My name is Brian Wood and I am the head assignor for Minnesota Elite Assigning; I am assisted by my brother, Eric Wood. We have recently agreed to become the new assignors for MapleBrook Soccer Club. Most of you are familiar with the GameOfficials assigning platform, but we use ArbiterSports for assigning our matches. If you don't already have an account with us there, I have included instructions below on how to register with us.

For those of you new to the system, Arbiter sends you an email whenever I assign you to a new game so you need to log into Arbiter to accept or decline the game(s). The default time frame to accept the game(s) is 5 days. I will be posting instructions next week on how to enter game scores/misconduct for the MYSA and TCSL leagues, respectively. There is also a Google Form to fill out that asks about your preferred position, age level, and a few other things so that I am assigning you to games that you are comfortable doing.

We are once again experiencing a referee shortage so please be aware that there may be games where you will not have full crews. In these instances, you may recruit a spectator, preferably an adult, to act as a club linesman. Please be reminded that the only thing they are allowed to assist with is whether the ball is in or out of play; they are not allowed to call fouls, offside, or indicate a direction for restarts (throw-ins, goal kick/corner kick). If you choose to forgo using one, that is fine as well.

One of our focuses at Minnesota Elite Assigning is mentoring officials of all abilities and experience. We believe that this is a crucial aspect of training and developing referees so that the experience is a positive one. The retention of new referees is crucial to the success of the whole pool of referees in our state as it increases the overall experience of our referee body. This, we believe, can be accomplished by mentoring all referees regardless of their current skill set and experience so that better outcomes are realized on the field. We are striving to have more mentors available for everyone as the State Referee Committee certified mentors this year for the first time in two years due to the pandemic. If you would like to request a mentor to come to a specific game of yours, please click here and fill out the form and we will do our best to schedule someone to come out and observe you.

Registration:

Click here, select the competitions you want to sign up for, and then click "Register". This will take you through the steps to make an account with us on ArbiterSports.com, which is the software we use to assign games. After completing the registration process, please log into your account under our name (MN Elite LLC) and click on the "Main" tab. Next, click the checkbox that says "Ready To Be Assigned" next to it so that your name shows up when we assign games. 

Availability:

The system that we use on Arbiter automatically assumes that you are available for a given date unless you tell it otherwise. Below you will find instructions on how to set up availability on the Arbiter website as well as the app that is available to download for free on the AppStore or Google Play.

For help on how to set up your availability using the Arbiter website, click here for detailed instructions. 

To set availability on the mobile app, first download it (search for ArbiterMobile). Next, log into the app using your account information. Click on the three horizontal bars icon in the upper left-hand corner and then select "Schedule". This will bring up a calendar with blue dots representing game assignments and red dots representing blocks. Click on the box that corresponds to the date that you want to block and then click on the plus sign in the upper right-hand corner. You will then have the option to set the block for all day or part day, repeat the block if you are attempting to block multiple dates at once, and what groups on Arbiter you want the block to apply to. Once you have the necessary selections made, click the green check mark at the bottom of the page and your availability will be updated.

You can also set up blocks for the distance you are willing to travel to games as well as teams that you might have a conflict of interest with. Instructions on how to do so can be found by clicking here.

Self-Assign:

All of our U9 through U12 youth games as well as all lower-level high school games are available via the Self-Assign feature on Arbiter. Instructions on how to access the games, as well as how to search the list of open games, can be found by clicking here.

If you have any questions with any of the steps, please let us know. Thanks.

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Brian Wood

Head Assignor, Minnesota Elite Assigning

[email protected]

USSF Referee Mentor/Instructor

(763) 234-9368 - cell phone #