Paid vs Volunteer Umpires
Sorry about not posting last night. I had a minor’s practice at 5PM, a major’s practice at 6:30PM, and a senior’s practice at 8PM. All is good w/ that except I started watching the debate w/ my wife and next thing I knew it was 1AM. Sorry about that, how about that Sarah Palin? Won’t be too tough to listen to her talk for 4 years will it?
I should preface this post with the fact that I umpire in Little League as an unpaid volunteer and for travel programs as a paid umpire.
I was sent an article as part of an umpire’s newsletter today written by Jim Smith of Pennsylvania District 22. I assume he is the umpire in chief for that district, though it never really says. The article, titled Volunteer vs. Paid can be found here:
http://www.littleleague.org/Page57168.aspx
Great read wasn’t it?
I have to agree there is little more gratifying then volunteering time for Little League. It is fun and extremely rewarding. My personal opinion is you never pay money for anything for Little League unless it turns you a profit. For instance, we once paid a guy to come in and show us how to run our bat-a-thon and make it profitable. When I left that league of 1,400 kids we were bringing in $140,000/year in batathon money. We paid him 5%. A good investment I think.
Another opportunity to pay a company and actually bring more revenue into the organization that you would have otherwise, is a snack bar company. My personal favorite is a sponsorship company. They can sell advertising all over your park for a small fee and bring in tons of money for the league.
The bottom line is, you shouldn’t pay people directly for work they do for the league and the volunteer organization, but paying a company to increase revenues to the league is smart. Umpire are an expense, not a profit center, profit centers should be exploited, expenses reduced. With this corporate philosophy throughout the league, the kids will reap all the rewards.
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Volunteers, You Have to Ask Them
I was in a situation today that had nothing to do with Little League where I overheard a hard working individual complaining that nobody was stepping up to help him. He was complaining that he had to do everything and that nobody had volunteered to help.
My response? Did you ask?
I am so often amazed when people complain they are getting no help but they never ask anyone to help them? My experience has been, if you ask, people will help. If you wait for someone to volunteer, you might get lucky, but likely you will do everything yourself.
A good example of this is how we do our concessions assignments. We used to give a list of assignments to each team. The team was responsible for filling them. This usually meant they weren’t filled or the team mom did every slot. There were exceptions, but very few.
We decided to try something different a few years back and it paid off this year with record profits! Enough to build a batting cage on our softball fields! Instead of waiting for others to volunteer, we made a schedule that included one slot from every parent in the league. We made sure not to have conflicts w/ other teams and wherever possible, assigned parents that already had practices scheduled at the fields.
Our participation shot through the roof! Rather than ask for someone to volunteer, we assigned a spot to them. Most people showed, some swapped, and a very few didn’t show. This is much better than our normal response across the league and we are very happy with the system.
The moral of the story? Don’t assume people will help, ask them, because if you ask, they will. Who could say no when they know they should be doing it? Don’t ask? Easy for me to avoid you, ask me, I have to say yes.
How do you recruit volunteers?
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Sometimes Hard Work Pays Off
Image by Getty Images via Daylife All Little League umpires are volunteers. At least they are supposed to be. Some leagues pay them. I would love to see a protest at the sectional or state level where a team was disqualified because they used paid umpires all year. Anyway, 99% of Little League umpires are volunteers, we do it because we love it.
The greastest honor a little league umpire can have in his district is to be selected to umpire the Major’s Division Championship game. I, along w/ a few of my friends, have been selected to umpire that game tomorrow. Hand picked by the adminstrator in fact.
It is an honor, and I am humbled.
What is your biggest honor in Little League?
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Don’t Like What You See on the Field?
Image by dbang via Flickr
One of fields we travel to has one of my favorite signs in the whole world posted on each field. No it’s not "do not hit ball into fence" or "no pepper". It is:
IF YOU DON’T LIKE WHAT YOU SEE ON THE FIELD THEN VOLUNTEER
As you sit in the stands for hours on end, you read this sign at least a thousand times. How true is that? It is amazing how much people are willing to complain, yet they never step up to actually volunteer themselves.
Most of the complaints are lodged at umpires, though many complain about coaches as well. But the most under appreciated group of volunteers is the umpires. Did he say volunteers? Yes VOLUNTEERS!
EVERY UMPIRE ON A LITTLE LEAGUE FIELD IS (or is supposed to be anyway) A VOLUNTEER!
They are not paid by most leagues! Any league that does pay umpires is violating Little League policy.
Can you imagine treating a hurricane relief volunteer passing out ice in 95 degree temperature the same as some treat Little League Volunteer Umpires? What makes them different? If umpires blow EVERY call, it still didn’t cause anyone to win or lose, and besides WHO CARES! It is not about winning and losing is it?
I have become very intolerant of anyone criticizing an umpire . When we have so many umpires lining up to volunteer that we have to turn them away, then we can criticize, for now, my only comment for an umpire is:
THANK YOU BLUE!
Do you have any great volunteer umpire stories? Please submit them here so we can recognize their thankless efforts!
What a Game!
The Scenario
We were down by 3 after 3, then went ahead 4-3 in the bottom of the 4th only to allow the other team to go up 6-4 in the top of the 6th! But, we had a girl hit a home run in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game, 1-2-3 in the top of the 7th, a single, stolen base, and a double, boom, we won!
OK, that is the physical. The girls were impossible to contain, they were pumped! I was so proud of them, but I really don’t even care about that part.
The Reality
The girl that hit the double happens to be my assistant’s daughter. He is more of a co-head coach and knows as much, if not more, about the game as I do. When I looked up after I waved our winning run home, she had run to him full speed, launched and gave him the biggest bear hug ever! Full leg and arm wrap. That is what this is all about, moments like that make every volunteer hour upon hour worth it.
Congratulation Flames! You deserve to enjoy this one.
Do you have a great game result tip to share? Post a comment below and let us know about it.
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