1. Referees/ Assignors/ State Referee Committees
What you need to know

2. Here are the questions I was asked to answer
How do we get more referees/how do we get better referees?
how can we tell if a referee is really registered and can officially officiate our local matches? 
What about assignors?  Can leagues have their own?  What are the requirements?
Insurance implications of rule modifications
How to deal with referee registrations along state borders?
Okay – I’ll try to answer those – anything we need to add to the list?

3. How do we get more referees/how do we get better referees?
Work with your State Referee Administrator/State Referee Committee.
If that doesn’t work it may be time to consider a change in  how you do things (may mean a change in  assignors, new referee recruitment tactics, an increase in referee pay, scheduling changes, etc.) 

4. Bottom line
Referees are independent Contractors – if your league pays $300 per game you will have no problem getting referees, if you pay $3 per game it’s going to be much harder…

5. how can we tell if a referee is really registered and can officially officiate our local matches?
All USSF Registered assignors should have access to the current dB of referees in your state – if they do not – you should take it up with your state association and/or State Referee Committee. The current dB is really the only definitive way to tell if a referee is registered.

6. What about assignors. Can leagues have their own
What about assignors?  Can leagues have their own?  What are the requirements?
The only requirement is to be currently registered as a USSF assignor – Your SRC should be able to get anyone you want as your assignor through the course and registered. The short answer is your league can use ANY USSF registered assignor – which includes someone outside your state… But local “politics” can be more challenging – discussion? Oregon has an excellent policy document regarding referees and assignors that you can find on their website:
All assignors are Grade #8
The LAC’s have now been called National Assignors

7. What about insurance?
A note from Oregon’s former SRA summarizes the insurance situation nicely: “Page 3 of the USSF edition of The Laws of the Game lists a number of modifications that can be made to the Laws of the Game for young, old and/or female players. A number of leagues and tournaments modify the Laws for their games in their rules of competition. Some of these modifications are listed on that page and some are not. The "legality" of these modifications, however, is not up to the referee. If the league/tournament is sanctioned by USSF or an affiliated organization (e.g. Oregon Adult Soccer Association, Oregon Youth Soccer Association, US Club Soccer), then the competition in that league/tournament is legal. Referees have USSF liability insurance coverage while doing those games and the games may be counted for referee upgrade purposes. USSF assignors are required by the USSF code of conduct for assignors to inform referees when the games they are offering to the referees are not USSF affiliated games. The referee is responsible for enforcement of the league/tournament's rules of competition, including those provisions modifying the Laws of the Game, even if the referee doesn't like and/or agree with the modification. This specifically includes, but is not limited to, checking player passes before the game. Referees, as independent contractors, are always free to not accept assignments, including any time that they do not want to do games played under rules of competition with which they do not agree.” Patrick Duffy Oregon SRA

8. How to deal with referee registrations along state borders?
We already have another topic for next year: How to deal with referee registrations along state borders? This came up via a recent back and forth with OR and WA, which I can explain over the beer that you’ll be buying me. Bottom line is that USSF doesn’t allow for this, so if, for example, I live in Vancouver and register in OR, then I won’t show up in the WA referee database and assignors in southwest WA won’t know about me. If I register in WA, then the reverse is true and OR assignors won’t know about me. That’s totally stupid. Can we get USSF to change? Knowing that the answer is “no”, are there any reasonable workarounds?

9. Your Questions?