I have been an Executive Committee Member of Ku Ring Gai Little Athletics Centre (KLAC) (www.klac.org.au) for two years. KLAC is one of the largest Little Athletic centres in New South Wales with over 650 athletes competing at the centre in the 2006/2007 season.

During my time on the Executive Committee, I have been responsible for the Records and Rankings Portfolio. This includes overseeing and implementing the entering of results data for each day of competition. Records and Rankings also closely liaise with the Registrar to enter registration details for our athletes.

Ku Ring Gai runs six events in each age group (both boys and girls) on any given competition day, on a rotating six week program. We have five operational laptops which are linked to the master laptop via our wireless network. Our laptops are set up for data entry at various points around our track and field areas. This arrangement facilitates the prompt entry of results as they are achieved by our athletes. The 2006/07 season has already seen over 22,000 entries into our data system.

Until recently, KLAC has been using an application based on a Microsoft Access Database solution. This solution met our needs for some years however we often found it to be slow and unpredictable once multiple events were being entered. It was also difficult for our volunteer data in putters to solve data entry problems as they arose due to the complex nature of the program.

With the introduction of ‘LAD’ we have experienced prompt and efficient data entry with none of the complications we used to have with the ‘Access’ based program. We have found the LAD system is operational all morning without any instances of the database locking up or lengthy delays due to the updating of the registration data. Because Lad is so user friendly, training new data entry operators is also extremely easy which has increased our pool of data operators to help out each week.

LAD interfaces beautifully with our website (www.klac.org.au), which Michael Sticpewich has also developed. Uploading files from LAD to our website is also very easy. Previously, we have been hard pressed to upload our data within a few days of competition. Now due to the efficiencies of LAD, it is possible for results to be uploaded the day of competition, providing our athletes and their families with prompt feedback and placing for the day’s competition as well as information on their progress throughout the season.

The integrated reports and inbuilt checks that are part of the LAD program are also extremely helpful to Records and Rankings and effectively reduce the work required to maintain accurate data.

I am delighted with the introduction of LAD to our Centre and the difference it makes to the efficient management of our athletes’ results data. I would be happy to talk through the benefits of LAD with anyone with similar responsibilities in athletics organizations.

Michelle O’Dea
Records and Rankings (records@klac.org.au)
Ku-Ring-Gai Little Athletics (www.klac.org.au)