In the platform, each game is assigned an Age Group.
Age Groups can be configured under Maintenance / Ages & Fees.
The platform uses Age Groups in several ways.
1. Officials' Abilities.
Using the Ability feature, each official can be considered 'qualified' to work specific Age Groups, or not.
2. Officials' Ages.
Some organizations require that officials be of a certain age, to work games of specific Age Groups. For example, perhaps a referee must be at least 18 years old, in order to work an Under 16 Age Group.
Because of this, when setting up an Age Group, you'll notice an option to enter a Minimum Age of Assigned Official. Assuming you include officials' birthdates in their profile, if you try to assign an official that is too young to work a game, you'll see an A conflict code in the assigning dropdown.
3. Game Start & End Times.
Each Age Group has a Game Length assigned to it (in minutes). The platform uses this value to determine when a game ends.
If the game length of an Age Group is set up correctly, the platform can help prevent an official from being assigned to overlapping games on the same day.
4. Game Fees.
Each Age Group can have different Game Fees associated with it.
When a game is assigned to an Age Group, the game inherits the Game Fees from that Age Group.
This means that games with similar fee structures for officials should be assigned to the same Age Group.
The Default Fees used for each game are derived from the setup of that game's Age Group.
💡 When adding games to the system, you do have the option to override the Age Group's default fees if you'd like. Learn more about setting up Game Fees here.