Note: All current features and functions are included in this price.

All you need to do to start using RefTown is provide an association name, abbreviation, and at least one user/administrator with an email address.

You can contact us at webmaster@reftown.com or you can fill out our question/feedback form at http://www.reftown.com/rt_feedback.asp.

 We also offer to import your initial data for you for no charge—rosters, configuration assistance, etc. We aim to help you start using RefTown with as little effort as possible.

RefTown will revolutionize the way you do business 

We service multiple organizations of various sizes—from less than 30 to nearly 400—across all major sports. Our service can be adapted to serve nearly any scheduling need.

RefTown is the most complete and most comprehensive official’s organization management package available 

Our features cover not only game assigning but can also provide a full web presence for your organization. We can be your only web site. 

Our features include a full set of communications options; election, survey, test, and signup functionality; documents archives, payroll calculations, customized interactive forms, and more. 

We are committed to providing reliable, user-friendly functionality with world-class customer support 

RefTown is designed with a highly intuitive and consistent theme and usage model throughout the site. Most functions have rollover pop-ups that guide you through the use of the site, eliminating the need for highly technical documentation.

RefTown is proven reliable and effective

Organizations that use RefTown have reduced their number of assigning errors as a result. In approximately 250,000 games and 500,000 assignments across multiple associations representing multiple sports, there have been no missed assignments due to an error on the site.

The officials who use the site find many benefits—from easily locating schools to clear and efficient communication of their assignments and other information. 

  RefTown adapts to your needs

If you have features you'd like to see on RefTown, feel free to contact us and request them. We're constantly adding features based on the requests of customers. All new features are available for all customers to use at no additional charge. 

RefTown guarantees you'll be satisfied 

We are so confident that you'll like what we offer that we’ll give you a free, fully functional, no-obligation trial and will not ask for payment until you are satisfied.

When you choose RefTown, you can be confident that it will make big improvements to your organization.

Obtaining your username and/or password:

1.  Go to www.reftown.com

2.  Click "Login" at the top right

3.  On the page that opens, click Send me a username and password

4.  Enter your email address

5.  Click "Send My Password"

You'll be informed whether a match for your email address was found. If it is found, you should receive your login information by email in just a few minutes. If it doesn't arrive, you may wish to check your junk mail folders. If none is found, the email address entered is not listed on any roster on RefTown.

Your username/password notice will also list all accounts linked to the entered email address. You'll be able to access all of them with just the one username and password.

Logging into RefTown: 

1.  Go to www.reftown.com

2.  Click "Login" at the top right

3.  On the page that opens, enter your username and password

4.  Click the "Login" Button just below the username and password boxes

You will now be logged into RefTown. Note the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name—and the currently active account.

You may or may not be logged into the sport/association or school you want to access. Accounts on RefTown are linked by email addresses. A single email address, username, and password will gain you access to all accounts that list the same email address.

Moving between accounts—associations/sports/schools: 

1.  Click the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name and the currently active account

·        It will open a list of all accounts that are linked to the currently active account

2.  Locate the association/school you want to access

3.  Click the "Go" Button at the right of that listing

You will be immediately switched to that account. RefTown will also remember the last selected account and will select that account first upon your next login, usually taking you directly to one of your in-season sports.

If you do not see all your accounts, that means they do not have the same email address listed on the rosters. If you wish them to be linked, you'll need to update or add your email address on the missing accounts. If you do not have a username/password for the other accounts, contact either the commissioner for your organization or RefTown Support.

Viewing your games: 

After Logging in, you have a several ways to get to your games. A few of them are:

1.  From the home page, locate your upcoming games listing in the middle of the page

·      Click "See full schedule" to see all of your future games that are in the system

·      Click "Unaccepted Games" to see any future games that you've not previously confirmed (or that have since been changed)

2.  Click the menu "Schedules" -> "Games"—this will list all future games that have been entered into the system

You can optionally use the "Search for Games" filter on the games page to refine the listing of games to only show one subset of games (V, JV, etc) at a time.

Confirming your games: 

Once you've reached a listing of your games, you'll need to verify them for accuracy and completeness. To do that:

1.  Check either "Yes," "No," or "OK" by each game as is appropriate

2.  (Schools/Teams) For those that are not correct, also enter comments in the comment box (at the bottom) detailing what needs to be corrected, if it is enabled

3.  Once you've responded to all games, click the "Submit Responses" button at the bottom right

·       Note that it is not absolutely necessary that you response to "all" games at the same time. If you choose, you can deal with them in multiple sessions

After submitting, you'll be taken to a page that will summarize your responses and, depending on the organization's configuration options, an email will be sent to the assignor with the details of the responses.

Changing your Username: 

After logging in:

1.  Click the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name and the currently active account

2.  Click "Edit Profile"

3.  Click "Change Username"

4.  Enter your preferred username

5.  Click the "Change My Username" button

If the entered username is available, it will be changed immediately; otherwise, you'll be informed that it is not available.

Changing your Password: 

After logging in:

1.  Click the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name and the currently active account

2.  Click "Edit Profile"

3.  Click "Change Password"

4.  Enter your current password

5.  Enter your preferred password

6.  Enter your preferred password again

7.  Click the "Change My Password" button

Changing your Contact Information (address, email address, phone, etc.): 

After logging in:

1.  Click the red box at the top and near the right that lists your name and the currently active account

2.  Click "Edit Profile"

3.  Click "Personal and Contact Information"

4.  Update any information that is missing or not accurate

5.  Select the organizations that your wish to save these changes to—you no longer have to update each one individually

6.  Click "Update This Item"

Note: If you change your email address, it may cause a new username and password to be generated and emailed to you depending on various security criteria. An existing username will remain with the old email address as long as some account still lists that username.

1. Go to www.reftown.com
2. Click Login (In top right corner)
3. Click Send me a username and password
4. Enter your email address
5. Click on "Send My Password"

• If a match is found, your details will be sent to you at the email address requested. That email will contain all of the details necessary to log in.
• If no match is found, it will respond with "Email address not found. Details not sent."
  • If no account matches or if the association you are attempting to access is not listed in the email, then the email address you entered is not on the roster of that association.
  • If you have multiple email addresses, you may wish to try one of your other addresses.

• NOTE for OFFICIALS:
  • If your email address is not found, you may need to submit a registration form (under the "Public" menu). Once it is submitted, the association's administrator will receive a notice that you've registered and may enable your account. Once your account is enabled, you'll receive your account login information by email.
  • If the association is not configured for online registrations, contact the association through other means (phone, email, etc.) to get your account entered into the system (or to get your email address corrected).

• NOTE for SCHOOLS (or TEAMS for some organizations):
  • The email address entered in the system for your school may belong to any individual in the sports program—Athletic Director, Coach, Secretary, etc. Please try these other addresses. If none of them matches, contact the association's administrator to ensure that your school/team is in the system and that your email address is correct.

1. Log in
2. Click on your name in the red box on the RefTown menu bar.
3. Click on "Edit Profile"
4. Click “Change Username”
   • (shortcut link: http://www.reftown.com/login_chpwd.asp?Focus=Username)
5. Enter your preferred username
6. Click the "Change My Username" button

If your selected username is available, it will be changed immediately. If it is not available, you'll be informed that it is already taken.

Note that your username is tied directly to a single email address. Through that username, you'll have access to all accounts that list that email address.

1. Log in
2. Click on your name in the red box on the RefTown menu bar
3. Click on "Edit Profile"
4. Click on Click “Change My Password”
   • (shortcut link: http://www.reftown.com/login_chpwd.asp)
5. Enter the old password
6. Enter the new password in both new password boxes
7. Click the "Change My Password" button

Using cookies, this box will remember who you are and will fill your login form with your username and password that you used to log into Reftown. It is not recommend that you utilize this option on a public or shared computer, as anyone with access to that computer will have access to your RefTown account(s).

Your username can be just about anything you like. By default, it is set to your email address, but you can change it. It can include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation. The "case" of the letters in your username DOES NOT matter.

Your password can also be just about anything you like. By default, it is set to random letters and numbers, but you can change it. It can include letters, numbers, spaces, and punctuation. The "case" of the letters in your password DOES matter.

Accounts are connected through email addresses. You can have access to all of your accounts with a single login—1 username, 1 password. Your username is connected to a single email address.

Once you log in, you can switch between all accounts having that email address.

To switch accounts

1. Click the new individualized Accounts Menu (a red box at the top with your name that appears after log in)
2. Locate the account you want to access
3. Click "Go" for that account

Notes:

·        RefTown remembers the last account you accessed and returns you to that one the next time you log in

·        When you switch accounts, all permissions will be configured for the new account. You can change back and forth freely—keeping in mind that, if you've opened multiple browser windows/tabs by Shift-Click or Control-Click, all actions will relate to the most recent account you've selected

1. (Recommended) Go to login page first:
   1. Go to www.reftown.com
   2. Click Login (In top right corner)
   3. Enter your username
   4. Enter your password
   5. Click the Login Button
2. Select association first

1. Go to www.reftown.com
2. Click on your association name
3. Click Login (In top right corner)
4. Enter your username
5. Enter your password
6. Click the Login Button

No, by default your email address is chosen as your username. However, you can modify your username to be anything you want as long it is not already in use.

Note, however, that your username will be tied directly to one email address and will give you access to any accounts that list that email address.

·      Officials or schools/teams can update their contact information: mailing address, physical address, phone numbers, email addresses, fax numbers, and pager numbers.

·      A school/team can also enter a website.

·      Neither officials nor schools are permitted to modify their names—they must contact an administrator to have their name changed.

This happens when there are too many attempts to log into your account with an incorrect password. When there are more than 5 login attempts in a row with an incorrect password, the account will be locked. When your account is locked, you will not be able to access the account for 30 minutes. You should request that your password be sent to you and try again once you have received your correct password and have waited 30 minutes from your last unsuccessful try.

To function properly, RefTown functions (particularly menus) require that you enable javascript in your web browser.

Internet Explorer 7.0 & 8.0

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Tools, and then click Internet Options
3. Click the Security tab
4. Click Internet to choose the Internet zone
5. Click the Custom Level button
6. Scroll down to the Scripting section and then, in Active Scripting, click Enable
7. Click OK to close Security Settings
8. Click OK to close Internet Options
9. Refresh your browser

iPhone

1. Go to the Home screen by pressing the Home button or by unlocking your phone.
2. Press the settings button
3. Select Safari from the Settings menu
4. Turn on JavaScript by touching the JavaScript toggle
5. Press the Home button to return the the iPhone home screen
6. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari

Internet Explorer 6.x

1. Access the Tools menu and select Internet Options
2. Click the Security tab
3. In the Security dialog, click on the globe for "Internet" zone
4. Click on the button labeled "Custom Level"
5. In the dialog that appears, scroll down to the heading called "Scripting"
6. Click the "Enable" button under "Active Scripting" to turn JavaScript on

Firefox 2.x & 3.x

1. Open Firefox.
2. On the Tools menu, click Options.
3. Click on the Content icon. (Fig. 1)
4. Check the box next to Enable JavaScript. (Fig. 1)
5. Click the Advanced button to open the Advanced JavaScript Options box. (Fig. 2)
6. Check the boxes under Allow scripts to section that you want to allow.
7. Click OK.
8. Click OK.

Safari

1. Open Safari
2. On the Safari menu, click on Preferences.
3. Click the Security icon.
4. Click on Enable JavaScript next to the Web Content section if it is not checked.
5. Close the Preferences window.
6. Close and restart Safari.

DELETE ME

There are two file formats in common use for transferring calendar data between various programs. RefTown supports both of the common formats: vCalendar 1.0 and vCalendar 2.0.

You may need to change a setting in RefTown to have it export the correct version.

You can select the other main format under:

• "Your personal accounts menu (red box at the top with your name)"
• "Edit Profile …"
• "Global Preferences"
• Check (or uncheck) "Use vCalendar 1.0 Format"

Are the times of your games transferring incorrectly?

RefTown supports the automatic padding of start times with a pregame time and/or a travel time. You change the amount of time used in each case as follows:

• "Your personal accounts menu (red box at the top with your name)"
• "Edit Profile…”
• "Local Preferences"
• Enter the number of minutes by which you want to pad the assignment

To function properly, RefTown requires that you enable cookies in your web browser. Enabling cookies allows the website to recognize you as you browse through the site. For most functionality, only "Session" cookies are required. These are automatically deleted every time you close your browser. In some browsers, you can enable only session cookies separately from normal cookies. To have the site remember your username and association, you will need "First-Party" cookies. Reftown never requires cookies called "Third-Party" cookies.

Internet Explorer 7 & 8

1. Go to your Tools menu and choose Internet Options
2. Click the Privacy tab
3. Click the Advanced button
4. Mark both checkboxes that appear, and make sure that you have chosen Accept from the "First-party Cookies" radio button
5. Click OK in both dialog boxes

iPhone

1. Go to the Home screen by pressing the Home button or by unlocking your phone
2. Select the Settings icon
3. Select Safari from the Settings menu
4. Select Accept Cookies from the Safari menu
5. Select From visited from the Accept Cookies menu
6. Press the Home button to return to the iPhone home screen
7. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari
8. Before the cookie settings change will take effect, you must restart Safari. To restart Safari, press and hold the Home button (for around five seconds) until the iPhone display goes blank and the home screen appears
9. Select the Safari icon to return to Safari

Firefox

1. Click on your Tools menu and choose Options
2. In the dialog box that appears, click the Privacy tab
3. From here you can either enable cookies for all sites, or just for RefTown
4. To enable cookies for all sites, mark the checkbox and click OK
5. If you prefer to enable the cookies only for RefTown, click the Exception button, and on the next box, enter http://www.reftown.com and click Allow

Safari

1. On the toolbar, click Safari and choose Preferences
2. On the Preferences menu, choose Security
3. On the Security menu, you'll see three radio buttons referring to cookies
4. Choose either to allow all cookies, or to allow cookies for sites you navigate to—either of these will enable cookies for the RefTown site

Internet Explorer 6

1. Go to your Tools menu and choose Internet Options
2. Click the Privacy tab
3. Click the Edit button near the end of the box
4. Enter http://www.reftown.com in the text field that appears and click Allow

When you click on an email address or email icon on RefTown, it attempts to transfer the email address to your personal email program as configured on your computer. If you receive an error message, your computer is not configured correctly to allow you to click on an email address.

To see what this is set to for Internet Explorer:

1. Click on the “Tools” Menu
2. Click on “Internet Options”
3. Click on the tab “Programs”
4. Set the “E-mail:” box to your desired email program if not already set

This happens when there are too many attempts to log into your account with an incorrect password. When there are more than 5 login attempts in a row with an incorrect password, the account will be locked. When your account is locked, you will not be able to access the account for 30 minutes. You should request that your password be sent to you and try again once you have received your correct password and have waited 30 minutes from your last unsuccessful try.

The printing of rosters from RefTown is done by exporting the data to your own application (e.g. Excel) for formatting as you wish.

To export a roster:

1. Go to the roster you wish to export (officials, schools/teams, or school/team contacts)
2. Apply any filters you wish in order to export a partial roster
3. Click "QuickLinks" then “Export/Download . . .”
4. Save the file on your computer so that you can edit and/or print it

In order to protect the email addresses of those on the roster from potential junk mail, the exported information will not include email addresses unless you are an administrator.

RefTown provides users the ability to transfer individual contacts to their personal address books such as Palm, Outlook, etc.

To do so:

1. By the desired roster entry, click  
• This will prepare the contact for transfer to your personal contacts list
2. Click "Open" on the window that opens
3. Click "Save" or "Save and Close"

Each user can maintain most of that user’s own profile information.

