What's going on with the lack of information?

[The Nailer™]

It's the norm across the board.  I have been a President and COB for a statewide organization of professionals.  Volunteering comes down to the right person for the right job.  The only way to keep them on board is to let them know that their hard work and efforts are appreciated.  A simple Thank You or Great Job is all it takes.  Or a special mention like Scott threw out towards Jack.  That is what matters.  When others see the volunteer get bashed they want to have nothing to do with offering their time even if they are great at what they do.  Plain and simple, positive yields positive and negative lowers morale.  It's not about money...its about appreciation.  If you want money go get another job. 

[Tracy]

I'll slam the compensation suggestion again.  Don't do it.  It doesn't work on many levels. Do a little digging on the topic of compensating volunteers and you'll discover plenty of research that has proven this technique is not successful.  In fact, it is detrimental to the power of a volunteer organization.  With that said, and supporting what's already been said here, appreciation is the best way to compensate volunteers. 

However,  over this past winter there was promise of a league info tool to help league directors input results on the web.  Obviously, the tech team didn't have time to make such a tool.  I think a simple form to enter league results/info would be really helpful to league directors.  I don't think such a tool can be made to work on this forum.  But, one should be able to create a league entry tool on the website side of kcfdc.org that would allow league directors to post a link in the forum to the generated results table. I have very limited experience in this area. But I would be willing to figure out how to do it (teach myself the needed coding skills) and work on something this coming off season. I just can't do it now.  Someone with the proper knowledge might be able to knock out something in a short period of time. *nudge nudge* 

The question is; would league directors use a league info input tool if one was available?  If so, I can at least begin to write up some specifications in preparation for off season development.  Anyone else interested in volunteering to help with this project?

[dickthediscparker]

This is something we have been "working on" for 2 years. Unfortunately, there is a lot of people who have claimed skills but no one has produced... anything. In all honesty I want the club to pay someone, a professional, to do it and do it right. It wouldn't take long to create and it wouldn't cost as much as one would think. And it would last us for years to come and be a great tool for our league directors and the people looking for the info.

[phisherman_77]

It shouldn't take much in the way of skill to write a stand alone executable that would prompt the user for numbers of players by division, and scores.  Maybe that would produce a CSV formatted file that the league director could then upload to the site?  Maybe just do some easy ASP and make a web app out of it.

I can do the stand alone piece if people want to work with me on use cases, though I think the web app would be a better choice.

[Utz]

To anyone who wants to revamp the league director process, go ahead. You Dont need to ask permission!

[kcfrisbee]

KCFDC members: The BOD is going through a transition.  Chris Timko is stepping away from volunteering for the KCFDC (after 5 plus years of service).  Chris was very proactive at contacting our league directors:  We are looking for someone to take this over for the 2014 season if interested please post here or PM me

This is a brief description of his job:

Getting league together:
•   Get your league directors.  I suggest contacting those from the year before as soon as league ends to try to get the same directors year after year.  A great league is a consistent league.  You’ll be scrambling for some leagues because it’s that way every year, but just roll with it.
•   Get your documents together.  Mostly, this is a BoD approval of the payout sheet.  For this year, we have 33% for pros, 50% for masters, 50% for ams (it’s flatter), and I think 60% for rec.  Hopefully you’ll be able to use the same one.
•   Get your league worksheet ready.  This shouldn’t change from year to year.
•   Get your KC Kash printed.  Contact Dick Parker, who has the template.  Print each denomination on different colored paper.  For each league, I give
o   50 $1
o   40 $3
o   30 $5
o   30 $7
•   Make sure to print extra KC Kash.  It helps when someone runs out.  You’ll have 9 leagues, so I suggest printing enough for 10.
•   Print 20 or so worksheets for each league.
•   Get the league directions together.  You should be able to look at mine from the past and just change a couple of words here and there.
•   Prepare the Google Doc.  This needs to be an excel spreadsheet that’s got read/write privs.  There needs to be a separate sheet for each league.  You’ll account for all the money taken in as well as the ace fund.
•   Put the league packets together. 
o   KC Kash
o   6 or so deposit slips
o   20 league worksheets
o   League instructions
o   Payout schedule
•   Get scorecards printed.  Scott Reek at DD has the template.  You can change the names on the back with the current LDs.  He should be able to work with you.
o   I printed 1200 scorecards this year (3 cards/page for a total of 400 pages).  We’ll see if that’s enough.
•   Set up a mailing list for your LDs.  It makes it easier to communicate with them.
•   Get them their stuff.
•   Keep on them!  You’ll figure out who deposits once a month and who totally spaces on it.  Trust me from experience, you do not want to account for financial stuff at the end of the year.  Every month, keep on them about depositing.
•   Good luck.  Keep thanking them.  They are a big part of the life blood of the club.

