Friend at Court, Page 154-155
Court Monitors are not certified officials. They assume limited duties to help ensure fair and sportsmanlike play at sites lacking a sufficient number of certified officials. Based on the experience and training of the Court Monitors, the Referee or Site Referee shall advise them of the courts to which they are assigned and their responsibilities, which may include some or all of the following:
1. Maintain control over assigned courts.
2. Measure the net at the beginning of the first match and at other appropriate times.
3. Time warm-ups and, when possible, announce "two minutes" at two minutes before the end of the warm-up, and announce "time" when play is to begin.
4. Call footfaults, remembering that there is never a warning.
5. Stop play when the monitor observes a code violation and seek assistance from the referee or other official.
6. File suspension point reports with the referee concerning offenses they personally observed or heard.
7. Settle scoring disputes on a limited basis.
8. Overrule clear mistakes.
9. Time rest periods.
10. Record scores of matches.
11. Inform the desk of open courts and of the progress of matches in play.
12. Send for a certified official if there is a question of rule interpretation.
13. Call the score if assigned to only one court.
Listed above is a description of a court monitor and their responsibilities. It seems that a major non-sanctioned tournament in the Metroplex and the state of Texas has chosen to use court monitors instead of certified officials in their tournaments. They plan to hire only a referee and then use court monitors for all the other work. These court monitors would not be paid and only be given a meal and a t-shirt for their work.
To further complicate the matter, the President of the Metroplex Tennis Officials Association is said to be training these court monitors for the tournament.
Personally, I will not comment on what our President does or does not do, but I consider the use of court monitors instead of certified officials to be fraught with issues and disasters in the making. Here are some of my points in that part of the discussion:
* Areas of concern in the description are highlighted in italics.
* A court monitor is not certified and therefore does not have training as an official even though they are being placed in that role.
* They have not been trained in how to deal with disruptive players and/or parents.
* They have no authority to deal with these parents and/or players other than to call for the referee.
* What will the referee do if more than one court monitor at a time needs them on their court?
* Since a court monitor is not employed by either the tournament or the referee, they have no recourse to demand accountability or work product.
* Court monitors were meant as a help to certified officials who had too many courts and not as a replacement for certified officials.
* The use of court monitors INSTEAD of certified officials seems to be a first step by a tournament and/or tournament director to replace officials in order to save money and expense.
* Court monitors serve on a volunteer basis and therefore can choose to be on time or not, to deal with issues or not, to walk off the court or not, and to do the right thing or not.
These are just a few of my random thoughts about court monitors and I'll leave the discussion of who is training them up to our readers.
16 comments:
The MTOA needs to rethink who they place in leadership positions within the Board. These issues started a couple of years ago when Susan Wertenberger was appointed President and has only gotten worse since then.
The President of the MTOA should have enough sense NOT to train scabs for officials who are available and willing to work. This is just a slap in the face for all qualified officials.
You forgot one key tidbit. Court Monitors will not have liability insurance and therefore could get sued for their actions/inactions. I wonder if this will be explained to them by the glorious MTOA Board President.
Don Brandy should be training the court monitors based on his creative rule making tendencies. It would be a perfect fit for the Little Mo Nationals.
What a JOKE!!!
Is the recall/referendum process part of the bylaws of the MTOA? If so, and if the President of the Organization is working to replace certified, trained officials with court monitors, it's time to go into the recall mode.
Only using volunteer court monitors is a great idea if we can go back to the 1950's. If we can get all the players and parents to play fair and follow the rules. But wait, there is too much desire, too much money spent, too much time spent on private lessons, personal coaches, too many hopes for scholarships. "Leave it to Beaver" will never come back as a number one TV show, and court monitors will not be able to fully replace certified officials. Here is a prediction. Monitors will be used the first year and there will be some problems, then they will be used another year and there will be lots of problems as the parents and kids find out there is no real authority at the sites, and the volunteers fail to live up to the expectations. Then the tournament will find lots of reasons for bringing back officials, but they will never admit that the experiment failed.
On the subject of the MTOA president training court monitors:
1. The monitors will be trained by a certified official who has a vested interest in ensuring that matches and tournaments run smoothly. Therefore, there's a decent chance that the monitors will have something resembling a clue when they step on court. From that point of view, it's better that the training come from her than from an unknown, untested source.
2. Conflict of interest, anyone? Is she trying to work us all out of business? Okay, that's a bit extreme, since sanctioned tournaments still require certified officials. Still, it's already difficult for some of us to find enough work to stay busy without our own president training those who would replace us at other events.
Thanks for posting this Randy - I will use court monitors ASAP.
As a TD, I have always thought it would work out better to have court monitors and a single referee to handle the officiating. That will free up valuable resources. I still wouldn't have to provide lunch since the court monitors would only be assigned on an ad-hoc basis depending on where problems arise. Besides, it would be good for non-involved parents to become part of the process.
A Court Monitor was how I started out 30+ years ago... I was just interested in giving back to the game - now I get paid to do something I enjoy! GREAT way to start! I am really not too sure why some of you are complaining!
What in the hell is Nancy King thinking of? As a minimum, this issue should be voted on by the MTOA Board for resolution. Either that, or Nancy needs to step down from holding an official position on the Board since she is representing Board decisions by her actions.
Volunteers who may serve as court monitors rarely have any idea of what they are getting themselves into.
They come for a few hours and new ones show up for their shift at the desk or court monitor.
After some hassles with parents or players and being in the hot sun way too long they will disappear,
and the referee will have the courts and the tournament desk to ride herd on,
and tournament directors will pocket the difference in the payroll, like the old days.
Devolution, returning officiating to the ethos of the 50's with the power game and money of the modern game;
as the matches we work are the minor leagues where the infighting is especially vicious.
I encourage as many TD's as possible to start using court monitors. It will only take one tournament for you to come back begging us to work for you again. Most TD's have absolutely no experience or knowledge of officiating and they think they know it all because they "used to be a good tennis player."
One of the reason that officials like to be near the desk is so they can hear the TD whine about paying us and all their problems and then watch them pocket their fat paychecks.
My favorite TD's are the ones who have the money for the tournament in hand the day the tournament starts and then take 3 months to pay the officials.
What seems wrong about that?
anon 8:21
Sounds like wallet envy... you have issues.
And to the person that wrote about Don Brandy - shame on you - especially if you are an Official. You my friend are breaking the code. He (like me and you) may have made a snap error OR NOT - but, you had time to write about him and think about what your saying - SAD very Sad!
I aggree the TD's get paid and ask us to stand out there 10 hours and not arrive early ...be the upmost professional representing the USTA and his or her Tournament ...but can't seem to find the money to pay us??? what a joke??
Where do I sign up?
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