MTOA General Board Meeting December 16, 2021

MTOA General Meeting December 16, 2021 Meeting called to order at 7:24 p.m. Members attending: Dwayne Enderle (President), Jerry Prohaska, Marvin Smith, Jeannette Escutia, Satish Chukka, Mary Lynn Satur, Myron Krueger, Randy McDonald, and Randall Edwards (Treasurer). Kevin Foster (USTA Section Officials Coordinator) was in attendance as a guest. Minutes from previous meeting December 19, 2018 were available and a motion was made to accept. Motion Passed. No meeting was held in 2019, or 2020. Randall Edwards was asked to talk about our finances. He presented a P&L for 2021 and a comparison all the way back to 2017. He pointed out the attrition of officials as roughly 69 officials worked MTOA events and paid dues in 2021 as compared to 94 to 99 officials who worked and paid dues in the years 2017-2019. MTOA remains financially sound despite fewer officials, the impact of Covid and the subsequent loss of DFW area professional events for which we handled the payments. Junior Tournaments are going strong, might not be as big, but there are plenty of them. He would like to see membership back to around 100, and he would like to see a distinction in payment procedures between our certified officials and non-certified or court monitors. Our goal is to ultimately encourage those non-certified officials to become certified. Suggestion was made to encourage referees to use the USTA certified officials list (available via OfficialsFirst) first and foremost, before going into using court monitors or non-certified officials. Proposal is that the invoice identify the certified officials vs. non-certified officials or court monitors; but 2 things first. 1) the referee should notify the TD of any non-certified official to be used for the event and have prior agreement from the TD of this fact, and 2) before we hire a court monitor or other non-certified official to work an event, the referee should have exhausted the available list of all DFW area USTA certified officials prior to using any non-certified officials. If you are a certified official, we deduct one-time annual MTOA membership dues of $10 upon first event worked each year; if the CM or non-certified official works, the proposal is that we charge them an administration fee of $15 to process the payment, for each event worked. Kevin speaks about official shortage within the Texas Section, and indicates that 3 tournaments ran with satellite officiating; in which they called in any issues to the referee. Next idea is to have one certified Official per site, and let the rest be CM. We are already seeing that now without the CM. We are not offering shift work, not encouraging working shifts. They will change number of officials to number of courts. Change our certification system, from foundation, 1, 2 etc. to tier 1, 2 and 3 and you will need to do an online module. We have done the most workshops in Texas, and one will be required every 2 years. Further conversation about shortage of Officials and maybe having more grace with each other not to burn bridges but to get more officials. The mention of an MTOA rate increase was raised but tabled due to it being a topic for the board meeting to follow, although there was much preliminary discussion regarding. MTOA General Meeting December 16, 2021 Randy McDonald presented the nominating committee suggestions for new board members to replace those whose term have expired - which is all board members at this time due to Covid and our inability to hold board meetings. Recommendation is Jerry Prohaska and Dwayne Enderle for 2022, Stephanie Burnam, Gary Tolbert, and Jeannette Escutia for 2023, Randy McDonald, Myron Krueger, Randall Edwards, and Mary Lynn Satur for 2024. Motion was made to accept these recommendations; it was seconded, and the motion carried. A motion was made to vote on it, and it was approved. The board was now set and the board was immediately set to have their meeting following this general meeting to handle board specific issues. Motion made, seconded and passed to adjourn this meeting. It was adjourned at 8:55 p.m. Respectfully Submitted Jeannette C. Escutia, secretary

2022 MTOA Standard Shift Rates

 2022 MTOA Standard Shift Rates*

For 2022 the standard shift rates are:

Referee - $25/hour (8-hour minimum shift)
Official - $22/hour (6-hour minimum shift)

Overtime is paid at the standard shift rate per hour. An official who works more than 10 hours, but less than 12, is paid for two shifts or 12 hours. For ex., an official who works 9 hours is paid for 9 hours at $22/hour, an official who works 10.5 hours is paid for 12 hours at $22/hour, and an official who works 13 hours is paid for 13 hours at $22/hr. The above does not apply to the referee; they are paid $25/hour for any hours worked beyond the 8 hour/day minimum.

 

Referees should determine prior to the start of a tournament whether meals are to be provided to the officials and inform the officials accordingly. Meals provided by the tournament enable the officials to remain on site for their full shift. If no meals are provided on site, the referee should advise officials that they are authorized to leave the site in order to obtain food (generally no more that a half hour is required). The tournament director should be made aware by the referee that some solo officiated sites may be uncovered while officials are obtaining lunch or dinner. 

Weather delay/cancellation exceptions:

1) An official notified of a delay/cancellation within two hours prior to the start of their shift, is entitled to three hours minimum pay.

2) An official who arrives at their site and is released within two hours of their start time, is entitled to 4 hours pay.

3) An official who is on site for more than two hours of their shift, prior to a cancellation being announced, is entitled to a full shift pay.

4) An official who is on call awaiting a decision regarding play, should be paid for the time they are on call until they are officially released.

5) An official who is called in to report after an initial weather delay, is entitled to a full shift pay.

6) A referee is entitled to the minimum shift rate of 8 hours for any day in which their services are required. For ex. if a tournament were canceled at noon on a Saturday, the referee is still entitled to their 8-hour minimum.

 

Chaired matches (applies primarily to junior tournaments in which some matches are chaired):

The rate is $75/chair with a two-chair minimum, i.e., if an official chairs only one match, he or she is still paid $150. If an official both roves and chairs, the rate is $175 per six hour minimum shift.

 

 

*Note: The above are standard tournament rates to be used for the majority of junior and adult sanctioned tournaments in the DFW metroplex. Other non-standard events (UTR, ITA, UIL, USTA league, unsanctioned tournaments, etc.) may utilize negotiated rates which differ from these. These negotiated rates should not be lower than our standard sanctioned tournament rates.

 

Important: Although the rates may vary depending upon the type of event, in all cases the tournament referee should make certain that their officials are made aware, prior to each event, the rate they will be paid for the event.