This will be my last post on the NSDCA website as I have resigned as both NSDCA Webmaster and LMS Administrator following last Monday's AGM.
These positions go very much hand in hand so it would be preferable if one person was able to take on both jobs. If anybody is interested in taking on these roles then please contact either Robert West, the League General Secretary, or Robert Milner, the League Chairman.
Whilst part of the work in setting up LMS for the 2019/2020 season has already been done, the bulk of it has to be done in late August/early September, following the publication of the July Grading List, and Clubs having indicated which Divisions/Cups they will be entering. The work involved includes setting up new Users as necessary and giving them the correct permissions, allocating teams to Divisions, setting up the Cup draws, updating Club Contact Details - Secretary, Team Captains, etc. - and getting all of the fixtures loaded. Once the fixtures have been loaded you will then need to export them into a file that can then be imported into the NSDCA Calendar on Google. After all this, when the season starts, you will need to change dates of postponed fixtures on both LMS and the NSDCA Calendar, review results as they are entered to ensure that all players in a team are eligible to play, ensure that team grading limits are not exceeded and impose any penalties when they are incurred. It will also be necessary to keep track of all players in the League to ensure that they are properly registered with the ECF. This is pretty much an ongoing task at the start of the season and Club Secretaries will often need to be chased up to ensure that this is done. You will also need to maintain the various internal Club Championships that are recorded on LMS.
In December and June you will be required to create Grading Files for submission to the ECF.
You will need to be recognised as an official ECF Grader to do this as you will need to be given access to the ECF Grading software and databases that you will need in order to verify the Grading Files before submission.
Updates to the website are not so frequent these days, following the implementation of LMS, but updates will still be necessary.
In closing, can I thank everybody for the support that they have shown since I have been doing these jobs and wish my successor the very best of luck in the future.
