New Horizon Experience. This article describes the New Horizon Experience, which is available now. In the Horizon WebRef mobile apps for Android and iOS, New Horizon is already what you see. On a computer or laptop you see it when you are in New Horizon. If you still have the older layout, choose Try the New Horizon Experience from the banner or your account menu. You can switch back from that menu any time.
Secret positions are a Game Structure setting. Organization administrators turn them on when they add or edit a position. Schedulers then assign someone to that role the same way they assign any other crew member. The difference is who can see the name.
Open Game Structure from the organization administration area. Officials, coaches, athletic directors, League Personnel, and location personnel do not configure positions. Use this article when you want a supervisor, observer, or other organization staff member at a game without tipping off the officials who are working it.
If you are looking for the public game list, see Public Game Schedule. To build leagues, game codes, and everyday positions, see How to set up Game Structure.
What a secret position does
A secret position is a regular assignment slot with one extra rule: Horizon hides the person on that role from partners and from most member views. Schedulers still see the assignment on the Master Game Schedule and in the assign window. The person who received the secret assignment can see their own game. Everyone else on the crew does not.
Organizations use this most often for supervisors and observers. You can also use it for other staff you want at the site without announcing them. The officials working the game should not learn from Horizon that that person is coming.
The English switch is Secretly assign this position. It lives under Advanced settings on the position form. When the switch is on, the Game Structure list shows a small eye-off icon next to that position. The tip on the switch says people assigned here are hidden from partners and most views, and remain visible mainly to schedulers.
Turning the switch on is not the same as deleting the position. Schedulers can still choose it when they assign. Horizon does ask you to confirm, because the role then stays off normal member views. The confirm wording is Secret positions are hidden from normal selection. Confirm that this is intended.
Who can see a secret assignment
Schedulers see secret assignments wherever they already manage crew: the Master Game Schedule, the assign window, and exports they are allowed to run. If a scheduler opens the signed-in Public Schedule and official names are allowed there, they can still see those hidden names, because they already see them on the Master Game Schedule.
The person assigned to the secret position can see that assignment on their own Personal Game Schedule. They see their own name. They do not see other secret assignments on the same game unless those assignments are also theirs.
Other officials on the game do not see the secret name in the crew list, in partner emails, or in most calendar copies of the game. Coaches, athletic directors, League Personnel, and location personnel do not see it on Team Schedule or on the signed-in Public Schedule.
Visitors who open the schedule on your website never see official names at all, secret or not. That website view stays name-free.
Public Schedule and staffing counts
Secret positions do not show as names on the Public Schedule. That is true for officials, coaches, and other members who are not schedulers, and it is true on the older legacy desktop or laptop layout as well.
There is one number to watch. If Official Names on Public Schedule (Feature #22) is set to Show count only, the staffing count can still include a secret assignment. Members see how many people are scheduled, not who they are and not the secret position name. If you need that count to match only the visible crew, keep secret roles out of Needed per game or use Show names / Hide names instead of a count.
A related setting, Include assignments in the game counter, is separate. Many organizations turn that counter off for supervisors and observers so those assignments do not add to each person's running game total. Secret hide and the game counter are two different switches.
How to turn it on
Only organization administrators who can change Game Structure can turn a position into a secret position. Open Game Structure.
On a computer, the same screen uses the wider layout.
Open the League, then the Game Code, then tap or click the position name you want to hide. To create a new role, choose Add Position and fill in the position name and how many people are needed per game.
On the position form, open Advanced settings. Turn on Secretly assign this position. Horizon asks you to confirm. After you confirm and save, the short message says Position saved. The same window and switch appear on a phone and on a computer.
You can also mark a position secret when you import positions. The spreadsheet column is Secret. Use Y or N. See how to import positions from a spreadsheet. Copy positions copies this switch with the rest of the position settings.
How to assign someone in secret
After the position is marked secret, assign as you normally would from the Master Game Schedule. Pick the secret position, choose the supervisor, observer, or staff member, and save. Publish when you are ready for that person to see their own assignment.
The other officials on the game do not get a partner email that names the secret person. They also do not see that name when they open the game. The person you assigned still gets their usual assignment notice for their own game.
If you later turn Secretly assign this position off and save, Horizon treats the role as a normal position again. Current and future assignments to it can then appear on the views that were hiding them. Turn the switch back on if you still need those people hidden.
Helpful reminders
Secret hide is not a substitute for publishing. Unpublished games still follow your usual publish rules. Secret hide is also not the same as making a league skip the public schedule. That league checkbox is Show on public schedule on the league form.
Ratings between partners skip secret positions. If you want a supervisor to rate the crew, or the crew to rate a supervisor, that usually needs a normal (not secret) position that allows ratings.
If officials can already see a supervisor on the Public Schedule, the position is not marked secret, or a scheduler is the person looking at the list.
If you still see the older layout
On a computer or laptop, the older legacy layout stays until you choose Try the New Horizon Experience from the banner or your account menu. This article describes the New Horizon screen. Until that older layout is retired, use the English words you see there.
On that older layout, positions live under Administrative Forms, then Assignor Forms, then Add/Edit/Remove Official Positions. Open the position in the League and Game Code tree. The switch is labeled Secretly Assign this Position. The help text there says anyone assigned to the position is hidden from everyone except schedulers, and that organizations use it for supervisors or observers so the officials working the game are not tipped off.
Mass edit on that older positions page can change the same hide setting across many rows at once. New Horizon edits one position at a time from Game Structure, or uses Import positions or Copy positions for a batch.