Online Entry Services

[John Gassner]

Just got off phone with RFTN about their site. Had several questions, but only enough time to get one answered. Question was about ability to see which dogs are entered for an event while it is still open. Answer was that it was still "a work in progress" and that in the future they would offer this ability. Does anyone know approx. how soon we can expect this?

Next question is that after an event's info. is entered by the club sect. it can't be edited. Why not? Most of us know what a lifesaver Stacie (sp) is for helping with corrections!

I do love the features about dog sharing and the printable premiums. I also like the "days 'til event closes" feature. Nice reminder.

My biggest questions are 1) Will RFT in fact put the info on who is entered and if so, when?

2) What is the online reporting feature they list? Is it nothing more than e-mailing the results to the AKC? Will anyone be able to access this info? If yes, then how? Will it be through the RFT website or the WRC site or will it be from the AKC site? Will it cost us anything to view these results?

Is it actually working now? There is no way of knowing since there have not been any events that have used RFT yet. If not, when will it be available?

It would be nice to just pull up a dog and see its entire trial history ans far as what awards and which trial entered and what stakes. Statistics would be a neat feature also. EE will give info about dogs that have run EE events. It is not as simple as I would like (I"m pretty simple) since you must look up the results from each event in the dog's history to see the results. Is EE able or willing to offer similar features?

What other features or services are these services anticipating offering in the future? What would users like that would improve online entry companies?


John

[Shayne Mehringer]

2) What is the online reporting feature they list? Is it nothing more than e-mailing the results to the AKC? Will anyone be able to access this info? If yes, then how? Will it be through the RFT website or the WRC site or will it be from the AKC site? Will it cost us anything to view these results?

Is it actually working now? There is no way of knowing since there have not been any events that have used RFT yet. If not, when will it be available?

It would be nice to just pull up a dog and see its entire trial history ans far as what awards and which trial entered and what stakes. Statistics would be a neat feature also. EE will give info about dogs that have run EE events. It is not as simple as I would like (I"m pretty simple) since you must look up the results from each event in the dog's history to see the results. Is EE able or willing to offer similar features?

What other features or services are these services anticipating offering in the future? What would users like that would improve online entry companies?


John

I can't comment on anything they have planned or "in progress" but i can say that per AKC, there is no such thing as "Online Reporting to AKC". They will eventually be ready for that (years?) and even once they are ready TECHNICALLY, there are still a ton of rules/policies that will have to be changed as well. If at some point in the future AKC is ready for that, EE will have the same "rights" as anyone else.

By doing everything ourselves and in-house, the technical features you asked about should be rather simple and will be added to one of our next updates.

My phone and email have been going crazy since yesterday morning about this and i can't say how much the overwhelming support means to us (Stacey, myself, and the rest of the EE staff).

SM

[Canman]

RFTN is jointly owned by the NRC and NARC.

It will be interesting to see how any profits that are generated by this new online entry service are used by the clubs. Could this possibly benefit the sport in the long run?

[Canman]

RFTN is jointly owned by the NRC and NARC.

It will be interesting to see how any profits that are generated by this new online entry service are used by the clubs. Could this possibly benefit the sport in the long run?

