Tnx Dave & David While I'm sure there will be resistance to downloading a certificate instead of receiving a printed one in the mail, it makes sense. If the certificates can be ready to download by the time the results are published or soon thereafter, that would go a long ways towards making the change more palatable. Eliminating mailed certificates is the trend beyond just other contest sponsors. I'm an NRA Certified Instructor. Each time an Instructor adds a new teaching credential, a new Instructor Certificate and ID must be created. The NRA has recently switched over from mailing the new/updated Instructor Certificates and ID cards to an online system for downloading them. I'll look forward to seeing Harold's paper on the subject. It would be most helpful if it included the total number of certificates/per year, the total number of plaques per year, and the individual cost of printing/making and mailing a certificate and a plaque. 73, Doug K4AC -----Original Message----- From: David Norris [mailto:k5uz@suddenlink.net] Sent: Saturday, January 4, 2014 1:26 PM To: Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ Cc: k4ac; arrl-odv Subject: Re: [arrl-odv:22213] Re: Contest Awards Processing Status TU Dave, This has been an issue at PSC for a couple of years now and we have been working towards that. It's just been a matter if getting IT time allotted to allow staff to set an applet for the certificates. This is the way I understand it. K1MK is a busy man. BTW - welcome aboard Doug! 73 ES HNY David A. Norris, K5UZ Director Delta Division Sent from my iPhone On Jan 4, 2014, at 11:51 AM, "Sumner, Dave, K1ZZ" <dsumner@arrl.org> wrote:
Doug,
Contest awards and plaques are an issue that moved up the priority list a couple of weeks ago. I will ask Harold to provide a briefing paper when he returns from vacation.
At the policy level, by allowing the number of entry categories in contests to proliferate we are now in the position of owing participants literally thousands of certificates each year, with the costs escalating even faster as postage rates increase. I think we are reaching the point where we will need to follow the lead of other contest sponsors and give participants the opportunity to download their certificates from the website. If they want them on paper we can offer the opportunity to pay for them.
73, Dave K1ZZ
________________________________________ From: arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org [arrl-odv-bounces@reflector.arrl.org] on behalf of Rehman, Doug, K4AC Sent: Friday, January 03, 2014 8:17 PM To: arrl-odv Subject: [arrl-odv:22212] Contest Awards Processing Status
I received a very disgruntled email from a member that is still waiting on their 2012 ten meter contest award. In the process of doing some quick research, I came across this thread of very unhappy people currently waiting for their 2012 Sweepstakes plaques: http://www.arrl.org/forum/topics/view/939
When I checked the plaques and certificates page (http://www.arrl.org/plaques-and-certificates), it shows as last being updated on 5/13/2013.
Presuming that this is a lack of paid staff issue, is there some step(s) we could take to turn the plaque and certificate generation/mailing over to a volunteer group? Once the log processing has been completed for a contest and the results prepared for publication, it would seem that the task of plaques and certificates would be straightforward—albeit time consuming.
Thanks & 73, Doug
Doug Rehman, K4AC Director Southeastern Division ARRL National Association of the Amateur Radio
_______________________________________________ arrl-odv mailing list arrl-odv@reflector.arrl.org http://reflector.arrl.org/mailman/listinfo/arrl-odv