Job Vacancies - by: Paul Kelley
Dear Members, the Sailing Committee is currently looking to recruit persons to take on the below roles from Mark Elkington, who is wanting to dilute and reduce the list of his responsibilities and work load . If you would like to be a little more involved with supporting the club, pleased do have a read through the roles and descriptions below and have a think . None of the below roles require any regular commitment but perhaps only a few hours in total with anyone year . Please be reassured, the RBI’s no life long commitment and we certainly do not expect you to sign any long term contact . If anyone would like have a go, even if only for year, we would indeed be extremely grateful to you for your help - I certainly know Mark will be more than happy to advise and support anyone who would like to have a go .
With very many thanks,
Paul Kelley and Mark Elkington .
Item 1 - RYA PY Returns
Needs to be done once per year in November. I have some software that processes our results data and produces some files that PYS Online (the RYA's PY database) can read. You need to do two or three runs of the software to process the previous 12 months of results then upload the resulting output files to PYS Online. I usually then use PYS Online to produce its assessment of our local handicaps using the past three year's data and pass it on to the Sailing Committee.
It takes less than an hour to do all this - can be done from home using any PC with a browser and a broadband connection.
Item 2 - Archiving Results
I have been keeping archives of the results since we started producing the results using raceManager in 2010. I keep the individual results files organised by year and a consolidated database file of every competitor finished. The latter is useful if the club wants to answer questions about turnouts etc.
This job needs doing once per year in January and typically takes a couple of hours to collect files and move them to an archive. Again, this job can be done from home using any PC with a browser and a broadband connection. Involves moving files on the SYC server and pulling data records from racemanager database - so need to be familiar or willing to learn the basics for tools like phpmyadmin and winscp.
Would be a good thing to combine with Item 1
Item 5 - Managing Class and Competitor information
Racemanager currently has 133 active classes defined and over 500 competitors. Typically, a couple of the new classes will appear each year, and a couple will no longer be active. This task involves making sure that all classes that are currently sailed at SYC are correctly defined (including this year's published RYA PY number and the corresponding Great Lakes PY number) and that each class will be allocated to the correct fleet for each of our race formats (club series, trophy race etc.). I have software that will check the allocation for every class for you.
For the competitor records the job mostly involves a once-a-year job to remove competitor records that are no longer needed (boats or people have left the club). Occasionally you may need to investigate member queries about their competitor record(s).
This job can be done from home using any PC with a browser and a broadband connection. You work with the database records using the racemanager administration system which is pretty straightforward to use - it does not require any database administration knowledge. It will take about an hour to update the PY numbers for all classes in March and about the same time to do the Great Lakes update a month before the Steamer. The Great Lakes job may go away if we decide to switch to using the RYA PY numbers for the Steamer. The rationalisation of the competitor records is done in January each year and will take no more than 2 hours. The other maintenance jobs will typically require less than 30 minutes a month - and often 0 minutes per month.
Items 3 and 4 - Open Events Administration
This task is a bit harder to define because I haven't finished the software for the new events system yet. I expect to finish it in the first half of 2025 and would like to get at least one other person involved in the administration for our open events. Currently Alistair Glen is the overall coordinator and makes sure each event follows the "SYC process" for open events to ensure that we run high quality events. I do the administration of the event websites that provide access to the race documents, online entries, etc. This is done through an events administration system I am working on - you do not need to know how to design or develop websites. I would like at least one other person to get involved in this task in 2025 to share the load with me, and then bring on another person ready for 2026 where my role would just be providing support as necessary.
This job can be done from home using any PC with a browser and a broadband connection. The effort involved depends on the number of events we are running each - typically between 3 and 6. One day opens would typically take 3-4 hours total administration over the 4 weeks running up to the event. I'm hoping to reduce this by developing a "copy" event function - as we tend to run similar events each year. As well as the system administration it will involve liaising with Alistair and the relevant fleet captain(s) via email.
Happy to answer any questions you have. None of these individually are in any way onerous jobs, and I will always provide support if needed.
With very many thanks,
Paul Kelley and Mark Elkington .
Item 1 - RYA PY Returns
Needs to be done once per year in November. I have some software that processes our results data and produces some files that PYS Online (the RYA's PY database) can read. You need to do two or three runs of the software to process the previous 12 months of results then upload the resulting output files to PYS Online. I usually then use PYS Online to produce its assessment of our local handicaps using the past three year's data and pass it on to the Sailing Committee.
It takes less than an hour to do all this - can be done from home using any PC with a browser and a broadband connection.
Item 2 - Archiving Results
I have been keeping archives of the results since we started producing the results using raceManager in 2010. I keep the individual results files organised by year and a consolidated database file of every competitor finished. The latter is useful if the club wants to answer questions about turnouts etc.
This job needs doing once per year in January and typically takes a couple of hours to collect files and move them to an archive. Again, this job can be done from home using any PC with a browser and a broadband connection. Involves moving files on the SYC server and pulling data records from racemanager database - so need to be familiar or willing to learn the basics for tools like phpmyadmin and winscp.
Would be a good thing to combine with Item 1
Item 5 - Managing Class and Competitor information
Racemanager currently has 133 active classes defined and over 500 competitors. Typically, a couple of the new classes will appear each year, and a couple will no longer be active. This task involves making sure that all classes that are currently sailed at SYC are correctly defined (including this year's published RYA PY number and the corresponding Great Lakes PY number) and that each class will be allocated to the correct fleet for each of our race formats (club series, trophy race etc.). I have software that will check the allocation for every class for you.
For the competitor records the job mostly involves a once-a-year job to remove competitor records that are no longer needed (boats or people have left the club). Occasionally you may need to investigate member queries about their competitor record(s).
This job can be done from home using any PC with a browser and a broadband connection. You work with the database records using the racemanager administration system which is pretty straightforward to use - it does not require any database administration knowledge. It will take about an hour to update the PY numbers for all classes in March and about the same time to do the Great Lakes update a month before the Steamer. The Great Lakes job may go away if we decide to switch to using the RYA PY numbers for the Steamer. The rationalisation of the competitor records is done in January each year and will take no more than 2 hours. The other maintenance jobs will typically require less than 30 minutes a month - and often 0 minutes per month.
Items 3 and 4 - Open Events Administration
This task is a bit harder to define because I haven't finished the software for the new events system yet. I expect to finish it in the first half of 2025 and would like to get at least one other person involved in the administration for our open events. Currently Alistair Glen is the overall coordinator and makes sure each event follows the "SYC process" for open events to ensure that we run high quality events. I do the administration of the event websites that provide access to the race documents, online entries, etc. This is done through an events administration system I am working on - you do not need to know how to design or develop websites. I would like at least one other person to get involved in this task in 2025 to share the load with me, and then bring on another person ready for 2026 where my role would just be providing support as necessary.
This job can be done from home using any PC with a browser and a broadband connection. The effort involved depends on the number of events we are running each - typically between 3 and 6. One day opens would typically take 3-4 hours total administration over the 4 weeks running up to the event. I'm hoping to reduce this by developing a "copy" event function - as we tend to run similar events each year. As well as the system administration it will involve liaising with Alistair and the relevant fleet captain(s) via email.
Happy to answer any questions you have. None of these individually are in any way onerous jobs, and I will always provide support if needed.