No apologies from USATF on results snafu
When I screw up, I fess up. That’s been my habit for more than a quarter-century in the newspaper biz. Corrections R Us. So it amazes me when folks mess up at USATF and try to wiggle out of responsibility and have to be pushed to show a little regret. I wrote a note a few days ago to USATF press chief Jill Geer and USATF Masters Track & Field Chairman George Mathews about the failure to post Boise indoor results quickly. First my note, and then their replies:
Jill,
Thanks for the note (explaining that Melvin Jackson at nationals did heroic things trying to get results disseminated despite problems with the USATF Web site). But the bottom-line issue is that results weren’t posted on an official site until Monday. That’s completely unacceptable.
If results from USATF open nationals or the Trials were delayed three or four days, people would be screaming bloody murder, and folks would be fired.
Instead, people jump on MY back and demand apologies.
The apologies should come from USATF.
Would you care to compose an official statement, which I could post, that explained the meltdown?
Nobody in USATF Masters administration or meet management has expressed regret for this situation.
ken
George Mathews replied thusly:
I’m not sure who I would be apologizing to. The athletes who competed in the meet who know what the results are, or the people who were sitting home wanting to know the results? Most people are happy to see the results in National Masters News weeks later. It is regretful, but this is not about world peace or a cure for cancer.
Technical problems will happen and people do the best they can to fix them. There will always be problems. I believe everyone worked on this problem as best they could. It’s not like we paid a large amount of money for this service. We should be very thankful for the tremendous support we get from the National Office and all the volunteers who work their butts off to provide this great competitive opportunity.
I don’t see it as our job to be accountable to Trackceo “people” whoever they may be! We are accountable to the members of USATF who elected us. They can identify themselves by name directly to me or other executive committee members and or official publications if they have serious problems, concerns and maybe thankful praise.
Calm Down,
George
Here’s portions of a note from Jill Geer:
Ken, the point is that the people responsible for fixing this issue are the company that hosts the site – nobody who works for USATF could be fired for this, because it wasn’t their fault. It would have been no different if this problem occurred at our nationals or Olympic Trials, despite your claims to the contrary.
As I said, this was horrible timing. Although I don’t care to have an official statement on your site, you can inform the people . . . that the host company of the USATF website was having server and software problems, making the USATF website inaccessible and unable to be updated. This also affected any Association Web site (such as Snake River), since they also are hosted on the same server. As I have said several times, we very much regret that the site crashed, and most especially that it happened during the masters championships. Masters was our biggest immediate concern when this happened.
Me again:
Enuf said.
Let’s all try to learn from this — and have a backup plan should it happen again.
We deserve better.
4 Responses
No one was more mortified than my self at the news of the server problems for the USATF web site for the masters meet in Boise.
I am the person that promised there would be updated “real time” results to the web within an hour of an event’s completion. This site was ready to go, templates were pre-loaded a week before the meet, all I had to do was F12 to send results but nothing happened…
Melvin Jackson did everything in his power to get this fixed, however this was a problem beyond his scope of power or influence. The National staff on site worked feverishly to contact all responsible parties, but stuff happens as Forest Gump opined!
I thought about loading info on to my own High School web page. But who would know where to go without a link on the USATF page, which was down. Besides I thought, this problem would surely be fixed by Saturday morning; not
Regardless of this hiccup, the meet had to go on. Getting results right was more important to me than getting them out in a timely fashion on the web. A bummer for sure, but people will just have to wait I mused. Murphy’s law perhaps?
You are correct in stating there should have been a back up plan. I never went into a forest fire with out one! 20/20 hindsight is always best they say.
How about you Ken, did you or any of your friends offer your page as a temporary host for results? I heard nothing of alternative sites to get results out to that masters fans frequent. I would have been very grateful to send them to you had I known all of my web page options. If we ever do this again will you hook me up?
Thanks for the space to explain.
I must say I am astounded and disappointed that the Chair of Masters T&F believes that “Most people are happy to see the results in National Masters News weeks later.” Oh, really??
If I read through the above postings results didn’t show up on the USATF website until Monday morning because the USATF server crashed. O.K., computer crashes happen. However, I did find results Sunday evening on
https://www.usatf.org/events/2005/USAMastersIndoorTFChampionships/results.asp
This site had the events listed in one large file making it easy to find events.
The results posted at:
http://www.usatf.org/assoc/sr/masters05/index.htm
were all in separate files for each event. This seems to be the Snake River Association site, but I have no idea how to get to this page other then through Ken’s Blog posting.
I think USATF has more to answer for in treating Masters T&F on its website as a third-cousin twice removed.
Masters T&F is not even one of the top menu selections on the USATF: http://www.usatf.org/
You have to figure out that the “Resources For. . .” link triggers a pull down menu for youth and masters. What’s the big deal? Can’t we get a clear link for masters (and for youth) on the USATF homepage?
Finding the Masters USATF 2005 rankings (which Larry P. and Dave C. spend so much time working on) is likewise completely buried on the USATF website.
After you find the “Resources about” link, you click on Masters to find a link to records and lists: http://www.usatf.org/groups/Masters/statistics.asp
Then there is a tiny little link that says track and field rankings. This finally takes you to the 2005 rankings page which does not appear to be located on the USATF site. http://www.mastersrankings.com/
On the USATF website, the National Masters Indoor and Outdoor meets are listed on the National calander at:
http://www.usatf.org/calendars/searchResults.asp?series=USA+National+Championship&startDate=1%2F1%2F2005&endDate=12%2F31%2F2006
However, the National Masters Regional Outdoor Championships are NOT listed on the regional calander:
http://www.usatf.org/calendars/searchResults.asp?series=USATF+Region+Championship&startDate=1%2F1%2F2005&endDate=12%2F31%2F2006
In summary, a screwed up server seems to be an excusable one time problem. Improving masters presence on the USAT&F website is a future challenge.
I’m a 59 year old Masters vaulter that competed at Nampa and is all for improving navigation of the national USATF web site as well as our Oregon USATF site. However I would like to share that the national site (http://usatf.org/) does have a direct link to “Masters Athletes” (second entry) located in the black background section on the left hand side of their home page. On the page that link brings up is a link “Records & Lists” which then displays a table of links to American Records. There is also a link “track and field rankings” that takes you to the much appreciated ranking listings that Larry P. and Dave C. provide.
I think being aware of that first link to Masters Athletes on the home page does make the balance of the navigation reasonably straight forward.
O.K., as we say, “False Start.”
Thanks to John Altendorf for pointing out that the USATF homepage does have a link to Masters Athletes on the home page (in a black selection box along the lower left side of the page). I can only conclude that when I first viewed this page, this menu box was scrolled below my monitor screen, leaving me to click along the top links to see if I could find anything. I hereby withdraw my complaint that masters and youth are left off the USATF homepage. However, can anyone explain why the Masters Regional Championship meets are not on the calender (or have I missed another link). (And yes, I know you can find most of the master meets on the Masters T&F website meet calendar which is a great resource.)
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