In the process of helping run a basketball league in the capacity of an assistant, I've experienced some frustration. As I share this story, I hope some readers will also in return share with me some of their frustrations.

So, as you may recall from my previous blog post, I work as an official and as an assignor of officials. And for this one league, the founder/commissioner has me managing the game schedule as well. At different junctures, there has been a need for re-scheduling games. I made sure to do everything I could conceivably think of to be certain the make up games would be played at the new designated times. I used the on-line scheduling system to which we've been given access. I promptly emailed the commissioner details of the changes, reminding him to advise players, coaches, etc. in a timely manner. I also made sure the officials' schedule was properly updated and prepared, and that all officials would be at the courts ready to start on time. Upon arrival at the game site, the commissioner and his assistants were present, as well as all game officials. But no teams!! I asked where were the teams and it quickly became evident that they were not showing up until the next time slot for games! It had not been communicated to the teams of the schedule update. So then the games would have to be re-scheduled again!! And can you guess what happened to my officials? They were only paid for the actual games they worked, not for the time they had set aside and put in! What a frustrating situation!

And what further aggravates the situation is that some of the officials had previously worked for this commissioner and, while they had some frustrations about the situation, they had a degree of contentment that they were only getting paid for the actual games worked. Resulting from that, other fellow officials were left in a weakened negotiating position to get fair compensation for the time they had invested in the league that day. Can you imagine how frustrating this might be?? Rest assured that I myself have learned that any league I run will have a better chain of communication and have a greatly diminshed likelihood that such a problem as this would ever arise. And even if this should somehow occur, I would promptly recognize my responsibility (or rather lack thereof) and still compensate my officials for doing their part to help the league run smoothly.

So let me now ask you... what do you think is fair? I've been to game sites before and a team or teams didn't show up. My compensation was an "appearance fee" which amounted to half of what I would have earned had the game(s) been played. My own personal viewpoint is that an official has set aside the time to work what (s)he has been scheduled and should still get full pay. Think of it like this... what would they be able to do otherwise with their time upon getting advised at the last minute that they are without work and have therefore lost income? Should I think that this is merely a cost of doing business? Or should I "expect" more than what I actually get? I look forward to responses. Thanks for reading!