To do so (after login):

1. Click on the Accounts Menu—the red box with your name in it, located near the right end of the menu bar.
2. Click "Edit Profile"
3. From that page, there are 4 basic areas you can edit:
• Basic Account info
• Personal and Contact Information: Address, Phone, Email, etc.
• An email notice is sent to the official(s) configured to receive roster update notices
• Social Security Number
• This is a one-way only interface—the number is never shown here. You can enter your SSN only. You'll be asked to enter it twice. If both entries match, it will be updated
• Username
• Password
• Availability (takes you to the normal scratched schools/teams page, if enabled by your organization)
• Scratches (takes you to the normal scratched schools/teams page, if enabled by your organization)
• Site Preferences
• Default games page views
• Calendaring preferences: pregame and travel times, export format, etc.
• Other preferences: to disable the fancy text editor if it doesn't work in your browser

When a particular piece of contact information is marked as unlisted, it is only accessible to specific individuals in an association: administrators, assignors, and treasurers. In some cases, otherwise unlisted email addresses may be made accessible to other officials who are assigned to the same games.

Bear in mind that if you mark all items as private, your fellow officials will not be able to contact you.

Note: RefTown will never make ANY roster information available to the public. Only logged-in officials have access to roster information.

If an official, school/team, or school/team contact is logged in when filling out the registration form, all contact information will be updated to match what is submitted on the registration form.

Also, if a user is logged in when filling out the registration form, the form will start will all the currently entered roster information—saving a bit of typing and reducing the possibility of errors.

Below are the instructions for transferring games, meetings, or events from RefTown to your personal calendaring program. Even though all applications are not mentioned, the steps for at least one of the three below should work for nearly calendar application—only the steps taken within the calendar application should vary.

  Note the following:

• No canceled or reschedule game will be removed from your calendar by this action.
• If you import the same $ContestTitles{$config{EventNameID}}{sl} twice, it will appear twice.
• You must delete canceled $ContestTitles{$config{EventNameID}}{pl} manually.
• You can modify your calendar options through your personal accounts menu (red menu with your name):
• Click your name
• Click Edit Profile...
• Select Global Preferences to change the calendar version
• Select Local Preferences to change the various time options (length, travel allotment, etc.)

 
OUTLOOK 2007 (single or multiple games):

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Click Open
4. Outlook will open to where you can merge the new items into your calendar 

OUTLOOK 2003 and earlier (single game)

1. Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule.
2. Click Open
3. Outlook will open where you can merge the new items into your calendar.
4. Click "Save and Close"

OUTLOOK 2003 and earlier (multiple games)

1. Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
2. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
3. Open Outlook
4. Under the File Menu click Import and Export...
5. Select Import an iCalendar or vCalendar file (.vcs)
6. Click Next
7. Select vCalendar Format under File Type
8. Locate and Select the file as saved in step 2
9. Click OK
10. Delete file saved in step 2

GOOGLE Calendar:  (single or multiple games):

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
4. Go to your Google Calendar
5. Click the Add down-arrow button at the bottom of the calendar list on the left side of the page, and select Import Calendar
6. Click Browse and choose the file that contains your events, then click Open
7. Select the Google Calendar where you'd like to import events, then click Import
8. Delete file saved in step 3

Other Applications:

See their documentation for how to import .ics or .vcs files. It is likely:

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule.
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
4. Open your application and find its import function
5. Delete file saved in step 3

Driving distance is an approximation based on the zip code of the game site and the zip code of the official. RefTown uses a database of the latitude and longitude of the center of each zip code to calculate approximate driving distance. The calculation does not assume a straight line but assumes fairly typical road layouts.

The game site zip code is taken directly from the Schools/Teams roster for the site listed as the location of the game. If no zip code is entered for the location, the driving distance will be assumed to be 0—everyone will be eligible to drive to that location no matter the actual distance.

By default, the official's zip code is taken from the official's roster entry. Optionally, each official can specify two alternative zip codes under their "My Account" profile. An official can specify two zip codes and a time if they generally transition between the two. This can be used to influence the assignment of games to be near two different places depending on the time of day—and both can be different than their home zip code. If no zip code is listed for an official, the driving distance will be assumed to be 0—the official will be considered eligible to drive to any location.

Caveats:

·        Since driving distance is calculated zip code-to-zip code, all officials and locations in the same zip code will have a driving distance of 0 miles—all will be considered equal even if the zip code spans 5 to 10 miles. In most cases, zip codes do not cover a large area and this approximation will be unnoticeable.

·        Likewise, an official and a school near the boundary in adjacent zip codes may only be a very short distance apart but will be considered to be farther apart based on the center of the zip codes. Again, in most cases, zip codes do not cover an extremely large area, and these approximations will be unnoticeable.

Yes, depending on the options chosen.

By default, officials can only see who is assigned to games/matches that are on the same date and at the same sight as their own assignments. They can access this information by clicking .

Each organization also has three additional options:

1. Show All Assignments To All Officials
   • This allows all officials to see all published assignments for any and every game/match.
2. Show All Assignments To All Officials when searched by date
   • This allows all officials to see all published assignments for any and every game/match but ONLY when searched by a specific date.
3. Show All Assignments To All Officials when searched within number of days
   • This allows all officials to see published assignments but only for a specified number of days before a game.

Administrators can find these options under Association Configuration—"Games/Matches," then "Display Options."

Yes, depending on the options chosen.

By default, schools cannot see who is assigned to games/matches.

You have one additional option:

1. Show All Assignments To All Schools/Teams
• This allows all schools/teams to see all published assignment for any and every game/match.
2. Show Assignments To Paying Schools/Teams
• This allows schools/teams listed as the Payor to see the officials assigned to their games/matches
3. Show Assigned Officials To Any School/Team on Game
• This allows any participant in the game to see the officials’ names

Administrators can find these options under Association Configuration, "Games/Matches," then "School Options."

To print your games in a more printable form:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Games"
2. Use the "Search for Games" filter or "Quicklinks" to get to the games you wish to print
3. Click the printer icon at the right end of the menu bar
4. Either press Ctrl-P or click your browser’s print button on the window that opens

Note: If you're using a recent generation browser, you can even scale the page to fit more on a page by clicking the % at the bottom right.

By default, you can get to your own games/matches by clicking on the "Schedules" menu and then selecting "Games" (All references to "Games" may say "Matches" or "Meets" depending on your sport).

If you have set your default view to show "Today's Games," click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games." Once there, you can get to your future games by clicking on "My Future Games" within the QuickLinks menu.

Alternatively, from any game view, open the search form by clicking on "Search for Games," then select "From Today" and clear all other fields or checkboxes, then click "Search."

Normally, your own games from today and forward will show when you first access the games page.

However, under your Account Menu (red box with your name at the top):

1. Click on Edit Profile
2. Click on Local Preferences
3. Choose what game you prefer by default
• You can set it show "Today's" games regardless of who is assigned to the game. This is primarily useful for assignors 

There are a few ways—here are two:

1. Click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games"
2. Click on "QuickLinks"
3. Click on "My Past Games"

Or...

1. Click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games"
2. Click on "Game Search"
3. Change the date from "From Today" to "Between"
4. Leave the first date blank
5. Enter today's date for the second date
6. Click Search

There are a few ways—here are two:

1. Click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games"
2. Click on "QuickLinks"
3. Click on "My Games (all)"

Or...

1. Click on the "Schedules" menu and then select "Games"
2. Click on "Game Search"
3. Change the date from "From Today" to "All Dates"
4. Click Search

To print your games in a more printable form:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Games"
2. Use the "Search for Games" filter or "Quicklinks" to get to the games you wish to print
3. Click the printer icon at the right end of the menu bar
4. Either press Ctrl-P or click your browser’s print button on the window that opens

Note: If you're using a recent generation browser, you can even scale the page to fit more on a page by clicking the % at the bottom right.

Adjacent to the date and time for the game of interest, click on the icon with the two black arrows—one pointing right, one pointing left:

An officials assigned to the location and date access will also see the officials assigned to all games at the same site on the same date, regardless of the assignment visibility settings.

There are several ways to locate games/matches.

The primary way to access games is through the Schedules - > Games/Matches page search form ("Search for Games/Matches").

Select the criteria of interest: date(s), schools, levels, leagues, etc. and then click "Search Now."

Make sure to clear any field you do not wish to search on (e.g., your own name is selected by default under the officials field).

Note that once you've searched for a set of criteria, the header of the games page will not only list the criteria searched with, but also will, for most fields, have a "Previous" and "Next" link. You can step a day at a time or a school at a time with these links. 

There are also other ways to locate certain categories of games/matches. Using the QuickLinks at the top of the Games/Matches page, you can access the most commonly used set of searches: today's game, tomorrow's games, etc.

In addition, Assignors and Administrators can access schedules from the rosters. For each school/team on the roster, there may be several links available to take you to games/matches at that location, have that team as the home team, have that team as the away team, or all of the above.

It depends on the settings chosen by your organization.

By default, officials can only see who is working at games at the same location and on the same date as their own assignments. Other games will only show "Assigned" or "Unassigned" in place of the officials’ names.

Some associations choose to reveal all assignments to all officials, but some enable the ability to see the assigned officials' names when searching for games by a specific date or within a certain number of days preceding a game.

The two most common ways:

Home Page Link:

From the homepage, there will be a notices box indicating the presence of games that have been posted for self-assignment but have not yet been claimed. You can click on the link on the home page to go directly to the list of available games.

Games Page Search:

Go to the Games page under the Schedules menu and click on "QuickLinks" -> "Open Games."

When you see a game you'd like to take, click the "Claim" link by the position you wish to fill. The system will first verify that you do not already have a game on the same date. While it will NOT prevent you from taking multiple games on a single date, it will caution you about the possibility of conflicting assignments and will ask for confirmation.

When you confirm the claim, your name is put on the game, you are marked as accepting the game, and the game is no longer listed on the open games list as available (if all slots have been claimed).

If you then change your mind about the assignment, you must contact your assignor to have your name removed from the assignment.

There will be "Previous" and "Next" links on each games page in the area that lists the current filter criteria.

The links present themselves when the current view is based on a specific date, location, home team, visiting team, etc. These links will analyze the games data to take you to the next item in the list (by date or alphabetically) that actually has a game.

For example, clicking “next” after searching for games on 12/5/2008 will take you to the next date with games. If there are no games on 12/6/2008, it will move on to the next date that has games.

1. Go to Games -> Schedules
2. Click on Game Search
3. In the game number box, you can enter one of several things:
   1. A specific game number
   2. A mathematical comparison, such as:
      • Greater than a specific game number (.e.g. > 73)
      • Less than a specific game number (e.g. < 1235)
      • Greater than or equal to a specific game number (e.g. >= 3774)
      • Less than or equal to a specific game number (e.g. <= 7377)
4. Click Search

Click on "Unaccepted Games" on the home page listing of your upcoming games.

Alternately, you can go to "Schedules" -> "Games." If you're using the default settings, you'll get a list of your own games. If not, click on either QuickLinks -> "My Future Games" or "My Unaccepted Games."

Then do the following:

1.      By any game that says "Accept?," click the "Yes" button to take the assignment or click the "No" button to decline it.

2.      By any game that says "Cancel OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate you are aware that you are no longer assigned to that game or that the game has been canceled.

3.      By any game that says "Postpone OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate that you are aware the game has been postponed and that, until future notice indicating otherwise, you will not be expected to fill the assignment.

4.      In the comments box (if enabled) you may provide comments regarding your responses.

5.      Once you have responded to the games, click the "Submit Responses" button at the bottom.

You'll receive an email confirmation of your responses a short time after clicking “submit.” If the feature is enabled, your assignor will receive a copy of the response by email.

Go to "Schedules" -> "Games" then take the following steps:

1.      By any game that says "Approve?," click the "Yes" button to confirm that the entry is correct or click "No" button if it is incorrect.

2.      By any game that says "Cancel OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate you are aware that officials will no longer be sent to that event.

3.      By any game that says "Postpone OK?," click the "OK" button to indicate you agree that the game has been postponed and that, until future notice indicating otherwise, this game will not be scheduled to be played.

4.      In the comments box (if enabled), you may provide comments regarding your responses.

5.      Once you have responded to the games, click the "Submit Responses" button at the bottom.

You'll receive an email confirmation of your responses a short time after clicking “Submit.” If enabled, your assignor will receive a copy of the response by email.

If an official wants to change a response from decline to accept, that official should contact the appropriate assignor. The assignors have the ability to change the response.

If an official wants to change a response from accept to decline, the official will have one of two options, depending on the settings that official’s organization has chosen.

If the organization has enabled the turnback option and the deadline for a turnback has not passed (another option that is usually set to 2 or 3 days before the game), the official should see a "Turnback" link directly under the game number on that official’s schedule.

If no turnback link appears, the feature is not enabled and the official is not permitted to change previous responses through RefTown once they are submitted.

When the turnback feature is either not enabled or the turnback deadline has passed, the official should contact the assignor so the assignor can change the response.

When a set of games is assigned, an email confirmation is generated. That email is sent to the following:

• The official submitting the response
• Assignors

For the purposes of these responses, the assignors who will receive the email are defined in 3 ways as defined under the association's configuration:

• A list of any number of people to receive such notices as defined in the association configuration
• These receive the entire submission any time it is sent
• To the specific assignor who made the assignment (with assignments filtered by assignor)
• If there are two (or more) assignors involved, they'll only receive emails about the games/matches they assigned
• To all assignors of any assignment in the submission
• All assignors who have an assignment in the submission will receive a full copy of the submission

NOTE: An association can, to reduce unnecessary email, choose to disable emails in two cases:

1. all assignments are accepted—no declines
2. There are no comments entered in the comment box

The availability feature allows officials or administrators to enter information about when an official is available to take an assignment.

There are several key points to keep in mind regarding the availability calendar:

Availability is determined in the following order:

1. Information for a specific date
2. Information for a specific day of the week
3. Association defaults:
• Associations have a choice on what to assume if no availability information is entered for any given day or date
• By default, the assumption is that every official is available unless otherwise specified
• A few organizations choose to assume that an official is NOT available unless otherwise specified
• You can determine which is used by your association by viewing your availability calendar under "Schedules" -> "Availability"

To notify the assigner of your availability, go to Schedule->Availability.

There are two levels of identifying availability:

1. General availability, where you indicate the time you are unavailable Sunday through Saturday
2. Specific availability by month. Select the month and indicate a specific date you will be available/unavailable.

Specific availability takes priority over General Availability.

Availability information is entered through "Schedules" -> "Availability"

You have two ways that availability information can be entered.

1. By day of the week
2. By specific date

If both are entered, the specific date information is used.

To enter availability information by day of the week,

1. On the General Availability area, click "Edit"
2. For each day, enter your information.
3. Enter comments if desired
4. Click "Submit Changes"

To enter availability information for specific dates

1. Navigate to the desired month
2. In the monthly calendar area, click "Edit"
3. For each date, enter your information.
4. Enter comments if desired
5. Click "Submit Changes"

There are a 3 buttons at the top of the form that may assist you in filling out your availability. You can use them to make all days/dates as available, not available, or clear the times. Use this if most of your availability is the same and then fill in the boxes that are different.

• If you can start a game at ANY time on that day of the week,  click "Avail." and leave the times blank
• If you are NOT available for ANY assignment on that day of the week, click "NA" and leave the times blank
• If you can start a game anytime after a specific time, you can enter it in two equivalent ways (the system actually stores them the same):
• Click "Avail" and the time in the "After" box
• Click "NA" and the time in the "Before" box
•  If you can start a game anytime before a specific time, you can enter it in two equivalent ways (the system actually stores them the same):
• Click "Avail" and a time in the "Before" box
• Click "NA" and the time in the "After" box
• If you are available only during a certain time window:
• Click "Avail." and enter the earliest time you can start in the "After" box and the latest time you can start an assignment in the "Before" box
• Click "NA" and enter the earliest time you can start in the "Before" box and the latest time you can start an assignment in the "After" box
• If you are available anytime EXCEPT during a certain time window:
• Click "Avail." and enter the earliest time you can start in the "Before" box and the latest time you can start an assignment in the "After" box
• Click "NA" and enter the earliest time you can start in the "After" box and the latest time you can start an assignment in the "Before" box

Yes. An official can enter a restriction into the system that they should not work for particular school, team, level, league, etc.

