[Rob Boudrie]

I found that on-line squadding worked wonderfully for A7/2004 www.uspsa.org/squadding, and the Golden Bullet seemed happy with it as well.

This removes match staff from squadding issues; means that you don't have to deal with "my squad request did not get honored, please fix it now" issues on match day; rigorously enforces the squad size limit (the on-line system does not listen to "I promise my squad will be fast and efficient"); and lets shooters re-adjust their squads up until the day you print the squadding roster. It also gives shooters an incentive to register early to get their best choice of shoot times.

[IPSCDRL]

Agree completely! Automating these types of processes can help reduce workload on match staff significantly.

[Vince Pinto]

Rob,

I mentioned your Online Squadding doo-dad to the IPSC President while we were enjoying a Cuba Libre or three last week in Bali, and he was very interested.

If you're willing to share your handiwork, the IPSC President will lavish you with the same remuneration that I receive each year, namely a bear hug and a sloppy kiss on the cheek. If you refuse, you'll get two sloppy kisses on the cheek (you have been warned).

What say you?

[redmist10]

I thought the 2004 Indiana Sectional had the best way I've seen. Squad up at the time of sign up - all online.

Host club website and contact information

If you remember how it looked and liked it, you might see who set up the web page for the application and squadding.

[Rob Boudrie]

Vince Pinto, on Dec 9 2004, 07:17 PM, said:

Rob,

I mentioned your Online Squadding doo-dad to the IPSC President while we were enjoying a Cuba Libre or three last week in Bali, and he was very interested.

If you're willing to share your handiwork, the IPSC President will lavish you with the same remuneration that I receive each year, namely a bear hug and a sloppy kiss on the cheek. If you refuse, you'll get two sloppy kisses on the cheek (you have been warned).

What say you?

Vince -

Sorry for the delay. The code is yours if you want it, and it's Linux/Apache/Mysql/PHP based so it will run on the IPSC server.

I have received a couple of negative comments about this from a couple of people:

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First Issue: Privacy

(1) Security

(2) Sometimes you don't want to shoot with someone who wants to shoot with you. If your squadding is public, unwanted followers can keep squad jumping to join you. This is especially difficult if one wishes to maintain polite relationships and not take an "in your face" approach.

My response:

We are adding a '"privacy option" on registrations. If a registration is private, the member name will show up to the public as "COMP#123", not "Joe Shooter". A match may decide if persons not making a request are squadded "private" or "public". Shooters may change their privace flag using the registration code. This
feature should be available starting next week.

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Second Issues: Lack of Super Squad

The system supports super squads. It is up to the match director to decide if there will be super squads with the match director acting as gatekeeper or pure self-serivce squadding.

Area 7 did not have super squads last year, and won't this year either. This is a decision for the Match Directorr, and I did not insist on that decision. While super squads are needed at the nationals, there is a certain appeal to treating all competitors regardless of competetive ranking identically.

Comments on this issue are welcome.

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And finally....

This system is optional for match directors. If you like it, tell the MD's. If you don't like it and prefer the match squad shooters manually, let them know that as well.