NAMBA Race Management System Project

[David Santistevan]

NAMBA Race Entry and Management System

Over the past couple years there has been an ongoing discussion among a number of entities about a new Race Entry and Management System. The Board of Directors took this as a task this year and made a decision to allocate funds for the development of a system that would be owned and developed by NAMBA. Up to this point we have been waiting for the completion of the NAMBA Membership Portal before moving on to this new project. I am actively involved in writing the design and functional specifications for this system at this time and I would love to hear from anyone offering suggested improvements over existing designs already out there. PLEASE DO NOT POST THESE HERE. If you have a suggestion please PM me or email me at [email protected].

This plan has been in the works for some time and a lot of the design elements of the Membership Portal were specifically designed in anticipation of the race management system. There will be a direct integration that will allow CDs to insure NAMBA membership information. We are excited about this undertaking as we will taking advantage of a lot of new technology solutions available to us now that may not have been available in the past. We will be using a lot of mobile device technologies along with WiFi to give a whole new range of capabilities for the hosts of races.

I am looking forward to hearing from you and any suggestions that you may have. There are some very smart people being called on for this project and I am sure that we are going to produce a phenomenal tool.

Dave

 

[Karl loveless]

Sooooooo cool David

 

[Mark Bullard]

I feel that is a very good idea for NAMBA to undertake this type of innovation. I am a fairly new NAMBA member but I am IMPBA member also and have been so for over 30 years. This is the kind of progress that all organizations need to do for it's members.

 

[Jeff Schindler]

email sent

 

[Eric Bourlet]

NAMBA Race Entry and Management System

Over the past couple years there has been an ongoing discussion among a number of entities about a new Race Entry and Management System. The Board of Directors took this as a task this year and made a decision to allocate funds for the development of a system that would be owned and developed by NAMBA. Up to this point we have been waiting for the completion of the NAMBA Membership Portal before moving on to this new project. I am actively involved in writing the design and functional specifications for this system at this time and I would love to hear from anyone offering suggested improvements over existing designs already out there. PLEASE DO NOT POST THESE HERE. If you have a suggestion please PM me or email me at [email protected].

This plan has been in the works for some time and a lot of the design elements of the Membership Portal were specifically designed in anticipation of the race management system. There will be a direct integration that will allow CDs to insure NAMBA membership information. We are excited about this undertaking as we will taking advantage of a lot of new technology solutions available to us now that may not have been available in the past. We will be using a lot of mobile device technologies along with WiFi to give a whole new range of capabilities for the hosts of races.

I am looking forward to hearing from you and any suggestions that you may have. There are some very smart people being called on for this project and I am sure that we are going to produce a phenomenal tool.

Dave

I hope you also post this trough official NAMBA channels. I must have missed the article in the Propwash.

 

[AFIRacing]

Rcracingevents already exists and is the most flawless system ever designed , no reason to reinvent the wheel ,,,,just saying

 

[Al Hobbs]

My compliments to the NAMBA Board, David and NAMBA President Robert Holland. They have accomplished a lot to bring NAMBA into "modern times" as opposed to the way we did things in the 90's.

 

[Mike Hughes]

Steve,

RCracing events aint perfect. It does not do what we want here in dist 8. So thanks to the namba board for going the extra mile to make a product to help everyone.

Mike

PS David do you need our list of suggestions again?

 

[Robert Pickard]

I agree Steve why not get with Bill have him add things to whats there instead of adding something new

 

[UGOT8]

He not reinventing the wheel he taking namba into the future David has done a wonderful job with the online registration and online voting and club registration Thank you David for all your hard work,

 

[Robert Pickard]

Tony Steve wasnt talking about what David has done right now its great he is talking about race registration

 

[David Santistevan]

Okay, it's out and let's nip it in the bud. RCRacingEvents.Com has been an incredible service to the boating community at no cost for a lot of years. Nothing we are doing is in defiance of RCRE, I hope that option will continue to be available to clubs that want to use that. We are taking a new look at some old problems and designing some systems that are integrated with our NAMBA databases to help simplify race entry and race management. We are also looking to take advantage of some new technologies that will also help to improve the overall race process.

If you or your organization wishes to continue to use other products and services I suspect there will be nothing to discourage you from doing that. What I do not want to do is take valuable energy and resources to deal with these kinds of posts. So the short answer is that if RCRE or some other system does it for you then I encourage to skip this thread and find another interesting topic. This one for people interested in helping with this project.

Sorry for being so blunt but I wanted to make sure there was a clear understanding.

D

 

[Rokieboater]

NAMBA is excited about moving forward with such a project. Many advantages to our organization owning, maintaining, controlling and progressing with an online race entry system. This is a positive move for NAMBA. As needs change NAMBA will be able to change with them. There are so many advantages and features that will be unveiled as time permits.

Please understand that NAMBA truly appreciates all the programs that are available. After much thought and consideration it was determined that it was time for us to move forward with our own. My goal is that we can partnership with IMPBA in the future and make this available for ALL boaters.

Robert Holland

 

[David Santistevan]

We have assembled our design team which consists of veteran CDs from all over the country. We will be having our first call shortly to discuss the project requirements and features wish lists. I will keep you updated as the project continues to progress. Thank you to everyone who contacted me to contribute, it is amazing how similar the needs are showing that there is a place for this project!

