EZMeets.com for the Meet Director

After EZMeets.com opens your meet, you can do just about everything yourself with the Meet Director page.

Open the Meet Director Page

• From the EZMeets home page, click on the "Entries" link for your meet...just like a coach would do to enter athletes.
• On you meet's home page, enter your Meet Director password and click "Do it!".
  Passwords are case sensitive.
  If you're the first "customer" of the day for your meet, you may get an error message because all your meets files may not yet be open. Just go back and try again.

Password Requests

EZMeets creates two Password Request pages, which you can optionally use. Coaches request an EZMeets entry password by filling out and sumbitting their team information. You review their request and email them their entry password by clicking the "Update and Email Password Now" button.

One Password Request page lists all teams in the Teams on-line database that have not yet had passwords emailed. This is handy for meets that limit which teams compete. Example: A league championship where only league teams compete.

The other Password Request page has an entry box where the coach enters the team name. This is handy for open meets.

Let us know which, if any, Password Request pages you want to use.

The Meet Director page has two team lists.

The left one lists the teams that have had their passwords emailed. They should be listed on the meet sign-in page. Teams are listed alphabetically.

The right (Pending) teams list shows the teams that have requested a password. The object of "the game" is to keep this list empty. Use this list to review team information and email passwords. When you email a team's password, the team will move from the right list to the left list. If you don't want a team to enter, contact the coach via email, phone, etc. and delete the team from the Team database.

Enter a New Team

• Click the "Open Info Page for New Team" button
• In a few seconds, you should see new empty "New Team" information page.
• Enter the team name. Do not duplicate team names. EZMeets will used only one of them for passwords and Hytek team abbreviations.
• Use the default random number password unless you have special needs.
• Do not assign passwords like team mascot names, coaches' initials, etc.
• If you use Hytek, enter the Hytek team abbreviation. You should assign a unique Hytek team abbreviation to each team. Any teams that share the same Hytek team abbreviation will be merged into one team when you import entries into Hytek.
• If you want to E-mail the team's EZMeets.com password for your meet, enter the Contact E-mail address.
• To send to several addresses, put a comma between each E-mail address (100 character maximum.)
• Other team information entries are optional.
• To update the EZMeets team file, click "Update"
  To update and E-mail the password, click "Update and E-mail Password Now!"

Each time you update a team, you automatically create a new home page for your meet with the new team listed. The new team's coach can immediately enter teams. If you do not see the new team listed, you are probably viewing a "cached" page in your browser. Empty your browser's cache and refresh the page. Each browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Netscape, etc.) has different ways to empty its cache and force a clean page refresh.

Team Information Notes:

• You will get a blind copy of password mailed to coaches.
• Undeliverable E-mail notices go to EZMeets.com, which we forward to you.
• If an E-mail can't be sent immediately, it's queued and will eventually be sent. Do not keep clicking the E-mail password button or you will send multiple aimless.
• E-mails take seconds to many minutes to get delivered. Be patient.
• You can update team information at any time
• "OK to send Password later" and "Do Not Send Password later" buttons are for special use.
• The password E-mail will use the Contact Name in its greeting. If empty, it will say "Dear Coach".
• If you do not enter the Contact Name, Contact E-mail and Contact Phone, the coach must enter this information before he can enter his first athlete. Include phone area codes.

Unattached Athletes

Create a team for each individual or group of unattached athletes. Thus, each individual or group will have a unique password.
Examples: Unattached-Smith, Unattached-Green, Unattached-Stanford.
If you use Hytek, please refer to Hytek documentation about assigning Hytek team abbreviations to unattached athletes. If you assign all unattached teams the same Hytek abbreviation (e.g. UNA), they will be merged into a single team when you import entries. In Hytek, change that team name to "Unattached".

Updating Team Information

• In the "Enter/Update Team Information" box, select the team and click "Get Info."
• Update the team information and click "Update" or "Update and E-mail Password Now!"

