Manual: Features-Mail

It happens every year, in every Client, in every League, and when you can least handle it! What is it? Those inevitable changes to existing data, such as assigned Matches... a different date, a new time, another field location, a batch of cancellations... Fortunately, RidgeStar Interactive Sites provide a great solution, which we discuss in this section!

The Old Solutions: Phone and Email

So, how do we let the Referee know about Match changes and determine if he or she can still do the Assignment? It used to be that the Assignor had to call the Referees to see if they could accommodate the changes. This changed with the first Interactive Sites, which sent the assigned Referees an email update message whenever the Administrator clicked the "Update and Email" button on the Match Update page.

However, email had a few serious problems. The Internet community's war against SPAM causes many mail servers to intercept and dump email automatically generated messages without notifying the sender or the recipient. Thus, the Administrators and Assignors never really knew if the Email message got to the Referee. Furthermore, the Site has no way to verify if an email message was sent, if it arrived, or if the recipient did the requested action.

The New and Improved Solution: Site based Mail

After some consideration, we developed a new online tool we call the Site based Mail mechanism. This tool allows your Site to automatically notify a Referee (Coach, Mangaer, etc.) when an Assignment changes AND to audit the actions surrounding it.

Mail provides many benefits:

1. Allows the Site to determine when a "key element" is changed on a Match
2. It then automatically switches every Assignment with an "Accept" status to "Unconfirmed". It then places a Mail message in the Mail database for the User. For example, Match #1234 has had the Time changed from 10:15 to 11:30, please reconfirm your Assignment.
3. When the Referee next logs on to the Site, it automatically displays a message indicating that the Referee has received new Mail. The Referee can click on the newmail symbol to respond to the changes and may then delete the Mail message (move it to his/her Trash queue).
4. The actions are recorded for Audit purposes in the Administrator: Manage-Audit function: You know exactly when a Referee sees and responds to a Match Change, including when the Mail message was deleted.

The Benefits of Site based Mail!

• Unlike email, Site based Mail provides your Chapter with a better audit trail of key match changes, who was informed of the changes, and when they took action.
• Provides your Chapter with an "early warning" system about which Referees have not seen the Mail
• Allows Assignors to become more efficient by allowing Organizations to directly make changes to their requested Matches. (Of course, this only applies if your Chapter permits Organizations to manage their own Match information.)

Managing Mail

Your Chapter can determine several options when implementing Mail on your own Site, including:

• The Match elements that, when changed, should generate a Mail message to any assigned Referees. For example, changes in date, time, and field are common.
• The number of days before the Match when the Assignor Exception list should start. (The Assignor Exception list notifies Assignors of Referees who have not responded to Match changes.)

Note: We do think that email is a GREAT tool, but it's primary purpose is for direct communication between individuals and NOT for scheduling and notification via automatically generated Email messages. While it may provide some support for these functions, it's simply not the best solution for managing Match changes within a Referee Management Site. We think the Mail mechanism works much better for this specific purpose. We do NOT think it's a replacement for the real Internet based Email, which continues to be a wonderful mechanism...depending upon what we need it to do.