How do I deal with classified unclassified shooters

[John Heiter]

Is anyone aware of what USPSA's official policy is now regarding competitors whose membership has expired? It seems some are bumped to Unclassified and others just get a note saying their membership has expired.

I have a number of A-C class shooters registered for an upcoming match who are showing up as U.

[steel1212]

Is anyone aware of what USPSA's official policy is now regarding competitors whose membership has expired? It seems some are bumped to Unclassified and others just get a note saying their membership has expired.

I have a number of A-C class shooters registered for an upcoming match who are showing up as U.

If you enter them in ezwin and they show up as a U and you have done the update then I guess they need to renew their membership. If their membership has expired then they need to renew.

[spanky]

I thought you had to have a current uspsa membership to compete in a level two or above match?

[steel1212]

I thought you had to have a current uspsa membership to compete in a level two or above match?

Yeah, I think you do.

[mdschappell]

I thought you had to have a current uspsa membership to compete in a level two or above match?

I believe your right, non-members can only shoot local matches. question is, do you stop being a member as soon as your card expires ? is there a rule on how long you have to renew ?

[LChico]

John, did you actually look them up online, or were you using the update file for EzWinScore?

I had that happen to a few shooters who registered early (months before the match) - and updated from A to Ty or TY to A. They rarely remember to update you. Two fixes: You could enter each USPSA number that is classified as a U into the website because the classifier screen will let you know if the pre-fix changed.

Fastest way is to use the export registration feature in EzWinScore - just USPSA numbers - to a tab separated file. Open with Excel, copy the entire column & paste into the batch look up (You need to sign in as a USPSA member first - http://uspsa.org/bulklookup.html). It will let you know which numbers have changed prefix.

Linda Chico (L-2035)

Columbia SC

Edited May 11, 2010 by LChico

[John Heiter]

Thank you Linda. I'd never heard of the bulk lookup tool before but that thing is a gem from a MD standpoint. I was able to look up the 20+ competitors that were showing as Unclassified based on the latest Winscore update file, see that only five of them were actually still unclassified due to expired memberships, and fire off a courtesy e-mail to remind them to update their memberships before the match. That worked great. I love this forum.

[John Heiter]

I thought you had to have a current uspsa membership to compete in a level two or above match?

Yes, you are supposed to be a current USPSA member, but it's been my experience that it's very hard to determine that as a MD, and there's no good way of correcting the issue at the last minute. We're told we have to go by the latest Winscore download, but what if someone is standing in front of you with the confirmation e-mail in hand showing they renewed their membership a week ago and it just didn't make it into the update file? It's happened to me. So if you let that guy in, what about the one who did the same thing but forgot to bring the print out because he assumed it would make it into the update file? Then there are the new shooters who are still pending but they did everything they were supposed to and joined. You know they did because you helped them.

It's not going to be "fixed" until they get to the point where that file can be updated nightly and someone showing up for Friday night registration can see they are "Unclassified" and still correct the problem online that night. It's even more complicated now because apparently when your membership expires you go to U, and then at some point when it has been expired too long you go to "X". No idea what that time frame is but I'd almost prefer they go straight to X. At least then an A class shooter who forgot to re-up wouldn't mess up a legitimately Unclassified new shooter when it comes to placing in U.

[LChico]

I thought you had to have a current uspsa membership to compete in a level two or above match?

Yes, you are supposed to be a current USPSA member, but it's been my experience that it's very hard to determine that as a MD, and there's no good way of correcting the issue at the last minute. We're told we have to go by the latest Winscore download, but what if someone is standing in front of you with the confirmation e-mail in hand showing they renewed their membership a week ago and it just didn't make it into the update file? It's happened to me. So if you let that guy in, what about the one who did the same thing but forgot to bring the print out because he assumed it would make it into the update file? Then there are the new shooters who are still pending but they did everything they were supposed to and joined. You know they did because you helped them.

It's not going to be "fixed" until they get to the point where that file can be updated nightly and someone showing up for Friday night registration can see they are "Unclassified" and still correct the problem online that night. It's even more complicated now because apparently when your membership expires you go to U, and then at some point when it has been expired too long you go to "X". No idea what that time frame is but I'd almost prefer they go straight to X. At least then an A class shooter who forgot to re-up wouldn't mess up a legitimately Unclassified new shooter when it comes to placing in U.