To do so:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Scratches"
2. Enter the desire restriction

Example: enter XYZ High School and Boys Varsity to exclude yourself from working that level of game at that school.

Any of the available fields can be left blank as long as at least one field has a value entered.

Assignors can also fill out scratches on behalf of officials. Assignors can choose whether or not to allow officials to see that.

In almost every way, they are the same. The primary difference is that a signup provides the details of the results to the administrator, who selected which option, while a ballot keeps such information secret. The quiz/exam provides for a "correct" answer and will generate a % correct score. For a ballot, the list of voters may be revealed (without their specific selections).

· The Reftown Ballot/Signup system provides a secure, independent method of collecting votes for various purposes.

· The system remembers who has voted and when. It will not permit a revote by the same individual.

· The details of a submitted ballot are not available to anyone else in your organization.

• All that is revealed is the number of votes cast for each question, the number of votes cast for each option, and, in the case of ranked-list ballots, ranking information.

· Once votes are cast, removing options is not permitted or supported—that would corrupt the votes already cast.

· A voter can confirm that the voter’s own ballot was received by returning to the ballot—the time and date of the submission will be displayed with a notice that the voter can not vote again.

· Like game assignments, ballots/signups remain invisible to the members until published.

· Ballots/signups open and close automatically based on the dates entered. Once a ballot/signup opens, changes are not permitted.The results are automatically tabulated online and the winners determined. The actual ballots are stored in the database but are not visible.

The instant runoff voting tabulates votes based on the principle that any vote cast for a last-place candidate shall be transferred to the next-choice candidate on that ballot until one candidate has a majority of votes. This ballot-count method duplicates what would occur if all voters participated in a graduated series of runoff elections.

Vote counting shall start with a tabulation of first-choice votes. If a candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes, then that candidate shall be declared elected. If no candidate receives such a majority, then the candidate with the fewest first choices shall be declared defeated. Ballots cast for this defeated candidate shall be transferred at full value to the next-choice candidate marked on each ballot. Last-place candidates are eliminated and their supporters' ballots transferred to next-choice candidates who are still in the race in a similar manner until a candidate receives a majority of votes that have not been exhausted.

If a ballot has no more available choices ranked on it, that ballot shall be declared "exhausted."

If there are two candidates with fewest number of first place votes, the number of second-place votes are included. If that still doesn't break the tie, third-place votes are included, and so on. It's still possible, but highly unlikely, that there will still be a tie.

Example:

4 candidates, 50 voters

A: 22 first-place votes

B: 16 first-place votes

C: 6 first-place votes

D: 6 first-place votes

No candidate has a majority of the first-place votes. This voting method drops the one with the fewest votes. In this case, there are two. Which one to declare defeated? Since they have the same number of first place votes, the second-place votes for those two are considered for the tie-breaker.

C: 10 second-place votes

D: 13 second-place votes

C is eliminated and D remains. The 6 ballots that have C as their first choice are referenced for their second choice (they be come first choice votes now that C is no longer in the race, the 3rd place votes become 2nd, etc.)

Of those six votes, two have A second, and 4 have B second.

That gives the following:

A: 24 first place votes

B: 20 first place votes

D: 6 first place votes

Still no majority.

D is alone in last place, so D is eliminated. The 6 ballots that have D as their first choice are referenced for their second choice. Those votes are added to A and B. One of them will now have a majority or there will be a tie.

If there is still a tie, the one with the greater number of first place votes in the prior round is declared the winner—having more natural first place votes.

For most pages, there will be a printer icon  at the right end of the menu bar. Clicking it will reopen the current page in a new window with several elements removed—such as the menus, headers, etc. Some pages are further customized than others to optimize the page for printing. 

Below are the instructions for transferring games, meetings, or events from RefTown to your personal calendaring program. Even though all applications are not mentioned, the steps for at least one of the three below should work for nearly calendar application—only the steps taken within the calendar application should vary.

  Note the following:

• No canceled or reschedule game will be removed from your calendar by this action.
• If you import the same $ContestTitles{$config{EventNameID}}{sl} twice, it will appear twice.
• You must delete canceled $ContestTitles{$config{EventNameID}}{pl} manually.
• You can modify your calendar options through your personal accounts menu (red menu with your name):
• Click your name
• Click Edit Profile...
• Select Global Preferences to change the calendar version
• Select Local Preferences to change the various time options (length, travel allotment, etc.)

 
OUTLOOK 2007 (single or multiple games):

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Click Open
4. Outlook will open to where you can merge the new items into your calendar 

OUTLOOK 2003 and earlier (single game)

1. Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule.
2. Click Open
3. Outlook will open where you can merge the new items into your calendar.
4. Click "Save and Close"

OUTLOOK 2003 and earlier (multiple games)

1. Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
2. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
3. Open Outlook
4. Under the File Menu click Import and Export...
5. Select Import an iCalendar or vCalendar file (.vcs)
6. Click Next
7. Select vCalendar Format under File Type
8. Locate and Select the file as saved in step 2
9. Click OK
10. Delete file saved in step 2

GOOGLE Calendar:  (single or multiple games):

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
4. Go to your Google Calendar
5. Click the Add down-arrow button at the bottom of the calendar list on the left side of the page, and select Import Calendar
6. Click Browse and choose the file that contains your events, then click Open
7. Select the Google Calendar where you'd like to import events, then click Import
8. Delete file saved in step 3

Other Applications:

See their documentation for how to import .ics or .vcs files. It is likely:

1. SINGLE: Click on the calendar icon  to start the transfer. The icon is by the date and time on the schedule.
2. MULTIPLE: Click the multiple calendar icon  on the listing of games you want to import to your calendar (located at the top of the date/time column)
3. Save file to your computer (Desktop recommended)
4. Open your application and find its import function
5. Delete file saved in step 3

When you click on an email address on RefTown, you should be taken to your personal email program if it is properly configured and email links are supported by your email program.

On Windows XP, Vista, and 7, you can set the default email program in the Internet Options dialog box.

Open Internet Explorer and click the Tools menu, choose Internet Options. Click Programs tab and select your email client from the drop-down list. Once selected, click OK button and close the dialog. If you do not see your email program listed, you may need to contact support for that program for information on how to make it your default email client.

Note that you will require an Administrator-level account to change the default email client as this is a system-wide setting.

For instruction on configuring GMail to be your default client, see http://email.about.com/od/gmailtips/qt/et_default_prog.htm

Throughout Reftown, you can enter times in several different formats as follows:

Adminstrator functions depend heavily on "pop-ups." It is quite possible that you may have a program installed on your system that blocks annoying pop-ups/ads from many sites. You will either need to disable that program or, more likely, add RefTown to a list of sites allowed to have pop-ups.

For specific instructions to disable, configure or remove some of the most common pop-up blockers and toolbars, select the appropriate section below:

• Internet Explorer browser
• Mozilla Firefox browser 
• Google Toolbar
• Yahoo Toolbar
• MSN Toolbar
• AOL Toolbar
• Ask Toolbar with Popswatter 
• Ask.com, FunWebProducts, or MyWebSearch Toolbar
• Crawler Toolbar

Note: Toolbars may be hidden but still functioning.  To view a hidden toolbar, go to the top of your Internet browser and select View > Toolbars > click to check the desired toolbar. Only the checked toolbars in the list will be visible in your browser. 

Internet Explorer Integrated Pop-Up Blocker

Beginning with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, pop-up blocking has been integrated into Internet Explorer and is enabled by default. To configure IE's pop-up blocking:

1. Open Internet Explorer
2. Click Tools > select Pop-Up Blocker 
   
3. To disable pop-up blocking in IE, select "Turn Off Pop-up Blocker"
4. To allow pop-ups on approved sites, select "Pop-up Blocker Settings"
   
   • In "Address of Web Site to allow" box, type reftown.com
   • Click the Add button. The website *.reftown.com should appear under Allowed sites.
   •  Click the Close button.

If pop-up blocking is turned on in Internet Explorer, it will generate an "Information Bar" the first time you go to a website that uses pop-ups or graphical code resembling pop-up code. Click where indicated inside the Information bar and select one of the following:

1.  "Temporarily Allow Pop-Ups" to view blocked information just during the current session
2. "Always Allow Pop-ups from this Site" to always see pop-ups at this web site 
3. "Settings" to allow pop-ups on multiple sites you specify. 

Mozilla Firefox

Firefox blocks pop-ups by default. To configure Firefox's pop-up blocking:

1. Open Firefox
2. Select Tools > Options > Content
3. To disable pop-up blocking, un-check "Block pop-up windows" > click OK.
4. To allow pop-ups on approved sites, verify that "Block pop-up windows" is checked and click the “Exceptions” button beside it. This opens the Allowed Sites-Pop-ups window
   
   • In "Address of Web Site" box type www.reftown.com
   • Click the Allow button. The website www.reftown.com should appear under Site with an "Allow" Status.  
   • Click the Close button.

Google Toolbar

To stop the Pop-Up Blocking feature in Google Toolbar, either:

1. Click on the Pop-Up Blocker icon   in the toolbar to allow pop-ups on this site , or 
2. Right-click on the toolbar and un-check Google in the Drop Down menu to temporarily disable blocking pop-ups.

Yahoo Toolbar

To disable the Pop-Up Blocking feature in the Yahoo Toolbar:

1. Click the Down arrow beside the Pop-Up Blocker icon  
2. To disable the blocker, un-check "Enable Pop-Up Blocker" in the Drop Down menu
   .
3. To configure the blocker, check  "Enable Pop-Up Blocker" and select "Always Allow Pop-Ups from..." on the same Drop Down menu
4. In the Yahoo! Pop-Up Blocker dialog screen, select reftown.com in the "Sources of Recently Blocked Pop-Ups"
5. Click the Allow button and then the Close button.

In Windows XP or earlier:

1. Open or Run the uninstall.html file and follow the prompts
2. In Windows Vista or Windows 7,
3. Save uninstall.html file
4. Double-click on the saved file and select the appropriate options
5. Close all web browser screens to clear the add-on out of memory. If the add-on persists, restart Windows. 

1.  
   
2. Select the "Services Settings" tab
3. Check the box beside Popup Blocker and click the Settings button
    
4. Under the General tab select Disable 
5. Click the Apply button and then the OK button

To configure the Pop-Up Blocking feature in the Crawler Toolbar:

1. Go to the Crawler Toolbar Settings 
2. Select the "Services Settings" tab
3. Check the box beside Popup Blocker and click the Settings button
4. Select the Advanced tab
5. Click the Add Website button
6. Enter www.reftown.com as the "Site host name"
7. Click the Apply button and then the OK button

To Uninstall the Crawler Toolbar either use Add/Remove Programs in Windows Control Panel, or:

1. Click on the "Crawler" button, select the "Help" and then the "Uninstall" option
2. Select the component(s) to remove and click the Uninstall button
3. Click Yes to close IE windows
4. Click Yes to reboot windows.

Crawler Toolbar

Like Ask.com/FunWebProducts, the "sponsor supported" Crawler toolbar is included with thousands of FREE downloadable products (such as screensavers, wallpaper, animated cursors, desktop weather or traffic utilities, radio & MP3 players, online games, smileys, eCards and IE skins). 

To disable the Pop-Up Blocking feature in the Crawler Toolbar:

1. Go to the Crawler Toolbar Settings

 MSN Toolbar

1. Click the Down arrow beside the Pop-Up Blocker icon  
2. Check "Allow Pop-ups" in the Drop Down menu
    

AOL Toolbar

To stop the Pop-Up Blocking feature in AOL Toolbar, click on the Pop-Up Blocker in the toolbar to toggle it to allow pop-ups .

Ask Toolbar with Popswatter

To disable the PopSwatter popup blocker in the Ask Toolbar:

1. Display the Ask Toolbar if not visible (at the top of your Internet browser select View > Toolbars > click to check "Ask Toolbar") 
2. Click the PopSwatter icon (looks like a yellow flyswatter) on the Ask Toolbar
3. Click Disable PopSwatter.

To configure PopSwatter to allow pop-ups on selected sites such as reftown.com:

1. Go to the web site (www.reftown.com)
2. Click the PopSwatter icon on the Ask Toolbar
3. Click "Change Preferences"
4. Add the site to the "Safe List" (click "Safe List" tab > Allow Popups for www.reftown.com > click Allow > X to close).

Ask.com, FunWebProducts, MySearch Toolbar/browser add-on

The Ask.com, FunWebProducts, or MySearch toolbar/browser add-ons are embedded in many FREE downloadable products (such as Smiley Central, Cursor Mania, My Mail Signature, My Mail Stamp, and Popular Screensavers). These toolbars may then be activated whenever a new browser window is opened automatically—such as when viewing linked MLS documents, IDX search screens, tutorial movies, or calendars.

To remove the Ask Toolbar from Internet Explorer:

1. Close all browser screens
2. Go to the Start menu and click on Control Panel
3. In the Control Panel, double-click on Add/Remove Programs
4. Select Ask Toolbar from the Programs list
5. Click the Change/Remove button to uninstall.

To remove the Ask Toolbar from Firefox:

1. Click on Tools near the top of your Firefox browser window
2. Select Extensions or Add-Ons
3. Select the Ask Toolbar
4. Click Uninstall to remove (or click Disable to temporarily disable), then click OK.

If you continue to experience problems with the Ask.com, FunWebProducts, or MyWebSearch browser add-on (after completing the above removal steps):

SETUP: Overview

There are several steps you will need to take in order to set up RefTown for your organization. Among them, you will need to set up various options, configure basic data, and input officials, team, and location roster. Below is a good way to approach setting up your data. For most settings, you can return to the configuration page and make changes at any time.

1. Go to "Admin" -> "Configuration" and step through the following areas:
   1. BASIC INFORMATION
      • General information about your association
      • Logos, etc.
   2. EMAIL NOTICES
      • Notices to be sent to officials, teams, administrators about upcoming games
   3. OFFICIALS ROSTER
      • Options to control how your roster is listed and how your official's registration forms are configured
   4. SCHOOLS, LOCATIONS, PAYORS, and TEAMS
      • Options to control how your roster is displayed
      • Options to define the roles of individuals associated with your schools/teams.
   5. GAMES
      • Options to control the display of games/matches, availability calendar, assignment responses, school game approval, and game parameter
   6. CREWS
      • Define your crewtypes and duties
   7. OFFICIAL'S FINANCES 
      • Define your crewtypes and duties
   8. SCHOOL/TEAM FINANCES 
      • Define your crewtypes and duties
        
        
2. Enter/Import Rosters

1. Enter/Import Officials
   • Grant extra permissions for anyone who should have them
2. Enter/Import Schools/Teams/Locations/Payors
3. Enter/Import School/Team Contacts

While there are several more functions on the site, this concludes the initial setup. You’re now ready to start adding games and making assignments.

Under Basic Information, you will set up the following:

Under Association Logo, you can upload your own logo to replace the RefTown logo in the upper left corner of all pages.

Under Association Banner, you can upload an image that will be located across the page just below the title area.

• Both of these images should be "small" images in jpeg format
• The maximum recommended size for the logo is 150 pixels wide x 150 pixels tall.
• The maximum recommended size for the banner is 120 pixels tall—the width is not as important.
• These images will be loaded on every page. Since they are commonly used, the file size should be less than 25 KB. Since these images are best optimized manually in order to maintain quality while reducing the size, RefTown will not resize the photo and will reject any that are too large. Please use your favorite photo editing software to resize the images appropriately.

The contacts page provides access to some of your most commonly contacted people. RefTown provides a contact page that is accessible, in part, to the public, and more fully available to schools, teams, and officials.

For each person listed on the contacts page, you can specify a Title (e.g., Commissioner, Webmaster, Recruiter, etc.).

