A Day in Life of a USPSA Club Match Director

[CHA-LEE]

I have found that the duration of setup time is dramatically affected by the below factors.

(1) Having a dedicated resource that has a vested interest in the stage they are setting up dramatically reduces the "How do I put this jigsaw puzzle together" thinking time. I have my board members create and submit the stages for the match a week before the start of the match. That way I can vet them for being legal, polish the verbiage of the start/procedure, and point out potential issues. Doing this allows the setup crew to hit the ground running with a solid action plan to deploy for their stage.

(2) Since we vet the stages in the days before the match we try our best to minimize the total props needed for the stage. There is no need to have a small village worth of walls, barrels, or whatever else to make a fun and challenging stage. Doing this also allows us to inventory what props we are using for the match to make sure we don't use more than we have. Lastly, if the picture in the WSB matches what is needed for the stage, such as 2 walls, 10 target stands, etc, then you will end up with an accurate population of props for the stage verses having to go back to get more props half way through the setup or taking too many props and then the other stages can't be completed because there are not enough.

(3) Properly distributing and balancing the "Worker Bee's" across the stages is key. I have found that the optimal setup team per stage is about 3 - 4 people. Below that and there isn't enough sweat equity to get the stage setup quickly. Above that and there is too much standing around by the workers "Waiting" for something to do. At the start of setup, I work towards getting 3 - 4 people on each stage. If a stage more than 4 people I will pull those extra people off and send them to another stage that is short handed.

(4) Working on all stages at the same time is WAY MORE efficient than trying to wrangle 10 - 20 people all trying to setup one stage at a time. Most clubs that I have seen take an excessive amount of time setting up are usually trying to do the "One at a Time" setup process. The reality is that there is only so much that can be done at any one given time. For example, you need to lay out the walls, targets, and fault line to double check placement or access to targets before ANYTHING can be nailed down. When you setup one stage at a time, the "Nailers" are standing around waiting for the props to be placed or tweaked before they can nail anything down. The "Nailers" standing around waiting to nail stuff could just as easily be working on another stage or task at the same time.

(5) Empowering your setup crew to deal with the stage setup as they see fit and make decisions on their own is also a very good way of speeding up the setup time. What ends up on the ground may not look exactly what the picture shows on paper, but as long as the stage has a legal presentation of targets, maintains safe angles of fire, and matches the target count as well as start position requirements of the WSB, that is good enough. I see way too many stage designers or match directors trying to micro manage the setup of the stages so what is physically setup exactly matches what is shown on the drawing. Sure we all want things to be accurate, but in the end the stage should be testing specific or general shooting, movement or gun handling skills. If the stage successfully tests those skills, then the objective has been achieved regardless of it turning out exactly like the drawing or not. Some of the best and funnest stages I have ever setup have been created by simply throwing up some props that somewhat matches the drawing then move targets or visual blockers around to eliminate any possible shoot through issues, or unsafe angles of fire.

[whitedog]

Although the likelihood of ever shooting at yer facility is slim, thank you for all you do to keep it running. I have limited knowledge of MD duties....and I realize it's more than people imagine.

Oh, and thanks Sarge for all you do. He's my local MD.

[Graham Smith]

(1) Having a dedicated resource that has a vested interest in the stage they are setting up dramatically reduces the "How do I put this jigsaw puzzle together" thinking time

Without any doubt, this is the most important thing, and it's something that we lack. There are generally only 2 - 3 people doing stage designs for a match and one of those is the MD, who really cannot afford to tie themselves to one stage during setup.

Our normal routine is that there are about 5 - 6 people with enough experience that they can be given a setup sheet, briefed, and turned loose. Additional people are distributed to help. The MD then runs around answering questions and pointing things out. Then there are about 3 people who can be counted on to walk the stage and find the "Oh sh!t's" that people missed seeing and fix those. Then the MD makes a final walk through, invoking the Old Gods to look kindly upon the stages.

Edited June 4, 2015 by Graham Smith

[Nimitz]

we're lucky at my club that one of the rules of the AA is that match setup takes priority the week of a match. while we have the authority to kick someone out of a bay to do match setup we don't do that unless there are unusual circumstances ... I try to work around shooters already in bays during setup but as a last resort I'll revert to having folks pack up .... luckily, on most afternoons in Florida its too hot to be shooting so the bays are usually empty so there is no issue.

with 2 people helping i can setup a 6-stage SC match in under 2 hrs .... everyone breaks down the stage they finish on so cleanup is always quick and never an issue ...

