Based upon input at several State Softball meetings, finding and managing game officials seems to be a common challenge faced by many leagues. This article will offer suggestions aimed at solving this issue.

Starting Point - Identifying the Solution: Securing officiating for a season of games is generally managed at two levels. First and foremost is just finding people to do it. If and when that is accomplished, then quality and professionalism become the critical factors.

Believe it or not, the best path is to address the second problem first. The primary objective should be to build a corps of reliable qualified umpires who want to work as many games as they can. Your program will be much better served by 10 umpires working 20 games each rather than 100 reluctant volunteers pressed into service for a game apiece.

Whether your local baseball and softball leagues are coordinated or not, the problem of a sufficient number of qualified umpires will be shared by both programs. It makes sense to tackle this problem together for two reasons. First, by sharing resources, you can do more with fewer people. Second, by combining schedules for officiating purposes, you create an assigning opportunity that will entice more dedicated umpires to your ranks.

Find A Coordinator: The next step is to find your own UIC, Umpire In Chief. The UIC should take on a set of tasks including recruiting, assigning, evaluating, training, tracking and compensating. Typically, Assignors charge a fee per game. This may run from $1 - $3 per game, with the latter being the most prevalent. Another method, and one that has worked very well in Milford, is to pay the UIC a flat fee at the start of the season. In Milford, that equals $250.

Building a Corps: The UIC may already have several contacts who are certified and experienced umpires. This becomes your critical nucleus. Your league and UIC working together then needs to recruit larger numbers. Recruiting should be matched with training clinics. There are several courses offered during the winter. Your UIC may be qualified to teach, or you can schedule clinics with Jim Charland, our NH Babe Ruth Softball State UIC. Although Jim is the softball UIC, let's face it, 99% of the rules and skills are appropriate to baseball and softball.

A good source of new umpires is your local high school. You should be able to find a group of students who have plenty of game experience and who are looking for part time work. Your good candidates will be motivated one or two factors. Either they love to be involved with the sport and enjoy officiating and/or they view officiating as a job, a source of income.

The best way to improve your overall quality, assuming you have the numbers, is to pair a novice with a veteran and have them work games together. The veteran should mentor the novice umpire until he or she is ready to manage a game by themselves.

Compensation: Compensation is no trivial item. Leagues which have in the past relied on volunteers, will suddenly find a new major expense item in their annual budgets. Obviously, this needs to be planned for well in advance of collecting registration fees and fund raising plans.

You will want to set a fee structure that is manageable, fair, and good enough to secure quality game officials. If you go to the trouble of creating a force of good umpires, and then try to skimp on compensation, they may well be hired away by neighboring leagues paying a higher fee.

Illustration: Here is how one league addressed this issue. After polling surrounding communities, it was determined that the average rate for 60' diamonds ranged between $15 to $30 per game. Most paid more for plate than bases. Because of the higher compensation and the fact that any good umpire always prefers to do the plate, it has become a fairly common practice to pay certified officials the same for plate and bases. This is a very important consideration if you want the certified official to break in your newer umpires. If the official won t give up the plate, then the trainee will never get the exposure they need to hone their skills.

Based on this data, Milford established a UIC flat fee of $250 and recruited a local patched umpire to fill the position. They then devised a pay scale based on experience and certification. For 60' diamond games (Cal Ripken and Softball) base rates are $15 plate and $10 bases. NUA certified umpires who are fully dressed (official umpire apparel) are paid $25 both ends. If an umpire must work a game alone, the base rate is $25 and the certified umpire gets $35.

Because Babe Ruth Baseball (13 - 16) is also part of the mix, the 90' diamond rates were set at $30 and $15 base rate and $35/$35 certified.

Over the years, Milford has built a crew of more than a dozen NUA members. We have encouraged them to get both baseball and softball certification. All told, we have a corps of approximately two dozen regular umpires who work a total of more than 200 games during the season. That's for Cal Ripken 12U, Softball 12U and 16U and Babe Ruth Prep (13) and Junior (14-16).

While our annual umpire budget is now around $7,000, it has been worth every single penny. The crowning compliment was just this last season when an excellent certified umpire from another community joined our ranks because in his words, we "Ran a real professional operation".

Oh, there is one last thing. Umpires are paid on the field in cash. There is no faster way to lose good umpires than to have them chasing their fees. The UIC provides at least bi-weekly reports to the League Treasurer who then pre-funds him two weeks in advance. Each umpire is paid no less frequently than once a week.

EOB