For each of these individuals, you can also specify exactly what pieces of contact information to list on the contact page. You can specify a different set of contact information to be revealed for the public than for officials, schools, and teams. For example, you could reveal only a single email address to the public, while revealing mailing addresses, phone numbers, and all email addresses to logged-in users.

To set up your contacts, go to "Public" -> "Contact," then:

• To add a contact, click
• To edit/modify a contact, check the box for the desired contact and click
• To remove a person from the contacts page (but keep that person on the roster), check the box by the person’s name and click

The items under Menu Control can be used to block access to certain pages if your organization doesn't make use of those pages or you wish to only have those pages available to administrators.

Game reminders can be configured to be sent to official through a flexible set of options. The available options offer the the ability to send a reminder 48 hours before a game, 72 hours before a game, the day of a game, twice a week, weekly—just about any combination you might prefer. Notices are sent at approximately 3 a.m. Pacific.

To set reminders for Officials, select the days of the week that reminders will be sent on.

Under “Include Games Starting on,” enter the number of days from the day of the notice to start including games.

Under “For This Many Days,” enter the number of days of games to include in the notice.

EXAMPLES:

For a 48-hour notice, check all days, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

 For a 72-hour notice, check all days, and enter 2 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games on the day of the notice check, check ONE day, and enter 0 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games the day after the notice, check ONE day, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

To have automatic new game reminder sent on the days checked above, select “New Games.”

Under notice recipients, you define who shall receive basic automatic emails triggered by actions on RefTown.

Below are the available categories and what causes them to be sent:

 To add a person to one of these groups:

1. Click the  symbol by the notice
2. Select the official's name that is to receive the notice
3. Click "Save Changes"

To remove a person from one of these groups:

1. Click the  symbol by the notice
2. Click "Remove" by the officials name to be removed
3. Click "Save Changes"

Game reminders can be configured to be sent to officials through a flexible set of options. The available options offer the the ability to send a reminder 48 hours before a game, 72 hours before a game, the day of a game, twice a week, weekly—just about any combination you might prefer. Notices are sent at approximately 3 a.m. Pacific.

To set reminders for officials, select the days of the week that reminders will be sent on.

Under “Include Games Starting on,” enter the number of days from the day of the notice to start including games.

Under “For This Many Days,” enter the number of days of games to include in the notice.

By default, schools reminders are sent to the listed Payor of the game. These reminders can also be sent to other parties involved in the game. You can specify that the reminders should also be sent to any or all of the following: Home Team, Visiting Team, or Location.

By default, reminders are only sent to teams that have games as specified above. However, you can cause reminder to be sent to all teams on your roster whether they have games or not by selecting “Copy To All Schools/Teams.” This would also cover the possibility that a team is missing a set of games in a given time. These notices are only sent when there are active games for some team in the specified time frame.

EXAMPLES:

For a 48-hour notice, check all days, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

 For a 72-hour notice, check all days, and enter 2 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games on the day of the notice check, check ONE day, and enter 0 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games the day after the notice, check ONE day, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

To have automatic new game reminder sent on the days checked above, select “New Games.”

This set of reminders is for administrators/assignors.

The reminder includes a snapshot of the Game Management summary page.

To enable reminders, select the days of the week that reminders will be sent on.

Under “Include Games Starting on,” enter the number of days from the day of the notice to start including games.

Under “For This Many Days,” enter the number of days of games to include in the notice.

EXAMPLES:

For a 48-hour notice, check all days, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

 For a 72-hour notice, check all days, and enter 2 for “Include Games Starting on” and 1 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games on the day of the notice check, check ONE day, and enter 0 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

For a weekly notice starting with games the day after the notice, check ONE day, and enter 1 for “Include Games Starting on” and 7 for “For This Many Days.”

A few of the checks on the Game Management page will be made without regard to date (e.g., checks for unusual dates/times or checks for missing details).

For the officials roster, you have the following options:

This is a list of the various member types your organization uses to classify its members.

As part of this list, you can give officials in each category a "Rating." Examples of possible rating levels include Probationary, Regular, Certified, Associate, Registered, etc. This is a coarse level rating that is used in making assignments—if you have the rating feature for assigning enabled.

The order established in this list will be used in any dropdown lists throughout RefTown.

Each element of the officials roster can be configured to one of the following options:

1. Force Private—that roster element will never be visible to other officials
2. Allow Individual Choice—each official can choose whether to show or hide each roster element
3. Disallow Private—that roster element will always be visible to other officials

Under this section, you can enable a few extra fields on the Registration form that are not included by default and can also define which fields are required versus optional.

This is a list of general supplementary data used to identify the specific location of an event at a larger facility. Use generic terms where possible to maximize reuse.

Examples include: Field 1, Field 2, Back Gym, Main Field, etc.

This is NOT intended to be used as a list of primary locations. The primary locations (with addresses) will be entered under the location/school/team roster.

For the schools, locations, payors, and teams roster, there is only one option on RefTown at this time:

School/Team Leagues is a list of the various school/team leagues your organization serves. This is generally used to classify schools/teams into conferences/leagues but not individual teams associated with a school.

• Examples of possible levels include Pac-10, Metro League, Southwest Conference, etc.—but NOT 5th grade, Freshman, Varsity, etc.

School/Team Levels is a list of the various school/team levels your organization serves. This is generally used to classify schools/teams into very large categories but not conferences/leagues or individual teams associated with a school.

• Examples of possible levels include Division 1, Division 2, 4A, 3A, Rec League, etc.—but NOT 5th grade, Freshman, Varsity, etc and not Metro League, City League, etc.

You can give each level on each list a "Rating." This rating is a part of the equation you can use to calculate a game rating to use in making assignments—if you have the rating feature for assigning enabled.

The order established in each list will be used in any dropdown lists throughout RefTown.

This is a list of the various member types of individuals associated with schools and teams.

Examples of possible levels include Coach, Athletic Director, Secretary, League AD, etc.

These titles are used to associate the school/team personnel with the schools/teams—a single person can be affiliated with one or more schools/teams and a single school/team can be associated with one or more individuals in various roles.

The order established in this list will be used in any dropdown lists throughout RefTown.

The association between personnel and the schools/teams is done elsewhere...this only configures the types of roles.

Each element of the school contact roster can be configured to one of the following options:

1. Force Private—that roster element will never be visible to officials
2. Allow Individual Choice—each official can choose whether to show or hide each roster element
3. Disallow Private—that roster element will always be visible to officials

All elements are always visible to administrators.

Under this section, you can enable a few extra fields on the Registration form that are not included by default and can also define which fields are required versus optional.

1.    Sports (if enabled) are a list of the various sports your organization serves.

2.    Leagues are a list of the various game leagues your organization serves. This is generally used to classify games into general categories. Examples of possible levels include High School, College, Rec League, etc.

3.    Types are a list of the various game types your organization serves. This is generally used to classify games into genders. Examples of possible types include G, B, M, W, Co-Ed, etc.

4.    Levels are a list of the various game levels of games your organization serves. This is generally used to classify games into competitive levels. Examples of possible levels include Varsity, JV, U12, U16, 14U, 7th, etc. This is also often used to indicate double headers: "JV+V," "7/8," etc.

As part of each list, you can give each type a "Rating." This rating is a part of the equation used to calculate a game rating to be used in making assignments—if you have the rating feature for assigning enabled.

The order established in each list will be used in any dropdown lists throughout RefTown

These are only a few examples of how these lists can be used. Other options are possible, but the suggested uses work best for most organizations.

The order you choose for these lists will be the order the items appear through out the remainder of the site.

The CrewTypes list on RefTown is where you list all the possible crewtypes your organization uses: 1-person, 2-person, 5-person, etc. You can also give your crews names that indicate a style of crew rather than just the number of people involved.

The Duties list is where you list all the possible crew duties utilized in your organization. Due to a current limitation with crew types, it is recommended that you reuse duties as much as is feasible between the different crew types. The limitation arises when you wish to change a crew type after a game has been assigned. You can only change the crewtype if all the assigned positions exist in the desired crewtype.

As part of this list, you can give each crewtype/duty a "Rating." This rating is a part of the equation used to calculate a game rating to be used in making assignments—if you have the rating feature for assigning enabled.

The orders established in these lists will be used in any dropdown lists throughout RefTown

The "Crew Duties" page is where to define the relationship between the "Crew Types" and the "Duties," By each crew, check each duty that is part of that crew.

SETUP: Finances—Basic Configuration

The configuration for officials and schools finances are completely separate. However, they work the same in nearly every aspect.

Throughout the configuration of the finance options, you can place your cursor over the question mark symbol () by any option for more information about that option.

STEP 1: Enable the desired feature.

1. Go to the Association Configuration screen
2. Click on the Main Enable under Officials Finances (or School/Team/Payor Finances).
3. Click Enable Official's Financial Features or (Enable School/Team' Financial Features) and click Update.

For officials finances, you can also enable the game fees to be listed on the game schedule.

STEP 2: Define how the basic game fees are determined.

In this step, you'll be defining the pieces of information that will be used to differentiate the amount to be paid for each type of game. This may include information about the game itself, the crewtype assigned to the game, the duty of the official assigned to the game, and the participants in the game.  Getting this step correct will, for some organizations, require the most thought. It may require changes in how your enter and define games if there is not enough detail in the game data to determine the amount to be paid. Additionally, all fields you select must actually be entered for every game/school. (NOTE: The invoice creation process verifies that all games include all necessary fields and provides a method to add any missing information.)

1. Go to the Association Configuration screen
2. Click Basic Game Fee Calculation Options
3. Choose the fields used to determine the pay for officials: often, but not limited to, Game Level and School Level and perhaps CrewType.
   • Example: If you chose school level as a factor in determining pay, all schools that participate in games as the home team must have a school level designated
   • Example: If you chose game type as a factor in determining pay, all games must have a game type
4. Click Update

Note: For schools, you need not normally make the assignments to generate the school invoices. In a few situations, you might be finished at this point.

STEP 3: Define and enable basic fee adjustments

There are two things that are configured in this step. The first setting is to enable a multiplier that can be used for any game entry. This can be used to represent multiple games that are entered as one item—doubleheaders, etc. The effect of the number entered for each game is to multiple the game fees by the multiplier. 

The second option defines whether the game count will affect payroll. If set, it will multiply the fee that is otherwise calculated by the game count.

Also at this point, you will enable and name any adjustments to be applied to your invoices. An adjustment category is enabled merely by giving it a name. Note that it is not necessary for any specific adjustment be applied to all games—the amount of the adjustment is configured separately and can have different values for different kinds of games.

1. Go to the Association Configuration screen
2. Click Basic Adjustment Options
3. Optionally, enabled the game multiplier
4. Optionally, give one or more adjustments a name
5. Click Update

STEP 4: Define and enable basic mileage adjustments

In this step, you'll define the basic mileage payment methods. The actual amounts paid can vary based on the criteria defined in step 2 and will be set up later.

1. Go to the Association Configuration screen
2. Click Basic Mileage Options
3. Click Use Mileage
4. If the amount to be paid to the officials can differ according to their duty, select Enable Different Mileage Per Duty
5. If you need to ability to customize the amount to be paid per official from one game to the next, select Enable Individualized Mileage Rates
6. If you want to enter the actual number of miles driver for each official, select Enable Actual Miles Driven Per Official
7. Click Update

The configuration for officials and schools finances are completely separate. However, they work the same in nearly every aspect.

Safety Overrides

• Zero Fee
• By default, the invoice generation process ensures that amounts entered in the game fee table are not zero. To override this check, select Allow Officials/Schools Fees to be Entered as Zero.  When this is checked, you must manually ensure that any game fee entered as zero is what you intend
• Zero Mileage
• By default, the invoice generation process ensures that, when mileage is enabled, amounts entered for mileage to locations are not zero. To override this check, select Allow zero mileage on Officials/Schools Invoices.  When this is checked, you must manually ensure that any game fee entered as zero is what you intend
• Location for team details
• When details of the participating teams are to be used to calculate the game fee, the invoice generation process normally requires the home team to be entered. To allow the "Location" to be used in absence of a home team, select Allow Location For School/Team Details. The home team will still be used when present.

Other Invoice Options

• Invoices can be browsed numerically or alphabetically. Select Sort Invoices By Invoice Number to browse invoices in numeric order. This affects invoice summary tables and the next/previous buttons used to move from one invoice to the next.
• When viewing the School Invoice Master (a view of the official's invoice items organized by school), you can show or hide the "Comments." By default, the comments are included. To not show the comments, select Hide Comments on School Invoice Master.
• By default, the officials assigned to a game are not show on the invoice. To always show all officials assigned to a game, select Show Crew Names On Invoice.
• Invoices can be email to the respective parties. By default, the invoice is included in the body of the email. To instead include the invoice as an attachment on the email, select Email Invoice as Attachment.
• For school/team invoices, you can specify who the school/team should remit their payment to by choosing an official under Remit Payment To.

Quickbooks Options

Reftown supports the exporting of financial information to Quickbooks. In this section, you will define how the data is to be exported.

1. Select the detail level of the data to be exported under QuickBooks/Excel Export Type. There are six options, ranging from exporting only the net amount to be paid to each official/from each school all the way to exporting all amounts for each and every game, along with all adjustments.
2. If you want the actual game details (type, level, etc.) to be exported in the comment/memo field for Quickbooks, select Include Game Details
3. Enter the name of the QuickBooks account to where the RefTown data will be imported.
• Note that this must be an account of type "Accounts Payable" for officials invoices and "Accounts Receivable" for schools/teams invoices. It will not work with any other account types.
4. Enter the name of the sub-account/category in which to enter the details of the data imported into QuickBooks.

Reftown supports the definition of multiple sets of adjustments and mileage options. You can predefine as many variations as needed—different mileage rates, different methods of calculating mileage, different adjustment amounts, etc. Each adjustment set can be use with one or more items on the fee table. In many cases, only one adjustment set needs to be defined. In a few cases—for example, no mileage, no adjustments—no adjustment set needs to be defined.

1. Go to the Association Configuration screen
2. Click on Adjustments & Mileage Recipes
3. Add a new (or Edit an existing) Adjustment/Mileage Option
   1. Give it a name
   2. Enter an amount for all enabled adjustments (can be zero).
      • Check the percentage box if the number is a percentage, leave it uncheck for a flat rate
      • Enter a "-" if it a deduction
   3. Enter the mileage calculation details
      1. Enter the amount to be paid per mile under Mileage Rate in dollars (e.g. 0.505).
      2. If you need a tiered mileage rate, you can enter a distance above which the rate will change (Secondary Mileage Rate Transition) and what that rate should be (Secondary Mileage Rate).
      3. Check Pay Mileage As Round Trip (Doubles Miles) if mileage is to be paid for the round trip and the miles per school as entered on the school roster are one-way distances.
      4. Establish limits on how much mileage will be paid
         1. If there is a minimum mileage that will be paid, enter it under Minimum Mileage Amount
         2. If there is a maximum mileage that will be paid, enter it under Maximum Mileage Amount
         3. Select when and how the limits are to be applied (Limits can be applied one or more times)
            • Before the game multiplier is applied (it is enabled and if it is applied to mileage in any way)
            • Apply to final mileage calculation
            • Apply limits only if the crew average is outside of the limits
         4. If mileage is only to be paid once when an official works multiple games at a single site on a single date, check Pay Only One Mileage Per Location
         5. If you have enabled duty-specify mileage percentages but wish to ignore them for this recipe, select Pay Full Mileage Rate Per Duty.
      5. If the assignment multipler should be applied to the mileage, check Apply Multiplier to Mileage.

Repeat step 3 as many times as needed.

Payscales can be set up in two ways: manual and semi-automatic. Both modes require that any needed adjustments and mileage options be previously configured.