There is just no way we could do USPSA match setup the way you all do although it sounds like it works well ....

[IronicTwitch]

Great background for people new to the sport! The amount of volunteer time by the select few so we can all enjoy a little friendly competition. We definitely should find ways to be more efficient and, more importantly, find ways to involve more members to share the work load. Thanks for starting the discussion! Let's keep the ideas going for creating a more lean match setup and scoring.

[OUshooter]

It sounds like some of you folks are truly blessed with lots of help. Ours varies but do have some awesome help. If you can pull off setup of 6-7 stages in 3hrs that is awesome. So yeah hug your local MD.

[Graham Smith]

Now, on to the issue of, "The job isn't finished until the paperwork is done."

As I noted, we can usually get enough people out early to help with setup so that we can start pretty much on schedule with a minimum of wailing and gnashing of teeth by the MD. Plus, we have a Cracker Jack team doing registration and squadding. But it's what comes before and after that's the real time eater.

One of the things that many clubs don't have is someone to deal with the scoring afterwards. Using Practiscore can help tremendously, but as you can see from Cha-Lee's original post, there is still a lot of work to do after the match. Having one or two people who are responsible for the entire registration and scoring process (start to finish) is one of the most desirable things, but also one of the hardest things to manage.

[Mark R]

.... We definitely should find ways to be more efficient and.... Let's keep the ideas going for creating a more lean match setup and scoring.

What I have done at our range is to have sufficient props storing walls, barrels, fault lines and target stands at each bay. Barrels are stored on sides of bay, walls are strapped to the side of the carports, fault lines and nails are stored under carport shelves, and target stands and sticks are stored under the middle of the carports. Only thing we move to and from a storage shed is steel and moving targets. I even have a crowbar for tear down located at each bay. Hammers for setup will be placed at each bay soon.

[CHA-LEE]

Now, on to the issue of, "The job isn't finished until the paperwork is done."

As I noted, we can usually get enough people out early to help with setup so that we can start pretty much on schedule with a minimum of wailing and gnashing of teeth by the MD. Plus, we have a Cracker Jack team doing registration and squadding. But it's what comes before and after that's the real time eater.

One of the things that many clubs don't have is someone to deal with the scoring afterwards. Using Practiscore can help tremendously, but as you can see from Cha-Lee's original post, there is still a lot of work to do after the match. Having one or two people who are responsible for the entire registration and scoring process (start to finish) is one of the most desirable things, but also one of the hardest things to manage.

To help with the total match scoring support from start to finish, I put in the effort to create a step by step procedure on how to do the scoring process. This procedure is written in a way that it can be handed to ANYONE who can read and run a Windows PC. It took me a few days to compile the procedure and a few iterations of updates to account for things I missed or needed further clarification. But this procedure has been a god send in insuring that a "Stand In" score keeper can be put into place by simply giving them the scoring gear and handing them the procedure. This procedure fully defines how MY club specifically performs the scoring process as we still use EzWinScore for doing the registration and compiling the results and activity reports. I have given this procedure to other Colorado clubs to help them successfully deploy an EzWinScore + Practiscore type of scoring process. But I also tell them to update the procedure to fit their unique process if needed to make it 100% solid process that can be followed by anyone thrown into the task of scoring their matches.

If you want the procedure PM me your e-mail address and I will send it your way. Just keep in mind that it is defining the process that MY club uses. You may need to tweak it to match what YOUR club does from a scoring perspective. At a bare minimum it would serve as a good template or format to use for defining your own clubs unique match scoring process.

[MarkCO]

.... We definitely should find ways to be more efficient and.... Let's keep the ideas going for creating a more lean match setup and scoring.

What I have done at our range is to have sufficient props storing walls, barrels, fault lines and target stands at each bay. Barrels are stored on sides of bay, walls are strapped to the side of the carports, fault lines and nails are stored under carport shelves, and target stands and sticks are stored under the middle of the carports. Only thing we move to and from a storage shed is steel and moving targets. I even have a crowbar for tear down located at each bay. Hammers for setup will be placed at each bay soon.

