TRIEPC Instructions, p. 1
TRIEPC Instruction Manual
NOTE: If you are an experienced TRIEPC user and are encountering a problem, be sure to consult the “problems and solutions” section at the end of this manual.
History of the TRIEPC program: This program was originally written for the Texas Forensic Association State Tournament (mid-1990s) under the direction of the late Lanny Naegelin, the highly successful San Antonio coach and longtime member of the National Forensic League Council. Mr. Naegelin specified quite precisely the features he wanted and the program was the result of numerous trials overseen by Mr. Naegelin. I like to think that Mr. Naegelin’s remarkable skill in tournament management is made available to the whole community of coaches through the use of TRIEPC.
Size and Capacity: The program is designed for the following maximum entries: 2000 Total contestants, 400 schools, 400 judges, 400 rooms, 40 events. Maximum of 6 prelim rounds and 5 elim rounds. Maximum of 5 judges in any single section. Maximum of 50 sections in any given event per round. Maximum of 9 contestants in any given section.
Disk Space: The program itself will require about two megabytes of hard disk space and the data folder will require another megabyte of hard disk space. All data files are contained in a folder called IEData; this folder is small enough to be saved on a floppy disk.
Operating Capabilities: The program is capable of automatically sectioning, assigning judges & rooms, and receiving results entry. Speaker positions are automatically optimized to account for double-entered contestants.
Use of Contestant Codes: The entry system assumes that each school will be identified by a two-letter code (the tournament director may assign any two capital letters to a school when the school is entered). Each contestant participating from that school will then be identified throughout the tournament with the two-letter school code and a three-digit numerical code following the letters (i.e. PA101). The program assumes that each contestant will compete under the same code in different events -- PA101 would have the same code in oratory and in foreign extemp, for example. It is by using the same code in multiple event entries that the program recognizes double entries.
Use of time-blocks: The program manages the assignment of rooms and judges by the assignment of time-blocks. The tournament time schedule would be used to enter blocks of time when the various events are happening. Example:
Time Block 1: 4:30-6:30 p.m. Friday All IE Rd. 1
Time Block 2: 6:30-8:00 p.m. Friday All IE Rd. 2
Once time-blocks specific to your tournament time schedule have been entered, judges and rooms can then be entered as available or unavailable in the various time-blocks. Also, judges and rooms can be "pooled" for various events in these time blocks. In Time Block 2 above, for example, a given judge can be "pooled" to judge HI (humorous interp) while another can be "pooled" to judge USX (U.S. extemporaneous speaking). When the program assigns judges, it will draw from the pools which the tournament director has pre-targeted for certain events.
Entry of debate events: This program is NOT designed to schedule debate events (team debate or LD) or Student Congress events, but it is designed to be an entry platform for these events. Once registration sheets have been printed, this program can automatically "export" the debate entries directly to the companion TRPC program which DOES schedule the debate events. There are major advantages to handling debate entries in this way: (1) Your tournament registration sheets will show all of the entries from a school -- debate and IE in one place; (2) Judge assignments can be centralized to assure that a judge is not assigned to hear more than one event in a given time block; (3) Room assignments can be managed from one central data base; (4) The program can provide overall guidance as to the number of rooms and judges needed in each tournament time block. Multiple debate divisions can be entered (VCX, NCX, VLD, NLD, for example).
Automatic vs. Manual Assignment: The program is designed to allow manual adjustments of any of its automatic assignments. Through a variety of menu choices, the tournament director can move a student move a student from one section to another, remove and replace a judge, or switch a room assignment.
Paper Backup: If at any point in the tournament (because of automatic sectioning problems or for any other reason) the tournament director can print contestant cards which will look much like the cards that tournament directors use when sectioning IE events by hand. These cards will have pre-printed all of the existing sectioning and results information entered up to the point that the cards are printed. The program can also print judge cards showing all relevant information necessary for the scheduling of judges.
Judge cards can be printed at any time; these cards list all of the contestants (in alphabetical order) that the judge has already judged along with the record of any judge blocks.
Disk Backup: The program is designed for speedy backing up of data files to a floppy disk. The entire tournament entry data base can be backed up by selecting an appropriate choice from the "Format" menu; the procedure takes less than one minute.
On-Screen viewing: This program does a better job than does its predecessor on the Macintosh of allowing the tournament director to view sections on the screen.