1. Manual

This method can be used to add new items to the payscale, but is not nearly as efficient the semi-automatic method

1. Go to the Association Configuration page
2. Click View/Edit Game Fees under the appropriate section (Officials or Schools/Teams)
3. Click the  button
4. In the window that opens, enter a value for every field
• Adjustment-Mileage Set may be left blank if you do not need any adjustments or mileage
• NOTE: For schools, the amount to be entered will be the total base fee for the entire crew
5. Click Update
6. Repeat steps 3-5 for each of the needed combinations

2. Semi-Automatic

In this mode, the amounts to be added to the payscale are generated in the process of creating an invoice.

During the invoice generation process, you'll be asked for the amount to be paid and the adjustments to be made for any game type that is not found in the payscale. Amounts entered will be stored for use with any other game of the same type.

When you use this method, you don't have to think of the possible combinations that can occur—the invoice process will detect all actually used combinations.

Types of Interactive Forms

RefTown supports several types of interactive forms:

• Registration
• Game Reports
• Evaluation/Observation
• Ejection/Incident Reports
• plus a couple more miscellaneous forms

Each form, except for registration forms, requires the specification of a recipient—a person who will receive an email with the submitted form data.

All form submissions are also, by default, archived on RefTown. If desired, the archiving of the submissions can be disabled for each form.

Registration forms

• There are 3 types of registration forms:
• for officials
• for schools/teams
• for school/team personnel.
• Preformatted
• Supports the collection of some supplemental information, but only needs to be given a title to be enabled

Game Reports

• Game reports are tied to specific games—game data is automatically included with the form
• Game reports can be filled out by members of the crew or by designated evaluators/assignors/administrators 
• The links for the game reports only appear on the game schedule after the game has taken place

Evaluation/Observation Forms

• There are 4 types of evaluation forms
• by any other official
• by assigned observers
• by coaches/schools
• by a crew chief
• For each type CAMRON: There is apparently some text missing here. 3 types of recipients?
• you can select a recipient
• Select a specific form (contact us to create additional forms if none fit your needs)
• Specify whether the subject official should receive an email copy of the form

Ejection Forms, Sportsmanship Form, & Payroll Error Form

• Like the other forms, an email recipient is specified and a form is selected. If you do not see a form you like, let us know.

NOTE: The email addresses for the recipients of forms are drawn from the current roster at the time of submission. There is never a need to change the form configuration unless you want a different person to receive the form.

Previewing Available Forms

1. Go to Other Info -> Interactive Forms
2. At the bottom, select a form number under "Preview available forms"
3. Step backwards/forwards throughout the available forms
4. If you see one you like, note its number to use in setting up your form. If you can't find one that fits your needs, let us know and we can make a new one. Let us know which one of the available forms is similar to what you need if there is such a form

Enabling an Interactive

There are two parts to configuring an interactive form:

1. Set up the basic form options
1. Go to Other Info -> Interactive Forms
2. Click the  symbol
3. Pick a form category
4. Pick a form number
• not required for registration forms—they have the basic contact info as part of the form by default, but additional questions can be included by selecting a form number
5. Give your form a title
6. Optionally, enter a description/instructions that will appear at the top of the form
7. Select who will have access to the form
8. Select whether the subject officials (for game reports or evaluation forms) will receive a copy of the submission
9. Optionally disable the archiving of the submitted forms (email delivery only if archive is disabled)
10. Click Update
2. Select who will receive a copy of the submitted form

1. Go to Other Info -> Interactive Forms
2. Select the desired form's checkbox
3. Click the  symbol
4. Select the desired recipients (no limit on how many are selected)
• Required for all forms except registration forms
5. Click "Save Changes"

To access a previously created archive:

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Archives"
2. Click the name of the archive you wish to delete—the names are based on when the archive was made: year_month_date__hour_minute_second

 When you are in the "archive" mode, a few things happen:

• A yellow bar indicating the archive you are accessing will appear with the page title
• Changes are not saved—you'll be able to open various editing forms but any changes you make will be ignored
• No emails will be sent from the system

To create an archive of your current data:

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Archives"
2. Click the symbol—and the archive is done.

To exit archive mode and return to viewing your current data:

1. Click "Back to live" in the title area of the page

OR

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Archives"
2. Click "Return to live database"

To delete a previously created archive:

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Archives"
2. Click the symbol by the archive you want to delete

 The RefTown registration function can be utilized to both register new members to your organization as well as to manage your returning members.

For registrations submitted by someone who is not logged in, the form will be placed into a pending status where an administrator can either reject or approve the registration. When approving the registration, there are two options:

1. Move the registration  to the roster as a new entry
2. Update an existing roster entry for an existing officials, school, or school/team contact

If the form is submitted by someone who is already logged in, it will update that person’s roster entry with the information as entered on the registration form and will mark that person’s status as “registered.”

In the off-season, you can clear the "registration" status of your current officials. It does nothing except for clearing that status bit. You can then request that each person log into their account and fill out the registration form—in order to determine who is returning and who is not.

There is an option on the email page to address the email to only those who have not registered—allowing you to communicate with just those who have not yet registered for the new season.

The meeting event calendar can be used to post organization meetings, training, and various events other than games. Information about the item can include date, time, location, and general details.

By default, the meeting/event list will show only recent and future items. All items can also be access through a "Show All Dates" that will appear at the top of the listing.

Attendance can also be recorded with each meeting/event. The following symbols are used for attendance:

 - No data has been entered for this meeting

 - Data entered for this meeting but you were not recorded as present

- Data entered for this meeting and you were recorded as present

The next 3 events on the calendar will also be listed on the site homepage.

To add a new meeting/event, click the  symbol and enter the desired info then click "Update."

To edit an existing meeting/event, click the checkbox for the desire item, then click the   symbol and changed the desired info then click "Update."

To delete an existing meeting/event, click the checkbox for the desire item, then click the   symbol.

To edit the attendance for an event, you have three options:

1. Online Update:
1. Click the checkbox for the desired event
2. Click the  symbol
• (instead of 1 and 2, you can also click the number that appears in the "Total Attending" column, which is only visible to administrators or those with permissions to edit the meeting calendar)
3. Check the officials who attended
4. Click Update
2. One meeting export/import:

1. Click the checkbox for the desired event
2. Click the symbol
3. Save the spreadsheet
4. Modify the info by placing a 1 in the box for the attending officials
5. Save the changes
6. Click the  symbol
7. Select the file
8. Click Import Now
2. All meeting export/import:

1. Click QuickLinks -> Export Attendance (all events)
2. Save the spreadsheet
3. Modify the info by placing a 1 in the box for the attending officials for the various events
4. Save the changes
5. Click QuickLinks -> Import Attendance
6. Select the file
7. Click Import Now

Organizations have the option to enable officials to upload their own photos or to have administrators upload the photos.

To upload photos:

1. Go to the officials roster
2. Click on the placeholder or existing picture of the desired individual
3. On the upload page that opens, click "Browse" and select the picture file for that individual
•  This will not appear if you do not have permissions to add photos
4. Click submit

• Recommended size: between 320x240 and 800x600 pixels. Uploading high-resolution photos will work but the process will be much slower

Registration forms filled out by logged-in officials automatically update their roster entries.

For users who are not logged in at the time of filling out the registration form, the information is stored in a "Potential Members" list. There are two ways to get to pending registrations:

1. From the home page, click on the number by the "Pending Registrations" notice
2. Go to the officials roster and click on Manage Registrations in the "QuickLinks" menu

 On that page, you can

• Move a person to the roster as a new official (not already on the roster). To do that:
  1. Click the checkbox by one or more of the registrations you want to approve
  2. Click "Move to Roster as New Official"
• Match a submission with an existing official—transferring all registration information to the roster as if they were logged in when filling it out

1. Click the checkbox on the registration form for an existing official.
2. Select that official's name on the dropdown box of existing officials
3. Click the "Move to Roster As" button, found just above the name selection
• Delete the registration

There are two ways to add officials to your RefTown database:

1. Direct entry on the website
2. Import from an external source

For large numbers of officials, the import method can be the most efficient.

To add an official directly on the website, one at a time:

1. Go to "Directories" -> "Officials"
2. Click 
3. A form will open for you to fill out (if it does not open, check your popup blocker)
4. Enter the official's data
5. Click "Update This Item" to submit/save the data
1. Forms can also be submitted by pressing "Enter" when in simple text entry fields

To add multiple officials by importing from an .xls file

1. Go to "Directories" -> "Officials"
2. Click Import Officials to Roster (just above the roster table)
3. Follow the instructions that appear on the page

To enable online registration for your organization: 

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Interactive Forms"
2. Click the  symbol.
3. For Category, select either "Registration for Officials," "Registration for Schools/Teams," or "Registration for School/Team Personnel"
4. Optionally, select a Form #. The registration form, by default, includes all the basic contact info. The extra forms extend the form to include other topics
5. Enter a "Title"
6. You do not need to select who will have access to this form—since it is a registration form, it will be accessible to the public
7. Click "Update this Item"
8. Next, select the newly entered form from the of available forms
9. Click the  symbol
10. Select those who should receive an email copy of the submitted forms

When you attempt to delete an official, several things are done:

1. First, the official is checked to see if the official is set to receive various site notices (roster updates, game acceptances, etc.)
• If so, you'll be asked to update those items before proceeding
2. The official is removed from any extra functions on the site:
• extra permissions, if any
• association contact
• etc.
3. Various data regarding the official is deleted
• board/committee membership
• availability
• school/team scratch info
• document authorship is cleared (document not deleted)
4. The games database is check for assigned games
• If the official has games in the system in any form (archived, canceled, or active), they will not be deleted but will be placed in a disabled status that is all but deleted (no login, not list in roster, etc) but is accessible to administrators.
• If the official has no games in the system, that official’s account is completely deleted

To copy an official to the school/team contact roster or to copy a school/team contact to the officials roster, do the following:

1. Click the checkbox by the person’s name you want to copy
2. Click the  button
3. Select where to copy the entry to
4. Click "Copy"

This also works between association/organizations if you are an administrator in both.

To edit one or more official(s):

1. Go to the officials roster (Directories -> Officials)
2. Click the selection box in the rightmost column for the desired official(s)
3. Click the "Edit Official" button
4. Make the desired changes
5. Either click "Update this Item" or (from some types of fields) press "Enter"
6. The page will reload with the next selected official, or, if it is the last selected official, will disappear and return you to the roster

Selecting more than one official in step 2 is the most efficient way to edit multiple officials.

Yes. Multiple accounts (Officials, School/Teams/Locations/Payors, or School/Team Contacts) can share the same email address.

If the same address is used multiple times, each person will have access to the others’ information and will also have the same username and password.

After clearing your previous season's registration status through the association configuration page, you can have your officials fill out the online registration form (if enabled). This will mark them as registered on the roster.

• You can identify who has registered by the background color in the "Select" column:
• Green means they have registered
• Yellow means they have not registered
• You can also apply a search filter on the roster to show only those who have registered or only those who have not

From the email page, you can choose to send an email to only those who have not registered to remind them to log in and register for the new season.

  To edit one or more school or team:

1. Go to the school/team roster (Directories -> Schools/Teams)
2. Click the selection box in the rightmost column for the desired school(s)
3. Click the "Edit School" button
4. Make the desired changes
5. Either click "Update this Item" or (from some types of fields) press "Enter"
6. The page will reload with the next selected school, or, if it is the last selected school, will disappear and return you to the roster

Note: Selecting more than one school in step 2 is the most efficient way to edit multiple schools.

By default, a school/team entry is a payor, a home team, a visiting team, and a location. You can, however, define which lists a given school will appear in.

A school will only show up in the defined fields when entering games. In order to make the game entry more efficient, you should deselect the options that are not relevant. If you leave only "Location" selected, that entry will only be a selected item in the location field. It will not appear as a possible home/visiting team or as a payor. If you deselect all options, it will remain in the roster but will not be selectable in any of the matching fields on the game entry page (You can also "hide" a school").

To change the status of a school, you have two options:

1.      To edit all of them (or just several) at once, go to “Directories”-> “Schools.” Then click on “QuickLinks” (red box in the upper left area of the page). Select “Manage Types.” This will give you a long list of schools with checkboxes for the 4 different types of lists. Make your changes and click Update.

2.      Alternately, to edit just a few, go to “Directories”-> “Schools.” Search for the school of interest. Click its checkbox and “edit” that school to set the desired school type.

Upon returning to a game entry page, the lists should now reflect the selections made.

To enable online registration for your organization: 

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Interactive Forms"
2. Click the  symbol.
3. For Category, select either "Registration for Officials," "Registration for Schools/Teams," or "Registration for School/Team Personnel"
4. Optionally, select a Form #. The registration form, by default, includes all the basic contact info. The extra forms extend the form to include other topics
5. Enter a "Title"
6. You do not need to select who will have access to this form—since it is a registration form, it will be accessible to the public
7. Click "Update this Item"
8. Next, select the newly entered form from the of available forms
9. Click the  symbol
10. Select those who should receive an email copy of the submitted forms

Registration forms filled out by logged in schools automatically update their roster entries.

For schools that are not logged in at the time of filling out the registration form, the information is stored in a pending registration list. To get to pending registrations, go to the schools roster and click on Manage Registrations (just above directory table).

 On that page, you can:

• Move the school/team/location to the roster as a New school/team/location (not already on the roster)
• Match the submission with an existing school/team/location—transferring all the information to the roster as if they were logged in when filling it out
• Delete the registration

There are two ways to add locations, schools, teams, or payors to your RefTown database:

1. Direct entry on the website
2. Import from an external source

For large numbers of locations, schools, teams, or payors , the import method can be the most efficient.

To add a location, school, team, payor directly on the website, one at a time:

1. Go to "Directories" -> "Schools/Teams"
2. Click 
3. A form will open for you to fill out (if it does not open, check your popup blocker)
4. Enter the official's data
5. Click "Update This Item" to submit/save the data

·        (Forms can also be submitted by pressing "Enter" when in simple text entry fields)

To add multiple locations, schools, teams, and/or payors by importing from an .xls file

1. Go to "Directories" -> "Schools/Teams"
2. Click Import Locations/Schools/Teams/Payors to Directory (just above the roster table)
3. Follow the instructions that appear on the page

Yes. Multiple accounts (Officials, School/Teams/Locations/Payors, or School/Team Contacts) can share the same email address.

If the same address is used multiple times, each person will have access to the others’ information and will also have the same username and password.

A school/team contact can be configured to have access to one or more team—with one username and one password.

A school/team can be configured to grant access to one or more school/teams contacts—each with their own username and password.

For a person affiliated with a school/team to have access, 3 things must be done:

1. The school/team must be listed on the school/team roster
2. The person must be listed on the school/team contacts roster
3. The school/team and the school/team contact must be linked together

To link a school/team contact to a school/team:

1. Go to the school/team roster
2. Locate the schools/teams of interest
3. Click the checkbox(es) to select the school/team contact(s) of interest
4. Click the assign/link button  (the same button you used to assign officials to games)
5. Select the title of the person (titles are managed through the configuration pages)
6. Select the name of the contact
7. Click "Save New Role"
8. Repeat for all persons you with to link to the selected school
9. Click "Close Window" when done

Alternative Method:

To link a school/team to a school/team contact :

1. Go to the school/team contact roster
2. Locate the school/team contact(s) of interest
3. Click the checkbox(es) to select the school/team contact(s) of interest
4. Click the assign/link button  (the same button you used to assign officials to games)
5. Select the title of the person (titles are managed through the configuration pages)
6. Select the school/team
7. Click "Save New Role"
8. Repeat for all schools/teams you with to link to the selected contact
9. Click "Close Window" when done

This link, found on the "Admin" -> "Configuration" page, takes you to a page that provides several functions to prepare for a new season. Among those options are:

• Archiving of prior season's information
• Administrators, assignors, officials, or schools can “archive” data to move it out of the standard system while retaining it for future reference
• Resetting of all availability calendars and scratched schools entries
• Clearing all game requests
• Clearing registration status
• Clearing all games and assignments, including invoices
• NOTE: This will also delete all archived games
• Clearing all invoices
• Clearing the events/meetings calendar
• Clearing the potential members list

You have two choices when printing schedules for officials or schools/teams:

1. Print only for those without email
2. Print for all

You can also print by date.