Hi John,

I run that batch look up about one week before a major match. I use "mail merge" in word to send a message to everyone listed as expired:

When I checked the USPSA database online & through EzWinScore, your USPSA membership is listed as recently expired. The South Carolina State Section Championship is a Level II USPSA match, and active USPSA membership is required to shoot the match.

I realize that the online information can be a bit out of date. If you have already renewed, just bring proof of renewal to registration at the match (your new card, an online receipt or an email message from USPSA staff are all fine). Val Ruele at USPSA is looking at unprocessed renewals for me, to be sure you renewal application & check is not sitting on someone's desk at Sedro Woolley awaiting processing.

You can also renew at registration, if you prefer.

And I also send the entire list to USPSA so the office can check for recent renewals as I mentioned above. (you can copy the batch look up off the screen and paste it into an Excel file).

Linda Chico (L-2035)

Columbia SC

[wgnoyes]

Bulklookup is also how I create my competitor checkin sheet.

I export everything to the left of the state column from ezwinscore into a spreadsheet. I then get my bulklookup report from the same exported uspsa numbers (so they're in the same order), and copy/paste those into the spreadsheet. The result (with some window dressing) is what you see. (I also sort by lastname/firstname before printing.)

So when you check in at one of our shows in GA, we just cross you off the list to show us you're here. ("Hi, Mr. So-and-so. I see you're shooting Open A class, major power factor, no junior or senior noted. Are you shooting law or military? No, okay, you're in squad xx, the shooting schedule is in your match book, enjoy the match, next!") If there are changes, we write them on the detail line. Particularly, if you're changing division when you show up (there are always several), I just cross out the stated division and circle the class on the right of the desired new division.

After checkin is finished, I take the report and make the changes in ezwinscore, so nothing gets dropped, and we've reviewed every competitor's particulars with him/her in person beforehand.

[wgnoyes]

Oh, and I create my registration checkin list the morning of the first day of checkin; I want bleeding edge information for classifications. I'm sure we're talking about the Mississippi Classic here; I don't know if the May classification update will be out in time for your match or not, but as far as I'm concerned, as long as the first shot hasn't been fired yet, you can run classification updates up to the minute before. I also do manual lookups on those that show expired to try to resolve those and/or account for uspsa number changes (regular to a life, or annual to TY, etc).

Here is bit of news, by the way. In 4.0 of ezwinscore which is being released to manufacturing as I write, when you run classification updates against your masternames.db, if someone's uspsa number prefix has changed from A to TY, he'll make that change for you in your masternames and make any associated classification changes as well. (Not in the match, but in masternames.) So no more classification updates getting swept aside just because an A changed to a TY.

[wgnoyes]

You also don't need to send Sedro Woolley a list of your competitors anymore for verification; you can do that yourself with self-service squadding, even if you're not actually using it to squad your match. Go into ezwinscore and select the "online squadding" tab in "competitor registration" and press the "export squadding" cmdbutton. This will create a file called upload_squadding.txt. Then goto http://uspsa.org/squadding and click on "check match registration member numbers". Give him the file you created out of ezwinscore and he'll give you back an exception list showing who is expired and who has had their member numbers change.

Bulklookup is not actually supported anymore, but I keep it running (I had to add code to make it report on singlestack) because it just seems so useful and also I would have no other way of creating my checkin lists.

[LChico]

You also don't need to send Sedro Woolley a list of your competitors anymore for verification; you can do that yourself with self-service squadding, even if you're not actually using it to squad your match. Go into ezwinscore and select the "online squadding" tab in "competitor registration" and press the "export squadding" cmdbutton. This will create a file called upload_squadding.txt. Then goto http://uspsa.org/squadding and click on "check match registration member numbers". Give him the file you created out of ezwinscore and he'll give you back an exception list showing who is expired and who has had their member numbers change.

Bulklookup is not actually supported anymore, but I keep it running (I had to add code to make it report on singlestack) because it just seems so useful and also I would have no other way of creating my checkin lists.

I would still need to get Sedro Wooley to check on shooters who signed in with "pending" membership & those with unprocessed renewals. Since I am sending them that list, it is just as easy to send the entire list for verification. Sedro has often corrected transposed USPSA numbers for me. Also, that was the only way I would have been aware at our recent SC State Section Match that Ken W. was classified wrong online. Because I had a verified list, we had the correct classification for him - and that nice young man won 3rd place in his class.

Linda Chico (L-2035)

Columbia SC

Edited May 12, 2010 by LChico

[wgnoyes]

I can't speak to Ken's classification, but either of the online resources will show up wrong USPSA numbers. The names they return won't equal what you have in your match, and that's the indication the number is wrong.

