4 key responsibilities of a netball umpire convenor

There are quite a few components of being a netball club’s Umpire Convenor. Today we’re going to look at four key components:

1. Allocating umpires and umpire coaches to matches

2. Attend club meetings

3. Calculate umpire payments

4. Recruit and retain umpires (this one is very important)

1. Allocate umpires (and their coaches) to matches

Each week, you’ll use a software or spreadsheet to allocate umpires to any grades your club has a team in. Once you get into the swing of things, you get yourself into a routine and it gradually gets smoother each passing week.

At the start of every season it can be hard to remember who plays in what team and what time that team plays, which will affect where you allocate them.

To try to combat this, it’s best to put in a chunk of effort before the season starts when you’re fresh as a daisy. You can collate information about who plays in what team, who needs to watch their kid play at what time, and who has coaching commitments.

Here’s my weekly schedule once the season has started:

2. Attend club meetings

Meetings are where you’ll give your umpire convenor report, which is a verbal update of how the club is going regarding umpiring. It can include (but isn’t limited to):

• umpire achievements

• struggles as a club

• asking committee members for assistance

• ideas you’d like the committee members’ ideas on.

What you say here will be included in the club’s meeting minutes, so everything you say during this report can be seen by all members.

Depending on your club, you may have a meeting a month or every two months. Hopefully your club will be full of fun people that get along and you can have a laugh with. If they’re not, you might consider looking for a club more suited to you.

3. Calculate umpire payments

You’ll want to make sure you keep your roster updated after each week; it can be hard to remember after three weeks that Susie sprained her ankle and Carrie covered her commitment instead.

If you’ve picked up any commitments from other clubs OR other clubs have covered commitments for you, you’ll need this to be accurate for end-of-season invoices. If you have any missing umpires, put this on your spreadsheet so you can approve any association fines.

I use a trusty Google Sheet template that I packed with formulas to make this as smooth as possible. If you pay umpires at the halfway mark of the season, it also lessens the load at the end of the season when you’re low on steam.

Make sure everyone has sent their bank details to the treasurer so they can get paid into their account rather than having to deal in cash.

4. Recruit and retain umpires (extremely important)

If there’s anything you take away from this site, it should be this: build a good community that thrives off mutual respect. You have to be willing to give a little to get a little.

It definitely needs to be a two way street between you and your umpires. Umpires need you to allocate and give them development opportunities; you need umpires to maintain your club. The clubs I see who have a low umpire return rate year after year are the ones with convenors who aren’t on the best terms with their umpires.

To do this, you’ll need to build good relationship management skills. Not only do you want them to come back to your club each year, but you want them to be willing to contribute to the club. If they aren’t respected, they won’t be willing to help you if you’re in a jam.

To recruit umpires, you might use your club’s social media pages or club website. You can even reach out to coaches and ask them to see who’s interested in umpiring. Another option is to have your registrar include a tick box on the registration form where people can indicate if they’re interested in learning to umpire.

Summary

So, there are the four key components to a netball club’s Umpire Convenor role.

Attending club meetings is a good way to share ideas and have input in decisions. You’ll be amazed how many fresh ideas come out of meetings.

You don’t have to be good with numbers when it comes time to pay umpires. You just need to have a handy spreadsheet! Set times of the year to send payments off to the treasurer to make your life easier.

You’ll be responsible for managing good working relationships with existing umpires so they come back year after year, and you’ll take the lead on finding ways to recruit new umpires each season.

To make this easier, I’ve created a FREE social media tile you can use on yours or your club’s social media accounts.

If you want more control over the social media tile, I have a Canva template with editable text, logo, and colours to suit your club.

Netball umpire recruitment social media tile - Editable Canva template

$4.00

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