Using an on-line entry system offers massive advantages; centralized record keeping, keeps your email clean, gets all the names spelled correctly, keeps all entries public and available for view at all times, makes the world safe for democracy, and improves your sex life.

But, of course, any electronic system can fail.  Servers can crash, disks and drives can go bad, lightening can strike.  Those who remember the early days of the TRM can attest to how much progess we’ve made in data stability.  BUT, it IS important that you take appropriate steps to make sure that if the worst happens you’ll have the data backed up somewhere.  I back up the data files every week, so we’re relatively safe if our server crashes, but you need to have plans in case YOUR server dies or other calamity strikes.

Keep in mind that even after you have disabled the ability of others to enter the tournament on-line, YOU will still be able to enter data on-line as the tournament director.

This page has 4 major sections: (a) data backup, which includes how to manage your on-line data, (b) pref sheets (c) other functions, (d) entry management (how to keep the size of your tournament where you want it), and (e) creating registration sheets from the Access database.

A. DATA BACKUP STRATEGY

Here are my recommendations for making sure that there are no data crashes:

1)    After you list the tournament, come back to the site every couple of weeks to download the data files.  This won’t harm you even and might save your butt.  Save them both on your hard drive and a floppy, zip, or CD.

2)    About two weeks before the tournament starts, visit more often and download every couple days.  At this point, try uploading it into the TRPC or STA to make sure you’ll know how to do it when the tournament start time comes (it’s easy, but you’ll want to know which buttons to push).

3)    If you’ve decided to have emails sent to you notifying you of all the entries and drops, save them to a folder somewhere on your hard drive.  In a worst-case scenario, you can re-built the changes from this list.

At this point, if up to a day or so before your tournament starts the server crashes and you can’t get the data, simply upload the most recent version of the data files that you have to the TRPC or STA, print out all the emails that you received after the download, and make the changes in the TRPC or STA.  Your data will be complete.

At this point, what you do will depend on whether you take pref sheets on-line.  If you don’t, I’d disable on-line entry at least 24 hours before your tournament, download all the stuff and load it into the TRPC or STA, and manage all your data from there on out on the STA or TRPC.  Be especially sure that you review the tournament settings, since not all of the information you specify on the website will necessarily upload the same on both programs (like the tie-breakers).

B. THE ON-LINE PREF SYSTEM: A QUICK REVIEW

Prefs are not accepted on-line until you click the “Allow preference entry” box on the Tournament Setup page.  At that time you will also indicate the required number A, B, C, judges, etc. expressed either in a head count, judge units, or rounds judging.  At any time, you can disallow on-line pref entries by clicking the button.  Before you enable prefs, you should go to the Director's page and click the "init prefs" button (this may take 10-15 minutes; DON'T PANIC).  This will double-check and make sure that there are records for every judge at the tournament.

IMPORTANT:  Review your list of judges and make sure that none are entered twice.  This might happen if, for example, Ross Smith is judging 4 for Wake and has hired out 4 rounds to Emory.  Both Wake and Emory might enter him as a judge, and he will appear on the list twice.  To fix this, you should go to the entry screen, select Emory, make a note in the school comments field that they have hired Ross for four rounds, and delete him as a judge for Emory.  Go to the Wake entry, put Ross down as 4 for Wake and 4 for hire, and put in his comments column that he's hired out 4 rounds for Emory.  If the entrants followed the instructions on the page this would have happened automatically, but debaters are hard to house train.

You can also disallow team and judge entries by clicking the “Toggle Entry Allowed” button on the main tournament page.  This will “freeze” the judge pool and entry pool.

If you allow team and judge entries AFTER you have enabled on-line pref entries, there is the danger that your judge pool can change, that is, some teams or judges may be added AFTER some teams have already entered their preferences and after you have set the required number of judges for each category. 

The web site will handle this situation in the following ways:

a)    If teams are added, it will create a new, blank pref sheet for them based on the extant judge pool.

b)    If teams are deleted, all pref info they have entered will be deleted for that team.

c)     If a judge is deleted, they will automatically stop appearing on the pref entry page.  If anyone has entered pref information for that judge, it will be deleted.

d)    If a judge is added, that judge will appear on the pref entry page automatically (assuming the judge is eligible to hear open division), but if teams have already entered their pref ranking before the judge is entered, they will obviously not have ranked the newly-added judge.

