Organiser Nightmares

[Dee]

Another nightmare; sticking lables on prizes

[djberriman]

Just to give non organisers an idea of the issue.

I have just entered entries for Howsham Weir to date.

50% error rate, incorrect fee (2), no bib (1), card incorrect (6), no signature (1), illegible (1).

Two I will have to chase up with the paddler which will waste some time. One I can't as it is illegible.

Could I suggest next time we print cards we change Start No. to Bib as it seems to be confusing people.

[IDL]

Just to give non organisers an idea of the issue.

Could I suggest next time we print cards we change Start No. to Bib as it seems to be confusing people.

There's a lot that could be done to improve the entry cards, like making enough room to write the membership number and email address

[JimW]

Just to give non organisers an idea of the issue.

Could I suggest next time we print cards we change Start No. to Bib as it seems to be confusing people.

There's a lot that could be done to improve the entry cards, like making enough room to write the membership number and email address

I have a 4 digit membership but do stuggle to write my email small enough.

Might also be worth looking at orienting all the boxes the same way - I didn't spend long looking at making a template to print my own cards and I gave up when I couldn't work out how to get text boxes oriented 90 degrees to the page and display the text to read in the correct direction (I'm sure I have done it in the past, just didn't have enough time to play). Ignoring the printer width problems that perplex organisers from standardising it, I thought if I could at least work out something to print my own it would be a start....

[stevepearson]

Jim, i use sticky labels 21 per A4 page - these are just the right size to put all of the paddler information on and just right to fit on the entry card.

The Avery label code is L7160 & i'm happy to share the Word template


Drop me an email & i'll forward to anyone who requests it - stevepearson@dimensions.co.uk

[djberriman]

They should also be made a standard printer size (like DL) most printers are 'clever' these days and won't print on them as they are too small and the printers won't recognise them. Gone are the days it seems when you could just tell a printer to get on with it. Even designing a custom size doesn't appear to work as the printer driver just rejects it.

[Canadian Paddler]

One of the resistances to changing the size of the form is that many clubs at lower levels have purpose built frames to display the cards. Any change to the size will cause issues with these frames.

It would be interesting to know how many clubs this actually affects. Proteus, for example have moved away from the frame to blue (or white) tack on a flat surface. with results by class posted with the side.

It would be interesting to know which clubs still have a frame for cards, that would be affected by a change in size, or is this no longer an issue?

[Dee]

All of the Frames I've seen tend to be a ridge to support the base with "string" to hold the uppersection of the card. I haven't seen any with a specific width constraints. So, as long as the new size is a similar height, it shouldn't make a great deal of difference.

Our cards are 209mm x 77mm (I have a lot on my desk at the moment )

DL Size = 210mm x 99mm

So heights would work. The only real issue is that you'd fit fewer cards on any row and could therefore run out of room

[JimW]

The elephant in the room is that if the cards are increased to DL size to suit printing, they won't fit in a DL envelope for posting.
I think C5 will fit them for the same postage so it is not a massively costly change.

Where does DL = 210x99?
Every listing I see has 220x110.
If 210 x 99 is the printable area, you still have the issue that the printer will want to detect 220x110, so the cards would need to be that big to print, which is almost 1.5x the current width.

Maybe use oversized cards which can be guillotined to 77mm wide, but who is going to have time and a decent guillotine, and how many competitors are going to write tham by hand and stray outside of the boxes and have their details chopped in half....

Or, could we do perforated cards so the competitor can tear the margins off when printed, or before hand-writing? I should imagine perforating costs a bit?

[Dee]

Where does DL = 210x99?
Every listing I see has 220x110.

You are quite right It was lazy googling (picked up a site that was referring to printed docs)

If I go through the page size option on word I do get a size called "Nagagata 4" which is 90x205 and could therefore be ok, but I have no idea how widely supported this is?

Another one of my lazy googles tells me that a lot of main printer manufacturers give it a mention!

[JimW]

Quick check of the office printers reveals most of them have minimum width of 90mm for custom size, except the roll printer which has min width of 100mm (but it prints from 917mm wide rolls so not practical anyway).

However, checking the boss' printer over the VPN I notice it (Samsung CLX-3170) allows a minimum width of 76mm which should take an existing card.

None of them have a Nagagata 4 size pre-configured, although that may be why most allow 90mm minimum?

Obviously forcing all slalom organisers to buy the same printer is not on, but maybe you are onto something with making cards 90mm wide in future - increase in width would lose 1 in 7 per row when displaying, but all the regular printers on my office network would cope with it (many are from the same manufacturer, Ricoh) - you would need a bigger sample to see if 90 is generally useable. Now to go home and see what sizes my inkjet(s) support!