I was hoping we could discuss this to possibly make things easier for the clubs hosting postal meets.
I noticed that US Swimming doesn't have a postal meet anymore, but rather an internet meet. You email your results to the meet host in Hy-Tek format.
I suspect that at least some of the postal meet hosts are already using Hy Tek to put the results together. So they receive our results, and then type them in in hy tek format.
It is my understanding that the hy tek format is an open standard and I seem to remember discussion some time ago that a few members had made utilities that would make output files in hy tek format. Also, hy tek has team manager lite for free download and I believe it was made for purposes very much like this one. But either way we have options.
So in that regard I'd like to see us go to an internet meet model. Where the local coach if he chooses, can email the results into the host club. since we now have online sign up, perhaps it could go together. Do the online sign up and attach your file with it. If you want to smail it in the old way, you'd still be able to do so.
Thought I'd put it out there.
Oh, I still say that online USMS registration is an opportunity we are missing big time. I can register for US Cycling Federaton, USA Triathlon and Road Runners Club of America all online. In the case of USA T and USCF, the liability coverage is the same, if electronic signatures fly for that, seems like it would fly for USMS.
Kevin
You'll note I said that we can give the option to send results in hy tek format. No need to mandate it be sent that way.
Not sure what work you are talking about but it seems you are thinking of registration. The current LMSC registrars would still handle registration. I was president of a triathlon club that switched from paper to online registrations and the workload is much, much less. I forwarded the waiver that the members need to click through to register and every week I get an excel file with the data on all the members. Once a month we get a check for the money collected less the processing fee to the registration company.
It vastly increased our membership and made adminstration of the club much easier. The value is shown by the fact that we already have online registration for some meets.
Couple of points:
(1) The Hy-Tek native formats are not open formats, technically. The USA Swimming SDIF format is an open published format. The Hy-Tek CL2 format is a close derivative of SDIF, but it is not an open standard -- they will not publish the format, though I've asked them to many times. The Hy-Tek HYV format is also officially a closed format. (It's not rocket science to figure out what the format is -- but it's not officially an open format.)
(2) USMS is missing the boat _big_ time without adopting an electronic signatures procedure. For USMS nationals, you still need to sign a piece of paper somewhere when you show up as a release waiver. For the One Hour Swim, you still need to sign your sheet to send it in. We could make life so much easier if we adopted electronic signatures.
I know many states have pretty good electronic signature laws in place. When I asked about this earlier, I was told that the USMS insurance coverage didn't like the electronic signatures. I wish people would start to clammor for this at the convention.
-Rick
So I stand corrected on the format.
On the issue of insurance and signatures, I mention the other federations specifically because USAT's insurance carrier, which does virtually the same thing, seems to allow it. as does the USCF carrier.
I realize that this doesn't mean that USMS' carrier will, but at least the precedent has ben set.
There ra emany folks in the triathlon world who think that the explosive growth of the organization in the past four years (nearly 100%) has been due in large part to online entry. I'd like to see the same thing happen with USMS.
Not all members have access to the internet. Also, who woudl be in charge of doing the work necessary. I think that US Cycling & USA Tri have staffs who do some of the work (I'm not sure).
This is in the process of being address. The quote below is from the February 21st Executive Committee conference call.
"8. ELECTRONIC SIGNATURES: The issues surrounding electronic signatures must be resolved as we approach online registration. The question of “How can you prove the person agreed to the waiver?” needs to be answered. Lynn and Patty agreed to check with various companies that handle online registrations to see how they maintain records of agreement to the waiver. Patty will check with our insurance representative, Sandi Blumit. More research needs to be done by looking into other corporations."
There was also an item in the minutes mentioning that progress is being made on offering postal events online by the Long Distance Committee.