Calendar:

This is all done through Google Calendar.  I suggest putting together 5 calendars:
* KCFDC Tournament Events
* KCFDC Leagues
* KCFDC Non Tournament Events (work days, board meetings, elections, etc)
* KCFDC Pending Events
* Surrounding tournaments

Try to fill out the surrounding tournaments throughout the year.  I use these resources
* PDGA Calendar
* Iowadg.com Calendar
* KDGA.com calendar
* St. Louis club calendar

You'll get an event email from the submission form on kcfdc.org.  When you get that, block out the event int he surrounding tournaments calendar.  Once the board approves it, it will go to the KCFDC calendar.  If they chose not to, but the event will go on anyway, move it to the surrounding tournaments calendar

To anyone who wants to revamp the league director process, go ahead. You Dont need to ask permission!

[bbjon]

I'm fairly new to the sport, and have only been a club member for the past two years.  I don't have kids (just the 4 legged kind) so I probably have more "free time" than some.  I would like to volunteer but I'm not sure how.  I'm an IT guy, but I'm not a programmer, so I won't be much help to you in building an app.  I think using spreadsheets for keeping track of league scores is at least a good place to start.

Openoffice.org is a free suite of software that is compatible with MS Office.  So you don't have to spend a bunch of $$ to get MS Excel.  Almost everyone has a PC, or at least knows someone who does.  Even if you have to convert from analog score sheets within a day or two you could have at least a spreadsheet of the nights scores.  Once you have the data in an MS Excel compatible format, you can export to almost any program such as MS Access for a database where you could then run and publish reports. 

You could also utilize Office 365, or some other hosted solution, to setup a sharepoint site where these reports could be published if the current KCFDC website does not work for this sort of document sharing.  Anyway, I'm just throwing some ideas out there.  Maybe this has all been thought of before, or I'm just preaching to the choir.

Let me know how I can help, and I'll do what I can.

[Peter Bures]

As for Shawnee Mission League-

1. Yes, league has been happening for the last few months, although I was lazy about posting scores. My fault. I have mostly been updating the spreadsheet, however, and am just a tad behind on depositing money, but otherwise on track.

2. As of August, I haven't been able to get off work early enough to run league, so Steve Thimmesch has been filling in until league ends for the fall anyways. Steve has always been my go-to guy for running league if I was unable, and he's a tremendous help whenever I need help moving baskets or doing other random small jobs around the course (although Parks and Rec does most of these things themselves anyways).

3. For next year, I'd certainly be interested in staying on as both Course Coordinator and League Director for SMP; it's something I've enjoyed doing and I like being able to help out. As I mentioned before about Parks and Rec, I don't have as many responsibilities as CCs at other courses (P&R empties the trash and mows regularly, handles maintenance on baskets/signs for the most part, and they're very particular about doing any other physical improvements to the course themselves), but I like to be able to help the little that needs to be done. By next year, my work schedule should mostly back to normal and I'll be able to be there to run league.

4. Otherwise, I don't have much to add to the conversation about how leagues are run and how to improve such. I'm young and still pretty new to all of this, so I'm just on board to do my part. Once everyone figures out what is best for the leagues in the future, I'll be glad to participate however I can.


As a bit of a side note as well for next year, Rob Martin had shown interest in helping make SMP a PDGA League, which I (and many who I talked to) thought would be a great idea, and would surely help boost numbers at a very small league. Unfortunately time kind of ran short this summer/fall and there weren't enough weeks left to accommodate. I'd look forward to, early next year, do 10 weeks of PDGA League at SMP (probably once the days got long enough for 6PM starts). Not to jump the gun on those kinds of details for next year, just throwing it out there.

[robm]

A PDGA league on the west side still interests me.

[andyportwood]

A PDGA league on the west side still interests me.

LOVE this idea!!!

[jack]

I agree, I think that a PDGA league will KILL out there, and make Cliff look weak.  I hope you folks make it happen out there!  It would surely help out a lot!