Timing & Results Committee: 2007 AGM Report

by Kevin Miller

I have been the Chair of the Timing & Results Committee for the past 9 years. Committee members (people involved in timing & results) in 2007 were Dave Desharnais, Chris Graham, Susan Appleyard, Michelle Barnet, Jacinthe Blais, and our staff: Anita Miller and Jaclyn Pauls.

Miscellaneous comments

• This was our 5th year of offering and supporting consistent online registration with EventsOnline.ca at all Grand Prix races.
        
  
• For all races, I analyzed the contents of the EventsOnline.ca data file of registrants prior to the data download and import. I looked for all the inconsistencies I documented in my 2003 report to determine what I would have to do to contents of the data file after downloading it, but before importing it into Race Wizard.
  
  
• ~85% of all registrants used online registration. Pinawa Free Spirit again required all participants to register online, and Lac du Bonnet and Triple Threat again had financial incentives for online registrants.
  
  
• Our 2nd year of  online registration for Kids of Steel again went very well, and an increasing number of people used it to pre-register. This contributed to very good throughput at race-day check-in for most races.
  

Registration/timing/results went very well or extremely well at each race

Some miscellaneous comments:

• Successful registration/timing/results at our large races depends on the volunteers or contracted people having knowledge about our procedures, Race Wizard knowledge/skills, and technical computer knowledge/skills.  Sometimes one person has all those attributes, and sometimes they reside with more than one person. It's also important that there are enough people to handle the work load. All races in 2007 had a proper number of people with the appropriate skills and knowledge.
  
  
• Anita and I were involved with timing & results at all Grand Prix races -- 4 on contract, and 2 to assist the race's volunteer. Compared to a year ago, we actually have less people who are familiar with Race Wizard, the Time Tech Sprint 8 watches, and our procedures. With Jaclyn now leaving, the knowledge is even more concentrated with Anita and I.
  
  
• Dave Desharnais retired from doing timing & results after the Birds Hill Duathlon Series. That series will also have a new organizer for 2008, so they will need assistance with registration/timing/results. 
  
  
• Chris Graham assisted me with timing & results at Triple Threat and St Malo. He was very helpful, and he acquired some knowledge, especially about our procedures.
  
  
• Susan Appleyard's excellent technical knowledge and skills complemented Anita's procedural knowledge and skills at Pinawa Free Spirit. Susan conveyed some useful info to me as a result of her having to deal with an ASCII Win issue with Windows XP.
  
  
• We had a problem with a Time Tech Sprint 8 timing watch at Lac du Bonnet, but it was a battery issue -- the 5 AA batteries had not been properly recharged, and the lithium backup battery was dead. After the race we found a dead lithium battery in one other timing watch. In order to ensure consistent recharging and 100% battery reliability, Anita reacquired the task of maintaining the contents of the timing box.
  
  We also had a major problem at Lac du Bonnet when Michelle's laptop computer died the evening before the race, so I attended the race with the Triathlon Manitoba laptop computer. 
  
  
• The Morden Triathlon was handled well by Steve Gajerski of RaceResults.ca, and Jaclyn and Jacinthe Blais handled Duathlon Ste Anne (with pre-race-day assistance from me).
  
  
• Results at all eight Kids of Steel races were again done with paper and pencil (no splits), and typed by Anita into an HTML (website page) template. Jaclyn led registration/timing/results at Morden, Stonewall, and Turtle Crossing (Brandon), while Anita led it at the other 5 races. Everything went very well.
  
  

• The TimeTech Sprint 8 timing watches are now ten years old, and the Triathlon Manitoba laptop computer is over six years old. Our current system works well, but there are some reliability and maintenance issues with both the watches and the computer. However, surprisingly, we had far fewer problems in 2007 than in 2006. I discuss these issues in detail in my 2006 report
  
  
• At the 2006 Race Directors Meeting, which I did not attend, there was a suggestion that Triathlon Manitoba should look into acquiring a new timing system. My response was that I would support anybody who wanted to lead that initiative, but I never heard from anybody.
  
  On one hand, after a very successful 2007 for registration/timing/results, it seems imprudent to expend a very large amount of time and money on a new timing system.
  
  On the other hand, our equipment and technology is old, and our knowledge base with the current system is increasingly concentrated with Anita and I.
  
  2008 is a Manitoba Games year, so Triathlon Manitoba's events workload will be much larger than a non-Games year, and we will have a less experienced Executive Director. During the 2004 Manitoba Games year, there were so many events that Anita and I could not find time to go on vacation during June/July/August. A few months ago we committed to doing registration/timing/results at the Manitoba Games final in Carman.

  I see three possible scenarios for 2008:

  • Continue with the status quo. I've discussed it in detail already.
  • Implement a new system. As I've indicated, a lot of money and time would be required. We'd also need a new Chair of the Timing & Results Committee. As the architect of our existing system, I'm still committed to maintaining it, but I'm not interested in expended hundreds of hours of volunteer time to implement a new system.  
  • Outsource timing and results to one of the handful of Canadian ChampionChip timing and results companies, or another company.  I have contacted Sport Stats of Ottawa (a sister company of EventsOnline.ca) and Race Headquarters of Vancouver (the Canadian distributor of ChampionChip) to inquire about contracting them for timing and results at our races.
    • Marc Roy of SportStats honestly told me that their cost was far too high for the size of our races, although he suggested I could purchase a ChampionChip system ( http://raceheadquarters.com/championchip.htm -- thousands of dollars for the hardware and software, plus $56 per chip/band), and open the first ChampionChip timing business in Manitoba. (No thanks.)
    • Darcy Locke of Race Headquarters quoted me a price of ~$4000 per race, which includes transportation from/to Vancouver and accommodations in Winnipeg. It's interesting that their timing fee is "per event" for <300 participants. For >300, it's "per participant". That suggests their guide for ChampionChip cost-effectiveness is races of 300 or more participants.
    • Bob LaFontaine of Results Canada would rent us hardware (mats for three timing points, chips, timing receivers) and software for $900 per race. For him to also do the timing work at the race, we'd have pay for for his airfare from/to Edmonton, accommodations, and meals, and timing fee (estimated cost  = $1500).  In cities where he has a local timing person, the cost is much less because we'd only have to pay the timing fee, but he does not have a trained timing person in Winnipeg.
    • Most non ChampionChip timing in Manitoba is done in-house (like we do). RaceResults.ca is the only "for hire" Manitoba company I know of. 

Please also refer to my Timing & Results Committee annual reports from the previous eight years: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006.

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This page was last updated on October 21, 2007