To print the schedules:

1. Go do "Schedules" -> "Game Management"
2. Click "Print/Email Schedules"
3. Select the date range to print
4. Select who you are printing (emailing) for—by date, official, or school/team (and which games to include if for schools/teams)
5. Select whether to print the officials’ names on the output
6. Select whether to print assignor-only notes on the printouts
7. Click "Search Now"

A page will open listing all schedules based on the chosen criteria. When printed, this page will place each official’s schedule on a separate page.

You have two choices of which schools' schedules to print:

1. Print only for those without email
2. Print for all

You have three choices for ordering the schedules. For each school/team, include games where they are the:

• Payor
• Location
• Home team
• Visiting Team

To print the schedules:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Game Management"
2. Click "Print/Email Schedules"
3. Select the date range to print
4. Select how to group the schedules
5. Select the group of schools to print for
6. Click "Search Now"

A page will open listing all schedules based on the chosen criteria. When printed, this page will place each school’s schedule on a separate page.

The printing of rosters from RefTown is done by exporting the data to your own application (e.g. Excel) for formatting as you wish.

To export a roster:

1. Go to the roster you wish to export (officials, schools/teams, or school/team contacts)
2. Apply any filters you wish in order to export a partial roster
3. Click "QuickLinks" then “Export/Download . . .”
4. Save the file on your computer so that you can edit and/or print it

In order to protect the email addresses of those on the roster from potential junk mail, the exported information will not include email addresses unless you are an administrator.

All administrators, assignors, or anyone else with permissions that allow them access beyond that of a general official's account can choose to temporarily disable their access to those permissions in order to view the site as others see it.

When you disable such permission, you will view the site as someone who doesn't have such permission until you either re-enable those permissions or you log out and log in.

In order disable a set of permissions:

1. Click on your personal account menu—the red box with your name in it at the top
2. Select "Advanced Options”
3. Click, under "Your Group Membership," the name of the permissions group you want to temporary disable

To re-enable a set of permissions:

1. Click on your personal account menu—the red box with your name in it at the top
2. Select "Advanced Options"
3. Click, under "Your Disabled Groups,” the name of the permissions group you wish to re-enable.

Schools/Teams have access to a very limited set of information:

• Schools can view all games entered in the system
• Schools, by default, can view the games that have been assigned or not but not the names of the assigned officials
  • Options are available, under the configuration pages, to allow schools to see the officials’ names
• Schools/Teams can see a roster of officials that includes ONLY names and photos—by default no contact information is made available to schools
  • Options are available, under the configuration pages, to allow schools to see the officials’ contact information
• Schools can view ballots/signups that are enabled for schools to vote on

There are two ways to manage the extra access permissions for officials:

1. From the officials roster, click on the group symbol ()
2. Under the Administration menu, select "Permissions"

Once on this page, you can add/remove officials from the various groups.

If you entered through the group symbol for a specific official, you'll have direct access to add that official to any of the groups or to remove that official from any of the groups the official is already part of.

If you entered through the "Permissions" menu item, you'll have a list of groups.

Yes. Under the same interface used to grant and manage access permissions, you can also define "custom" groups. These groups are used only for the purposes of creating a list of people you regularly send email to (to avoid having to select each name every time).

You can find this option in two places:

1. From the email page under the "Custom Groups" -> "More Options" -> "Manage groups"
2. Under the Administration Menu under "Permissions"

There is a large set of options for addressing the email to various groups of people affiliated with your organization.

• You are provided with 8 main types of lists from which to select your recipients.
1. Schools and School Contacts
• To All
• By School Level
• By School League
• To school contacts by role
2. Officials
• By member level
• To "unregistered" officials
• those who are not marked as having filled out a registration form since you last reset the registration status—it ignores other officials selections
• To "Inactive" officials
• To officials marked inactive on your roster—it ignores other officials selections
• By Sport (if multiple sports are enabled)
3. Standard Groups
• These are the permissions groups predefined by RefTown: administrators, assignors, evaluators, etc.
4. Custom Groups
• These are the definable by you—you can create custom lists of people you wish to frequently contact as a group
5. Board / Committees
• If you list your Board and/or Committees on the respective pages under Directories, you can conveniently email them here
6. Selected Schools
• You can select one or more individual schools to send the email to
7. Selected School Contacts
• You can select one or more individual school contacts to send the email to
8. Selected Officials
• You can select one or more individual officials to send the email to

• You can, except where noted, select any combination of these items. Each selection under "Officials" ADDS more recipients to the list
• If you select a group and a level, all officials of that group will get the email and all official of the level will also get the email
• You can, except where noted, select any combination of these items. Each selection under "Schools" REDUCES the recipients to the list
• If you select a level and a league, only those of the selected league and level will receive the email
• If you select any of the "All" buttons, it will ignore the subcategories. For example, if you select "All Schools" and also select a school league, it will send to all schools regardless of which league was selected
• Selected Individual Recipients will always receive the email regardless of what other selections are made.
• Groups/Level/League/etc. selections are not impacted by the selection of individual recipients—both selections will receive the email

 A Preview Recipients Option is available to see who will be sent the email before it is sent if it is at all unclear how the selections will be processed.

Under "More Send Options," the following options exist in selecting how an email is delivered:

• You can specify an alternative Reply-To address
• The email will still be delivered, indicating that you sent it, but when the recipient clicks "Reply," it will go to the specified recipient
• You can enabled recipients to reply to all other recipients
• Normally, emails are sent out one at a time to each recipient to prevent replies to the entire group. You can, on an email-by-email basis, override this function and allow replies to the entire list of recipients
• You can include up to 4 attachments, which can, optionally, be saved to your Documents page.
• The body of the email is composed using a word processor like interface that supports a wide variety of layout and formatting options. In fact, you can paste content from many other applications.

Normally, if you navigate away from the email composition page, your work will be lost. However, the editor on RefTown automatically saves the content of your composition every couple of minutes to a location on your computer. How much it is able to recover depends on the Browser you use. Some can save just about anything you might compose, but others are more limited.

To restore a lost composition, click the "life preserver" symbol at the top right of the email editor.

There are three ways to add games to the system:

1. Assignors/Administrators clicking the  button on the games page
2. Assignors/Administrators importing the games from a .csv or .xls file
3. Enabling schools to request games on RefTown

To add games to the system:

1. Go to the games page
2. Click
3. On the page that opens, enter the game data (date, time, league, teams, etc.)
4. Save the game by clicking "Update this Item" or (from many fields) pressing "Enter"

Note: To save you time when entering entire schedules, check the "Enable Batch Add Mode" box before saving the game date.

Go to "Schedules" -> "Game Management." Select "Upload New Games from external source." Then take the following steps:

1. Prepare a spreadsheet using one of the following templates:
   • Normal Template (Includes most commonly used columns)
   • Minimal Template (Includes a basic set of supported columns)
   • Maximum Template (Includes all supported columns)
     
   • All columns are optional....you can delete those that are unneeded....however, it wouldn't make much sense to not have a date or time column.
   • Column order is not important...the column headers define the column
   • The Visitor column can be replicated up to a total of 5 times (only useful if multiple visitors are otherwise enabled)
   • The Level column can be replicated up to a total of 3 times (only useful if multiple levels are otherwise enabled)
     
2. After entering your data, save as either an .xls or a .csv file (File -> Save As …)
   • .xlsx is not currently supported
3. Upload to RefTown through the  Import Page
4. Data will be validated—entire upload will be rejected if any data is in error (non-existent school, officials, etc. or bogus date or time)
5. Correct any error reported, save as an .xls/.csv, and re-upload the file

• Spelling is VERY important. The upload will be rejected if a field does not match the predefined lists for the field. There is some flexibility in not spelling out High School or Middle School (HS or MS is adequate). With or without periods is acceptable when you use HS or MS. In fact, if there is only one school of a given name, the match will still be successful if you can leave off the HS or MS part in either or both of the schools directory or imported data.
• The field’s case (upper-case or lower-case) is not important.
• Fields can be left blank if not applicable or not known
• Officials listed, if any, will fill the crew duties in order and will be accepted in either of the following forms: John Doe or Doe, John.

·   The times field has some flexibility—it will deduce AM or PM if it is left off (the same as the online game entry form) and can accept the time in several forms. The following will all be interpreted the same: 5, 5 p.m., 5:00 PM, 500, and 1700.

• This can only be used to add new games—not to modify previously entered games.

Go to "Schedules" -> "Game Request" (only available to schools and assignors).

The interface for schools is the same as the assignor's interface (see the related article). The only difference is that the games requested by schools do not go directly to the schedule but into a requested games list where the assignor can choose to put them on the schedule or can delete the request.

To enable this feature, go to:

• Administration
• Configuration
• School Options (under Games)

Check "Enable Schools to Request New Games" and save.

The format in which you can enter times is very flexible. RefTown applies basic logic to complete the time if you enter a shorthand time:

• You can include the colon or leave it out
• If you leave off the minutes, it will assume it is on the hour
• You can put space between the number and AM/PM or leave it out
• You can have periods on the AM/PM or not
• If you leave off the AM/PM, it will assume AM if the hour is 9, 10, or 11 while all other times will be assumed to be PM
• You can use military time

For example, all of the following are converted to the same time:

• 3
• 300
• 1500
• 3pm
• 3 pm
• 3 p.m.
• 3 PM
• 3 P.M.
• 3:00
• 3:00 pm
• etc.

By default, a school/team entry is a payor, a home team, a visiting team, and a location. You can, however, define which lists a given school will appear in.

A school will only show up in the defined fields when entering games. In order to make the game entry more efficient, you should deselect the options that are not relevant. If you leave only "Location" selected, that entry will only be a selected item in the location field. It will not appear as a possible home/visiting team or as a payor. If you deselect all options, it will remain in the roster but will not be selectable in any of the matching fields on the game entry page (You can also "hide" a school").

To change the status of a school, you have two options:

1.      To edit all of them (or just several) at once, go to “Directories”-> “Schools.” Then click on “QuickLinks” (red box in the upper left area of the page). Select “Manage Types.” This will give you a long list of schools with checkboxes for the 4 different types of lists. Make your changes and click Update.

2.      Alternately, to edit just a few, go to “Directories”-> “Schools.” Search for the school of interest. Click its checkbox and “edit” that school to set the desired school type.

Upon returning to a game entry page, the lists should now reflect the selections made.

By enabling this feature, assigning your officials a rating, and setting up rating values for the various game attributes (level, type, league, etc), you can develop a list of officials to select from whose skill levels approximately match the games.

The rating for a game can be determined in one of two ways:

1. An assignor can explicitly specify a rating for each and every game when entering/editing the game
2. The rating for a game can be calculated from a recipe based on the following criteria:
• Sport
• Home School League
• Home School Level
• Game League
• Game Level
• Game Type
• Crew Type

These various attributes can be configured to adjust the required rating by a different value for each of the various options. For example, you might set a varsity game to have a rating of 20 points, a JV game to 10, freshman to 5, and the rest to 0. You might then assign League A to 20 points, League B to 10, and all other leagues to 0. Then, you could put a rating on the crewtypes such that 1-person crews are a 10 and 2 person crews are a 0. You could set men's games to 15 and boys games to 5. The effect of this is that for a given game, each of the values are added together to get a rating for each game.

The maximum rating is 100—any calculated value that exceeds 100 will be changed to 100. The minimum is 0.

The final rating required for a specific assignment is based on the specified or calculated game rating plus an offset for the specific duty being assigned (if entered) in combination with an allowed range above/below the game rating.

Then, based on the officials' rating and the size of the allowable range above/below the game rating, you'll get a list of officials who are capable of working the assignment. This list will be used in manual assignment mode to reduce the default list of selectable officials and will be use in auto-assign mode to generate a list of officials that can be selected.

There are a couple of options. The simplest to deal with is to delete all prior season’s games from the system. See the linked article for more info.

To completely delete one or more games without deleting everything:

1. You’ll need to enter a special hidden mode to keep you from accidentally deleting your entire schedule.
1. Under the "Account" Menu, select Advanced Options...
2. On the page that loads, click on “Enable Advanced Game Functions”
2. Go to the games page and use the filter to search for all your older games

1. Select an appropriate date range
2. Select "Include Canceled"
3. Optionally increase the number of games to list on one page
2. Click the check boxes of the ones you want to delete (if desired, use the “Check All” button to get all of them at once)
3. Click the red-outlined black X (at the right end of the action buttons)

All of the selected games will be fully and permanently deleted. You will NOT have to option to restore games deleted in this manner.

Batch Add Mode is extremely useful for entering multiple games that have one or more things in common. It uses previously entered information to pre-fill the entry form. All you need to do is change the items that are different than the previously entered game.

For example, you’ll save a lot of entry time when you are entering a schedule for a school that has 10 varsity games all played at 7:30 p.m. with only the dates and visitors differing. On the first game, you'll enter all the details. If you save the game with the batch mode enabled, the entry form will reappear. Rather than being blank, it will have the first game's info filled out. Just change the date and the visitor and save. Repeat for all games in the list.

A similar approach is beneficial if you're entering a sequence of games that occur at the same location in a short amount of time. In this case, you'll change the time and teams—and any other piece that remains the same.

To exit the mode, uncheck the mode prior to saving the last game or click "Cancel Changes and Close Window."

Go to "Schedules" -> "Game Management."

On that page, there are several reports than can be viewed. The available reports are under "Game Quality Checks." These checks look for critical fields (such as date, time, location, etc.) that are missing data, for dates and times that are suspicious, and for potentially duplicate entries in the system.

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Game Management"
2. Click on "List Officials with New/Changed Games"

When a game is edited, several things happen:

• If the game is assigned, and the change potentially affects the official,  the acceptance status of the officials is cleared and a new acceptance is required
• Examples of things affecting the official are date, time, location, level, etc.
• An example of things not affecting the official is who is paying for the game
• If the game is (or was) to take place within the number of days configured by the association (usually 14), the official will be sent an email with the changed items highlighted in red. If it is beyond the configured number of days, no notice is sent
• If the game date has passed, a notice is sent
• If previously invoiced, a game will be marked for reanalysis on the next invoice generation that would include the game
• If school approvals are enabled, the school's response is also reset

School/Team approval of games (if enabled) is based on the Payor field. This field is only displayed to administrators and assignors. A game can only be approved or rejected by the team/school listed in the Payor field.

Availability information is entered through "Schedules" -> "Availability"

You can enter availability in one of two ways:

1. By day of the week
2. By specific date

If both are entered, the specific date information is used.

To enter availability information by day of the week:

1. On the General Availability area, click "Edit"
2. For each day, enter your information
3. Enter comments, if desired
4. Click "Submit Changes"

To enter availability information for specific dates:

1. Navigate to the desired month
2. In the monthly calendar area, click "Edit"
3. For each date, enter your information
4. Enter comments, if desired
5. Click "Submit Changes"

There are a three buttons at the top of the form that may assist you in filling out your availability. You can use them to designate all days/dates as available, not available, or clear the times. Use this if most of your availability is the same and then fill in the boxes that are different.

Only assignors can change the response to an assignment once it is submitted.

To do so:

1. Click the checkbox for the game that has the incorrect response
2. Click the question mark button
3. Modify the response for the official/school with the incorrect response
4. Click "Save Responses"

Driving distance is an approximation based on the zip code of the game site and the zip code of the official. RefTown uses a database of the latitude and longitude of the center of each zip code to calculate approximate driving distance. The calculation does not assume a straight line but assumes fairly typical road layouts.

The game site zip code is taken directly from the Schools/Teams roster for the site listed as the location of the game. If no zip code is entered for the location, the driving distance will be assumed to be 0—everyone will be eligible to drive to that location no matter the actual distance.

