League Secretaries - Making your job easier
posted in Autoscoring |Usually once or twice a month, I get asked if a league secretary can bring their league to the center so that you can send the rosters to the lanes. The answer, generally is yes, but I thought I would explain a bit more on how to let league secretaries help make your job as center league processor easier.
First off, its important that both you as the center and the secretaries are using the most recent major version of BLS. Each year, around August, we release a new major version of BLS that integrates various new features, improvements and support for that season’s USBC, CTF and TNBA rules, membership applications, certification application and award detection and printing. Whenever possible, make sure that the program has been updated to the most recent minor version (update) available as well, so that you program has any issues or changes resolved since the program was released.
The center will normally have the A/S Edition (automatic scoring) of the software, whereas secretaries will have either the Standard or Pro editions. The data from the same major version of BLS can go between these three editions very easily and there is no need for secretaries to purchase the A/S edition to interact with the center.
To exchange data from one location, to the other involves a simple process. From the origin computer (secretary) use the backup league feature. Save the backup onto removable media, such as a floppy disk or USB memory device. On the destination computer (center), do the opposite and use the restore league feature.
This whole process can be done in reverse if the center has a league and you want to give it to the secretary.
A couple things to keep in mind. If you are just making this a “one way” trip, then generally, thats all there is to it. But if you plan on making a round trip, such as importing scores from the scoring system and then bringing that back to the secretary, then you need to “play ball”. What do I mean by that? When you hand the ball off, which in this case is the center, then the secretary should not make any further changes to the league, or they will become lost when the league is restored back from the center. Normally this isn’t a problem, but if you have some last minute financials to enter, then you need to hold off until the league comes back.