At my home range, that stuff would be shot up, ruined or gone within a few weeks. We have actually had people climb into a locked fenced in yard and take props and targets out.

[jester121]

Nice write up.

I'm curious about your use of the "walk-in slots" -- would it not be easier to just enter those people's full registration on your master Practiscore device, with their name/division/class? All that info will pop nicely into EZWin when you're done, and once if they're already in your Practiscore master names database all the info auto populates. Then you just dump the scores, import into EZWin, and you're done. (Once in a while I run into the "Your EZWin numbers are not aligned" error, just export both scores and registration from PS, create a new match in EZWin, and import stages, registration, and scores in that order. You don't need squad info to calculate results and generate webfile.txt and activity files to upload to HQ).

[CHA-LEE]

Nice write up.

I'm curious about your use of the "walk-in slots" -- would it not be easier to just enter those people's full registration on your master Practiscore device, with their name/division/class? All that info will pop nicely into EZWin when you're done, and once if they're already in your Practiscore master names database all the info auto populates. Then you just dump the scores, import into EZWin, and you're done. (Once in a while I run into the "Your EZWin numbers are not aligned" error, just export both scores and registration from PS, create a new match in EZWin, and import stages, registration, and scores in that order. You don't need squad info to calculate results and generate webfile.txt and activity files to upload to HQ).

Since we create the registration in EzWinScore, any "Screwing Around" with the registration at the Practiscore level leads to inconsistent problems at the EzWinScore level when we try to import the results. It is a pain in the butt to use EzWinScore and move stuff back and forth. But it works for now. We may end up switching over to 100% Practiscore in the future but I really don't want to make that leap until USPSA "Officially" makes Practiscore their scoring software of choice. Currently USPSA and Practiscore are still separate entities that don't really work together proactively. That makes me a little leery of putting all of my scoring eggs in the Practiscore basket.

[euxx]

Curious, what kind of problems with export to ezws?

[Graham Smith]

To help with the total match scoring support from start to finish, I put in the effort to create a step by step procedure on how to do the scoring process. This procedure is written in a way that it can be handed to ANYONE who can read and run a Windows PC. It took me a few days to compile the procedure and a few iterations of updates to account for things I missed or needed further clarification. But this procedure has been a god send in insuring that a "Stand In" score keeper can be put into place by simply giving them the scoring gear and handing them the procedure. This procedure fully defines how MY club specifically performs the scoring process as we still use EzWinScore for doing the registration and compiling the results and activity reports. I have given this procedure to other Colorado clubs to help them successfully deploy an EzWinScore + Practiscore type of scoring process. But I also tell them to update the procedure to fit their unique process if needed to make it 100% solid process that can be followed by anyone thrown into the task of scoring their matches.

I did the same and spent the last 4 matches editing and refining the instructions to give to the fellow who took my place and found that, despite that, he had a lot of trouble. I even passed on to him a NetBook that was all setup with EzWinScore and everything he needed.

This is a person who works with computers and has more than adequate skills. But he and I don't think the same way and you need to have worked with both EZWS and PS for a while to start to understand how the two can easily work together. He is getting there but it's been a struggle for him.

Here's the thing, I have no doubt that I had a good system. Or that you have a good system. Or that many other clubs have good systems. But they are all our systems that we have setup to suit the way we think things should be done. It's really tough for someone unfamiliar with all of this to just pickup what we have uniquely created and be comfortable with it. We think about it differently because we spend so much time with it. But to someone who hasn't, the mental links that we have formed between all the pieces don't exist and they see all the gaps that our experience fills in.

Of course, this is all just my opinion and conjecture which is worth a big fat zero on the open market.

[CHA-LEE]

Graham> If your procedure can't be picked up by anyone and successfully executed by simply following the procedures then it's not detailed enough. Let me ask you this, how many pages is your procedure?

[CHA-LEE]

Curious, what kind of problems with export to ezws?

Mostly the competitor numbers don't line up or match. But a close second is uncontrolled editing of the practiscore data usually leads to something else getting jacked up in the match, stage, or shooter config. I have had the best luck with mandating that NO EDITS be made at the practiscore level. Doing this has eliminated virtually all strange issues when trying to sync or import data back into EzWinScore.

