As anyone who knows me knows plainly, I volunteer. A lot. And this year will be no exception when it comes to skating events. I'm currently trying to get a promotion with the skating organization but its been a little more difficult than previously anticipated mostly because the timing has been all off.
Next year the face of Canadian Sports is going to change. All Federally funded sports are changing over to a Young Athlete Development program.So with all the changes that are going to take place next year, I am desperately trying to get better trained now so that when the changes take effect I am still considered a useful asset to skating, and not someone who yet again gets stuck in the change up. All this means that I spent my entire morning updating all the computers starting crazy data input for all the skaters.
That being said, I usually volunteer at the actual competitions, so when I get there all the input has been done ahead of time. I've never really had to do all the grunt work, I know how to make changes to the paperwork should I need to but the actual manual input of all the skaters and all the events? Haven't actually ever worked on a competition, I've only done practice events at clinics. Well turns out there is a huge difference!
The way that one registures for a skating competition in theory sounds simple enough, you go online, you fill out all the skaters information and then you punch in your credit card information and PRESTO, you're entered. The online registration company then emails the chief of the competition the spreadsheet will all necessary information from the online registration, and from there we get it, check it over, manipulate the snot out of it, and use it to do the entry into the system for the competition scoring system.
Now. I say in theory this is simple because apparently people registuring for the competition are learning how to screw this up 8 ways to Sunday. They put in all the wrong information and then some poor volunteer like me has to go and sort it all out and figure out just why the hell the system is rejecting the informationg.
Now I complain but really I guess its better than when we used to get the HAND WRITTEN forms and had to decipher what the form said before MANUALLY typing it all up and then MANUALLY putting it into the computer. However! Where it gets super fustrating (like it wasn't before) is the fact that we have numberous coaches and parents bitching about the new system. They hate the online reg, and they have having to put a planned program sheet into the computer weeks before the skater is set to compete.
Now. I realize that I am a volunteer which means I signed up to be here. No one is holding a gun to me head telling me I have to do all this work and deal with all these persnickity people. That being said, seeing as no parents want to be responsible for the competition, and don't want to fill out forms neatly or lend a hand doing the data entry, I really think they lose their right to complain about the online registration and planned program sheet (which literally is just one sheet of paper that has an outline of the programs elements which speeds up the event emmensely so that the tech pannel has some notion of whats going to go into the computer...god forbid we as you to help us volunteers out).
I guess really this whole post is me complaining about the complaints we poor volunteers seem to get from day one of setting up a competition. I guess my biggest hope is that a parent or a coach will stumble upon this page and realize, that we are just that. VOLUNTEERS. We donate HOURS of our free time MONTHS before the competition and then we spend an entire weekend getting your kids/students on that ice, through a program and off the ice with results and hopefully a medal, and unlike the parents/coaches, we don't get the thanks from the skater or paid like the coach. So if we're politely asking you to help us have to skip a couple steps and take hours of our set up time away? I would say just do it. Here's why:
We sit for hours and set up the competitions because we want to have your kids/students come to the rink and be successful, WE DO NOT sit for hours and ask the parents/coaches to take half an hour (tops) to carefully fill out the online registration forms and planned program sheets because we are crazy anal retentive bitches. We want your kid to come to the rink, skate, and leave without any issues.
If we really wanted to torture you, we'd go back to the manual matrix system. You know where the average results came out approximately 3-4 hours after the event? Not the half hour your used to? Oh I'm sorry have you never heard of those days? Well they happened, should things continue to get worse and people complain anymore, I'm going to start suggesting we use it again. Because while I remember that we're here for the kids, if you don't realize it, the old system required a hell of a lot less grunt time...which means we still get your kid on the ice, off the ice, and hopefully with a medal...but you have to entertain them for 3-4 hours at the rink waiting to find out where they placed. Tell me...would you really want that to happen?
Don't mess with the Data Specialists.
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