Carnival Day |
  
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Carnival Day |
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Overview
Pre-Carnival Check
Before carnival day, enter some practice results and check that all scores are working as expected. Print some reports and be sure.
It is much easier to fix this sort of thing before the day.
Then delete exiting results
Carnival Day
On this day you should have all the background activity done. The focus is on these steps:
Edit competitors' placings quickly and accurately
Find students who aren't listed in the event
Correct student data if it is not correct
Insert a new student not in the database at all
Do backups
Print Score Updates and Records Broken throughout the day
Keeping all involved interested
Print Scores and determine Champions at the end of the day
This has to be done quickly to enable the presentations to proceed
Update the Long Term Records from Records Set Today
Records set in the carnival go into Records Set Today. They do not automatically update Long Term Records. You must do this yourself.
Later
➢ Copy the folder ready for next year.
➢ Assuming you have just run your carnival in the folder Swim14
➢ Copy the folder and rename it Swim15
➢ In SportsTrak, change to that folder and
delete all students and associated data
change the carnival settings to next year's dates as far as you know them.
Next year, all you need to do is:
➢ Import Students
➢ Pre-Enter Competitors
Backup this and all other data folders to a safe network location for easy access next year.
Do not leave the sole copy of this data on any single person's computer
Tips for Carnival Day
How many Computers to use?
As a guide, for Swimming , with pre-entered with competitors, one computer with good recorders will handle 180 events. These results come in at a steady rate and the recorders can keep up, but without much respite!
Athletics is often slower overall because Field events often arrive in bundles, and often need checking and correcting. The recorders are sometimes idle, then battling with a backlog. Around 140 events maximum if pre-entered with competitors.
If you are not pre-entering competitors, at the above event levels, go for two computers, each with two recorders, connected with a blue cable to a shared data folder on one of the computers.
Make sure the SportsTrak computer has a Printer attached
How the recorders should operate:
It is usually the Sport Coordinator (or other staff member) who does the preparation work in SportsTrak before the carnival. On carnival day it is good to have a specialist team to do results entry.
Data entry must be done in pairs. A single data entry person is at a serious OHS risk due to repeated head swivel
One person receives the judges slips, reads the results out, checks what is going into SportsTrak, stores the judges slips.
The other enters the results as they are spoken and repeat what they think they have heard so that results go in accurately.
They will print reports as required.
This pair rotate from time to time.
What skills do recorders need?
They require keyboard skills
They should be finicky and able to interpret and correct sloppy judges sheets. Many judges do not give full placings (esp in Field Events).
They should know how field event placings are determined. For example in High Jump, 2 competitors on 1.55 m are not necessarily equally placed. The one who did it on less attempts is the higher place getter. In school scenarios, the pit judge is often unaware of subtleties and the recorder should monitor all incoming judges sheets.
The need good verbal communication skills
Who should be recorders?
It can be staff or student.
If staff do it they often do it at every carnival, become very proficient and can train other staff.
Non-competing students make good data entry operators, as long as they are trained up. They are quick and confident, but must know the skills outlined in the Results Entry Section and need to be aware of how events are placed (mentioned above).