How to Give Accurate Evaluations
You've been asked to evaluate a fellow official and have been given an evaluator's checklist. In many instances checklists offer only a limited perspective on how officials perform. The trouble is that listed characteristics are often too general and don't reveal specific officiating actions in a contest. There are specific things you can do to improve your evaluating.
Use descriptions. An evaluation or observation report must describe, and doing that requires more than a traditional number system, which can be rather vague. Descriptions should be done in neutral phrasing, using non-opinionated terminology and avoiding critical remarks as much as possible. When officiating judgments are part of the picture, the description should be couched in tentative terms, such as, "You appeared to call strikes on pitches that may have been high in the strike zones of shorter hitters." (Using "you" means that the evaluation report will be produced for the official as well as an administrative entity.)
Keep score. An observer can itemize behavior by making a tally of the way an official operated. If you're in a good position to evaluate strike calls, say directly behind home plate, you can "keep score" by tracking pitches that either seem accurately called or else seem off the mark. Charting would also reveal patterns of an umpire's judgment: missing low pitches, expanding the strike zone beyond the outside corner and so on.
Charting can be done in other sports as well. Keep track of how many times a football wing official adopted a progress spot on running plays by moving downfield parallel to the play and pivoting at a 90-degree angle to identify a dead-ball spot. In basketball, record how often a referee got caught trailing a fast break by several yards. Signals can also be described.
If isolated behavior needs recording, that can be done in narrative language: "With two minutes left in the first quarter, the referee and umpire conferred for 38 seconds before administering a penalty for holding.
"Give positive reinforcement. At upper levels of officiating, observers often try to record many more positive behaviors than negative ones. Part of objective evaluating is to reinforce correct officiating. With narrative descriptions, you can explain how an official appears to adopt the correct positioning before play, how he or she moves according to action and if the official seems to be looking in the proper places to execute judgments.
Share it. Should you share an evaluation with the person being observed? If you don't, there's little hope for improvement. Plus, a secret evaluation will likely be resented. Sharing a summary of patterns allows the official to reflect on the observations, moving the recipient to counter the perceptions or accept the evaluation as a positive stimulus for change.
Written by Jerry Grunska, a retired educator who lives in Evergreen, Colo. He officiated football for more than 40 years. This article originally appeared in the 11/04 issue of Referee.
Deductible or Not?
Many of the questions that arise regarding taxes have to do with if certain expenses are tax deductible. Below our some questions answered from the tax section of NASO's website.
Are the officiating camps I attend deductible? Yes. Your education and training to stay current in your skills are directly related to the business of officiating. Some of the expenses that might be incurred include travel, meals (at 50 percent) and registration fees. Keep careful record of these expenses at the time they are incurred.
Is all my mileage deductible if I leave my primary employment and stop by home on the way to a game? No. If you went home before you went to the game site, the miles from home to the game site would be personal miles. A simple way of looking at it is if you are going from one business location to another business location, your miles are business. If you are leaving from your home, the miles are personal. It gets even more complicated if your home is also your business location (office in the home). The key to maximizing that deduction is keeping good records of the use of your vehicle and using common sense when traveling from your primary job to your officiating assignments, meetings, etc.
If I travel away from home overnight, can I deduct my spouse's expenses if she or he travels with me?No. Unless your spouse is officiating also, those expenses are personal. Only your expenses are deductible. Can I deduct my telephone for use in my officiating business? Yes. At least you may deduct the long distance charges relating to your business. If your home phone is also your business phone, the monthly base fee is considered a personal expense first.
If I go to a game in the sport I officiate to watch the officials, can I deduct those expenses?No. The expenses related to that activity will be personal and nondeductible. The training you might gain is too ambiguous to be directly related to your business.
Can I deduct my computer? Yes and no. If you are officiating as an independent contractor, then you should be able to deduct the business portion of your computer. If you are officiating as an employee, the computer must be a condition of employment before the business portion would be deductible.
This article is for informational purposes only. For the most up-to-date advice on tax situations, NASO recommends that you contact a local CPA.
These Shoes Were Made for Reffing By Dave Simon
When you buy a new pair of basketball officiating shoes, you're not thinking about retirement. You're thinking about how many games you're going to get out of them before your feet start to hurt. You're wondering if they'll last the season. You're hoping they'll hold a lot of special memories you can savor as the years advance.Mine do. But for a different reason.It's now been three full years since I donned the stripes and whistle to go along with the black high tops. I wanted to make 20 years on the hardwood, but stopped after 18 once my full-time job became a 24-7 operation with a pager on my lanyard rather than a whistle. The shoes stayed in my closet, hoping for a return. The shoe-trees kept them well-formed in the back of my closet, where my high school and college jackets collected dust. Occasionally I'd be rummaging for a shirt and look at how dirty my old officiating pants were, how many times I'd worn them, the pair I'd split when I didn't have an extra. They stay in my closet for some odd reason. Perhaps validation of what I once did.The shoes are different. As two years became three, and I understood my officiating would be confined to talking with officials and assigners before, during or after my kids' basketball games, I began to dream again, to make my shoes into something new. Give them a new career.The one thing about basketball officiating shoes is that they're comfortable and provide great support. They have to be. With all the pounding from a grown man running six miles a night, they must protect your arches, ankles and knees during countless sprints in any given game. Good shoes keep you healthy. By understanding that, implicitly I understood they had another life waiting, as all of us do who give up officiating. Though we may not want to face it, we must be open to the experience.My shoes were.One day I took them out of the closet, clapped them together, brought out the polish, gave them a shine. I remembered my last game, teeing up a coach whose games I'd officiated countless times, still wondering why he'd chosen that game to get in my face. No matter.The grass needed to be mowed. I put them on, laced them up. Perfect. Did a few stretches. Down the stairs, it felt like I was walking on cushions. Had they always been this soft and exactly contoured to my feet?The mower roared to life and my shoes propelled me over humps, stabilized my ankles, kept me pushing energetically row after row.It's a new avocation for them to pursue now, one that turns them green at the end of the day. They stand with me on the basketball court now as I cheer the team I coach, shouting encouragement to nine-year-old boys. The shoes pedal my two bicycles, work out with me in the morning, take me on walks, nap with me on the couch while the NCAA tourney plays softly on the TV. And they still feel good.Like me, someday they will wear out. That day has not come yet.Who knows? They might hike the Australian outback, canoe the boundary waters of upper Minnesota, drive across America.If they break down, I have another pair stashed away, waiting for these to wear out. When the new pair is old and torn, who knows? It might just be time to buy another pair.
Dave Simon lives in Grapevine, Texas. He officiated basketball for 18 years, working primarily high school and small college games. This originally appeared in the 10/05 issue of Referee