Meet Administration

Here is a basic set of procedures for the physical running of your meet. Reports available in MM will not only save you money on paper and reproduction costs, but will also greatly facilitate pre-meet data correction. During the meet, reports can greatly speed-up the flow of results data, while reducing the chance for errors. After the meet, complete meet results can be compactly and efficiently produced for both the coaches and the news media either in print form or on diskette.

Paperwork Before the Meet

After entering athletes and relays, print Performance Lists to check the data entry. The Performance Lists and Entry List by Team/School should be provided to all coaches so that they can check their own entries. One set of Performance Lists should be posted at all pre-meet affairs for all to verify correctness. At some point, it will be time to seed the first round for each event with the Seed Menu. Enter late entries, do scratches, and seed the first day's events. After proofing the seeded heats and flights, print a meet heat sheet program in double column format using the Meet Program Report. This will reduce the whole meet into as compact a set of heat sheets as possible. This program can be sold to spectators, included in the team packets, and used by the clerk and the announcer for information. Next print a finish Line Heat Sheet for every race. These will be distributed to the finish line officials. Next print a Field Event Score Sheet for every flight. Distribute these sheets to the appropriate field event officials.

Printer at the Meet

The speed with which the operator on the HY-TEK computer can enter results, distribute results, seed 2nd, 3rd, and 4th rounds, if any, and distribute those heat sheets will depend a lot on the speed of the printer. The best kind of printer is a laser with at least 2 megabytes of memory. With the memory in the printer, it can quickly receive your reports (most of which are 1 or 2 pages) and let you go on to entering more results while the printer is still printing. Don't forget to bring plenty of paper, extra printer ribbons or toner, the printer cable, an extension cord, and a surge protector with multiple outlets. Test the printer before going to the meet!

Computer at the Meet

The faster the computer and the more RAM it has, the better.  Make backups of your data periodically by clicking File / Backup. An Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) is very important to protect the data in case of power failure or some other unknown circumstance. If your meet is real large you might consider having two computers, one for field events and one for running events. MM can then merge the results of one database into the other, or use the Multi-User Pro option to share one database.

Field Events

It is very important in meets that insist on field event results in English that the officials measuring the field events use a tape that has both Metric and English readings. Be sure that results entered on the score sheets you provide come back with metric results. MM is fully capable of accurately producing results with the proper conversions. Results entered in English are invalid for combined-events and often penalize the athlete when converted.

Personnel

Data entry and distribution of information is critical to the success of the meet. You should have at least two people on the MM  computer. One person reads results to the other person who is typing. The reader also proof reads as the typist enters the data. You should have at least two or three runners at all times. The critical areas are:

?Heat/Lane corrections to and from the clerk and to announce

?Results from the finish line and field officials

?Results to the announcer, the media, and the awards table

?Results posting

However, if you have the Multi-User Pro option with the shared database Network feature, many of these critical area problems are reduced or eliminated.

Entries on Disk

For large meets, inputting entries can be time consuming. There are three things you can do to speed up this process:

In order to merge entries between computers, use MM's export and import features.  In order for teams to send you entries on diskette, the participating teams will have their own Licensed copy of HY-TEK's TEAM MANAGER for Track & Field or download a FREE copy of HY-TEK's TEAM MANAGER Lite, both of which can create an entries export file.