The consequence to adding and dropping judges after some teams have entered their pref rankings is that your judge pool will be more difficult to manage during the tournament, especially if highly ranked judges appear on the pref sheet but don’t show up to judge.  There is also the danger that teams will be exposed to different pref sheets.  Both of these consequences are undesirable.

Here are some scheduling options to deal with this situation, ranked from most tournament-friendly to most competitor-friendly.

Options:

1)    Don’t honor prefs until later in the tournament:  Like in the old-school Northwestern days, you get a strike sheet released day one and the prefs go into effect round 5.  The only difference with the on-line system is that the prefs would be entered on-line.

2)    Encourage pref entry before registration, take adds and drops at registration, and create a supplemental pref sheet to be released during the early rounds of the tournament.  The supplemental sheet would have to be entered manually, and might require a certain number of preferred judges in addition to free strikes.

3)    Encourage pref entry before the tournament, but require that everyone check back to the site for a specified window after registration.  For example, encourage all to enter their prefs early, take adds and drops at registration, enter those changes on-line, require everyone to check back to the page for 2 hours after registration closes, and run the presets after the window expires.

4)    Don’t allow on-line entry until AFTER registration.  You might, for example, have registration between 7-10pm , allow prefs on-line from 10-midnight, and then do the presets at midnight .

Note that for options 2-4, it will be a good idea to have either a hard-copy of the prefs or a connected computer that will allow you to call up prefs at registration.  That will allow you tell whether a team has entered a pref sheet already and whether it is accurate.  If you have a connected computer, it will also let you know instantly whether an add or drop affects a team’s pref sheet (a drop of a conflicted judge, for example, does not).

All right, for the recommendations: The thing to keep in mind is that if you are using prefs on-line, there is a definite advantage to managing the info on-line for as long as possible.  The WORST thing that can happen is that you download teams at one time and then download the prefs later after some team and judge adds and drops have happened.  Nothing will match.  Here’s how you can avoid it:

1)    Up until 24 hours before the tournament, follow the recommendations above.  24 hours before your tournament starts, disable on-line team and judge entry.  At this point, anyone who needs to make a change will contact you by email or phone.  You should make a download at this point, but don’t load it to the TRPC or STA.  YOU SHOULD MANAGE ALL THE CHANGES ON-LINE, THROUGH THE WEBSITE.

2)    24 hours before the tournament, ENABLE the pref entries.  Don’t allow the judge pref entries earlier than you cut off team entries, or the judge pool will change.  Encourage everyone to enter their prefs on-line. 

3)    Hold registration so that it will end by 8-9pm .  Undoubtedly, some judge adds and drops will occur.  Enter all the adds and drops on-line. 

4)    You may want to have a computer in the room that entrants can use to enter the pref sheets in if they don’t have computers of their own.  You might also want to negotiate internet access with the hotel, so that entrants could use a computer in the lobby to enter the prefs.  If these aren’t viable, you might want paper copies of the pref sheets available at registration.  You can take these pref sheets and enter them on-line at registration.

5)    Once registration is over, go back on-line and re-enter the required number of A, B, C, etc., judges to account for the adds and drops of the intervening 24 hours.

6)    Tell everyone at registration they should check back at the website an hour after registration (8-9pm or 9-10pm , for example) to make the final changes and to make sure that they have the right number of judges.

7)    When that hour expires, download the team, judge, and pref files, and load all of them into the computer.  From that point on, manage all your information in the TRPC or STA.

8)    As with all tournaments, some teams might not have the right number of judges in the right categories.  You might want to track them down and make them fix their pref sheets.

9)  As a double check, you might want to download everything into the computer and print out the received judge pref sheets from the TRPC or STA just prior to registration.  As teams register, give them their completed prefs to review for accuracy.  This will serve as a double-check that things are working well.

