Officials Ranking Complier needed!
Posted: Wed Oct 05, 2022 3:20 pm
It is my intention to step down this year as the ranking complier for the Officials. We therefore need a volunteer to take on this role.
I thought it might help to give a rundown of what is involved as this is the only ranking list that is NOT computerised for reasons you will see below.
The points have to be done manually and I keep it all on an excel sheet which I will share with the next complier. It has 9 years' worth of info.
Briefly, once the results of a race have been published I print off a copy to work on. Hopefully, the organiser has recorded the division the competitor is currently ranked in as this makes the job so much easier. Often they do not. So, the first task is to check their ranking status and record on the working sheet. For anyone who has no ranking status, I have to decide which division to put them in and I do this in two ways. The first is to use their previous ranking status and the second is, if they have never been ranked, to decide where they would be if they were ranked. As we have two divisions in Officials (Prem/Div 1 and Div 2/3/4) this is usually not too hard. The main problem is often identifying a person. The organiser will not always record their full name but a nickname (bug bear of mine!). 'Grandpa' or 'Dave' is not helpful. If I cannot identify the person, I do not record any points for them. Once I have assigned a division I can then award the points and record on the excel sheet for each race. Often I need to check whether someone in Div 2 has been promoted into Div 1 and if they have, change their division on the excel sheet. I do not go back and change everyone's points in line with the promotion. Far too much work!
This process can take several hours a week if there are a lot of races held in one weekend or if you don't keep on top of it. Any person wishing to take this on would need to have a couple of hours a week spare to do this. Currently I don't have the time for personal reasons. I only send an updated ranking list to Nick every 4 to 6 weeks for publishing.
Automating this ranking list has been looked into a couple of times but no one can find a way to make it work when you have ex paddlers and leisure paddlers competing to support their clubs race. It may be the only time they come out and compete in a race. You can end the season with over 400 names on the list of Officials. Currently this year we have just over 200. Yes the numbers competing in an Officials race is falling.
If anyone is interested in taking this role on and would like more info, please feel free to contact me. Only too happy to go into it in more detail.
I thought it might help to give a rundown of what is involved as this is the only ranking list that is NOT computerised for reasons you will see below.
The points have to be done manually and I keep it all on an excel sheet which I will share with the next complier. It has 9 years' worth of info.
Briefly, once the results of a race have been published I print off a copy to work on. Hopefully, the organiser has recorded the division the competitor is currently ranked in as this makes the job so much easier. Often they do not. So, the first task is to check their ranking status and record on the working sheet. For anyone who has no ranking status, I have to decide which division to put them in and I do this in two ways. The first is to use their previous ranking status and the second is, if they have never been ranked, to decide where they would be if they were ranked. As we have two divisions in Officials (Prem/Div 1 and Div 2/3/4) this is usually not too hard. The main problem is often identifying a person. The organiser will not always record their full name but a nickname (bug bear of mine!). 'Grandpa' or 'Dave' is not helpful. If I cannot identify the person, I do not record any points for them. Once I have assigned a division I can then award the points and record on the excel sheet for each race. Often I need to check whether someone in Div 2 has been promoted into Div 1 and if they have, change their division on the excel sheet. I do not go back and change everyone's points in line with the promotion. Far too much work!
This process can take several hours a week if there are a lot of races held in one weekend or if you don't keep on top of it. Any person wishing to take this on would need to have a couple of hours a week spare to do this. Currently I don't have the time for personal reasons. I only send an updated ranking list to Nick every 4 to 6 weeks for publishing.
Automating this ranking list has been looked into a couple of times but no one can find a way to make it work when you have ex paddlers and leisure paddlers competing to support their clubs race. It may be the only time they come out and compete in a race. You can end the season with over 400 names on the list of Officials. Currently this year we have just over 200. Yes the numbers competing in an Officials race is falling.
If anyone is interested in taking this role on and would like more info, please feel free to contact me. Only too happy to go into it in more detail.