TRIEPC INSTALLATION
Locate the file called “Setup” and double-click it. The program will begin installing the DLLs necessary to the operation of any Microsoft VisualBasic program. You may see a message indicating that the program is trying to install a DLL when your computer already has a newer version of the DLL file. Your computer will recommend that you keep the NEWER file. You should accept this default by clicking the button to keep the newer file. You may also see a warning message indicating that the program had difficulty storing some file in your computer registry; just click the button for “Ignore.” You may be instructed to re-start your computer; if so, re-start the computer and then click the “Setup” file again. This time it should proceed to the place where you can click on TRIEPC installation.
Once the program is installed, you should be able to go to your Start menu, then to Program Files. You will now see a program called TRIEPC. Select that program.
The first time you start the program, it will report that it cannot find the IEData folder and ask whether you wish to create one. You should click the "Yes" response. The program will take you to the "Format New Files" option where you should follow the directions to format blank tournament files.
What happens if it seems that TRIEPC has been successfully installed and yet when you try to run the program you get an Error 75 (Path Not Found) error? This error results only in the situation where the computer you are using does not have a printer installed. TRIEPC in the startup phase looks for the path to the Windows default printer; if it cannot find one, it reports this error. Note that this does not mean that you have to have a printer connected or even powered on; it simply means that there must be some default printer installed on the computer. Install a printer and the error will go away.
You are now ready to begin entering tournament information, starting with the Tournament Setup options under the Format menu.
SUMMARY OF STEPS TO TAKE IN PREPARING FOR THE TOURNAMENT
- Examine/Set all tournament format options under the format menu.
- Enter time-blocks, events, rooms, schools, contestants, and judges.
- Section all rounds and print out schedules the day before the tournament begins (these schedules probably will not be used, but they provide essential back-up documents which could be used if you encountered later computer problems). Make a backup floppy disk by selecting "Backup" from the "Format" menu.
- Print the registration sheets for each school.
- Conduct registration, making changes in the computer record as you receive drops and adds).
- Re-do the sectioning for any events where you experienced more than one or two drops & re-print the sectioning for round one.
- Change judges as necessary when handing out ballots and make the judge changes in the computer during round one.
Overview of TRIEPC Entry Procedures:
Order of Entry: Begin with the entry of the time-blocks. Then enter events. The only other entry-order constraint is that a school must be entered before contestants from that school can be entered. It is not necessary to enter ALL schools before beginning the entry of contestants. The recommended procedure is to begin entering schools, contestants, and judges as the entry forms are received. Rooms can be entered at any time.
Time-Block Entry: Using your tournament time schedule, enter a description of a given time-block. Start with the time range (2:00 - 4:00) and indicate a.m. or p.m. If your tournament goes over more than one day, you should indicate next the day (Fri. or Sat.). Then briefly describe the events happening at that time ("All IE Events"). The time block entry screen then asks for the listing of a starting time; this is the time that will be printed on the sectioning for events in this time block. Another entry block asks for the listing of a draw time (relevant only if some extemporaneous speaking event is happening during the time block). If a draw time is entered, this time will be printed ONLY on the extemporaneous speaking event sectioning; the program knows not to print this draw time on the sectioning for other events in the same time block.
Event Entry: Each event must have a two or three letter code (OO, USX, HI, DI, PO, etc.). Enter both the event code and the event name. You will be asked to indicate the type of event (debate, interp, extemp, etc.). This information is used to optimize judge placement. The category for "other public speaking event" should be used for events such as impromptu speaking or declamation. If the event involves two-person teams, you should click the box indicating it is a "Duo" event -- this should be done for team debate, for example. Only if the "Duo" box is clicked will the program ask for a partner code at contestant entry.
The Flight indicator (A,B,C, etc) should be used to group events which happen at the same time. If all IE events happen at the same time, they would all be Flight A.
You will be asked for the number of prelim rounds and for the letter indicating the first elim round (Q for quarters, S for semis, etc.). You will also be asked for the number of judges to be assigned in prelims and elims. At the bottom of the event entry screen you will see the list of tournament time-blocks that you have entered. It is very important that you indicate which round will occur in a time block. If you have three prelim rounds, you should list the number 1 in the time block where the first prelim round will occur, and so on through each of the prelim rounds. If you are starting in elims with quarterfinals, then list the letter Q in the time block where quarterfinals will occur, and so on through each elim round.
