Trial Secretary

From BayTeam

This is a rough text-only first pass at detailed instructions for being a show secretary. Written primarily by Karey Krauter, 2/16/00 (with addendums by Ellen); list of reports by Ellen Finch 4/3/00. Converted to wiki format 10/5/07.

Contents 1 Job summary 2 Trial Secretarying responsibilities 2.1 Step one: Database 2.2 Step two: enter the entries 2.3 Step three: Closing date 2.4 Step four: Confirmations 2.5 Step five: Scribe sheets 2.6 Step six: Catalog 2.7 Step seven: Friday night before the trial 2.8 Step seven-and-a-half 2.9 Step eight: Saturday morning checkin 2.10 Step nine: Throughout the day-of 2.11 Step ten: Saturday night moveups 2.12 Step eleven: Sunday morning 2.13 Step twelve: Result 3 Who gets what when 3.1 At any time 3.2 Closing date 3.3 A week after closing 3.4 Last move-up date 3.5 Last day before your printer needs a catalog master to print copies 3.6 Day before trial, maybe 2 days before 3.7 After the event, if you're doing online scoring

[edit] Job summary

Produce premium. Enter competitors' entry forms into database. Produce all paperwork for the trial (catalog, scribe sheets, gate sheets, etc.). Set up score table boxes with paperwork. Do move-ups if allowed on Saturday evening. After the trial, double-check and send results to sanctioning organization.

[edit] Trial Secretarying responsibilities

[edit] Step one: Database

Get the updated database from the last person to own it.

[edit] Step two: enter the entries

This includes of course human info, dog info, jump heights and classes entered, etc., lunch info, AND WORKER INFO. We gotta have worker info for lunch computations.

Some things to look for:

• NADAC says do NOT accept pending entries from Open & Elite.
• If jump height doesn't appear correct for the dog's withers height, call the competitor! They won't call you back even if you put a note on the confirmation, then you'll be making changes the morning of the trial.
• If they say they want a lunch but don't specify which, *don't* assume; should really have a lunch category of "unspecified." Or call them.
• If they say they'll work but don't specify a lunch, don't assume they don't want one. Call or list as "unspecified." (The Lunch Gurus use all this uncertain info in their calculations.)

Note on phone expenses: You can get reimbursement from the Club for any phone expenses.

[edit] Step three: Closing date

Right away, make hardcopies of the summaries of entry stats for Lunch Guru for lunches, and for our chief ring stews. Also, go copy all of the can-you-help forms (not needed if the database prints the info & you've double-checked it). The packages put together last time for the chief stew's of each ring were WONDERful: do that again. Lunch Guru needs the following for lunch:

• how many people (not dogs) are signed up to work *each day*
• how many people (not dogs) total are entered *each day*
• how many workers signed up for lunch
• how many people total signed up for lunch
• who signed up for what type of lunch.
• a list of all the people that we know are coming (to help) but aren't entered (this involves some guesstimating sometimes, based on us knowing that if so-and-so is coming then she always brings her daughter, for example, altho most people do note on their entry if they're bringing a buddy to help.)

[edit] Step four: Confirmations

Within a couple days of closing date, have a confirmations party. We have multiple experiences now with confirmations that go out _two_ weeks before the trial result in more corrections in advance. I'd like to provide you the general confirmation info letter again, if you don't mind. It'll look a lot like last time's.

Note: Part of this step of course is to deal with corrections that people get back to you.

[edit] Step five: Scribe sheets

Early in the last week before the trial, have a scribe sheets party; do saturday's AND sunday's. Karey likes labels on pre-printed blank sheets, Ellen likes pre-printing the info right on the sheets; anything's fine with me. We can use my duplication service if you want piles of pre-cut blanks, if you like.

Note: if entry changes/corrections come in after the scribe sheets are made, that you have to delve into the scribe sheets to make the change, as well as update the computer!!!

