Umpires are invited to register with the Umpire Centre (website) where
they are asked for their contact information and preferences regarding
fields and the leagues they would like to officiate in. Umpires only
need to register with Umpire Centre once.
Registered umpires will be able to log into the site and indicate their
availability using Umpire Centre’s calendaring tool.
The administrator responsible for umpire assignment can upload league
schedules into the Umpire Centre database. After approving the umpires for
the league and verifying which divisions each umpire can officiate in,
the administrator can begin appointing the appropriate game officials
for each game in the schedule. This ensures that umpires of a particular
ability level can only officiate in games they are qualified for.
Assignment administrators have two methods available for assigning game
officials: assignment on a game by game basis (manual method), or batch
assignment of multiple games (automated method). Typically, the automated
method is used to assign all games in a month and can be completed in
just a few minutes – a process that used to take several days, and
many phone calls and emails before Umpire Centre.
Once an assignment is made, the umpire is notified by email of an invitation
to officiate. The umpire is directed to their personal, Umpire Centre web
account to accept or decline the invitation. Once accepted, a permanent
record of the game assignment is made in the Umpire Centre database. To prevent
umpires from “shopping” for preferred games, umpires who
refuse an invitation become unavailable for another game assignment in
that timeslot, unless they are released by the assignment administrator.
During any season there will always be cancellations from umpires. When
cancellations occur, the system can automatically find a replacement or
the administrator can choose to manually reassign the game.
The Umpire Centre process ensures that correct umpires are assigned to
games quickly and efficiently; to the benefit
of leagues, umpires and players alike.