School Entry: Enter a two-letter code which will identify each school throughout the tournament. The program will accept any two letters, but you should avoid the use of letter combinations which could be confusing to the contestants (i.e. avoid having both a PE and a PF code -- they are too similar in appearance). You might decide to assign the letters in some way that will help you visually identify regions (i.e. all schools from a certain region starting with the letter H). You might, of course, decide to assign letters in a completely random way. Be aware, however, that the assignment of the two letter code is not optional; this program uses the two letter code for a variety of functions. Each school must have a code. Each school must also have a name. The entry of a region is, however, optional. The region is a number from one through nine. If a region is entered, the program will try to evenly distribute regions in prelim sectioning.
A school is deleted by typing the letters "del" in the space where the code normally goes. If a school is deleted, the program will automatically delete all contestants competing with the two-letter code for that school.
The school entry program is designed to start with a blank entry screen, showing only one previous entry at the top of the screen (if at least one has been entered). If you wish to see previous entries, click in the up-down bar at the left side of the screen.
Contestant Entry: You have two options for assigning codes to contestants. The first option is to allow the computer to automatically assign the number. If, for example, you enter a two-letter school code and push the return, the computer will automatically assign the next unused number for this school (beginning with 101). You also have the option of fully assigning the number by entering a five digit code (BC131, for example). You must, however, assign three numerical digits following the two-letter school code. Once the code has been entered, you can enter a contestant name. The entry of a contestant name is optional. If a name is entered, the program will not allow two identical names from the same school (you can, however, fool the computer by putting two spaces between the first and last names, rather than the normal one -- the computer will then think that it has two different people).
For each contestant entered, you may enter up to four event entries by entering the event codes in the boxes following the contestant name. If any one of the events is a duo event, you will be asked for the partner's 5-digit code.
The program is designed to start up with a blank entry screen, showing only one previously entered contestant in the top line. If you wish to see more of the previous entries, you can click in the bar at the left side of the screen.
A contestant may be deleted by typing the letters "del" in the place where the contestant code goes. This will take the contestant out of all events and remove any data record of the contestant.
NOTE: If a contestant drops out of a single event, you indicate the drop by removing the event entry at the right of the contestant name or code. Once this code has been removed, the contestant will not appear in any subsequently printed sectioning (even if the sectioning is not re-done). The program is designed to close up the space and re-number the contestants, omitting the deleted contestant. The only time that sectioning needs to be re-done is when so many contestants have dropped that sections become uneven (one with eight students and another with five, for example). The program is designed to allow you to re-section as many times as you would like; the action of re-sectioning automatically deletes any pre-existing sections.
Judge Entry: Enter judge names last-name first. Judge names are limited to 16 digits, so some abbreviation will likely be necessary (listing just first initials, for example). The program will allow entry of up to seven school codes that the judge should be blocked against (places the judge coached before or attended school, etc.). There is, however, a significant difference between the school code entered in the top box and the ones below it. If a school code is entered in the top box, the program will assume that the judge is judging FOR THAT SCHOOL as part of a school commitment. Accordingly, the judge's name will appear on the registration sheet for that school. If the judge is hired by the tournament, you would not want to enter the blocking code in the top box because you would NOT want the judge's name to be printed on the registration sheet for the school.
If the "stop scheduling" box is clicked, a judge will not be scheduled for any subsequent events. This is a better practice than to delete the judge. Judges should not be deleted once the tournament has actually begun.
The program will ask how many debate rounds and IE rounds should be judged; it will also ask whether the judge is hired. The entry of numbers in these boxes is essential for the operation of the program which automatically assigns judges to event pools.
Judge Ratings: If you intend to use any of the automatic judge assignment options, you need to rate the judge for various events. The ratings will be from zero to five in each event type. Be aware that the computer will not automatically assign a judge to any event where the rating is less than three. The computer will not assign a judge to any elim round if the rating for the event is less than four. The computer will not assign a judge to any final round if the rating is less than five. The automatic assignment function tries to assign the judges to the types of event they are BEST at. If, for example, you assign a higher rating in policy debate than in LD debate, the judge will be assigned to policy debate (for judges rated the same in policy and LD, the program will provide an assignment to policy debate on the assumption that those judges are harder to find).