Referee availability form template

Eleven questions for a pre-season availability form, with the exact wording, answer type and settings for each, ready to rebuild in Google Forms or Microsoft Forms.

Exact wording for every question
Google Forms or Microsoft Forms
Feeds the free availability sheet

Published October 8, 2026

The 11 questions

Put them in this order: who they are, how to reach them, then dates, then everything else. The form asks for the dates an official can’t work, because most people have two or three and can list them quickly. How to collect referee availability explains that choice, when to send the form and how to keep the answers current.

Availability form questions, answer types and settings
#	Question	Answer type	Options and settings
1	Your full nameDescription: First and last name, as you gave it to us when you signed up to officiate.	Short answerRequired	The name has to match your roster, or the answer won’t line up with anything. If you go by a nickname on the roster, say which name to use.
2	Email address	Short answerRequired	Response validation: Text, Email address. Leave this out if you turn on “Collect email addresses” in the settings.
3	Mobile number for textsDescription: Leave blank if you don’t want game texts.	Short answerOptional	Response validation: Length, minimum 10 characters, which catches a missing digit without rejecting dashes or spaces.
4	How should we send you game assignments?	Multiple choiceRequired	Options: Text message / Email / Both. These map to sms, email and both in the preferred_channel column of the officials sheet.
5	Which of these dates can you NOT work at all?Description: Tick only the days you can’t work. If you can work part of a day, leave it unticked and tell us in the last question.	CheckboxesRequired	One option per game date, written as 2026-09-19 Sat, plus a last option: None - I can work all of them. Keep commas out of the options; the split step below breaks on them. Required, so a blank always means the official skipped the form.
6	When can you usually work?Description: Tick every time that usually works for you. You can change this later.	Checkbox gridOptional	Rows: the days you schedule games, e.g. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, weeknights. Columns: Morning (before 12), Afternoon (12–5), Evening (after 5). Leave Required off: on a grid it means an answer in every row.
7	Which divisions and positions will you work?Description: Tick each division and position you’re willing to take.	Checkbox gridOptional	Rows: your divisions (U10, U12 Girls, 14U, JV…). Columns: your positions (Center, AR; Plate, Base; Referee). What someone will take can differ from what they are certified for. Leave Required off, as above.
8	What is the most games you want?	Multiple choice gridOptional	Rows: In one day / In one week. Columns: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or more. The answer is your ceiling for each official, so you don’t over-assign the willing ones.
9	Which venues will you travel to?	CheckboxesRequired	One option per venue, plus Any of them. Venue names usually work better than miles, because people know the drive.
10	Do you officiate for any other league, club or assignor this season? If so, which, and which days do they usually use you?Description: We ask so we don’t book you for two games at once.	ParagraphOptional	You can’t see their schedule, and they can’t see yours. This tells you which officials to check with before you give them a game on a day their other league plays.
11	Anything else we should know?Description: Part days (e.g. “Sept 26: free after 1pm”), people you carpool with, anything the questions above missed.	ParagraphOptional	The one free-text box. Keep it last, so dates, travel and levels go in their own questions first.

The form description

The description sits under the form title, and it is where the deadline goes. Say what happens to anyone who doesn’t answer.

Form description

Please answer by [DEADLINE DAY AND DATE]. It takes a few minutes.

After that, I'll assign games from the answers I have. If I haven't heard from you, I'll assume [YOU'RE AVAILABLE ON EVERY DATE / YOU'RE NOT AVAILABLE].

If something changes later in the season, email or text me at [YOUR CONTACT].

