Whereas ASFA simply wants to know when and where when one applies to hold a lure coursing trial, the AKC also wants a fee, some names, and what those folks will be doing. The application process is much simpler if the when and where haven’t changed since the previous year, allowing one to use the online system. If the date or venue have changed, it’s essentially a new lure coursing event, which the online system doesn’t support. Those applications have to be done using the paper forms, which are more onerous, as they require additional documentation, such as a current club roster and an officer’s signature. As we are conducting our AKC lure coursing trials on the same weekend in the same location as last year, the AKC’s online event management system should do.
After logging in with MGA’s credentials, I select the AKC’s Classic Online Event Management System. That will present me with a list of the scheduled events, and I’ll choose the Saturday lure coursing test (LCTS) and trial (LCTR) in Armada.
That yields an overview of the event with a series of links, which we’ll navigate in turn.
The first two links are to identify the FTS and FTC. These will be prepopulated with their information from last year (name, address, phone, and email), which I need to change to Lianna and Katie for this year. The chairperson’s page also requires a five-person committee. For those five, only the names are required, so I just provide five club members whose attendance is quite likely and whose names I intended to use in the premium anyway.
The event information for the test consists of the entry fee and the closing date and time. I intend to just reuse the values from last year. The application makes no distinction between types of entry fee, so the value I will use is the highest amount—the $20 for a gate entry on the day of the test. Although, we will be running the test after the trial, the entries will close at 8 AM when the entries close for the trial. This will allow the FTS to focus on the trial during the day rather than being interrupted with test entries. The event information for the trial is, thus, identical, except for the higher entry fee, $25.
Are we televising or streaming the event? Nope, not as a club.
Completing that information takes me to the screen for payment. I have a club card, but I think the bookkeeping is easier on the treasurer if I use my own card and then request reimbursement. This form also has a checkbox for the Disaster and Emergency Plan, which I will check, as that is the next item on my event checklist after completing the applications. The receipt is mailed to me—my email address was one of the tidbits used when logging in to the event management system, so do be truthful there. I also received an email telling me that the event has been approved. I’ll repeat the same steps for Sunday’s test and trial before moving on to judges.
For the judging panels, it’s back to the home page of the event management system. I should be able to do what I want with the Quick Submit Judges Panel.
First, I will use the Judge Search to find my three judges and add their numbers. As soon as the search window, select the Performance option and then change the Competition Type to “Lure Coursing Trial”. The search function can get a bit fussy, as the names have to be exactly right. I’ll just take a broad swath by selecting both Ohio and Ontario without specifying a name. It’s only going to allow me to pick one judge, but I can avoid another search by jotting down the other two numbers that I want.
I can now start making their assignments with the View/Add Assignment function after picking one of the judges in the list. Using my previously printed worker sheet, I will just check off the appropriate boxes. Oddly enough, each of the breeds is divided into stakes, so it takes three checks to actually assign a breed. The tests are at the top and the breeds are, well, is some kind of order that seems to make sense but has maddening exceptions. Note that Singles is not listed. We’ll get to them later.
The other two judges are done similarly, eventually getting all of the boxes checked. Do be wary though, sometimes stakes are just missing. On this day, there were no line items for veteran Scottish Deerhounds and veteran Sloughi. I’ll ask about those later. Once the boxes that are available are checked, the Process Assignments button must be pushed to get a final assessment. My push resulted in a tiny confirmation at the bottom that all is well.
I’ll repeat that process and assign the judges for the Sunday trial next. Curiously enough, no stakes (other than Singles) were missing.
The last thing to do is send an email to the Performance Department, which I will do by selecting the button for Additional Information for an Event. I’ll need to do this for both events. I suspect that the AKC doesn’t really care about who is judging Singles, but I take advantage of the opportunity to tell them in the hopes that it pushes them to act on the event too. For Saturday, I will also mention the missing stakes. Done.