LSC Certification Tracking Module.

Transcription

1 LSC Certification Tracking Module. Go to the USA Swimming web site. Sign in to your linked account and go to Volunteers: Officials: Officials Tracking. The LSC Certification Modules are LSC Certifications and the LSC Admin sub levels Certification Level and Certification Setup. These Modules are available to LSC Officials Chairs and those they nominate to have the same level of access authority*. INITIAL SETUP Check list of things for the LSC Officials Committee to consider before starting to load data into the LSC Certification Tracking Module the first time! What positions will be available for your LSC certification? The module allows for Stroke & Turn Judge (ST), Chief Judge (CJ), Starter (SR), Referee/Deck Referee (DR), Administrative Referee (AR), Meet Referee (MR), Open Water Referee (OR), Open Water Judge (OJ), Meet Director (MD), Clerk of Course (CC), Announcer (AN), Timing Judge (TJ), Computer Operator (CO), Timing Equipment Operator (TO) and Timer (TI). Although you can track any or all of these for an official the certification card will only show the first seven (7) positions used (in the order listed) for an official. What levels of Certification will you use? The default levels are AP Apprentice and Q Qualified. You may change them, delete them or add others (not required). You can also establish certification levels for Instructor/Evaluators (or whatever you want) independently of position certification levels. (You can also incorporate those in your certification level hierarchy like Pacific Swimming does L1 Trainee, L2 Qualified, L3 Experienced, L4 Zone Leadership, L5 Pacific Leadership. They include instructor authority in their level definitions. One comment on Instructor/Evaluator levels consider using it. A future OTS enhancement may probably be to add LSC evaluations. Separate Instructor/Evaluator levels may be used to control access to this function if it is implemented. What dates you are going to use as the initial date for LSC certification? The system will default to the day it is entered. The date can be changed individually for each position. This will be the most tedious part of the initial setup. It is probably important to give your officials recognition for the time they have served in each position and create at least an approximate history.if your LSC has detailed records it ll be relatively easy to enter the data. If not, you may want to create a spreadsheet and apply approximation dates before you start. You may even want to ask your officials when they were first certified in each position. Are you going to list all certified positions for an official, eg. ST, SR, DR, MR (recommended); or just the highest? By showing all, you will create history for the official. What date you are going to use as the expiration date for our current LSC Certifications? That gets entered in the setup and will automatically populate (but is editable) the certifications assignment page. What date you are going to change over to the next certification cycle? Example if all of your certifications expire 12/31/09 at some point (maybe 7/1/09) you are going to say that officials who gain a certification do not need to recertify in the current cycle - their new certifications are extended to the next cycle. For the initial load you ll set it to the current expiration date. You ll just need to remember to set it again for your LSCs next cycle. How many months after an official s certification expires, will the qualifications still show up on the Officials LSC Certification Card? Once the certifications expire, they will turn red in the system. You can select to have them continue to show up on the card for a number of months (from 0 to 30) after they expire. Zero, 1, 2 or 3 months is suggested. Does your LSC want to print and distribute LSC certification cards or use the and My Certification Card functions in the OTS? National certifications will be available to all officials. LSCs can choose to suppress the LSC card function. * See OTS Access Authority at the end of this manual. June 2009 Page 1 of 12

