Procedures for Referee Assignments Via DSA Website

Procedures for Referee Assignments via DSA Website

All referee game assignments for the Darien Soccer Association Spring 2007 season will be managed via the DSA website (www.dariensoccer.org) This includes K-2, Club Excel and Travel games.

This document outlines the procedures that will be followed. Please read it carefully and use it as a guide as we all become familiar with how this system works.

NOTE: There are now over 150 active referees in the Darien Soccer Association Youth Referee Development Program. One of your responsibilities as a referee is to know these procedures and self learn how to use the system. The Referee Assignor cannot and will not act as IT/tech support. The system is fairly simple. Parent’s, if you are having trouble navigating, engage your kids for assistance.

We are no longer using The Arbiter.com site. Here are some of differences you can expect between that old system and the new functionality on the DSA site:

Advantages:  Multiple e-mail addresses: The system now has the capability to send notices about assignments, reassignments, game reminders, and game change notices to MULTIPLE e-mail addresses. Child and Parent, Home and Work, etc.  Direct connection to DSA Master Schedule- This reduces the potential human error (and the Assignor’s time and effort) associated with copying the DSA schedule into The Arbiter site. If a game time or location is changed, all referees assigned to that game are instantly notified of the change via e-mail.  Accepting Manual Assignments- If you get an e-mail notice about a manual game assignment, all you need to do to Accept or Decline it to reply to the e-mail. You do not need to go to log in to the DSA website.

Similar Features to The Arbiter.com:  Posting your availability- Referees will have a simple schedule screen where they can indicate the time slots that they are available to work.  Self Assigning- Referees will be able to directly select the games they want to work, subject to certain limitations related to their experience level. MOST GAMES WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR SELF ASSIGNMENT.  Manual Assigning- The Referee Assigner will fill any open slots by manually selecting available referees to work those games.

There is one major limitation of the DSA site. Currently there is no way to limit the number of games a referee can self assign, nor how far in advance they can do so. In order to equitably share the opportunities, we will have to rely on the honor system and self policing. As referees, we all have a good understanding of the difference between “Fair Play” and “Unsporting Behavior” so I do not anticipate any major problems.

How to use the DSA Website for referee game assignments:

Logging in: 1. Go to www.dariensoccer.org 2. There is a blue vertical menu bar on the left side of the page. Halfway down, click on “Officials Area” 3. On the next page you will be prompted to Log in 4. If you do not know your password, read and follow the instructions on the next page and your temporary password will be sent to your e-mail. 5. HINT: Follow instructions to change your temporary password to one that you can easily remember. You will be logging in often. Click on the “Edit My Account” button at the bottom of the blue menu bar to change your password. 6. Once you successfully log in, you will be brought to your Officials page.

Post Your Availability and View your assigned games

In order to efficiently fill all open referee slots via Manual Assignments, Club Excel and Travel Referees will need to post their availability. K-2 REFS do not need to worry about posting availability since all of the assignments will be available for Self Assigning.

1. Your Officials Page is where you check off boxes in a schedule to indicate the times you are available. It is also where you can see the games you have been assigned to and print a list. 2. The page looks like this:

My Schedule Log Out

My General Availability AM PM 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11

Sunday

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesd ay

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Save Please indicate the times you are available for duty by checking the appropriate boxes. Note however that leaving all boxes un-checked indicates that you are available at ALL times. To post your availability:

1. This is a generic weekly schedule. Each box corresponds to a 1 hour time slot. 2. Clicking on a box will put a Green Check Mark () indicating you are available that hour. WHEN YOU ARE DONE, CLICK ON THE “SAVE” BUTTON IN THE LOWER LEFT CORNER TO UPDATE YOUR AVAILABILITY. 3. NOTE: DSA Games are on Weekends ONLY. Ignore all the boxes for the weekdays. On Saturdays, Club Excel games are 8am through 6pm. Travel games are on Sunday, between noon and 6pm. So, you only need to concern yourself with those boxes. Saturdays are the bottom line, Sundays are the top line. 4. TIP 1: If you are play on a DSA team, the site knows when your games are scheduled and will block you from being assigned to referee slots that conflict with your games. 5. TIP 2: Think about any regularly scheduled weekend activities that you have (Baseball practice, lacrosse game, etc.) and make sure you always leave those boxes blank. 6. Tip 3: Try to update your schedule for the coming weekend on Sunday or Mondays. That way we will have accurate info to do manual assignments. 7. CAUTION: If you do not fill in your availability and leave all the boxes blank, the site assumes that you are available at all times. This could lead to receiving Manual Assignments that you are in fact not available for. This creates more work and hassle for both the Referee and the Assigner. Repeated failure to indicate availability may lead to suspension of your assignments.

Manual Assignments: The Assignor will give unfilled slots to Referee at his/her discretion. If you are given an assignment, you will get an e-mail that looks like this:

A K-2 Referee assignment has been added to your schedule by Referee Assigner for 4/5/2008 from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM at:

Royle Elementary 133 Mansfield Ave Darien, CT 06820

For further details, visit http://Leag1.com/RefSchedule.asp? id=214605&org=dariensoccer.org

You must reply to the e-mail indicating whether you ACCEPT or DECLINE the assignment. CAUTION: YOU MUST REPLY WITH “ACCEPT” OR “DECLINE WITHIN 24 HOURS OF RECEIVING THE ASSIGNMENT E-MAIL OR YOU MAY BE REMOVED FROM THE SLOT SO IT CAN BE ASSIGNED TO SOMEONE ELSE.

If you Accept the game, it will appear when you click on the “My Schedule” button at the top of the Officials page. (See example above.) You will also receive an e-mail reminder of the game 24 hours in advance.

If you Decline the game, you will receive a notice that you have been removed and the assignment will disappear from your schedule. It will look like this:

A K-2 Referee assignment has been removed from your schedule by Referee Assigner for 4/5/2008 from 8:30 AM to 9:30 AM at:

Self Assignment:

To Self Assign a game: 1. If you are not already logged in, then please do so. 2. On the blue vertical menu bar on the left side of the page, go halfway down and click on “Master Schedule” 3. The Master Schedule page shows all scheduled practices and games for the current week. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to get to Saturday (For K-2 and Club Excel games) and Sunday (For travel games) 4. The Master Schedule page shows all scheduled practices and games for the current week. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to get to Saturday (For K-2 and Club Excel games) and Sunday (For travel games) 5. To the right of each Home game, you will see a box like this: Not Assigned 6. This indicates that you are eligible to Self Assign yourself for certain positions at this game. Click on the drop down and choose the position you want for that game. 7. HINT: For K-2 there is only one choice, K-2 Referee. For all games, there may be more than one choice depending on your qualifications. 8. CAUTION: K-2 Referees may only self assign 2 games per day. Travel referees can work no more than 4 slots per day. Please be fair to others so that everyone gets a chance to work.