That and a shooter being called "Walkin45" all day is a good motivator for them to show up early next time so they can be called by their name instead of a walkin. Squad mockery is a good motivator to learn lessons most of the time.

[euxx]

Charlie, if you import your match results and updated/edited registration and stages into a new blank match in ezws, then you don't need to worry about matching anything.

[CHA-LEE]

I understand that, but it's inefficent and confusing to setup 1 match in EzWinScore to do registration then setup another one to successfully import the registration, stages, and scores. It's easier for us to leverage the EzWinScore created Walkin's then not screw around with the registration in practiscore.

We use Nooks for all of the practiscore stuff and inputting match registration on those things is painful. If we do switch 100% over to practiscore we will get a normal android or iOS tablet for registration.

I understand that there are different ways of doing the registration and scoring stuff. That isn't in question. The point I was trying to make is to create a 100% documented procedure for YOUR specific scoring process so it can be handed off and deployed with success and minimal guidance needed. The process we currently use may not be optimal, but it works and is 100% documented so anyone can do it if needed.

[Nimitz]

we are getting ready to be able to do electronic scoring for my SC matches so I'm in the process of writing up detailed instructions for how to enter in scores. these laminated instructions will be in each small tackle box signed out to a squad. in the box is a Nook, card, timer & 2 cans of paint.

the first line of the instruction card says:

"To turn on the Nook .... "

if someone who has never shot a match can't follow the instructions to enter shooter scores it's not detailed enough. You cannot make any assumptions about what the scorer may or may not know or you'll be spending your entire day as MD showing folks how to use them instead of shooting ...

[CHA-LEE]

Just an FYI, My match scoring procedure is 9 full pages of step by step procedures. Yes it requires that quantity and detail of procedure steps to make it "Monkey Proof".

[Graham Smith]

The procedure I wrote is rather more of a 3 page outline than a narrative and it was written for someone who has a fair amount of experience with software. It's also geared more toward EZWS <--> Practiscore than it is a detailed instruction sheet on how to run EZWS since there's a fair amount of that already.

It sounds like yours is much more inclusive. It might be instructive to others if you could post that as a PDF.

[euxx]

I understand that, but it's inefficent and confusing to setup 1 match in EzWinScore to do registration then setup another one to successfully import the registration, stages, and scores. It's easier for us to leverage the EzWinScore created Walkin's then not screw around with the registration in practiscore.

You don't have to use PS for registration if your process is working for you 9ezws, excel spreadsheet, online registration, etc).

I'm just saying it is easier to re-import a whole new match into ezws, instead of merging-in the results. This way it doesn't matter if it was previously created in ezws or not.

[CHA-LEE]

The procedure I wrote is rather more of a 3 page outline than a narrative and it was written for someone who has a fair amount of experience with software. It's also geared more toward EZWS <--> Practiscore than it is a detailed instruction sheet on how to run EZWS since there's a fair amount of that already.

It sounds like yours is much more inclusive. It might be instructive to others if you could post that as a PDF.

If you want to hand over the scoring process to someone else, you can't simply have an "outline" and expect them to be successful. There is too much left to interpretation or experience which can and will trip people up. The only way to do it properly is a step by step, spoon feed every single detail, type of procedure. I have attached my procedure to this post in a .pdf format as you requested. If you want the Word document version shoot me a PM with your e-mail address.

EzWinScore to Nook Scoring Procedure 10-8-2013.pdf

[Graham Smith]

Outline is, perhaps, an understatement. Mine looks somewhat like yours but doesn't cover the match setup as detailed as you do since it was written for someone who was, or should have been, somewhat familiar with EZWS. Also, I used screen shots in place of some verbiage.

I can see some definite differences in how we set things up, but you certainly have a thorough process. And the important thing is that it works for you.

[Mark R]

Ouch...Cha-lee...that brought back some painful memories.

I've moved on to Practiscore 100% and haven't looked back. I use clubs.practiscore.com for pre-registration, use the pin to load registration into the master (iPad Mini), use an iOS iPad Mini to register walk-ons during sign-in, and sync to Nooks for scoring devices. Shoot the match, then sync back scores to the master after the match and create a file to send to USPSA for classifier along with reshoots. Scores get posted to our web site, practiscore, and USPSA that evening when I get around to it.