2 INITIAL SETUP Log in using your Linked Account and go Volunteers -> Officials -> Ofdficials Tracking Certification Level Setup - Go to Certification Level under LSC Admin. LSCs have the flexibility to set various levels for position certifications. The levels apply to all positions. They also may set instructor/evaluator levels independent of the certification levels. The default certification levels are ap - Apprentice and Q - Qualified. These may be deleted, changed or added to. Initial Load of LSC Officials. To edit: click on Edit under Options. Level Order: should usually reflect the progression order through a position. The lowest numbered level is the default level and is automatically loaded when an official starts in a new position (see LSC Certifications - later). Level Abbreviations: - any unique characters, except leading with N or n, may be used. Level Description: Up to 20 characters may be used. Hint: When entering officials into the database the system defaults to assigning them the lowest training/certification level used by the LSC for their certifications. The initial system settings are Apprentice for level 1 and Qualified for level 2. Assuming these levels are used by the LSC (they may be changed, or added to), when a position is initially selected for an individual, the system will default to assigning the individual as an Apprentice in that position. This approach makes sense when the LSC module is used on an ongoing basis. When initially loading officials into the database the system default will most likely result in more work because most of the individuals being entered are probably not apprentices, but rather certified officials. Following from this same example, Qualified could still be set at level 2, while Apprentice could be set at level 3. The system will then default to assigning officials as being Qualified in the selected positions. Once the initial load of LSC officials is completed, Apprentice could then be reset to Level 1. For the INITIAL LOAD, if apprentice or Trainee is used as the LSCs initial level in a position, it may be useful to temporarily set that level at a high Level Order and make the most common level for current officials say Qualified - with the lowest Level Order number. This will reduce the keystrokes needed to load the system the first time. The level order can be adjusted back after the initial load is completed. June 2009 Page 2 of 12

3 An example setup for initially loading officials into the system. Note: Once a level is assigned to an official the level abbreviation and description cannot be deleted. However, they can be edited and the changes will be reflected in all places where it is in use. Eg The LSC decides it would rather use L2 - Level 2 for a Q Qualified official all Q s will change to L2 and all Qualifieds will change to Level 2. Levels may be added. Level Abbreviations mat not start with N or n. Also upper and lowercase letter are considered the same, although they will display the way you enter them. Instructor/Evaluator Levels may be used and added. The Level Order for these is independent of the Certification Level level order. After saving the new levels are added to the Certification Levels table. Note: After the Initial Load, the Level Order can be revised to put the normal starting Level Type back to the lowest order number, eg edit 5 back to 1 for ap. This will facilitate adding new officials and managing new certifications for Existing officials. Certification Settings: Click on Certification Setup under LSC Admin. Set the default certification expiry date for new and renewing certifications. Selecting Blank will mean the date will need to be entered each time a record is updated. Certification Card Settings: If your LSC does not want officials to have access to their LSC Certification Card via the USA Swimming web page, uncheck the box. If your LSC would like to include a grace period for the number of months that a certification can be printed on the card - set it here. (Although it won t show on the card, the full record is retained in the OTS and can still be edited.) Always Save after any changes. Preview the Sample Card. June 2009 Page 3 of 12

4 The blank certification card can be previewed. It is sized to print on a standard business card blank and can be folded to show LSC Certifications on one side and any National Certifications on the other. Note: the default LSC logo is the USA Swimming Logo. To upload a custom LSC logo it ll need to be in.gif,.jpg or.bmp format and less than about 640 k in size. Browse for the file, and then Save it to upload it to the USA Swimming website. (640 k files may take some time to upload!) The uploaded image will show after it is saved..and can be viewed as it will appear on the card when Preview Sample Card is selected. (The scroll bar at the right of the screen may need to be used to bring the image back into the viewing area.) June 2009 Page 4 of 12

5 ADDING OFFICILS to the LSC MODULE To load LSC Officials into the OTS, select LSC Certifications. - Your LSC will be the default LSC. Then search for officials. For initial data loading a wild card search using alphabetical ranges is suggested, eg. a*,b* to return all a s and b s. Up to about 20 last names can be used each time in this search field. As with most searches in the OTS, it is best to use the minimum number of search parameters that will return what is needed. Most parameters are and rather than or making the search requirements too specific if many are used. To find a specific official, use just the Last Name, or enough of it plus * to return a few possibilities to choose from. Some officials may not be registered in SWIMs as Non-Athlete Official. They can still be found and processed by changing Non-Athlete Type to All. However, all officials also return coaches, administrators, officials, coaches and others who meet the search criteria will be returned. Note: Officials recorded in SWIMs with only the Other designation will not have access to the OTS and they may not be selectable for some reports. Select the official to edit. The edit screen for the official will be shown. June 2009 Page 5 of 12