By default, the official's zip code is taken from the official's roster entry. Optionally, each official can specify two alternative zip codes under their "My Account" profile. An official can specify two zip codes and a time if they generally transition between the two. This can be used to influence the assignment of games to be near two different places depending on the time of day—and both can be different than their home zip code. If no zip code is listed for an official, the driving distance will be assumed to be 0—the official will be considered eligible to drive to any location.

Caveats:

·        Since driving distance is calculated zip code-to-zip code, all officials and locations in the same zip code will have a driving distance of 0 miles—all will be considered equal even if the zip code spans 5 to 10 miles. In most cases, zip codes do not cover a large area and this approximation will be unnoticeable.

·        Likewise, an official and a school near the boundary in adjacent zip codes may only be a very short distance apart but will be considered to be farther apart based on the center of the zip codes. Again, in most cases, zip codes do not cover an extremely large area, and these approximations will be unnoticeable.

Go to:

• Administration
• Configuration
• Response Options

and uncheck "Require Official Response on Crew Change."

There are a couple of ways to start:

1. You can use the Game Management item called “Unassigned Games”
   • That will show you all the games needing assignment start with the earliest—you can use the game filters to narrow the set of games you need to work on
2. You can also go through the games page and use the filter to select the games you need to assign (by date, by school, by level, etc.)

Once you have the list of games you want to assign:

1. Check the boxes beside the games you want to assign
2. Click the button with the 3 people on it
3. A new window will open with the game and a list of officials to select from
   • The lists, by default, will only show those who are not already working and who are available. There are checkboxes on that window to expand the list to all officials. When the list is expanded to all, it will have the details of availability by each name in the list
4. Once you’ve chosen the officials, click “update”
5. Continue with all assignments until you’re ready to publish them
6. At this point, you can do one of two things:
   •  Publish all assignments (a button will appear on all games pages to do that
   • Publish selected games. To do that, check the boxes and click the purple “Up Arrow”  This will send a notice to officials about assignments 

7. Once assignments are published, emails will automatically be sent to all officials affected by the newly published changes

There are two ways to publish new or changed assignments:

1.      When there are assignments needing to be published, there will be a button appearing at the top of most games pages that permits the publication of all games.

2.      Alternatively, specific games can be published by selecting the desired games and clicking .

On publishing an assignment, a few things occur:

1. The details of the assignment become visible to any official on the game (before this time, only assignors/administrators can see the pending assignments)
2. The current acceptance status of officials on the assignment is reset (the option to disable this exists)
3. All officials involved (those being added or removed) will be sent an email that indicates they have new, changed, or canceled games

There are several possible reasons an official does not appear in the default list of officials to choose from:

• The official is already working at another location on that date
• The official is not available at that time on that date
• The official is scratched by either the home or visiting team
• The official is underqualified for the game
• The official is overqualified for the game
• The official's driving distance is too far for the location of the game

All of the above reasons can be overridden by using the "Include Officials" options.

When editing multiple assignments, the settings you select on one game will carry forward to the following game.

Yes. An official can enter a restriction into the system that they should not work for particular school, team, level, league, etc.

To do so:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Scratches"
2. Enter the desire restriction

Example: enter XYZ High School and Boys Varsity to exclude yourself from working that level of game at that school.

Any of the available fields can be left blank as long as at least one field has a value entered.

Assignors can also fill out scratches on behalf of officials. Assignors can choose whether or not to allow officials to see that.

If an official wants to change a response from decline to accept, that official should contact the appropriate assignor. The assignors have the ability to change the response.

If an official wants to change a response from accept to decline, the official will have one of two options, depending on the settings that official’s organization has chosen.

If the organization has enabled the turnback option and the deadline for a turnback has not passed (another option that is usually set to 2 or 3 days before the game), the official should see a "Turnback" link directly under the game number on that official’s schedule.

If no turnback link appears, the feature is not enabled and the official is not permitted to change previous responses through RefTown once they are submitted.

When the turnback feature is either not enabled or the turnback deadline has passed, the official should contact the assignor so the assignor can change the response.

To make officials who are, by default, not assignable, check one or more of the boxes in the "Include Officials" options.

The available boxes are:

Note: When these overrides are used, those officials who would have been excluded from the list of assignable officials will appear on the list along with the basic details of why they were not originally listed.

When a set of games is assigned, an email confirmation is generated. That email is sent to the following:

• The official submitting the response
• Assignors

For the purposes of these responses, the assignors who will receive the email are defined in 3 ways as defined under the association's configuration:

• A list of any number of people to receive such notices as defined in the association configuration
• These receive the entire submission any time it is sent
• To the specific assignor who made the assignment (with assignments filtered by assignor)
• If there are two (or more) assignors involved, they'll only receive emails about the games/matches they assigned
• To all assignors of any assignment in the submission
• All assignors who have an assignment in the submission will receive a full copy of the submission

NOTE: An association can, to reduce unnecessary email, choose to disable emails in two cases:

1. all assignments are accepted—no declines
2. There are no comments entered in the comment box

Notices are automatically sent when assignments are published.

Notices about changes to games are automatically sent when the change involves a game within the time frame configured by the association (defaults to 14 days).

To send additional notices:

1. Go to "Schedules" -> "Game Management"
2. Click on "List Officials with New/Changed Games"

It opens with a template email at the top and a list of every official who has a game or games to accept or acknowledge. You can sort that list by name, by email address, or by date of the first game that needs a response by clicking on the column title.

You can alter or add to the email template that is started, except for the very first part, which says:

As of Date/Time, you have Count new, changed, and/or canceled games posted on RefTown.

Once you have the email content to your liking, click “Send Notice.” This will send a customized email to each official who has games needing a response. It will tell officials how many they have and, unless you alter it, prompt them to log in and respond to them.

The assignor can mark off the games on behalf of the official who does not email. To do so, the assignor will need to get to the official’s games. There are two ways to do so:

1. Go through the officials roster and click the "Games" link by the official's name
2. Go the games page and use the "Search for Games" and select the desired official

Through either method, you'll be taken to the games page as it would look for the selected official. Mark the official’s games as accepted/declined/etc., in the same manner as accepting your own games.

Be default, RefTown is set to require a new response from every crew member when part of the crew is changed. This ensures that all members of the crew have the most current information.

This function can be disabled to require a new response only from officials directly affected by the change (i.e., the official added or removed).

To activate the auto-assignment function, select the game(s) you want to assign and click

The auto-assignment feature (prior to actually making any assignment) allows you to fine tune the selection parameters, takes each game you've selected, compiles a list of eligible officials, applies a weighting factor to each eligible official, and then randomly selects an official to fill each open assignment. It will report whether it was able find an official for all selected games and will provide a list of its selections for your review prior to saving the officials to the database. You will have the opportunity to either back up and revise the selection parameters or confirm the selections given.

In compiling a list of eligible officials, several factors are considered—much as if they are manually assigned. For each and every game, the following factors determine if the official is eligible:

• The availability calendar shows that the official is available
• The scratch list shows no scratches related to the particular assignment
• The official is not already working on the same date
• Driving distance to game site (if enabled)—you also instruct the auto-assignor to ignore driving distance
• The official's rating relative to the rating specified or calculated for the game being assigned (if enabled). You can also instruct the auto-assignor to ignore ratings.

Once the list of eligible officials has been calculated for a game, that list is then, optionally, weighted to prefer some officials over others based on their rating or their driving distance.

• By default (weight = 1), all otherwise available officials under the specified distance limit are equally likely to be assigned to the game. By selecting a weighting other than 1, officials closer to the game site are more likely to be chosen. The higher the weight, the more likely the auto-assignor will pick an official closer to the site.
• By default (weight = 1), all otherwise available officials under the specified maximum rating and over the specified minimum rating are equally likely to be assigned to the game. By selecting a weighting other than one, officials closer to the game's rating are more likely to be chosen. The higher the weighting, the more likely the auto-assignor will pick an official with a rating closer to the game's rating. Two separate controls are provided for over/under rated.

You will then be presented with a detailed list of the selections proposed by the system and will be given a chance to back up and re-do the selections or confirm the selections. The selections will be saved in an "Unpublished" state. You will still have the opportunity to make modifications if there are a few things you'd like to adjust. Positions assigned by the auto-assignor will be marked as such when an assignor views a single game's details (by clicking on the game number where ever it appears).

IMPORTANT NOTES:

• If you plan to use ratings, review the ratings of your games and your officials before using the auto-assignor for the first time (See attached articles for more on ratings)
• If you enable driving distance calculations, ensure that your game locations and officials have a zip code entered on the rosters—driving distance is a rough estimation based solely on the zip code (See attached articles for more on driving distances)

The self-assignment/assignment request feature makes an assignment open for any official to claim/request. Here is how it works:

1. An assignor marks a game as open for self-assignment
2. The game appears on a list of games with open positions
3. An official "claims"/"requests" the game

In the claim mode, the official is placed in the slot when making the claim.

In the request mode, the official's request is emailed to the assignor so the assignor can make the final decision.

If the official later cannot do the game, the assignor reassigns the position to another official or removes the official from the slot. Upon removing the official from the slot, the position will reappear on the open games list.

To add a game to the self-assignment or requestable list, select the desired game by clicking the checkbox by the game then click .

To remove a game to the self-assignment or requestable list, select the desired game by clicking the checkbox by the game then click .

Any official already on the game will remain on the game.

If an official wants to change a response from decline to accept, that official should contact the appropriate assignor. The assignors have the ability to change the response.

If an official wants to change a response from accept to decline, the official will have one of two options, depending on the settings that official’s organization has chosen.

If the organization has enabled the turnback option and the deadline for a turnback has not passed (another option that is usually set to 2 or 3 days before the game), the official should see a "Turnback" link directly under the game number on that official’s schedule.

If no turnback link appears, the feature is not enabled and the official is not permitted to change previous responses through RefTown once they are submitted.

When the turnback feature is either not enabled or the turnback deadline has passed, the official should contact the assignor so the assignor can change the response.

Assuming the invoice functions are enabled under the configuration options:

1. Click either
   1. "Pay" -> "Official's Invoices"
   2. "Pay" -> "School/Team Invoices"
2. Click the  symbol to either start a new batch or add to an existing unpublished batch
3. Select the batch you wish to work with or select "Start a New Batch"
4. Select a recalculation mode
   • Usually left on "None" but can be used to override the programs "Invoice Current" status. This can be used to force a reevaluation of games that have not been directly changed since being previously invoiced but are affected by financial configuration changes—payscale changes, mileage, changes, etc.
5. Select and "Override Retention" mode
   • Usually left on "Retain." The keeps any manually entered overrides when reevaluating previously invoiced games
   • NOTE: Overrides are ALWAYS retained if set no matter how the game was changed—even if it was subsequently canceled. Use overrides with caution
6. Click "Next Step"
7. Fill out the search form to select the games you need to invoice
8. Click "Search Now"
9. The next page will list all games the system believes need invoicing
   • This will not include games marked as "Invoice Current" unless the Recalculation mode is selected as in step 4
   • Each game listed, when working on official's invoices, will list all officials associated with the game. Those in green are currently on the game and will be paid, and those in red are no longer on the game and will not be paid
10. If you are satisfied with the selections, click "Create Official's Invoices for these assignments" or "Create School's/Team's Invoices for these Games." If you are not satisfied with the selections, open the "Game Search" filter to refine the selections, or go back to the start to select different options
11. The program will verify that all of the selected games have all of the information necessary for generating invoices and will ask for any missing data
12. Once all data is entered, the invoices will be generated

Most invoice items are derived from games and game assignments. However, you may occasionally need to include items on the invoice that are not tied to a specific game.

RefTown supports this in two ways:

1. Custom Items for Individual Invoices
2. Custom Items for Multiple Invoices

Entering them is largely the same except for how you get to the entry form.

To add Custom Items for Individual Invoices:

1. Browse to the specific invoice, and click 
2. Enter an amount
3. Enter a description of what the item is for
4. Click "Update"

To add Custom Items for Multiple Invoices:

1. Click either
1. "Pay" -> "Official's Invoices"
2. "Pay" -> "School/Team Invoices"
2. Browse to the specific invoice, and click 
3. Select the batch you want to work with or select "Start a New Batch"
4. Click "Next Step"
5. Enter an amount
6. Enter a description of what the item is for
7. Select the officials/schools/teams that the item is for

Note that for official invoices, positive amounts increase their pay (e.g., reimbursements, etc.), while negative amount reduce their pay (e.g., dues, equipment purchases, etc.).

Note that for schools invoices, positive amounts increase the amount due (e.g., assignment fees, etc.), while negative amount reduce the amount due (e.g., discounts/refunds of fees, etc.).

There are two basic approaches you can choose from to enter game fees (for either officials or schools/teams):

1. At the time of invoice generation
2. Prior to invoice generation

With approach #1, the program analyzes the games being invoiced and will search the database for matching game fees. If no match is found, the system will ask you for the amount and will remember that amount for any future games with the same parameters.

You can also pre-enter your game fees (or update existing game fees) under "Pay" -> "Officials Fees" or "Pay" -> "School/Team Fees." 

1. To add a new fee:
• To add a new fee, click the  symbol.
• To update a single existing fee, click the "edit" link by the fee to be edited
• To update multiple existing fees, click the "edit all" link at the top of the right column
2. Enter the game parameters used to define the amounts to be paid/charged
3. Enter the amount to be paid/charged.
4. Select and adjustment set (to control any deductions, mileage, etc.)
5. Click Update

Note that ALL fields except "duty," if enabled, must be filled in.

When you leave the duty field blank, that fee entry will match any duty not otherwise specified in the fee table. This can be useful and will greatly simplify your game fee table when you have most of your crew members paid the same but have an occasion to specify a different amount for one or more members of some of your crews, such as a crew chief.

Normally, game fees are not permitted to be "$0.00." However, this is a configuration override that will allow "$0.00" fees to be entered—use with caution.

Mileage is calculated through several parts that come together to generate the mileage. The mileage calculation, if enabled, normally starts with the mileage/adjustment set as specified on the fee tables. If the matching mileage/adjustment set has specified that mileage should be calculated, the school/team roster is checked for a distance. The mileage/adjustment set is then referenced for how much to pay per mile, how much to limit the total to (maximum and/or minimum), whether to pay by round trip, and whether to pay more than one mileage per date per location.

In almost every way, they are the same. The primary difference is that a signup provides the details of the results to the administrator, who selected which option, while a ballot keeps such information secret. The quiz/exam provides for a "correct" answer and will generate a % correct score. For a ballot, the list of voters may be revealed (without their specific selections).