[edit] Step six: Catalog

As late as possible before the trial, make up a master catalog. If it's just like the catalog from the last trial, I would like that very much. (Don't let me forget to get you the worker schedules that I want to include.) If we use my duplication service (and I do recommend it for the catalog), that means making up the master on wednesday nite before the trial and getting it to the service on thursday morning. Pick it up friday morning and check that it's done correctly. The service can fix anything wrong on Friday if we find something. I'm available to drop it off/pick it up if you like since the service is close to my home.

We print as many as the *total number of people entered* for the weekend, plus the judges, plus NADAC and ASCA (?), plus about 10 extra.

[edit] Step seven: Friday night before the trial

This is the time to print up FOR SATURDAY ONLY:

• score sheets for the score tables (*three* copies of each page), AND
• gate steward sheets for the gate steward, AND
• a big-print self-service checkin list.

You'll have a filebox for each ring into which this stuff is put.

[edit] Step seven-and-a-half

Also, print out a final set of numbers of how many dogs are running in each jump height in each ring, for the purposes of knowing how many runs we should pay each judge for judging. Also, how many dogs are entered each day. All these numbers should be given to the Treasurer ASAP.

[edit] Step eight: Saturday morning checkin

We're going to make this self-service this time, but someone needs to hang around the measurein place to answer questions and accept corrections. We'll have a table with a box of catalogs ("Take one") and a box of our checkin goodies ("Take one per dog"), and we'll have a couple measure-inners nearby. The big print checkin list will have instructions ("24-inch dogs just put a check by your name, non-24-inch dogs must get measured in and receive a green dot from the measure-inner to place by their name on this list."). You'll stand nearby with a pad of paper on which you can write down corrections and/or measure-ups. When checkin in done, I'd stash the checkin list away for safe keeping (it may need to be sent in to NADAC to indicate how measurein went).

Note: At the end of checkin, that's the time to run around and implement the correctins in each ring's scribe sheets and gate sheets and score sheets.

Need big clear signs with instructions (maybe also repeated on the top of each check-in page), something like:

• If your dog is less than xx" at the withers and does not have a permanent measurement card, you must measure in before you check in.
• Find your dog and mark him as here.
• Take one catalog per handler.
• Take one [mug, toy, whatever] per *dog*.
• If you measure in, get a green dot from measurer & put on check-in sheet.
• If you checked in Saturday, you don't have to do it again Sunday.

[edit] Step nine: Throughout the day-of

Be ready to accept people's changes and run around to each ring making sure the changes are in place. People discover stuff is wrong all day/weekend long, for example they're accidently entered in PF when they requested CH. I just take their word for it - it's just agility, they can do whatever they want. Sometimes I ask them to look into correcting the problem themselves if I'm busy: I tell them to go to the right score table and request the score table people do it, or something. We'll have the worker schedule people AT each ring, so send worker questions to the appropriate ring.

Make sure judges are signing filled-out copies of NADAC (and USDAA?) course-yardage-and-time forms for all classes.

[edit] Step ten: Saturday night moveups

(NADAC, CPE ONLY; even in NADAC, this is now optional)

Before leaving on Saturday, pick up the MOVEUP FORMS! Take them home, update the database. Tweak the dog sort key so that the dog runs _last_ in the class _up_to_ they are moving. Print up FOR SUNDAY ONLY, and put into file boxes: (1) score sheets for the score tables (three copies of each page), AND (2) gate steward sheets for the gate steward. THEN, sit down with the pile of moveup forms and find each sunday scribe sheet in its OLD location and relocate it to its NEW location. Careful with this to keep the rest of the scribe sheets in order and back in the right folder etc.

[edit] Step eleven: Sunday morning

Be prepared to hang out near the self-service check in place again in case there are questions ("Do I check in again if I checked in yesterday?" :) and of course the handful of people entered on sunday only. Make sure the self-service checkin stuff is stocked up.

[edit] Step twelve: Result

Sunday while everyone is loading the trailer, make sure the following are in all the file boxes: all three sets of score results sheets, a copy of all the course maps, a full set of SIGNED-BY-THE-JUDGES course-yardage-and-times forms, the big-print checkin list.