 

[Bill Britton]

My goal is that we can partnership with IMPBA in the future and make this available for ALL boaters.

This statement is the perfect example of why a sanctioning body should NOT be in control of the type of software that is used by multiple sanctioning bodies. There IS going to be a bias here. It is already apparent. Your false narrative of the desire to selflessly give the boating community something it already has had for over a decade by multiple groups offering this type of software is nothing more than a thinly veiled power grab by one sanctioning body over another.

For the sake of transparency, Just so everyone knows: This is why I refused to sell rcRacingEvents to NAMBA despite that organizations numerous requests over the years. (Even the anonymous ones)

If this comes to pass, NAMBA may indeed offer some sort of partnership with IMPBA regarding this. But you can bet that IMPBA will be on the losing end of it. Bodies will begin certifying applications, etc. for only their events.

If you want this to be for everyone, why has NAMBA been so eager to possess and control it for so long?... This is not a good idea.

 

[David Santistevan]

Bill,

Fair enough, our primary interest, of course, is serving our membership. We are developing a system that has substantial integration to our other NAMBA online system to provide a more comprehensive package and seamless experience for folks that use it. I really don't see that as an evil plot to take over the world but you certainly have every right to your opinion. I am sorry you see it that way because it's just wrong and drama does not put wind in anyone's sails.
D

 

[T.S.Davis]

I'm a member of both organizations. I race at both NAMBA and IMPBA events. It's the same people. Same type of people at least. Am I missing something? Not understanding the NAMBA hate'n. Is this one of those Red Sox/Yankees type things nobody can understand unless they're from there?

I've raced with and without RCRE. I wrote a simple spread sheet to do the scoring once upon a time. That was before smart phones. Even done it by hand.

RCRE is great but has limitations. Adjustments to that software are out of the question as far as I know. It was free and Bill has limited time to fiddle with it so we worked around those limits. No biggy. I was told by our treasurer that we received an invoice from RCRE. I don't know what the fee is based on though.

NAMBA integrating a race management tool with it's membership database is a cool idea IMO. I could see it being possible to purchase a NAMBA membership or SEI right from the interface. Maybe a district database that shuffles the totals for the entire district. Heck, you could have a nation wide database that shows points for every sicko racer in the country.

I'm at a loss to see a down side to this idea.

 

[Bill Britton]

I don't have a problem with it either Terry. But let me enlighten you on the facts at hand. Lets make this crystal clear.

For a bit of background; NAMBA has made numerous requests to purchase my software and website for many years now. I have always refused on the basis that no sanctioning body should control RCRE as it was made for all bodies in this hobby.

The last round went something like this;

In mid May I believe, I received an anonymous offer to buy RCRE via email. I refused because of the vague offer and also because this had been attempted before.

A few weeks later In late May, David S. contacted me offering to purchase RCRE.(how coincidental) I threw out a ridiculously high price, and as in the past refused on the basis of not wanting it to be controlled by a single sanctioning body.

Approximately one week later (early June?), after David S. had left me numerous more voice mails, We spoke again. It is at this time he offered to "host" RCRE at his COLO data center at no cost. I thanked him but again refused this offer as well.

It has now become clear to me that at the same time he was offering to host RCRE at his data center, NAMBA was also in the planning stages of creating their portal with a race management feature.

This leads me to come to only one logical conclusion. Since I would not sell RCRE to NAMBA, there was then an attempt to have it hosted at a site controlled by the NAMBA Director of IT. Therefore compromising the source code to RCRE.

This is why the integrity of this entire situation stinks to me.

If NAMBA wishes to own a race management portal, NAMBA must write their OWN race management portal.

And that is perfectly fine with me. Good luck, I wish NAMBA the best. I hope you have a good development team.

I actually hold no animosity other than for what I feel was an underhanded attempt to trick me into compromising my source code.

This is all I have to say on this topic.

Moderators: I don't care If I get banned, this post gets deleted, or whatever. The truth is the truth. No one can change that.

Bill

 

[David Santistevan]

Bill,

You have your facts wrong and you have made some ugly accusations against a good organization and people that work so hard for boaters. Please refrain from posting on this post, it a discussion about the NAMBA Race Management System. I understand that this will impact your revenue stream from RCRE but you had to expect this.

Folks, further information about this system will be posted to the NAMBA Facebook pages.

 

[Bill Britton]

Bill,

You have your facts wrong and you have made some ugly accusations against a good organization and people that work so hard for boaters. Please refrain from posting on this post, it a discussion about the NAMBA Race Management System. I understand that this will impact your revenue stream from RCRE but you had to expect this.

I'm not making any accusations. The facts are the facts. You can deny them all you want, but you cannot change the truth. I am rarely on here anymore, trust me, I have no desire to come on here and start drama. I simply don't have the time.

There are posts and topics from a few months ago on this forum stating the desire for NAMBA to purchase RCRE, and when that failed, the offer to host RCRE at your location. You denied then as well. Hindsight is twenty-twenty.

Anyone wanting to know the truth simply need to do no more than a simple search on this forum. They could start by looking here: http://www.intlwaters.com/index.php?showtopic=64543

And as far as money is concerned, For the first 9+ years that RCRE has existed It was free. For me it has nothing to do with a desire for money.

I'm done. I'm not posting anything else about this.

Good luck.