so are you saying that the only points accrued are point that are volunteered to be sent to you? Or do you have a list of all the comps that will 'count' towards proficiency? I find the system very hard to understand...
Also, if a couple has a few points alreday under the old system, what happens with the new system? Are these points taken into account? Or is everyone started from zero? And when do these points start accumulating - was there a date?
I hope you mean to say that you are accepting results. NDCA competitions have no business reporting points under a USA Dance formula for example - you need their result data, but the point calculation should be done by USA Dance. Personally, I believe it's the raw data that should primarily be stored - then if there becomes a need to tweak the points formulas, or an error is discovered, everything can be quickly recalculated. Eric for example keeps something like the number of rounds advanced and final placement if any, possibly also overall number of couples?
This started out as a nice thread on the Nationals and turned into a discussion about competition management software. Maybe someone should start a separate thread on comp management software. It seems like there is enough interest in that discussion to warrant it.
As a competitor, I have no preference amongst comp management programs, but I deeply, deeply appreciate: A) being able to register online B) being able to pay by credit card!!!
I prefer getting the results right after I dance instead of having to wait until the end of the session, which is sometimes an hour, to get awards and change out of my costume. I don't mind being out of breath; that only lasts 30 seconds.
Having worked in the past in a job where a large portion of my time was spent just writing code to extract data from a WIDE variety of different data formats, most of the file layouts NOT being well documented (or possibly not at all), I can definitely identify with avab's requirement of having data in a compatible format. I have no opinion whatsoever on the mandating of a particular application though, just don't know neough about that side of the comp business to say.
AMEN!!!! PS: A.) I didn't know people didn't do online registration untill i registered for my first non-collegiate comp in 99'.
Anyone need any O2CM help? I did it for Regionals (with much help from Bill). Learned oodles and willing to share. I know its not too easy to learn the program on your own
