered because of CIPP or similar problems. All numbers are probably good within %. No tally was maintained of changes. games are ones originally submitted then having the request withdrawn. Acorn games are those for which requests were first made to us, then dropped; it is not all of the Acorn games. Referee Tournaments s Tourneys s Tourneys Estimated Day Spring Summer Fall Annual Potomac Rugby Referees Tournament. The first two columns contain the number of full-day or multi-day tournaments, followed by the number of field-days (a pitch being used for a full day of matches). For the last column, a referee assigned for all or part of a day is counted as a single assignment, regardless of the number of matches covered; it is an estimate based on our typical assignment patterns, not a detailed account of those actually assigned. Date / / / / / / / / / / / /8 / / / / Requests 8 8 Date 8/ 8/8 / / /8 / / / / / / / / / Requests Potomac Rugby Referees Saturday Requests. Tallies include requests for referees on Saturdays for games at all levels before cancellations, but not including large tournaments (large tournaments defined as those needing more than officials). These counts are not significantly different from. Large tournaments in Spring with Saturday requirements were: /: Cherry Blossom Tournament; / MD Youth Festival, /: Ruggerfest; /: Rites of Spring, and / PRU HS B/C Tournament.