Well...
I think barcodes are kind of silly - the only way to check ID is to compare the face and name on it with the names on the roster. The only thing a barcode scanner would buy you is not having to check for the name on the roster - but I can think of better ways to spend the few thousand dollars than on that kind of equipment. The only other use I can think of for bar codes would be checking to see if players are on a roster before you let them into the players area (or party
), as you don't want to be checking IDs against 1,000 names.
Laptops would be a little more useful - then you could pull up the player's photo and make sure the photo on the laptop matches the photo on the ID for an extra layer of protection. Wouldn't be a bad thing to do away with scoresheets either.
Either way, you ideally want at least one person on each field who does nothing but do pre-game prep - IDs, bands, etc. Spot-checking during prelims is also sufficient if done AFTER games. Either way you also need a mechanism for suspending players who try and circumvent the system.
And of course you need to tie all this to monitoring player history in a real database - knowing who players on the field are doesn't do you any good if you don't know what class they are, and what class their teammates are.
We *MAY* have photo IDs in place by Philadelphia. You'll need your own photo ID to get one, so none of that "Hi, I'm Jaeger Meister", and we'll take your picture and stick that in the computer as well. Regardless of whether the photo IDs are going by Philadelphia, you will NOT be able to sign the waiver until you have an ID number - in fact, I'm thinking that instead of printing blank waivers, we'll print a waiver for each team that already has everyone on the roster and you'll just sign under your name. Make it easy to make sure the waivers are done and make sure everyone is in the system and provide a mechanism for waiver signing enforcement as well.
- Chris
