Rule(s) against arbiter being a player?

[MichaelBaron]

I am curious to know statistically: In Australia, how many of the small clubs (that are having 10-15 players) have non-playing arbiters for their events and how many are having the playing ones?

[Kevin Bonham]

Tasmanian club events and weekenders pretty much always have playing arbiters. It's too much cut out of small (or for club events zero) prize pools to pay an arbiter a fee, and generally unrealistic to expect someone to give up playing to be an arbiter for nothing given we have only a few weekenders a year.

Usual practice for weekenders is that the playing DOP is not also an arbiter, and we appoint one chief arbiter and two assistants.

[Shaun94]

I think for general club nights or small tournaments (under 30 or so) you can often get away with a playing arbiter if there is no other option.

Caq brought in the rule more so for large scale weekenders (50+) to have ratios and non playing arbiters to ensure the events run well. This is for acf rated or caq endorsed events.

As a guide the QLD Reserves this weekend will have a maximum of 108 players and 4 arbiters. This ensures any issues are dealt with immediately and there is adequate supervision of games throughout the tournament (noise etc. All easily managed).

This may be one of the reasons many interstate players enjoy participating in The Gold Coast Open, it is run very professionally and staffed to a high level for an international event. Do I think that level of staffing etc is necessary for a club nights or micro weekender? Probably not but it all depends what you're going for.

[Desmond]

I think for general club nights or small tournaments (under 30 or so) you can often get away with a playing arbiter if there is no other option.

Caq brought in the rule more so for large scale weekenders (50+) to have ratios and non playing arbiters to ensure the events run well. This is for acf rated or caq endorsed events.

As a guide the QLD Reserves this weekend will have a maximum of 108 players and 4 arbiters. This ensures any issues are dealt with immediately and there is adequate supervision of games throughout the tournament (noise etc. All easily managed).

This may be one of the reasons many interstate players enjoy participating in The Gold Coast Open, it is run very professionally and staffed to a high level for an international event. Do I think that level of staffing etc is necessary for a club nights or micro weekender? Probably not but it all depends what you're going for.

I think it's good to have these guidelines published by the state association, which ensure that the events are well supervised. It's very frustrating if you have an issue and can't find an arbiter who is available.