Changing a Team Name

You can change a team name anytime until the team's coach enters his first athletes. Contact me if you change a team name after athletes have been entered for that team. Why? Because the athletes remain in the database; but are inaccessible to the coach. EZMeets must change the athlete's affiliation to the new team name.

Deleting a Team

• In the "Enter/Update Team Information" box, select the team and click "Get Info."
• Delete the team name
• Click "Update"

Athletes are NOT deleted when you delete a team. If you create a new team with the same name, the athletes will reappear. Athletes of deleted teams WILL be in the entries files that you download. Contact EZMeets.com if you want a team's entries deleted.

Reviewing Entries

• Choose the event in the "1 Event" selector
• Cross country meets: Click "XC" or just click the "Show Entries" button.
• Click "View Event Entries" or "Group Event by Team"
• You can also go to any team's entry page with your Meet Director password.

If you're doing your own meet management...

Close Entries

• Click "Close Entries"
  This creates a blank meet home page with a note, "Sorry...entries are closed."
  There is a password entry box so you can still get to the Meet Director's page.

Open Entries

• Click "Open Entries".
  Updating any team information also re-opens the entries.

Your Meet's "InBox"
Each meet has a secure "InBox." Go here to download your entries, team information and entry audit trail to your computer. You must create the files every time before you download them. If you don't, you will have obsolete files or no file at all. (The Audit Trail file is automatically updated each time a coach enters or updates his entries.)

To write or update files in your InBox, click the appropriate button:

• Export Team Information as Text...This is a tab-delimited text file of all team information. Import into Excel or Word or any database.
• Export Entries as Text...This is a tab-delimited text file of all entries. Import into Excel, Word or any database.
• Export Entries as Hytek...This creates a semicolon-delimited file to import directly into Hytek.
• Audit Trail...This is a tab-delimited text file of entry/update activity.

You can always verify the total entries in your meet management program with event totals from your Meet Director's page. If they don't match, check for multiple entries for the same athlete. Some meet managment programs (e.g. Hytek) will use only the last entry imported for each athlete in each event.

Downloading Files to Your Computer

After you create the entries text file, EZMeets sends a page with a link to your inbox. Click on the link to see the files in your inbox. With most browsers, you can click and drag the files to your computer.

Downloading Files to Your Computer with an FTP Program

If you can't move the entry files to your computer, you may have to used an FTP (File Transfer Protocol) program.

Examples of FTP programs are "WS_FTP LE" by Ipswitch on Windows computers and "Fetch" on the Macintosh. Some meet directors use Internet Explorer. (See instructions, below.) I have not had much luck with Netscape. The FTP access information is on the download page.

• Host address: ezmeets.com
• User Name: (Usually a short name for your meet
• Password: (Usually your EZMeets meet director password
• Directory: (Leave blank)

Do practice downloads and imports well before the entry deadline. EZMeets customizes the Hytek export procedure for each meet. If there are import problems, let's fix them well before the last-minute rush. EZMeets.com needs your meet's Hytek file for testing.

Downloading Files to Your Computer with Firefox, Netscape, Safari, Internet Explorer and Other Browsers

Safari users: Normally it's easier to use the Finder to access and download. See next section.

Firefox is probably the most reliable brower to use to download the entries text file.

1. In the Go to address box, enter: ftp://UserName:Password@ftp.ezmeets.com
   Replace "UserName" with your EZMeets user name for the meet. The UserName determines what EZMeets folder you will open. Each meet is different.
   Replace "Password" with you EZMeets password. The password authorizes access. This may or may not be different for each meet.
    
2. Press Enter
   You should see a list of files in your meet's EZMeets > InBox
3. Procedure to download may vary. Try:

Drag file to your computer.
Right Click and pick download option.
Macintosh Control-Click and pick option.

Right click (Macintosh: Control-Click) the file and choose the option to download the file.

