How many of you heard me make a big deal at the last SWISRA meeting about having the Rules of Competition with you when you referee. If you missed the meeting, then please view the video below. Unfortunately, it has been reported that none of the referees doing Rush Select U9 or U10 games at Optimist or D-3 U10 games at any location knew anything about the special field markings or how to apply the Rules of Competition at those levels. I am hoping that this report was a slight exaggeration. Nevertheless, here are the rules. D-3 U10 Rules and Rush Select U9/U10. I expect every referee to download and carry these and all Rules of Competition with them in their gear bag. More importantly, please review Rules of Competition before your matches and know which league you are officiating. (Yes, I know about the problem with D-3 Rules not being on their website yet.) Thanks.

Below is the the video of the monthly SWISRA meeting held on February 28, 2012.

SWISRA Meeting 2-28-12 from SWISRA on Vimeo.

SWISRA has added a new texting service so the assignor can communicate effectively with the membership. Texts should be limited to reminders, general information and emergencies like last minute field closures due to weather or other causes.

If you had a cell phone number listed in the SWISRA group of Arbiter prior to February 26, 2012 you were automatically added to the service.

If you’d like to be added to the service or a parent would like to be added to the service, please text ‘swisra’ to 781-728-9542 from your cell phone. You can also sign-up online at http://mobile-text-alerts.com/swisra .

If you ever need to unsubscribe from the service, please text ‘unsubscribe’ to 781-728-9542 from you cell phone.

The United States Soccer Federation understands that you cannot ask referees to perform at the top level unless you are willing to assist them in the knowledge and preparation to be at that level. We receive many instructional videos and classes like, “Week in Review” and our State, Regional and National instructors that assist us in the laws of the game and how to apply them. What they hadn’t advised us on until recently was how to approach our fitness.

Although these guidelines are designed for referees more at the professional level, the information is valuable to all. There is nothing better for a referee than to train just as if he were in a match. You will see as you read through that many of the workouts are interval running, sprints and back to interval running. This is much like a soccer match. The strength training will help with endurance and explosive moments as well.

To touch briefly on nutrition there is a document that talks about what to eat on a daily basis as well as what to eat on game day. It is even more important to stay hydrated than it is to eat correctly. Although they are both important, if you do not hydrate, you will suffer more injuries and fatigue. Use the information provided as it applies to you as a referee. Do as much as you can without straining or injuring yourself. It does you no good to try too hard and injure yourself, then have to sit out and heal.

Be Smart, Be Safe, Work hard and Be the best you can be.

• 100 referee exercises
• General-Strength-Training-Plan-for-Soccer-Referees
• Referee Nutrition Guide

Assignors need to know when and where other assignors have you working. Arbiter has a feature to help us with this. All referees should immediately login to Arbiter and click the PROFILE tab followed by the SHARING subtab. Mark all of the checkboxes on this page and click “Save”.

We had some fun at the monthly SWISRA meeting on Monday, August 22, 2011 by giving a pop quiz about the assigning procedure used by Al Padley. Take the quiz below and see how well you understand the process.

Please login to Arbiter and view your assignments daily. Please download the “Requirements” document so you completely understand the assigning procedure and your obligations to receive assignments. You should also listen to the podcast on assigning procedures. There are three things that we monitor very closely and will impact your assignments.

1. Do you keep your calendar up-to-date?
2. Do you read your email every day?
3. Do you check your schedule in Arbiter every day?

If you did not receive an assignment this week, here are some things you should check in Arbiter.

• Have you marked the “Ready To Be Assigned Checkbox”?
• Have you filled in your complete address including zip code?
• Have you set your travel limits to a minimum of 40 miles?

Recently, there has been a lot of confusion about when and how referees are paid. Two things every referee should know up front is that they are not paid after every game and every referee is paid for all games worked as long as they have met their reporting responsibilities. Hopefully, this article will clarify any remaining confusion.

History

First, it may be helpful to review a little of the history of how referees have been paid in southwest Idaho. Up until about 5 years ago, there were three primary ways referees were paid depending on the league or event. Most leagues, like the TVSL or CYSA (predecessors to the present day D-3 and Rush Select) sent checks to SWISRA once a season and referees were paid by check in July and December. High school referees were paid by check by each individual high school at the time of the game. Tournaments, some leagues like SISL and exchanges paid referees cash on the field.