C. OTHER ISSUES

• How to do entries manually:  As the director, you may receive emails or entries from people who don't use the on-line system.  Obviously, things work best (and on-line prefs will ONLY work) if all the data is entered on-line.  Entering on-line as the director is easy.  Go to the calendar page, find the line for your tournament, and click "enter" under the "click to enter" column.  The page will automatically detect that you are the director, and a drop-down list will appear with all schools at the top.  Select the school you want to enter, and click the "load school entry."  You can now perform the entry as if you were the director for the school.  If names you need don't appear on the drop-down lists, click on the link labelled "Click here if the desired name doesn't appear and you need to enter a new name in the central database"  and you will be taken to the name entry screen for that school.  Type in the names of the debaters and judges (make sure you click the correct button) just as you did to enter the names of your own school.  Click the link for "return for tournament entry" at the top of the page, and you will be returned to the tournament entry page.  Complete the entry.  To move to a new school, just select it from the drop-down list.
• "I got an email saying a school has entered but they don't appear on the list":  Whenever a school visits the entry page, the page automatically creates a school entry for them and you receive an email.  They may subsequently decide not to enter.  I've left in the email notification because it may be helpful -- if you're trying to boost participation at your touranemtn, the email will alert you that the school was at least visiting the entry page, so they may be a good candidate to contact about coming.  Having a school entry with no participants for that school won't do any harm to the TRPC, and you can always delete school entries.
• "I got told to log in again even though I was already logged in":  In order to avoid using cookies, I'm using something called a "session" variable -- it basically keeps track of who's logged in for 10 minutes.  If you're on for more than 10 minutes you have to re-enter the password.  It's a system default setting, and if this poses problems for you please contact me.
• How do I run policy, LD, and IEs on the same page?  On the first tournament setup screen check the boxes for all the types of contests you'll allow; there are separate boxes for policy, parli, and LD debate as well as IEs.  If you are running debate and IEs, you'll get five setup screens (main page, debate, debate divisions, IE, and IE divisions) and if you are only running one or the other you'll have 3 screens (main setup, IE/Debate setup, and division setup).  For debate, you simply set up policy, LD, and parliamentary debate as separate divisions; for example, you might have a novice and open policy division, a novice and open parli division, and an LD division.  IEs are set up on their own page with as many divisions as you'd like.  All entries in all divisions will appear on a team's entry page, and you can view all debate or all IE entries from the view entries option off of the calendar page.

FROM THIS SCREEN (the TOURNAMENT DIRECTOR'S page)

• "EDIT" will allow you to change the info you entered on the original setup screen.
• "DOWNLOAD" allows you to download the files for use on the TRPC or STA.
• "FEES" allows you to manage fees on-line.  Note that this is probably only useful if you are receiving fees in advance.  If fees are paid at registration, there is no purpose to this function.  The fees function will perform no calculation but will only allow you to view a complete entry and enter the total amount due.  If you want fees calculated and you are accepting fees at registration, either TRPC or STA will perform these functions after download.
• "VIEW ENTRANT INFO" will take you to a screen that will display the tournament-specific passwords, names, and contact info for all schools entering your tournament.  You can also send an email to all entrants from this screen.  You can link to a screen that will include fee, diet, and comments information for each school.  Finally, you can view all judge information, including judge comments.  For directing purposes, you should use this screen and NOT the page viewable from the calendar page to make decisions.
• "MANAGE WAIT LIST" will allow you to manually add and drop teams from the waitlist, if you selected the waitlist option from the main page.
• "RESTRICTED ENTRY" will allow you to enable entry if you selected the restricted entry option from the main page.  The restricted entry option means that a school will not be allowed to enter the tournament unless you pre-authorize it; this screen will allow you to make the pre-authorizations.

D. ENTRY MANAGEMENT

There are basically 4 ways you can restrict your entries.  First, you can set an upper limit on the total number of teams in the tournament, and take everyone on a first-come, first-served basis.  Second, you can set a maximum number of teams per school.  Third, you can set a maximum number of teams per school per division (for example, any school can bring 15 teams to the tournament, but only 5 per division).  Fourth, you can allow entry only by pre-authorization.  All these numbers are set on the tournament setup page. 