Retriever Field Trial News
About the Retriever Field Trial News

RFTN is a publishing corporation that is jointly owned by the National Retriever Club and the National Amateur Retriever Club. The two national clubs are owned and sponsored by their member clubs all across the nation. Your local club has an ownership interest in RFTN. RFTN is a not-for-profit operation. Officers and a Board of Directors, elected by the two sponsoring clubs manage it. The directors and officers serve with no compensation. Mary Knapp, Editor, manages the business under the supervision of the officers and directors. She has two assistants.
RFTN is the successor to FIELD TRIAL NEWS, which was the publication of the Wisconsin Amateur Field Trial Club. Field Trial News was started in 1942 as a mimeographed newsletter to the members of WAFTC. It was edited by Mr. John Fraser, Jr. Originally it covered springer spaniels and bird dogs, as well as retrievers. At that time there were only 12 AKC member clubs or licensed retriever trial in the country. The rapid growth of retriever field trial interest called for a communication, which reported field trial results and other "news" of the sport. Jack Fraser had the interest, dedication and talent to respond with a publication which met that need and FIELD TRIAL NEWS became the only nationally recognized publication serving the retriever sport. Jack Fraser passed away in 1963, leaving a legacy that couldn't be denied. The publication was ably continued by the WAFTC, with Irving Puchner the editor and publisher.
On January 1, 1965, all the assets, subscriber lists, and good will of "FIELD TRIAL NEWS", was purchased by the two Nation Retriever Clubs. "The "RETRIEVER FIELD TRIAL NEWS' was established to succeed "FIELD TRIAL NEWS" in serving the retriever community, under the able leadership of Mr. Tom Merritt as President and Managing Editor, and Mrs. Toni Reynolds as Editor. The transition was made so smoothly that many were unaware of the change. In April 1988, Mrs. Toni Reynolds retired having served since 1960, and Mary Knapp picked up the reins.
RFTN has continued for 40 years.
The policies and basic format are much the same as they were developed by Jack Fraser. Of course, it has grown in these 35 years. In the late 1980's coverage was expanded to include the then new AKC licensed Hunt Tests. In 1964, the last year of the WAFTC publication, there were six issues published with a total of 138 printed pages. In 2001 there were 11 issues with a total of 720 printed pages. Total circulation has grown from 500 in 1964 to about 4,800 in 2003.
In late 1998, RFTN acquired Working Retriever Central, a website created and developed by David Wallace. It's purpose paralleled that of RFTN but had expanded beyond the competitive sport to include other important retriever activities.
The purpose of RFTN and WRC is the same today as it was in Jack Fraser's day: To bring the people of the Retriever Sport throughout the U.S., Canada, and now, the world, results of field performance and other matters of interest to owners, trainers, and breeders of retrievers. It is also to afford advertisers the opportunity to reach that very special market which our subscribers and participants represent.
RFTN/WRC has no official reporter except for those covering our National Stakes. We depend exclusively on the people of the sport for all information on field results and retriever performance. We are grateful to those who provide this information. We rely almost exclusively on people of the sport for other information and editorial comment. We of RFTN/WRC feel there is a wealth of editorial information and comment available from the people of the sport that would be of interest to our readers. Ours is a situation where almost all the knowledge and experience relating to our subject matter, that is available anywhere, rests with our own readers. We invite more participation from them, either of their own talents or by encouraging others to share their knowledge and experience.
RFTN/WRC is truly an enterprise Of, For and By the people of the retriever sport. We welcome your comments and suggestions.
Dennis Bath
President and Editor-In-Chief

[John Gassner]

RFTN is jointly owned by the NRC and NARC.

It will be interesting to see how any profits that are generated by this new online entry service are used by the clubs. Could this possibly benefit the sport in the long run?

It would be nice to know what the profits will be earmarked for. Will they be as a % of profits, or just so much for entry?

My big concern is who pays for any losses? They are cheaper than EE. I would think they will have to be more efficient to be able to make a profit. If not, how much are they willing to lose? I would hate to have the bank accounts of both Nat'l clubs drained or put in a pinch.


John

[jeff t.]

What would users like that would improve online entry companies?


John

As a trial secretary, my wish list would be:

One stop shopping

- one step event setup, including AKC event setup

- one step results reporting, including results to AKC and RFTN

- linking of trial info to rosette company to expedite ordering of rosettes


More club control of event items and timeline

- ability of club to select catalog color for club's event

- ability of club to select any closing time and any time zone

- ability of club to specify the time of the draw

- ability of club to use stake names that are identical to stake names that appear in the rulebook

- automatic creation of mailing lists using criteria specified by club


Customer Service

- advance notification of planned downtime and outages

- automatic screening to determine dog's eligibility for the entered stake

- automatic screening to remove non-AKC titles

- automatic screening to identify errors in dog info (registration number, dog name, birthdate, etc)


Flexibility

- ability to list multiple persons as event co-chairs

- ability to include full names of multiple co-owners without truncation

- compatibility with all popular web browsers



Jeff

[Jason E.]

I hope the clubs just go ahead and continue to use EE.

[Carol]

As a hunt test secretary I asked specific questions relative to moving dogs from one group to another (master a to master b), something we have to do all the time to deal with dogs entered by the owner but handled by the trainer, or to accomodate people traveling together, and moving a dog from stake to stake, ie going from junior to senior, because the dog qualified at the lower level and is now able to move up, or the owner just entered the wrong stake. Both of these situations are allowed in hunting tests. The answer was "I will have to talk to the developers and get some more information. "

I asked about availability of support staff to handle problems after hours. The response was "We plan to make the event close sometime in the late morning or afternoon so that if something happens when finalizing the draw, there is more of an opportunity for problems to be caught in the daytime when the office is fully staffed." Since I work full time, it doesn't matter when the event closes, I still wont be able to work on it until after normal business hours. I can't tell you the number of times that Stacie has baled me out.

I can't speak for the field trial secretary, but I'll keep using EE for our hunt test.

[Buzz]

I can't comment on anything they have planned or "in progress" but i can say that per AKC, there is no such thing as "Online Reporting to AKC".
SM

On their full page ad on the back page of RFTN, under "coming soon!"

Electronic reporting to the AKC.

Also, if they are going to screen entries for limited and specials, would they have a deal with AKC to access their data to accomplish that?

[badbullgator]

I am not the only deciding factor but I am on the BOD of my club and EE will continue to get my vote.