Ontario masters are pacesetters: They pay meet directors!
Doug Smith, the Ontario masters track czar, says in his latest newsletter to members: “The Ontario Masters are looking for a candidate that we can groom as our track & field meet director. For now, the job would entail wrangling the appropriate officials and volunteers for the events, and supervising the actual meet. We are offering generous financial compensation. Please let me know if you might be interested in that position. The Indoor season is pretty well covered – so we’d be looking at the Outdoor Championship in June to get your feet wet.” Uhm, did you catch that key phrase? We are offering generous financial compensation. What a concept! The most thankless, onerous job in masters track — being remunerated in real cash money! So how are U.S. meet directors compensated? Seems that we could grow our sport faster by finding ways to grow some meet directors. Pay would help.
4 Responses
At the Texas Masters Championships last July the Dallas Masters Track and Field Club was able to pay all of the officials $20 in expense money. We have a great group of officials, the Southwestern Association, who do a great job. Lester Mount and I do not get anything and wouldn’t accept anything for being meet directors. It’s what we do as a labor of love for our sport and our club.
Officials in recreational softball, baseball, and basketball usually get paid for their efforts. We have a tradition of free labor in track and field; maybe we should change our paradigm. It would make the sport more expensive but it might actually help vitalize the sport. However, this could be a tough sell in these economically tough times.
Tom you are dead on about officials in other recreational sports. I know in my area softball umpires can make from $23/game for slowpitch to up to $40+/game for fastpitch.
Meet entry fees would probably have to be increased for this to happen in track.
I wrote to Doug Smith, asking about how much the meet director would be paid and from what source. He replied:
We’ve had a Meet Director fee of up to $300 in the past. The funds either comes out of the entry fees, or, if a separate group hosts the meet, from the association budget. We cover the expenses of the Officials as well. While all of us are volunteers, and spend countless hours working to better our sport, we feel a small honourarium is appropriate for the amount of work a Meet Director has to put in for a Championship meet.
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