1. From the ballot/signup page—Add New  (or Configure existing ballot)
2. Enter a ballot title, a start date and time, and an end date and time
3. Select the people who will be voting
   1. All officials
   2. All schools
   3. Officials by level—levels to be selected later
   4. Schools by level—levels to be selected later
4. Indicate how you want to reveal the results to all members:
   1. When Certified: The results become visible to administrators when the polls close and await approval from an admin before they’re visible to the members. (You can select ballot administrators specifically for a single ballot).
   2. When Polls Close: The moment the end date and time pass, the results are visible.
   3. Always: The results are live—visible every moment
   4. Private: never revealed online—you reveal them by your own methods
5. How do you wish to reveal the results to ballot administrators:
   1. When Polls Close: The moment the end date and time pass, the results are visible.
   2. Always: The results are live—visible every moment
6. Should a confirmation email be sent to the submitter and should it include the details of the ballot or just that a ballot was submitted?
7. Save
8. Preview the Ballot

• If you configured the ballot to be based on level, click on the eligibility type to select the eligible levels.
• If you wish at add ballot administrators (in addition to your general administrators), click on “Admin”

  Notes:

  • All configuration options are shown to all members
  • Most of the configuration options disappear once the ballot is published and the start date/time has passed

1. Preview the ballot/signup
2. Click Add/Edit a question
3. Enter the question text (e.g. Vote for President, On what day should the COVOA have its meetings)
4. Select the type of answer expected:
   1. Yes/No
   2. Favor/Oppose
   3. True/False (only available on a quiz/exam)
   4. Multiple Choice  (only available on a quiz/exam)
   5. Officials—Select One/Many
      • This option allows you to provide a list of candidates and allows the voter to select one or more candidates as configured in the next step. All votes cast are equal. This is often used for tournament voting, where each official picks at least some number and no more than another number of candidates
   6. Officials—Ranked List—Instant Runoff
      • In this one, the voter will rank the candidates from most preferred to least preferred. This method is used when a majority vote is required to win an election. The rankings are used to eliminate the least-preferred candidate and reallocate the votes for that candidate to the remaining candidates. This avoids the need for runoff elections when there is a plurality. There are several websites that detail this form of voting—we can look them up for you if you require more information
   7. Officials—Ranked List—Generic
      • The votes are cast as above, but the results are not automatically calculated. A table of who received how many votes in each ranked position is provided for your own use
   8. General—Select One/Many
      • Like #5,  but you enter freeform text as the choices—often used for banquet signups where the submitter indicates how many people are attending and how they want to pay
   9. Number
      • The answer is expected to be a number
   10. Text—One line
       • Good for surveys or write-in votes
   11. Text - Multiple lines
       • Good for surveys
5. If the vote type is a “One/Many” or a "Ranked List" type, enter a minimum number of selections and a maximum number of selections for the submission to be valid.
   • In the case of ranked lists, this will simplify the ballot/signup form in addition to restricting the number that can be selected
6. Check the “Allow Candidate Statement” box if you want to enable candidates to enter their own position statements
7. Optionally, enter a detailed explanation and chose whether it will be displayed with the question, or if the explanation will be shown only if the voter clicks on the “Explanation” link on the ballot
8. Save
9. For Selection lists:
   • If you want to choose a question type that has a list of officials, click “Select Officials” to choose your list
   • If you choose a question type that has general items, select "Add Option"
     • Note that you can expire individual general items before the entire ballot closes. This can be used for signups where various options become unavailable at different times—prepay, pay-at-the-door, etc.
   • These can not be changed after the vote opens
10. Save
11. Repeat steps 2-10 for additional questions, if any
     
12. Return to ballot/signup page and, if you’re satisfied with the ballot, publish it

·        Once published, it becomes visible to all members

·        No votes will be accepted until the opening time

The instant runoff voting tabulates votes based on the principle that any vote cast for a last-place candidate shall be transferred to the next-choice candidate on that ballot until one candidate has a majority of votes. This ballot-count method duplicates what would occur if all voters participated in a graduated series of runoff elections.

Vote counting shall start with a tabulation of first-choice votes. If a candidate receives a majority of the first-choice votes, then that candidate shall be declared elected. If no candidate receives such a majority, then the candidate with the fewest first choices shall be declared defeated. Ballots cast for this defeated candidate shall be transferred at full value to the next-choice candidate marked on each ballot. Last-place candidates are eliminated and their supporters' ballots transferred to next-choice candidates who are still in the race in a similar manner until a candidate receives a majority of votes that have not been exhausted.

If a ballot has no more available choices ranked on it, that ballot shall be declared "exhausted."

If there are two candidates with fewest number of first place votes, the number of second-place votes are included. If that still doesn't break the tie, third-place votes are included, and so on. It's still possible, but highly unlikely, that there will still be a tie.

Example:

4 candidates, 50 voters

A: 22 first-place votes

B: 16 first-place votes

C: 6 first-place votes

D: 6 first-place votes

No candidate has a majority of the first-place votes. This voting method drops the one with the fewest votes. In this case, there are two. Which one to declare defeated? Since they have the same number of first place votes, the second-place votes for those two are considered for the tie-breaker.

C: 10 second-place votes

D: 13 second-place votes

C is eliminated and D remains. The 6 ballots that have C as their first choice are referenced for their second choice (they be come first choice votes now that C is no longer in the race, the 3rd place votes become 2nd, etc.)

Of those six votes, two have A second, and 4 have B second.

That gives the following:

A: 24 first place votes

B: 20 first place votes

D: 6 first place votes

Still no majority.

D is alone in last place, so D is eliminated. The 6 ballots that have D as their first choice are referenced for their second choice. Those votes are added to A and B. One of them will now have a majority or there will be a tie.

If there is still a tie, the one with the greater number of first place votes in the prior round is declared the winner—having more natural first place votes.

· The Reftown Ballot/Signup system provides a secure, independent method of collecting votes for various purposes.

· The system remembers who has voted and when. It will not permit a revote by the same individual.

· The details of a submitted ballot are not available to anyone else in your organization.

• All that is revealed is the number of votes cast for each question, the number of votes cast for each option, and, in the case of ranked-list ballots, ranking information.

· Once votes are cast, removing options is not permitted or supported—that would corrupt the votes already cast.

· A voter can confirm that the voter’s own ballot was received by returning to the ballot—the time and date of the submission will be displayed with a notice that the voter can not vote again.

· Like game assignments, ballots/signups remain invisible to the members until published.

· Ballots/signups open and close automatically based on the dates entered. Once a ballot/signup opens, changes are not permitted.The results are automatically tabulated online and the winners determined. The actual ballots are stored in the database but are not visible.

There are 3 regions on nearly every page where you can add your own freeform content:

• The Header area will appear just below the Menu and Page Title and before the page's main content
• The Footer area will appear just below the page's main content and before the time/date/copyright information
• The Left area appears just below the Menu and Page Title and before the page's main content

To add fully customizable information to a page, click on the menu labeled "Custom" then "Customize this Page."

A page will open where you can select the area of the page to edit (add, change, or delete) with a full featured editor that allows extensive page formatting: fonts, colors, tables, etc.

After editing the content, click "Update Custom Header" to save the changes.

Yes, you can add complete pages to RefTown.

To do so, click the "Custom" menu then select "Add Custom Page."

A page will open with a full-featured editor that allows extensive page formatting: fonts, colors, tables, etc.

You may make the pages accessible only to officials, or you may also allow schools and/or the public to access the new pages by checking the appropriate boxes.

Give each page a "Menu Title" (the name that will appear in the menus) and a "Page Title" (the name that will appear at the top of the page once opened).

Create the content.

After editing the content, click "Update This Item" to save the changes.

The added pages can be reached through the "Custom" menu by the "Menu Title."

To add new Documents to RefTown:

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Documents"
2. Click ""
3. In the new page that opens, select the file to upload, using the "Browse..." button
4. If you wish to rename the file, enter a new name
5. Select a folder for the document
6. Choose whether to allow the public and/or school to access the document
7. Click "Upload Now"

To add new Document Categories/Folders to RefTown:

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Documents"
2. Click " "
3. Enter a name for the new folder 
4. Select a parent folder for the new folder
5. Click "Update This Item"

To modify the details of a document already on RefTown:

1. Go to "Other Info" -> "Documents"
2. Click the checkbox beside the desired document
3. Click ""
4. In the new page that opens:

1. Choose whether to allow the public and/or school to access the document
2. Enter a new category for the document
3. Enter a new name, if desired
4. Click "Update This Item"

Documents posted on RefTown cannot be directly edited.

To change their content:

1. Download the current version to your computer
2. Make the desired changes
3. Click the checkbox for the old document
4. Click
5. In the new page that opens, select the file to upload—using the "Browse..." button
6. If you wish to rename the file, enter a new name
7. Select a folder for the document
8. Choose whether to allow the public and/or school to access the document
9. Click "Upload Now"

Changes (4/1/2010–6/20/2010

• GAMES
  • Added option to list additional teams (visitors) and additional levels with each game
  • Added option to list an optional duty with each game for assigning evaluators/observers.
    • This duty will never show up as "unassigned" but will be available to be filled as needed.
  • Modified game import function to allow columns in any order and to not require any specific columns...although date/time/location would not be useful to omit.
  • Improved Official Game-Request function (an alternate mode of the Self-Assign feature)
    • The requesters are saved online
    • The assignor is given an list of requesters when assigning the game
    • The email notice to the assignors is now optional. (compared to an email-only function)
  • Added option to specify a "Crew Chief" on the crew independent of position.
  • Added options to not require officials to re-accept games on changes to the sport, league, level, and/or type.

• EMAIL
  • Added option when sending email to selected individuals to either include the recipients names in the email or not.
    
• ACCOUNTS
  • Added ability for administrators to "Act As" any official or school/team contact
    • This can assist administrators in seeing what their officials see without requiring the officials username or password.
    • To return to normal, the administrator simply logs out and logs back in with their own credentials
      
• AVAILABILITY
  • Added option to export availability reports to Excel
  • Added options to suppress availability emails in non-active months
  • Added ability for an official to delete entered availability for a given date/date
    
• ROSTER PHOTOS
  • Added ability to upload multiple files at a time and match several uploaded photos at a time to the appropriate names....much faster than uploading one at a time.
    
• FINANCES
  • Added ability to specify different mileage distances for different officials from multiple base locations.
    • Administrators can create multiple bases and designate which officials will travel from each base location
  • Added ability to override school/team fees with the game rather than needing to modify the invoice after invoice creation.
    • Using the same method used to apply overrides to officials fees, similar overrides can be applied to the school/team fees
  • Added ability to display game fees on schedule in a few forms...based fee & mileage or total only.
  • Allow administrators to unpublish their own invoices and, if the advanced game/invoice functions are enabled, to delete published invoiced
  • Added ability to cost-share game fees and/or mileage between participating schools
  • Added export option for selected batches in a form ready for importing to 1099 software....more to come in this area
  • Redesigned invoice layout to be much more logical and readable
  • Simplified invoice creation steps
    
• FORMS
  • Added option to make interactive forms available to the public (protected from spam by a Captcha)
  • Added option to export submitted forms that were archived to Excel
    
• MISCELLANEOUS
  • Added option for users to specify their preferred email client
    • Allow a user to click an email address and have it open major web-based email providers such as hotmail, gmail, yahoo, or aol in addition to Outlook, Outlook Express and other installed email applications.
    • Can add other major web-based email providers on request
  • Updated home page to show the public easy-access links to organization contact info (if enabled) and registration forms (if enabled).
  • New season setup modified to allow the specification of a date to be used for game deletion...deleting all games before the specified date and keeping any game after the specified date.
  • New season setup modified to automatically delete invoices associated with deleted games....custom items may be left behind with this method but can be manually deleted.
  • Added option to not display the organization name on the top of all pages if the organization has a graphic that is to be used instead.
  • Added option to hide several default menu items from officials/school/teams for some functions that may not be used.

Changes (10/15/2009–12/31/2009) 

• ROSTER
  • Organizations can enable officials to upload their own roster photos
  • Organizations can enable officials to update their own sports/areas (if that field is otherwise enabled). (Set both under Admin -> Configuration,  OFFICIALS ROSTER-> General Options
  • Added ability for officials to specify a text message carrier in their profile. This will cause a messaging link to appear on the site where other officials can send the official a text message through RefTown
  • When the officials enable text messaging, they also have an option that will cause new/changed game email notices to be sent to the text message number. Enabled SSN field
  • Created simplified, printable view of rosters
  • Added mass edit of sports/areas for all officials
  • Officials, when editing their profiles, can elect to make the same changes in any/all accounts at the same time
  • Split options of Payor, Team, and Location in to Payor, Home Team, Visiting Team, and Location—allowing the matching dropdown lists in the game entry interface to be further optimized
  • Added a function to copy a roster entry to another organization's roster in the case where the current user is an administrator for both rosters
  • Added a function to tag officials as eligible for only certain duties within a crew
  • Added an option to allow schools/teams to view the full officials roster with all contact info
• GAMES
  • Added option to not require an official's response after being removed from an assignment they had declined
  • Added option to email crew assignments to either officials or schools when assignments are published—for either new assignments or re-assignments. For the officials, this will be in addition to the "You have games" email and will be sent to the entire crew even if the option to require only the changed official to respond is selected
  • Rewrote statistics report to include several more game criteria and also made it more flexible
  • Added ability for assignors to waive quality violations so that flagged violations that are verified to be acceptable will not remain in the reported violations. Optionally show the officials contact info in a single game view to the paying school/team
  • Added optional feature to allow officials to turn back assignments after they had been accepted. This includes a cutoff specified in days where the system will no longer accept an online turnback
  • Added option to list an official’s history summary with each team in the game assignment interface
  • Optionally show the officials’ Social Security numbers in a single game view to the paying school/team—useful in areas where the schools pay the officials and require an SSN in order to do so
  • Optionally show the payor team/school to the officials
• FINANCES
  • Can specify whether the game count, if enabled, is used to calculate the game fee or should be ignored—normally the game count is multiplied with the calculated base fee to obtain the total base fee (Set under Admin -> Configuration, FINANCES -> Basic Adjustment Options)
  • Optionally enable a field that indicates that a particular game/assignment should not be invoiced
  • Added ability to specify finance overrides with the assignments before invoicing. These overrides can be specified as either absolute amounts in either dollars or percentages (e.g. =5 or =50 percent) or can be relative amounts (+5 or -25 percent). This can be used to apply fines or other atypical adjustments to be applied once the game is invoiced
  • Reorganized invoice layout for better printing
  • Added check # field for officials invoices
• AVAILABILITY
  • Added option for an official that is part of more than one organization to automatically mark dates as unavailable for selected other organizations when accepting games
  • Created compact report that shows availability for 2 weeks for all officials (1st to 15th or 16th to 31st).
  • Added ability for officials to include date specific comments
  • Added a per-date updated time to availability calendar data instead of per-month
• EMAIL
  • Added "Preview Recipients" function so that you can see who will be included with the currently selected options
• ADMIN MODES
  • Added ability, under advanced features, to restore admin functions once temporarily disabled without logging out
• CUSTOM PAGE CONTENT
  • Added new area on the left side of the page
  • Added ability to have multiple blocks in each area
  • Added options to control when the custom blocks are show—only on default page view or only if not in printable mode
  • Added options to control who can see the custom page elements (public, officials and/or schools)
• REGISTRATION
  • Removed restriction that required an email recipient for the registration form to be enabled. Now, it can be configured to operate without email and will store the pending registrations online only
  • Enhanced school/team contact registration to accept request for up to 4 roles at a time
  • Enhanced school/team contact registration to allow a logged in school/contact recipient to re-fill the form with additional requests for roles

Changes (8/15/2009–10/11/2009) 

·         Interactive Forms

o        New "Game Report" Category

§         Accessed from game schedule and automatically includes the game details

§         Can be used to repeat a list of questions for each official on game

§         Most existing evaluation form can be upgraded to this form type

o        Form Submission Archiving

§         All interactive forms are now captured and saved on RefTown, in addition to the normal emails

§         This can be disabled on a per-form basis under the normal form setup steps

§         The archived forms can be viewed by the submitter, administrators, anyone designated as a recipient, or the subject official if the subject officials are enable to receive copies of the submission

·         Game & Assignments

o        Added item in Schedules menu to go directly to game search function without loading any games

o        Added new games "Grid View"

§         Accessible from "QuickLinks" menu when viewing any set of games or from the "Game Search" form

§         Show all selected games in a grid: officials down the left side, dates across the top—only listing officials/dates with a game within the specified criteria

o        Driving Distance Feature improved to alert developer in the case of  a zip code that is not found in our database

o        Game Management

§         New Report—Scratch Conflicts …

§         Shows assignments for an official that conflicts with any scratched schools/team

§         Added an option to disallow officials from scratching themselves from schools/teams—restricting that option to assignors/admins

§         Added more details to the availability conflict, missing info, and odd date/time reports

o        Availability

§         New Report … Monthly Report

§         Shows a simple table of dates and officials for an entire month—lists what dates the official is working (with a link to the game) and what that official’s availability is for the selected month.