Single or Double-click on the file to view it.
If you don't enter password (e.g. navigate to: ftp://UserName@ftp.ezmeets.com ), the browser should ask you for a password.
Caution: Depending on your preferences, your computer may remember your password

Downloading Files to Your Computer with Internet Explorer (Alternate Method)

You may be able to download files using Microsoft's Internet Explorer (PC only).

Other browsers on PCs and Macs usually let you access only the EZMeets.com's Demos & Downloads folder as an anonymous user.

Here's how to download with Windows XP > Internet Explorer.
(Windows 98 > Internet Explorer procedures are slightly different. Check Explorer's FTP Help for details.)

1. In the Address box, enter "ftp://ezmeets.com" (without quotes) and press Return. This will log you into the EZMeets Demos folder as an anonymous user.
   This is NOT where you want to be.
2. Choose File > Login As
3. In the "User name" box, enter your user name. (The user name navigates you to your meet's EZMeets > InBox.
4. In the "Password" box, enter your password. (This authorizes entry.)
5. In a few seconds, you should see a list of files in the EZMeets > InBox for your meet.
6. Click and drag the file(s) you want to your computer's desktop or folder.

Entering/Updating Athletes

You can use your Meet Director's password to access any team's entries. Sign in as coaches do. Use either the Meet Director's or team's password.

Troubleshooting Coaches' Problems

• No computer...Get someone else to enter. In a pinch, you can enter his athletes using your Meet Director password.
• Can't see his team in home page...Empty browser cache. Force a refresh. If he doesn't know how, try a different computer.
• Can't enter athletes...Team information is not entered and updated in the EZMeets.com files.
• Contact Name must be a complete name, not just "Bob."
• Contact Phone # must include the area code
• Contact e-mail address must be valid.
• Must then click "Update" to update the team information database.
• Can't enter relay team name...Can choose only "A", "B", "C", etc. This is for Hytek.
• Relay Runners...Enter relay runners as any other individual athlete. If they are in relays only, don't enter any seed marks.
• This is for Hytek, your roster and to ensure you get paid for every competitor.
• Entry Receipts...Coaches should print their team's entry page at the end of each session. Use it in case of EZMeets.com or other entry problems. Only the latest receipt is valid. If an entry is not in the database, check his receipt, Audit Trail file, Entries text file and finally, the EZMeets-Hytek Entries.txt file.

Hytek Entries

It's fast and easy to import entries into Hytek...if you prepare for it.

• Clean up entries. Hytek can't tolerate badly formatted entries. It can handle some. It converts others to a No Mark entry and will treat others as a no entry. The secret is to clean up entries before you download them. Review entries using your Meet Director page. Then, fix by going into each team's entries.
  The best way to get error-free entries is to get EZMeets to clean and do test imports. We must take your meet's entry file offline to do this.
  The best time to do this is after the entry deadline and before you download your files. The next option is to do it before the entry deadline but not during the last minute entry rush. Then, the only badly formatted marks will be those entered near the entry deadline.
  The most common format errors are punctuation, entries in non-existant events and comments in the seed mark box.
• Comments...if you want comments (Hytek Notes) for mark verification, requests, etc., ask. EZMeets can add a "Comments" box after each seed mark.
• Corrupted Files...Some combinations of computer and FTP program may change the files from a text file to something else. This make the file unreadable or Hytek can't import it. Restore the file by importing into a simple word processor (e.g. WordPad, Text Edit) and Save As a generic text file.

• Purging Hytek...Purge all teams and entries before importing each EZMeets-Hytek Entries.txt file. If you don't your Hytek file may have scratched athletes and athletes with changed names.
• Fixing Hytek Files...Although slow, you can edit the EZMeets-Hytek Entrie.txt file with any word processor. Save the file as a generic text file, purge Hytek and re-import the file. If you've done some practice imports before the entry deadline you should never have to do this.
• Practice Importing...Practice downloading and importing a few times before the entry deadline. Tell EZMeets.com if you're having problems. Fixing is easy when nobody is in a rush.