Vetting a new manager - How?

[SuperMario]

(I realize this may be a post that should live in the classifieds, but it's not intended to recruit a replacement. The primary goal of this post is to obtain some feedback and/or advice. If a replacement is found through this post it's a bonus.)

So the 14 team league in my sig has had one of our managers abandon the league due to some (petty) issues involving another manager in the league - no interest in getting into it.

However, he was a replacement manager we brought on mid-season to replace an inactive manager. Essentially, this team will be looking for its 3 manager in a year. We, as a league, are tired of replacing and are hoping to find a long-term guy. Several in the league have friends that are interested - but the manager that abandoned was also a friend. So that's clearly not a guarantee of anything.

One manager suggested we put together a mini "interview" of sorts for any potential new managers looking to take over, which I thought was a good idea, but am still not sure what kind of questions / test should be presented to candidates.

Does anyone here have any advice on how they've vetted new managers for leagues? We're 13 active managers that take our league seriously and are constantly chatting about hockey with each other - we consider ourselves a Fantasy Hockey Community, not just a league.

[lucafen4]

Make them submit a resume/synopsis of their previous fantasy experience. I find this works well, I sold mysef to two leagues his way.

Not sure they love me, but I'm active as hell

[evans334]

Past experience and league types
- helps you understand if their tastes fit your league

Active in how many leagues currently and in the past few years
- helps you identify if they have bounced around a lot before or have too many leagues on the go

Ask them what they think of the team they are inheritting and what type of approach they plan to take with it.
- good to level set what thier expectations are and how they may fit in with the existing managers.

[Eskimo Brother]

Not too many points past what the others said.
Maybe you could ask for a link to pages of other leagues they are in to get a sense of how committed/active they are, as well as their style.

[Rodgort]

Get them to send nudes too

[GinFizz]

Yeah dick pics works well. If it's small they will probably be a good GM. If it's too big they will be too busy working that thang and forget to set their lineup. You could then fine tune it by cut or uncut.
good luck

[ericdaoust]

Whenever possible have it be someone that knows at least one of the other owners in the league. That way you have some real feedback. The resume/interview method has rarely worked out for me over the years. They all sound great in messages but when they take over suddenly they must rebuild and their best players get traded for random youth.

[StuntMan12]

I would get them to send a fantasy hockey resume. Most leagues I join ill send a paragraph or two of my past experience. That I started fantasy hockey in 2003. Id ask them how committed they are ect. I once applied to a league but never got a response. All good though

[yougo]

Saturday with a 24 pack of beer and a full slate of hockey games.

[Atomic Wedgy]

Apart from the ideas above which are good ones... what about asking potential GMs for two prospect reports on players that have not been drafted yet? This would really separate the casual fantasy hockey player from the guy who is likely to be quite active. Get him to comment on why they would be a good pick for your league set up in the scout report.

You could also ask them to analyze a couple trades in the context of the rules of your league. This would also show you the thought process, which would in turn show how committed the guy is to fantasy hockey.

Downside is he thinks yer ****ing nuts for asking this of a guy before joining your league and ... he might be right.

[Moses]

Spitballing without a great deal of though behind it.....

I'd give them three (made up) rosters and have them lay out a plan on what they would do as a GM with each team. You should get an idea really quickly as to where their fantasy mind is.

[Axeman33]

Obviously finding someone you know helps because you probably have an idea how much fantasy hockey he plays or at least, how much hockey he follows.

If you don't know them, ask the simple questions about his fantasy experience. I guess you could call it a resume. Get him to rank (in his opinion) the prospects on the roster he's taking over. That should give you a rough idea of his prospect knowledge or at least where he values certain ones. I know some of us value certain prospects more than others but it's a rough estimate here.

Unfortunately, there's no proven method of determining who's a good GM coming in and who will be a dough-head if you don't know them.

I know one thing, I have never been asked to write an essay to join a fantasy league and there's no way in hell I would put that much effort into a free league. You might scare away good candidates doing that. Fantasy hockey is supposed to be fun and that sounds way too much like work to me.

[butch]

its still a crapshoot even if the recruit seems legit via their interest level shown to join.

one of the best gm's I've recruited was found on an audio/video themed message board that had an off-topic sub forum in which I took a shot in the dark / posted league opening.

sixteen years later he's still in my leagues.

my point being , you never know where and when you'll find that gem .

[SuperMario]

To clarify it's a $50 entry per year. Hence why we want someone good.

What we ended up doing was asking their fantasy hockey experience, what they see as a first plan for the available foster, and analyzing a trade we had in the league involving McDavid, Seguin, Gibson, Bobrovsky ++++++

No peter pictures required.... lol

[Axeman33]

I'd like to think that if someone is willing to put up money to enter a fantasy hockey league, they probably have a clue on fantasy hockey. Most don't like to just throw money away.

It's the free leagues that I worry about recruiting the wrong guys.