• First Official Outdoor NA...
  Forum: Off Topic Stuff
  Last Post: craigkendall
  12-12-2022, 11:35 AM
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  » Views: 589
• NAHL Data Dictionary
  Forum: Challenges & Solutions
  Last Post: johnlocke
  10-07-2022, 04:15 PM
  » Replies: 3
  » Views: 2,371
• Coordinating - We use a c...
  Forum: Organization
  Last Post: craigkendall
  09-02-2022, 12:50 PM
  » Replies: 1
  » Views: 1,207
• Ken Frasier intro
  Forum: Introductions
  Last Post: craigkendall
  08-15-2022, 02:34 PM
  » Replies: 3
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• Gamesheet and manuals
  Forum: Shared Resources
  Last Post: craigkendall
  08-15-2022, 07:59 AM
  » Replies: 1
  » Views: 1,283
• Scheduling - Competency, ...
  Forum: Organization
  Last Post: kenfrasier
  08-15-2022, 07:29 AM
  » Replies: 2
  » Views: 1,653
• We use what we call Quick...
  Forum: Shared Resources
  Last Post: kenfrasier
  08-14-2022, 05:30 PM
  » Replies: 2
  » Views: 2,120
• OiO Individual and Group ...
  Forum: Challenges & Solutions
  Last Post: craigkendall
  08-12-2022, 09:28 AM
  » Replies: 0
  » Views: 622
• OiO New Mexico style
  Forum: Organization
  Last Post: craigkendall
  07-20-2022, 07:48 AM
  » Replies: 2
  » Views: 1,775
• Brooke Lowe Intro
  Forum: Introductions
  Last Post: jamessweet
  07-19-2022, 11:10 PM
  » Replies: 2
  » Views: 1,560

• Forum posts:21
• Forum threads:11
• Members:11
• Latest member:howardstone

On Dec 11, 2022 the NM OiO Association had the privilege of officiating the first official NAHL outdoor contest (in the contiguous United States - there was an outdoor game in Alaska a few years back when the indoor rink was unusable). It was awesome. Lots of challenges to overcome but overall a great success. We highly recommend it!

Hi everyone! My name is Ken Frasier. I currently serve as the director of off-ice officials for the Odessa Jackalopes.
I have seen a lot of changes over the last 26 years as an off-ice official, about 17 of those as the director.
I started in the WPHL, then CHL, and now NAHL for Odessa.
I am also a level 4 On-ice official, and the USA Hockey seminar instructor for Amarillo, El Paso, and Odessa. I have refereed in the College (ACHA) and Junior levels (WSHL and NAHL), along with a few WPHL and CHL alumni games, but my skating days are coming to an end.

The question has been asked, how many officials does it take to have a hockey game? Most people answer, "3 or 4", but in reality, it is many more. Ideally, it is more like 14-16, the three or four on the ice, clock operator/timekeeper, 2-penatly box attendants, 2- goal judges, official scorer, and numerous statisticians 4-6. We HAVE to have OiO's to run the game. Unfortunately, our numbers have dwindled over the years, and people have stopped volunteering. Off-ice officials are a critical necessity for the game. 

I am here to help answer any questions and provide any guidance, lessons learned, game scenarios, and have a direct connection to those who can provide answers, if I can't. 

Thanks to Craig for starting this.

Attached, are a few files we have collected/used over the years. 

HT_scoresheet is just a one page game summary sheet. It is a place to write everything down, including goals, penalties, +/-, time out, goalie time in/out, attendance, shootout, etc. 

The off ice manual published by USA Hockey, and the off ice manual specifically related to USA Hockey ODP (Officials Development Program). They might be a little dated, but still applicable in most cases. 

I will visit with Kendall and Keith to see if there is updated manuals.

While looking into formalizing our OiO group we have encountered what we see as an interesting question and we're wondering if anyone else has encountered it and has any insight from experience.

While we suspect (and are checking into it) that our USAH registration provides some level of individual protection, we are contemplating what level of liability the individual coordinators may fall under should an incident or taxation issue arise related to our OiO work.

For instance, what if an OiO slips and falls on the ice during a game and due to complications decides to sue for medical bills and beyond. We're wondering to what level the individual or organization who manages the scheduling of OiO might be potentially drawn into litigation and what exposure they may be subject to outside of USAH, team, and facility protections.

And, related to tax liability, if an organization of OiOs receives hats and jackets from the team for which they are providing services, but the group provides OiO services for multiple teams/leagues, does the organization risk potential tax liability for the items provided?

I was chatting with an ECHL OiO acquaintance today about how they do their work. During the conversation she shared with me her scheduling sheet. A single piece of paper with a grid containing game dates down the left and names across the top. In each grid she marks a Y or N for if the person is scheduled.

