Referee Appointment Service

This service was started to resolve a number of problems with appointment of referees to London League Matches.

• Teams contacting the same popular referees over and over again.
• Referees getting numerous calls to referee on a particular day.
• New referees only getting calls at the last minute in desperation.
• Teams spending large amounts of time trying to find referees.

This system was having negative effects for Volleyball:-

• Popular referees were overloaded.
• New referees got few games, and always as last minute requests. So they felt unwanted.
• New referees could be appointed to unsuitable games, and so had a bad experience.
• Senior Referees did not know what new referees were doing and could not help train them.
  This did not encourage new referees to continue in that role.
• Teams saw finding a referee as a hastle.
• Referees could not be sure if the request was desperate or just that their name was high up the list.

The solution was designed to save everyone time and stop paying fortunes to the phone companies.

It uses a database containing all matches, all referees, all venues. It then tries to select referees to ask to take on a job, who are a) suitable, b) not overloaded c) within reasonable distance as well as d) available.
Ideally, a team secretary sends 1 request, and each referee gets at most 1 request for each day to see if they are available.
It has also been adapted to help find a replacement for those referees who have to withdraw from matches they have accepted.
It can also help with NVL Appointments.

What it does not do is help find a referee for those who have started the process themselves, been turned down, and then expect miracles.
I believe that when a referee receives a request from me, they see it as a genuine request, that they are one of the most suitable referees available for that game. I do not want to jeopardise that reputation by taking on a half done job, and send repeat requests to referees.
So anyone wanting help halfway through the process of finding a referee, must provide a list of the referees already contacted, and who have said No.

How it actually works

I am working on making this system work more efficiently, but can I explain how it works at present.

1. I get a request from a team for a Referee.
2. I process that on my PC
3. I select 2-3 referees to whom I send Offers.
4. My system re-generates the Available Games page.
5. I update the website.

Then other things can happen.

1. 1. A Referee replies declining the Offer
   2. I chose another Referee to send an Offer to.
2. 1. A referee goes to the Available Games page and sends a request to be appointed.
   2. I decide if they would be suitable and also not deny a referee a game.
   3. If they are suitable - I send them an Offer.
   4. If I prefer to stick with the current Offers, I will respond to say - hold on a while, I would prefer another referee to take this game.
3. 1. A Referee accepts the Offer
   2. I process that - so providing I have not had 2 acceptances the system generates confirmation of appointment messages.
   3. Those Referees who have been sent Offers but not accepted or declined, get a message to say the game has been accepted by someone else.

So while A & C still involve my personal interaction, there will be a delay in response.
Route B will always involve me personally, as I develop referees. I was actually employing the delay to make sure that you had the chance to say Yes or No to this game.