[Skydiver]

You also don't need to send Sedro Woolley a list of your competitors anymore for verification; you can do that yourself with self-service squadding, even if you're not actually using it to squad your match. Go into ezwinscore and select the "online squadding" tab in "competitor registration" and press the "export squadding" cmdbutton. This will create a file called upload_squadding.txt. Then goto http://uspsa.org/squadding and click on "check match registration member numbers". Give him the file you created out of ezwinscore and he'll give you back an exception list showing who is expired and who has had their member numbers change.

Bulklookup is not actually supported anymore, but I keep it running (I had to add code to make it report on singlestack) because it just seems so useful and also I would have no other way of creating my checkin lists.

The check registration member numbers only shows expiration dates. It doesn't seem to return the classifications like your bulklookup.html did.

Is there a replacement for what bulklookup.html? Right now it looks like I can do lookups one by one using http://www.uspsa.org/cgi-bin/db_lookup_class.cgi?number=xxxxxx

[wgnoyes]

I use them both. I use the check registration feature of self service squadding for member numbers, and bulklookup.html to create my additional reports. When I'm registering people, their current classifications are either already in my masternames.db (which I update monthly) or I verify the competitor's class individually when I'm keying one in new to my system.

[Skydiver]

As somebody pointed out to me in another thread, it maybe easier to just look inside the latest ez_update_class.txt: manually searching or writing a simple script will work.

[wgnoyes]

Well, or you could just read that same file into ezwinscore and update your match and/or masternames.db. But I've opened it up before with excel myself.

[Skydiver]

You also don't need to send Sedro Woolley a list of your competitors anymore for verification; you can do that yourself with self-service squadding, even if you're not actually using it to squad your match. Go into ezwinscore and select the "online squadding" tab in "competitor registration" and press the "export squadding" cmdbutton. This will create a file called upload_squadding.txt. Then goto http://uspsa.org/squadding and click on "check match registration member numbers". Give him the file you created out of ezwinscore and he'll give you back an exception list showing who is expired and who has had their member numbers change.

Bulklookup is not actually supported anymore, but I keep it running (I had to add code to make it report on singlestack) because it just seems so useful and also I would have no other way of creating my checkin lists.

The check registration member numbers only shows expiration dates. It doesn't seem to return the classifications like your bulklookup.html did.

Is there a replacement for what bulklookup.html? Right now it looks like I can do lookups one by one using http://www.uspsa.org/cgi-bin/db_lookup_class.cgi?number=xxxxxx

With the new USPSA.org website, bulkloop.html, and db_lookup_class.cgi?number=xxxxx seem to be gone as well. I tried following the instruction above about using online squadding, but I can't seem to find the button for "check match registration member numbers"

Is there a recommended way to check USPSA membership?

[Skydiver]

You also don't need to send Sedro Woolley a list of your competitors anymore for verification; you can do that yourself with self-service squadding, even if you're not actually using it to squad your match. Go into ezwinscore and select the "online squadding" tab in "competitor registration" and press the "export squadding" cmdbutton. This will create a file called upload_squadding.txt. Then goto http://uspsa.org/squadding and click on "check match registration member numbers". Give him the file you created out of ezwinscore and he'll give you back an exception list showing who is expired and who has had their member numbers change.

Bulklookup is not actually supported anymore, but I keep it running (I had to add code to make it report on singlestack) because it just seems so useful and also I would have no other way of creating my checkin lists.

The check registration member numbers only shows expiration dates. It doesn't seem to return the classifications like your bulklookup.html did.

Is there a replacement for what bulklookup.html? Right now it looks like I can do lookups one by one using http://www.uspsa.org/cgi-bin/db_lookup_class.cgi?number=xxxxxx

With the new USPSA.org website, bulkloop.html, and db_lookup_class.cgi?number=xxxxx seem to be gone as well. I tried following the instruction above about using online squadding, but I can't seem to find the button for "check match registration member numbers"

Is there a recommended way to check USPSA membership?

Nevermind, it looks like I found the new way at: http://www.uspsa.org/uspsa-ezwinscore-verify.php

[wgnoyes]

Yeah, but I still miss bulklookup. That was the way I could create a list showing each competitors registration particulars plus ALL of his division classifications in case he wanted to change division at signup, which there are ALWAYS some of those. Maybe I'll try to get it running again sometime.