Everyone recognized that all of these systems had flaws. For instance, paying referees cash on the field raised possible IRS problems for both the payor and the individual referee. Therefore, a slow transition began toward using the RefPay system. The transition has not gone as smoothly as everyone had anticipated for a wide variety of reasons that we will not address in this article.

Current System

At the present time, all tournaments, D-3, Rush Select, FC Nova Youth and BSL and most high schools use RefPay to pay referees. A few high schools still use check payments and SISL continues to pay cash.

Except for high school and SISL, referees are not paid after every game.

SWISRA enters into contracts with all the leagues it serves. Currently, this includes D-3, Rush Select, FC Nova Youth League and BSL. SWISRA does not have anything to do with payments to referees for high school or SISL games. The terms of each contract dictate when and how often SWISRA may bill the leagues for referee services. Once a league is billed, SWISRA waits for the bill to be paid and deposits the money into it’s bank account when the payment is received. Once the league’s check clears the bank, the SWISRA treasurer transfers the funds needed to pay referees to SWISRA’s RefPay account. RefPay holds the funds for a few days before allowing referees to be paid. At the end of the holding period, the SWISRA treasurer transfers money to individual referee RefPay accounts for the games that have been paid by that league. Please remember that the SWISRA treasurer is a volunteer who is not compensated in any way for the thankless task of paying referees and maintaining SWISRA’s books. The treasurer also has a regular full time job and can’t always respond immediately to each inquiry sent to him.

SWISRA does not wait for all the leagues and tournaments to pay their bills before paying referees. Referees are paid when each league pays their referee bill and the funds become available. Therefore, referees may get several payments over the course of weeks or months. This raises some confusion as referees often wonder why they haven’t been paid for all games they worked. A referee can always check their paysheets in Arbiter to see exactly which games they have been paid for and compare against their schedule to see which games remain unpaid. This comparison can also be a good indicator of which leagues have paid SWISRA and which have not.

If you believe you haven’t been paid for a game, please wait until August 1 for spring games and January 1 for fall games before sending an inquiry to the SWISRA treasurer. It is always a good idea to copy the SWISRA president and the assignor on these kinds of communications. Their respective email addresses can be found on this site.

Getting Your Money

SWISRA transfers money to your RefPay account as noted above. After that, it is up to you to decide how you want to handle your money. You must login to your account at refpay.com . Once there, you may request that any amount of money in your RefPay account be electronically transferred to your bank account; you many request to have the money added to your RefPay debit card if you signed up for one; you may request that funds be sent to you in a check (fees apply); or you may now setup an automatic transfer to your bank account (fees apply). Finally, you can set your RefPay account to send you an email every time you are paid. Go to “My Profile -> My Preferences -> Modify” in your refpay.com account to set this up. If you have specific questions about using RefPay, these are best addressed through the support department at refpay.com .

Where Do We Go From Here?

The SWISRA board has indicated that one of it’s primary goals going forward  is to improve the method and frequency of payments to referees. However, it cannot do this alone. It will require the cooperation of the various leagues and modifications to current and future contracts. Hopefully, the leagues will see the benefits of paying referees more often and will work with SWISRA to improve the system.

Conclusion

Finally, if you have any other questions, please be sure to check the FAQs section on this site. It can be reached by clicking the FAQs menu item at the top of every page. If you have any suggestions on how to improve the payment system (remembering that SWISRA probably can’t do anything unilaterally), please email them to the SWISRA board.

Our podcast on filing game reports is now available. In this 15 minute podcast I’ll cover the procedure for filing game reports and misconduct reports as well as the deadlines for each.

The podcasts will be available in two formats. First, there will be a version that can be imported and played directly in iTunes. The second version will be a simple mp3 format that can be played on any computer or mp3 music device.

iTunes Version	mp3 Version

The first in a series of assignor podcasts is now available. The first topic is “Assigning Procedure and Expectations.” In this 15 minute podcast I’ll cover the routine I follow each week along with the deadlines that referees need to be aware of. I also discuss my expectations for referees with respect to their Arbiter Sports calendar, checking email and Arbiter and communication.

The podcasts will be available in two formats. First, there will be a version that can be imported and played directly in iTunes. The second version will be a simple mp3 format that can be played on any computer or mp3 music device.

iTunes Version	mp3 Version