My club recently became a USCF affiliate, with the idea that we could start running small club tournaments that were USCF rated. I agreed to be Club TD, and I’m currently reading the USCF rulebook.
Anyway, my problem isn’t so much with the rulebook, as it is trying to figure out the TD/Affiliate Support area of the website. I’m trying to enter details for my club’s first tournament, and I clicked on the Tournament Rating Reports link, and then the ‘Enter New Tournament’ button, and began to enter information. But I’m getting a strange SQL error when I try to save it. Am I doing things wrong, or is entering tournament info always been problematic?
Can anyone give me some suggestions? Is there a guide to setting up tournaments, etc. that I can follow?
You’re going to have to provide more details than just ‘strange SQL errors’ if you want assistance. You can email them to mnolan@uschess.org.
There are dozens of TDs who have entered thousands of tournaments online.
You might try going to the80-20td.com/ and viewing the video tutorials there. I don’t know that Tim has updated them since the forms changed in January, but the overall concepts should still be valid.
Well…no current updates, but one is coming soon. Just as I was about to update I was informed that some new entry info would be needed for FIDE events with more than one schedule. I suspect I will have to make a multi part (3-part?) video about the entire experience (Regular-FIDE, one schedule-FIDE, multi schedule FIDE ). My intention is to do that soon.
I can reproduce the problem. It comes from trying to do a ‘save’ before supplying a tournament ending date.
That should be something I can trap prior to the SQL call. It probably makes more sense to reject the save rather than try to guess an appropriate tournament ending date.
I found it useful as a TD to build a binder with important things you need for a tournament or to run a club. This binder should hold masters of tournament forms, details on how to set clocks, rules updates, tournament checklists, logos and letterheads, templates for flyers, information about the software you are using, and any other interesting tidbit you find from the internet or these forums. Examples of this would be a list of Tim Just’s videos on how to use the TD/Affiliate support area. Use sheet protectors to hold the major stuff. Believe me that binder has come in handy on more than one occasion when we ran out of scoresheets, pairing sheets, and the like.
Pick up older copies of the Rulebook, if you can find them to compare rules then and now. Some day you will be taking a test for Local TD. Look at these books and various forums where rules and situations are being discussed. What is talked about here may become a new rule or a revision to an existing rule. If you are really ambitious, try to volunteer and assist at larger events to get experience. Most TDs will welcome the help and will be glad to explain pitfalls or gray areas they have faced and tricks of the trade that are not in the Rulebook.
About a year ago I did just that, and found all of them without too much trouble. What surprised me was that I found new copies (ie, not used) of the 4th edition still being sold in some places, with no caveat that this isn’t the most current version.
At a tournament I had all of the rulebooks sitting in a pile next to my other TD stuff. A player came over and picked up the 5th edition and said, “Oh, did they come out with a new Rulebook?”
Some of the more active and current TDs in CO (at least 10 tournament chief slots or section chief slots in the past year) are:
LTD 10406137 BARDWICK, TODD A
CTD 12805139 BEKKEDAHL, ZACHARY ALLAN
LTD 10224098 BROWN, DEAN W
ANTD 10273030 BUCHANAN, RICHARD W
LTD 12044640 COVINGTON, M PAUL
LTD 10267811 DEMING, FRANK A (e-mail given in TD/A)
CTD 12807970 KULLBACK, PAUL
LTD 12510521 MAIER, JERRY (e-mail given in TD/A)
LTD 12854867 NELSON, THOMAS (e-mail given in TD/A)
LTD 10276195 SIMMONS, CURTIS LEE (e-mail given in TD/A)
LTD 12835115 SPELL, FRED ERIC
Scholastic tournaments are often (not always) happy to have volunteer TDs that want to learn the ropes.
One caveat if you opt to read older rulebooks. Make sure you remember the current version of a rule when they disagree.
Hi Ken, I’m also a TD (based in Denver). If you don’t know some of the guys that Jeff listed I can connect them with you. PM me with your town and I may know some more folks in your area as well.