Building it in Google Forms

1. Start a blank form
Go to forms.google.com, start a blank form, and give it a title officials will recognize, such as “[League] fall 2026 officials availability”. Paste the description above under the title.
2. Add the questions
For each question, choose the answer type from the menu at the top right of the question, type the wording and options, and set the Required switch at the bottom. Descriptions under a question and response validation are in the three-dot menu at the bottom right of the question.
3. Add response validation
On the email question, choose Text, then Email address. On the mobile number, choose Length, then Minimum character count, 10. Add a short error message for each, such as “Please check the number.”
4. Check the settings
Under Settings, then Responses: if you turn on Collect email addresses, choose Responder input so officials without a Google account can answer (Verified asks them to sign in), and delete question 2. Turn on Allow response editing, so an official can correct an answer instead of sending a second one. Leave “Limit to 1 response” off; it also requires a Google sign-in.
5. Link the responses to a spreadsheet
On the Responses tab, choose Link to Sheetsand create a new spreadsheet. Each answer arrives as a row on a tab named “Form Responses 1”, with a Timestamp in column A and one column per question in the order you built them.
6. Send it, then close it
Send the link from the Send button, using the availability request from the message templates. After the deadline, turn off Accepting responses on the Responses tab, or leave it on if you want late changes to arrive in the same sheet.

Building it in Microsoft Forms

The same questions work in Microsoft Forms at forms.office.com, with two differences in answer types.

Choice covers both multiple choice and checkboxes: turn on Multiple answers for the checkbox questions. Text covers short answer and paragraph: turn on Long answer for the paragraph questions.
There is no checkbox grid.Use a Choice question with multiple answers for questions 6 and 7, with options such as “Saturday morning”, “Saturday afternoon” or “U12 Girls, AR”. For question 8, use two Choice questions, one for a day and one for a week.
Set Who can fill out this form to Anyone can respond, or officials outside your organization’s Microsoft account can’t answer.
Responses can be opened in Excel from the Responses tab. The settings also take an end date, which closes the form at your deadline.

Microsoft Forms joins multiple answers with semicolons rather than commas, which matters for the split step in the next section.

Turning responses into the availability sheet

The form gives you one row per official, with every date they can’t work in one cell. The availability sheet in the free spreadsheet template wants one row per official per date, so you can filter by date. Both Google Sheets and Excel can do the conversion with built-in menus, on a copy of the responses:

Split the dates into columns
Copy the timestamp, name and can’t-work columns to a new tab. Select the dates column and split it on the comma: in Google Sheets, Data → Split text to columns; in Excel, Data → Text to Columns, delimited by comma. Microsoft Forms separates choices with a semicolon, so split on that instead.
Turn each official’s dates into rows
Copy one official’s row of dates, then paste it into the date column of the availability sheet with Paste special → Transpose, so each date lands on its own row. Fill their name and the response date down beside them, and move to the next official.

Then:

1. Fill in the status
Every row you have made is a date the official can’t work, so set status to unavailable on each, and use the response date as updated_on.
2. Add the part days by hand
Read the last question’s answers and add a row for each part day, with earliest_start or latest_end filled in.
3. Put the weekly pattern and limits on the officials sheet
Usual days and times, divisions, the game ceiling, venues and other leagues apply all season. They go in the notes column of the officials sheet, not on 26 dated rows.
4. Keep the response list
The template’s rule is that no row means unknown. With this form, everyone in the responses tab has answered for every date, so a date they didn’t tick means available. Someone missing from the responses is still unknown.

Check it once

Before you assign from it, compare three or four officials’ rows with their original responses. A date option typed in a different format, or with a comma in it, is the usual reason a row goes missing.

Where Ref Grid fits

Ref Grid stores a general weekly pattern, not dates. You send each official a link to their profile by text or email, with no account or password. They set the days they prefer to work, whether mornings, afternoons or evenings suit them, the divisions they want, and a note. The link works for 30 days, and you can send a new one any time.

The roster shows each official’s answers with the date they last confirmed them. The pattern is a guide while you assign. It isn’t shown in the assignment picker, doesn’t filter who you can pick, and never blocks an assignment. There are no blackout dates and no import for a dated sheet, so a form like this one is still how you collect the dates people can’t work. Question 6, and the divisions in question 7, overlap with the profile, so you can drop them if your officials keep their profiles current.

Questions 1 to 4 give you the name, email, phone and preferred channel that Ref Grid’s officials import reads. The officials sheet in the free template uses the same column names; write the channel as sms, email or both.