Here are some common options:

1. FIRST COME, FIRST SERVED:  Set an upper limit on the maximum teams per tournament (the rooms available times two) and a very high limit (say, 100) on the maximum number of teams per school and per division.  
2. FIRST COME, FIRST-SERVED, WITH LIMITS ON HOW MANY A SCHOOL CAN ENTER:  Set the limit of teams your tournament can handle and a reasonable limit on the total number of teams per school (say, 10) and teams per division (around 6-8).
3. EARLIER LIMITS THAT ARE LATER RELAXED:  Imagine you have rooms for only 66 teams, and you want every school to have a chance to come, but you would like to open up entry after a certain date on a first-available basis.  Set your upper limit for the tournament (66 teams), and then put a fairly sharp limit per school (2-3 teams).  Put in your announcement (and/or announce by email) that at a certain date (probably around 1-2 weeks before the tournament), entry will be open.  On that date go back into the setup page, and raise the per-school limits to a higher number (whatever you want, usually around 10).  You might want to send out an email announcement on the expansion date to let everyone know that entry is now open.
4. PRE-AUTHORIZATION.  On the Tournament Setup page, check the box to indicate that you are using Restricted Entry.  At this point, the only teams that can enter are those that you pre-authorize.  From the Director's Page, click the link that says "Enable Entries if you are using the restricted entry option."  On this page you can select a school and indicate the number of teams they can enter.  If a school has not set up an account, you can set up an account for them by clicking the "set up a new account for your school" link from the main menu.  This can be tedious, so you may want to encourage everyone to set up their own accounts before you authorize entry (also, there are required fields, so you need to know the names and emails of contact people).  You may want to email the schools when you have pre-authorized the number of teams they can enter, and may want to remind them of an entry cutoff date.  You can combine this with other methods, so that you might have a pre-authorized entry up to a certain date and open entry after that; simply un-check the "restricted entry" button from the Tournament Setup page on the date you wish to open entries.
5. Depending on your tournament philosophy, a final possibility is to hold a pre-authorized registration before your invitation is generally distributed.  After the qualifying teams have entered, you can post an invitation and allow the remaining spots to be filled on a first-come, first-served basis.

For all options you can set up a WAITLIST.  The waitlist function will ONLY work for people who try to enter after the tournament maximum is exceeded; it will not allow you to enter via the waitlist if you are exceeding the maximum number of teams per school or division.  If you select the automatic waitlist function, the computer will automatically add the next team in line if a team drops.  For example, if your tournament can handle 100 teams and you have 10 teams on the waitlist, if one of the 100 teams drops the computer will take the team off the list of 10 that was on the waitlist first and add them to the tournament.  You and the added team will be notified by email when this happens.  If you do not select the automatic option, you can add and drop teams from the waitlist manually; the link to this page is on the director's page.

There is a danger to using the automatic option.  If a team who is entered wants to change their team names and selects the "delete" rather than the "edit" option, the computer will automatically fill their spot with the top team on the waitlist.  There is a message that will appear warning entrants against doing this, but the hit rate on following on-screen instructions is well short of 100%.  You can correct this by either (a) telling the team that accidentally hit delete that they're out of luck, or (b) telling the team that was added that they really weren't added, and both convsersations are going to be unpleasant.  Also, there's not an easy way to re-add a team to the waitlist -- they'll get pushed back to the end.  I would recommend using the automatic waitlist ONLY if you are sure that the entrants are sophisticated computer users and will follow directions; otherwise, using the manual option is probably your best bet.

If you use the manual waitlist option, a team will not be able to add and will only be able to add themselves to the waitlist if any other team is on the waitlist, EVEN IF current entries are under the total tournament capacity.  For example, if the tournament can have 60 teams, and there are only 58 entries because there were 2 drops, but there are 6 teams on the waitlist, a team wanting to add will go to the end of the waitlist instead of in spot 59.  You can add the teams from the waitlist manually in any order you want.

These are some suggestions, you have total flexibility to alter or change entry restrictions or methods within the confines of the setup page.

E. CREATING REGISTRATION SHEETS FROM THE ACCESS DATABASE

If you are running a tournament that only allows debate or only allows IE entries, you can just print registration sheets from the TRPC or TRIEPC.  If you offer both, however, you can print registration sheets from the Access database which will show all debate and IE competitor and judge entries, and also download the debate and IE files separately for upload into the TRPC and TRIEPC.

To get registration sheets, download the access database from the download page (this won’t work until there is at least one entry).  Make sure your computer has Microsoft Access on it, and click on the database to open it.  If you get a security warning, click on “open.”  On the left-hand part of the screen will be a list of “objects.”  Click on “reports.”  There will be a list of possible reports; click on the top one, “Debate and IE entries.”  When the report appears, go under “File” and select “Print,” and the result will be registration sheets that list all competitors and judges in both debate and IEs. 

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