Trial Secretary - Page 1

How many of you have been a trial secretary?

What was your experience?

How do you organize your paperwork?

I'm curious because I've worked closely with the trial secretary for two working trials. One under a judge from Belgium and the other an American judge.

Both judges had very different ideas about how they wanted the paperwork filled out and organized. 

I think it will help new trial secretaries perform their jobs easier if we share ideas.

I'll start.......

Our trials have a designated area for sign in......in this area all dogs are examined for microchip, overall health and briefly viewed for temperament by the judge. This area includes a table, at least two chairs (judge and secretary), microchip reader, all trial paperwork, pens, something (pouch or money box) to collect fees and a container that holds the participants scorebooks. We also keep the dumbbells and starting pistol here until needed.

We (our club) likes to have as much of the trial paperwork filled out (on the computer) as possible before the trial. It saves time and reduces errors on trial day.

We (our club) keeps all of the paperwork in one of those multiple sectioned folders. Each section has a group of paperwork. However, the judge this past weekend suggested separating those sections even further. He suggested using one of those plastic (or cardboard) file boxes that have enough sections to keep each class separate...(example,....all IPO1's in one all IPO2's in another an son on). How many of you use these?

Edited to add: Please comment for show and/or working trial. I'm interested in both and I'm sure others are as well

Paperwork is a completel PITA!

We gave special recognition at our show for those who sent in everything in the first email, and they were entered into a special raffel for a gift basket.

 

Kim.....What a great idea.......I usually have a really hard time getting people to submit their paperwork in early.

Do you have any suggestions for how to handle the paperwork during the event?

officially, all copies are SUPPOSED to be sent prior to the entry deadline.........like that happens consistently.

at the event, we had a printed checklist for each entrant, the volunteers just checked off each document as required.

if an entrant didn't have the required documents, they were not allowed to enter. luckily all had what was needed.

I've been trial secretary for my club many times and I've never had a judge critique how the paperwork is organized. The only thing I print out in advance is the judges' sheets. I use an Access database for all the entry info. I enter all the entry info in when I receive it and it fills out everything - the judges' sheet, the final scoresheet, the trial certificates. When the trial's done I enter all the scores and the paperwork is printed out completely filled in, all the judge has to do is sign. It's a pain sometimes because I need electrical access to run my printer but most judges have seem quite intrigued by the whole system.

I love to train my dogs! I love to trial my dogs! I wish to thank all of the people who do trial sec work. Per the rules you can not show your dog that weekend. Per the job description you must hang close to the judge and handle all of the paperwork in a manner to keep things running smoothly. THANK YOU. and there is a good list of people to thank from group peoples, track layers, helpers, and many more. 

We had 60 or so dogs entered in a show, I made copies of all documents. 9x11 envelopes were created for each dog, on the front was the owner's name, dogs's name, entry number and a list of what was required to complete the paperwork. Rabies vaccination records, a form that needed to be signed, or whatever. When the dogs were checked in the folders were available (filed by owner's name), original documents were double checked and anything missing was added to the folders. We had a copier/scanner at the show.
The white folders also had a list of what original documents were required to be seen at check in, so anyone could easily do this job.

We had raffle tickets attached to each entry that was sent in correctly, and the tickets were given to the owner's at that time. The special raffle prize was a basket with 2 bottles of good wine, crackers, cheese and sausage. Many who didn't get their paperwork in on time said were very motivated to do it correctly for the next event. 

Dogs microchips were checked before they entered the ring, and once checked, they were not allowed to leave the ring. The show catalog had microchip info and notation was made as they were checked. At the same time teeth and testicles were checked.

The system worked well.