6 Check the boxes for the official s certified positions. Then click on Add/Upgrade Selected Positions. As many of these positions as the LSC LSC decides to certify may be selected. All will show up in the record and can be managed, however, only the first 7 selected for an individual will show up on their card. The positions will be added to the official s record. The LSC Certification Level for each position will be entered at the lowest level set up in LSC Administration. The Effective Date will be today s date. The date can be edited by overtyping or using the calendar. (It is suggested that some approximation of the actual date be entered for each position to create some history). The Expiration Date will be the date set up in LSC Administration. Save the data. If the record is now complete, Save and return to Search Results to access the next official. If one or more positions have a higher level than the default they may be reset using the drop down selections, or by first Saving and then selecting and Upgrading those positions again (creates more history). Other positions may be added after saving. When the record for the official is complete select and click the appropriate Save buttons. For the Initial Load clicking the Save and Return to Search Results is probably the best option. Click Save if subsequent levels or other positions need to be added. June 2009 Page 6 of 12

7 To reflect an history of an official moving from, say, apprentice to qualified to experienced after the initial positions and levels are entered and Saved select positions to be upgraded or added. Click on Add/Upgrade Selected Positions. They will be added to the file, each below the first entry for the position, with the next level showing. The drop down edit boxes will be available to adjust them if necessary. Note: The Effective Date must be later than the effective date for the previous level. The Effective Date determines which level for a position shows on an official s certification card. If an official is moved from a higher level to a lower level, Add/Upgrade the position then use the drop down to select the lower level making sure the Effective Date is later than the previous level. Save and return to Search Results when editing is finished. The check boxes can be used to send an to the official and, or, add the record to the card printing queue. Selecting Save and return to Search Results returns to the list so that another official can be selected to work on. Note: The last action for the official is shown. A check box is available to add officials with updated files to the Card Queue. June 2009 Page 7 of 12

8 The Card Queue allows two things: - Printing revised cards for officials if the LSC doesn t want to use the ed card or My Certification Card options. - Pre-reviewing the cards that do go out. Other output options are available. REPORTS Report options have been updated to accommodate LSC Certifications and to increase flexibility. Officials Detail Report June 2009 Page 8 of 12

9 You may search for individual, or select a number of, officials. Your LSC is the default if you want all listed. Add other LSCs if you wish. If you don t use the LSC Module, change the Certifications Expiring default to Ignore. Other selection filters. Use them if you are looking for officials with specific qualifications. Output Options. June 2009 Page 9 of 12

10 You can get info on officials from other LSCs. There are limitations on the scope of information returned from other LSCs. Returning by Current Registration LSC will return all officials in those LSCs who meet other filter selections. Note: if Current Registration LSC and Official are both set to Ignore, All USA Swimming Officials meeting selection filter criteria will be returned! There could be hundreds of pages. You may also select a group of officials to report on. Click on Select Officials to go to the officials search page. You can search using names, wildcards, LSC, etc. to build a list of officials. As always, use the least number of selection parameters needed to find those you want. Then click on Search. Keep - Searching, - Selecting and - Adding Selected Officials to the list. When Complete Return to Officials Detail Report Parameters. You can also return to the search to add more if you wish. June 2009 Page 10 of 12

11 Select the type of report. The Officials Participation Evaluation Report includes detail on current LSC and National certifications held by the official. You may select other output types if you wish. The default is.pdf. Note: exporting to CSV format (comma separated variables) returns official data, one line per official, and may exceed the capacity of some versions of excel if all certified positions are selected.) Officials Contact Information report returns and phone data recorded in SWIMs and other addresses used with a linked account, if different. It also returns a summary of National and LSC certifications, if they are in the system and selected for output. It does not show addresses entered into meets, applications or activities. June 2009 Page 11 of 12

12 June 2009 Page 12 of 12