Yes, conflicts are frustrating, but the way you've phrased it some important details on how these two were brought on board are unclear. This sounds like a last minute thing. Is it a case of "I can do this, but I'm already committed to this..." because it's later in the process (you're already in rehearsal for this show, yes?), and they were approached to see if they could lend a hand because they already have a relationship with the theatre? Because that's a different thing than if they were brought onto the process in advance. The question for you comes down to how badly do you need an ASM. If you really need one, and these 2 are your only options, there are ways to work around their conflicts (and this is assuming that the conflicts are unchangeable). They could both perform the same track...if one of them has a conflict for tech, the other could take it through tech and then be shadowed... There are a lot of options for dealing with a less than optimal situation like this. I would love to know more about the details.