• At home, consolidate the three sets of score results so that one set has all the info written at the top of every page (judge, start/ending o'clock, course yards and times). Then I just throw out the other possibly incomplete sets of results. Now make up a results package that includes the nadac feedback form and the good set of results and the course maps.
• Treasurer should give you a check made out to NADAC for $3.00 times each dog entered each day (you already gave her the figures in step seven-and-a-half).
• Then go make copies of the whole package - one for each judge, one for Show Chair, one for nadac, one for you. I found that if I set the copier on DARK (high contrast) that the _copy_ was MUCH easier to read than the original so I often didn't even keep the original (just FYI).
• Then mail a package (and the check AND the big-print checkin list which should have measurein info on it) to NADAC, a package to each judge, and a package to Show Chair.

That's it!

[edit] Who gets what when

This material initially copied from this PDF document is currently just a copy of the Help file from one of our show databases, so it's geared towards that specific database. Converted to wiki 10/5/07. Needs updating & attention for the general case, not for a specific database.

[edit] At any time

You can & should use any & all of the following to help debug weird data entry errors & to keep track of what's going on:

• Entry List for a quick reference to who's entering what & to skim for inconsistency errors
• Count by Age for errors in birthdates
• Count by Breed for inconsistent or incorrect entry of breed names

[edit] Closing date

After all of your entries are in, on your closing date, we recommend the following:

• Confirmations printed immediately.
• Mailing labels printed immediately and use to send Confirmations to competitors.
• Lunch list (both formats), Worker List, and Run Summary print & send to Lunch Czar.
• Worker List and Exhibitors List (for phone #s/e-mail addresses) print & send to Chief Ring Steward(s)
• Payment List, Refund List, and Revenue Summary to the Treasurer
• Revenue Summary and Run Summary to the chairperson

[edit] A week after closing

Because a lot of entries come in at the last minute, and new/pending dogs probably send their memberships to NADAC at the same time, you'll want to give the memberships time to arrive there. Then, about a week before the trial, print this list and fax it to NADAC. You might also call to confirm that they've received it. They should fax you back numbers for the dogs they've received:

• Pending List

[edit] Last move-up date

After all of your move-ups are in (usually they'll arrive on the last Sunday or Monday before your trial; if someone moves up that weekend, they don't usually wait until tuesday to notify you), we recommend the following:

• Print all Running Order Catalogs. These are preliminary for you to use only as double-checking while packeting the Scribe Sheets. You'll also probably discover some data entry errors with this list.
• Print Scribe Sheets. This is time-consuming because of the cutting & assembling packets. Sometimes we have a Scribe Sheet Party for 3 or 4 people to do this.

[edit] Last day before your printer needs a catalog master to print copies

Your goal here is to get the catalog printed as late as possible so that it will be as close as possible to the final running order. At this time, print the following (and we do some simple cut and paste to make more efficient use of paper) and assemble as needed:

• Print all Running Order Catalogs (required)
• Print Count by Breed, by Hometown, by Dogs' Ages, by Dogs' Heights, by Dogs/Handler, by Name for fun to include in program. NOTE: some of these are multi-column and CAN BE ADJUSTED by changing the bottom margin.
• Print Exhibitors List (required)
• Print Run Summary (optional for catalog)
• Note how many records are in the Owner Entry file; this tells you how many people are entered over the weekend & therefore how many catalogs to print (we usually order 10 more than that).

[edit] Day before trial, maybe 2 days before

Changes do trickle in at the last minute--people finding errors in their confirmations or pulling dogs or whatever. It's much easier to wait to the last possible minute & print all the reports than it is to make changes by hand:

• Check in List (Std) OR:
• Check in List (Self-serve) Same, but larger with check boxes & instructions.
• Measure-in List of those dogs needing measuring.
• Print 3 copies of all Full (score table) Catalogs
• Print all Big (Gate Steward) Catalogs
• FINAL Amount Due List if anyone owes BT money.
• FINAL Refund List for treasurer.

[edit] After the event, if you're doing online scoring

• Personal summary by handler of each dog's performance for all classes entered (Q, placement, SCT, dog's time, faults).
• Score summary (in development) for giving High-in-Level and High-in-Trial.