New Race Personal Record Card

[Tris1976]

I've received my new plastic licience and obviously one of the new record cards.

Saw an issue straight away and have contacted the MSA to ask.....

"Where do I record attendance signatures if I am not looking to upgrade?"

The issue is that for each discipline above Trainee and Experienced the Duty section is filled in for you, so going from Experienced to I/O the Duty is filled in as I/O. No problem if you are upgradeing, but what if you want to stay as Experienced and just get attendance signatures (GP requirement springs to mind)?

Now the obvious answer would have been to have a simple Attendance Only section at the back of the card, but there isn't one. So common sense says to still use the section relevent to your current grade and to cross out the inappropriate Duty. But I thought that I'd better check as I'd hate to be excluded from applying to the GP in the future on a paperwork technicality. Not that it is actually relevent to me yet as I AM looking to upgrade to experienced over the next two years, but I am sure it will affect some as not all of us wants to become an I/O or Post Chief.

Liciencing department were initially stumped (don't think that anyone had thought of this) and at first told me to use the comments section at the back, I pointed out that there was a comments section at the back of the old card but not the new one......more discussions in the background and they then came back to me and agreed that my suggestion of crossing it out was best and would be perfectly valid!

[Mark Smith]

That sounds really clever! I'll carry on using my booklet as before I think. It'll be interesting to see what happens when we hand over the records to the IO at race meetings

[Eric Ridler]

The eventul intentention is to install barcode readers at sign-on, thus recording all your attendances, therefore eligibility for the GP would just be a matter of grading held.

But nowing the speed at which these things generally move, don't hol your breath!!!

[Dave Brand]

Originally Posted by Mark Smith

It'll be interesting to see what happens when we hand over the records to the IO at race meetings

He (or she) will tell you to give your card to the Post Chief!

[Mark Mitchell]

Originally Posted by Dave Brand

He (or she) will tell you to give your card to the Post Chief!

Beat me to it Dave

Also, why is the PRC relevent to the GP? The GP application form asks you to list your attended events, not to send the PRC (At Present).

My (Old white) PRC has nothing but 2 training signatures in, and I suspect my new sky-blue PRC will be the same!

BTW - With the exception of not having anywhere to log attendance sigs for those (Of Us) not upgrading, I think the new look PRC is excellent!

[Tris1976]

Originally Posted by Mark Mitchell

Beat me to it Dave

Also, why is the PRC relevent to the GP? The GP application form asks you to list your attended events, not to send the PRC (At Present).

My (Old white) PRC has nothing but 2 training signatures in, and I suspect my new sky-blue PRC will be the same!

BTW - With the exception of not having anywhere to log attendance sigs for those (Of Us) not upgrading, I think the new look PRC is excellent!

BARC requested that you send in a copy of your PRC so that they can verify any non BARC events, I assume they'll not count anything that they can't verify so you could be left under the required amounts for the grade that you are apllying to the GP at and they may not send the form on (although I'd hope not).

I agree though that baring the attendance sigs ommision it is good, just wonder how many books I'll end up with by the end of a season - or should I stop marshalling for the year when I run out of space

[Chris Hobson]

we will be putting extra pages on the MSA website to allow people to gather extra signatures - in the meantime I suggest you photocopy one of the standard pages.

We will review the comments and seek to improve at the next printing

Hope this helps

As always - please PM me with comments or (preferably) send mme an e-mail to the address below

[bluebeard]

Originally Posted by Chris Hobson

we will be putting extra pages on the MSA website to allow people to gather extra signatures - in the meantime I suggest you photocopy one of the standard pages.

We will review the comments and seek to improve at the next printing

Hope this helps

As always - please PM me with comments or (preferably) send mme an e-mail to the address below

Chris- Email sent, Harry

[Dave Brand]

Originally Posted by Eric Ridler

The eventul intentention is to install barcode readers at sign-on, thus recording all your attendances, therefore eligibility for the GP would just be a matter of grading held.

But nowing the speed at which these things generally move, don't hol your breath!!!

Hmm . . . why do I have misgivings about this?

I can see it now:

"Dear MSA, can I marshal at the GP?"

"According to our records you have:

1 packet of Jaffa Cakes
1 six-pack of Peroni
6 oranges
2 1kg Persil
4 cartons of apple juice
etc., etc,"

. . . or maybe GP eligibility will just be judged on number of loyalty points?

[RichardW]

It does make you wonder, doesn't it. They take all this time to create a system that still doesn't address all the most important issues and can't even get that right!
An inability to enjoy drunken evenings in ale-making houses come to mind!

[Chris Hobson]

A personal comment

Richard,

May I suggest that you try contributing to a discussion in a positive fashion rather than making purile comments.

There are many people involved in this sport trying to improve the lot of the volunteer official and we have always welcomed comments that might contribute to this cause. Those making these comments are often asked to help in their development.

Then we have those who only seem to be able to criticise and try to be sarcastic. Pity!

Sorry folks, but there are times......................................

[The Fat Clerk]

Good answer Chris.

[Norbert]

I for one appreciate the work that has obviously gone into developing/amending the grading scheme and the new PRC has been developed in parallel. The card looks like a big step forward for those marshals progressing through their career and the grading scheme. The MSA have obviously attempted to produce a 'one-card-fits-all' and I can understand their reasoning for this.

I have 3 observations:

1. Each section only allows for a finite number of attendance signatures. This means that by viewing the card alone there is no evidence of days marshalled at a grade over the minimum requirement.

2. Some marshals like to use the card as a strictly 'personal' record card allowing them to keep track of all days marshalled in one place. Whether this be for purely personal use or for GP applications etc.

3. As pointed out before there is no space for Examing Post Chiefs like myself to obtain signatures.

How can this be addressed?

1. Allow overflow into 'incorrect' sections of the card? Is this OK?

2. Expand the sections on the PRC to allow more signatures and add a section for Examining Post Chiefs? I am not sure this is viable as this could turn what is a booklet into a tome!

3. Produce a 'continuation' card? I am guessing that the MSA are looking to reduce the number of different types of PRC they have to produce.

The above are aimed as constructive observations and not criticisms. Overall I believe that things have taken a step forward and would like to thank everyone involved for there work in grasping a thorny issue.

[NewYankee01]

and all ill say is i havent got my card yet so i dont know what it looks like!

[Guinness2702]

Originally Posted by NewYankee01

and all ill say is i havent got my card yet so i dont know what it looks like!

Although tbf, it's not surprising, as I only finally remembered to sort out my kit bag and find a passport photo over the weekend and so only put it in the post this morning.