The Ref Stop

Work as a referee appointment secretary

davidmt

davidmt

New Member
Hi guys,

I have a general question: how do you enter into a job as a referee appointment secretary? It seems to be a part-time job, and I've seen a couple of old adverts from some years ago but nothing recently. Is it more of an internal job offer?

I would be interested in doing it, and I thought that maybe before the beginning of the season some vacancies would come up (anywhere in England), but so far, I haven't seen any.

Thanks!
 
The Ref Stop
davidmt said:
Hi guys,

I have a general question: how do you enter into a job as a referee appointment secretary? It seems to be a part-time job, and I've seen a couple of old adverts from some years ago but nothing recently. Is it more of an internal job offer?

I would be interested in doing it, and I thought that maybe before the beginning of the season some vacancies would come up (anywhere in England), but so far, I haven't seen any.

Thanks!
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Do you mean for leagues? At most levels these are volunteer roles, towards the higher ends this can change.

The skills required are very admin focussed
 
Find a league local to you. You need to be reasonably local in order to understand the geography of where clubs are based and the potential distances and travel involved for the officials you're appointing. ;)
Contact the current incumbent and find out if/when they're due to stand down from the position and take it from there. That's the best advice I can give you from the perspective of someone who almost did it myself.
Others on here are currently doing the job and some have done it previously. Some of those will no doubt be along shortly... :)
 
I kind of fell into it by accident. The RefsSec at the time just wasn't appointing referees to games, think it was something like less than 25% of games had league appointed referees. The team that I managed never got a referee, we had to find our own every week. All the clubs complained about it, and every year he would say at the AGM if anyone thinks they can do a better job he would step down. So I called his bluff, having been encouraged to do so by the league fixture secretary who's team I had refereed the week before, and put my hand up to say I'd do it. He then refused to stand down, so we both had to spend two minutes saying why we should be elected, and leave the room whilst they had a vote. They voted for me by 39 to 1, so I had a new role from that evening.

It can be a lot of work, I was spending well over 10 hours a week on it. As others have said, it is very unlikely to be paid, certainly not at grass roots, and will be on a volunteer basis with just expenses paid. It was probably harder back then as recording availability of referees was all through emails and a spreadsheet, these days with tools like RefSec it is probably a lot easier. The other challenge I had was the geography as the league had teams in London, Middlesex, Herts, Beds, Essex, Kent and Surrey, so my geography knowledge had to become a lot better.
 
JamesL said:
Doth my hat to anyone that takes on this role. Must be an absolute nightmare role to do.
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It certainly can be a nightmare. I've had weeks where I've barely looked up from my phone/laptop dealing with issues. That's on top of Part-Time work and a Uni Degree. Can be a tough slog at times but it definitely also comes with some nice moments as I've found out over the last 3 seasons.

For what it's worth @davidmt League's are always crying out for volunteers in various roles, so if you're up for getting involved then I really do suggest getting in touch with some of your local leagues. You will meet some fantastic football people who love Grassroots and will do anything to keep it going!
 
SalfordRef said:
It certainly can be a nightmare. I've had weeks where I've barely looked up from my phone/laptop dealing with issues. That's on top of Part-Time work and a Uni Degree. Can be a tough slog at times but it definitely also comes with some nice moments as I've found out over the last 3 seasons.

For what it's worth @davidmt League's are always crying out for volunteers in various roles, so if you're up for getting involved then I really do suggest getting in touch with some of your local leagues. You will meet some fantastic football people who love Grassroots and will do anything to keep it going!
Click to expand...
Hey, thanks for your answer! I will definitely check it out :)
 
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