Early on in our NAHL OiO days I was frustrated with the reply all emails and manually versioned spreadsheets so I built a quick web based application for managing our work. The app has continued to grow in sophistication but remains super easy to use. I'm going to attach some screenshots I captured to send to my ECHL OiO friend during our conversation that will give you a glimpse into how the app works.

I've attempted to automate as many repetitive tasks as possible, and push data management that pertains to the individual OiO down to them.

We may be unique in that we try to schedule our OiOs to different jobs across the season which does add an additional level of complexity when scheduling.

Take a look and let's discuss!

Main page once logged in:
   

User profile management (NOTE: everything after Emergency Contact is only editable by a system admin and often not visible to the user):
   

Users manage their own availability for games on the schedule:
   

The system uses a combo of games the user says he/she is available and whether the user is trained for certain jobs to present who can be scheduled for each position each game:
   

And admins have access to a menu general users do not that allows them to manage overall items in the application:
   

We try to maintain an available workforce of 20 OiOs per league we provide service to. Lots of moving parts when scheduling. Currently, each OiO can log into our system and check an available box beside each game to indicate he/she is available or not for each game. Admins have the ability to indicate in each users' profile if he/she is qualified or trained for each role. And when the scheduler/s are actually assigning persons to jobs for games, the system presents only those trained who are available for the game being scheduled. The scheduling page also provides info about who worked the previous game and next game for each job.

I'm in the process of brainstorming an enhancement to our online website/scheduling system and would appreciate the feedback of others. As indicated above our system already uses a a combination of competency and availability to provide pull-down menus for each position for each game that the scheduler can use to assign OiOs to jobs. 

The ultimate goal is having the system intelligently recommend a schedule for each game based on four factors: competency (is the user trained for the position), frequency (is the user scheduled too frequently or not frequently enough for the job), availability (simply, has the user said he/she is available to work at the game), and recency (how long or short has it been since the individual was scheduled for this job).

In the slightly modified screenshot below, I've mocked up visualizations of who was scheduled the last four games for the positions (where the darker the color the more recent) and reversed it for who is scheduled over the next four games. I've also mocked up a list of names who are trained for the position to be scheduled who have said they are available to work that date (and including a serialized listing of how many games this season the user has worked that position, how many games total the user has been scheduled so far in the season for any game, and how many games overall the user has said he/she is available).

The initial goal is to simply provide the visual data to our folks who do scheduling (my self and John Locke who is also on here) to be used when manually setting the schedule. This would hopefully replace the current additional pencil/paper maintained to balance the scheduling).

I would be interested in any feedback from others who schedule multiple OiOs. What thoughts you may have about the four factors. Especially if anyone is using a similar system. And how does this compare (thought process wise) to how others of you do scheduling.

I've been searching for a NAHL data dictionary to no avail.  I've found one published by the NCAA.  I've also queried NAHL HQ for help but they haven't answered.  A few specific examples of what kinds of things I'm looking for:
1)When does the goalie clock stop on a delayed penalty or when the goalie is pulled  for an extra man?  Is it when the goalie gets to the bench or is it "when the goalie can no longer influence the play" or some other metric. 
2)I've seen OIO posts where shots on goal are burdened with intent. (to be clear, not a NAHL post)  If a defenseman clears a puck from the defensive zone and it happens to make the goalie on the other end defend, some OIO groups do not count that as a shot on goal.
I believe our metrics should be as quantitative as humanly possible so that every NAHL player knows that his or her stats will be tallied in the same manner no matter the rink.  However, I would like the league to come out with a set of standards that we all follow and I would hope they would minimize or eliminate qualitative decisions like 'intent" or "no longer influence the play".  Thoughts?

Hi! I’m Brooke Lowe and my husband, Bradley, and I are over the OiO for the Shreveport Mudbugs! This will be our 3rd year over it and 5th year involved. Our son, Kaden, plays high school hockey for the Mudbugs. We love hockey and what we do!

For the last three years we have provided off-ice officiating for the area NAHL team. They announced a few months ago they would be adding an NA3HL team in the Fall of this year.

We've been asked and agreed to provide scheduling for OiOs for the new team.

I know others of you also provide OiOs for multiple teams/leagues so I'm curious what you've learned? Tips you'd offer? Mistakes you made we should avoid?

Help much appreciated!

Our local hockey opportunities are expanding with a new NA3HL team coming into our area so we're seeing a need to add a significant number of additional volunteers for our group. What recruiting techniques have you used that have worked? Anything you tried that failed miserably and we should avoid?