The email that we sent out...

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• Ordered 60 patches (from scout shop) which was just about right, did give them out to siblings so we could have been short
• Tried to get doughnuts donated from Tom Thumb, they asked for a letter on letterhead.  Put one together and then they gave us a $25 gift certificate.
• FME was an acceptable location.  Little smaller than what we had before but it seemed to work fine.  Stage worked well for awards.  Preset up audio worked well.  Could not use screen in cafeteria since school officials worried about damage.
• Used the posts from the scout locker to set up barrier.  That worked well.
• Next year we should display cars in a location where people can see them.  Like a showcase of cars. People would enjoy seeing the designs.
• Number of volunteers was about right (2-3 at checkin, 2-3 pit/starter, 3 refreshments, 5-6 setup and tear down, 2 scorekeepers).  Lots of people offered to help that day at event.
• Got trophies from Crown Trophy in Lewisville.  They have done trophies for the last several years and have done a nice job.  They can pull up our old orders.
• We had a track timer go down this year so a couple of lessons from that...
• Need to make sure that we clean and test the track well before setup night.  Track probably won't be used until then.  May need some maintenance.
• Need to be careful if we clean the track that we don't inadvertently drop debris into the laser time light
• Probably need a backup case in the event that the timers go down and if we had to go manually
• The race software allowed us to run with just three tracks instead of four and it had little impact
• Compressed air might be useful for cleaning out the timer orifice.
• Race software worked well, but here are a couple of lessons learned
• The software was lost from the previous year since the old laptops that had it (several different computers) all got wiped/refurbished.  We were able to recover from an old hard drive, but we probably need to store on our website
• Bought a new version of the software that worked better with the newer versions.  It doesn't require any licenses or special activiation codes, so we should be able to move it around and install it on multiple computers if we need to.
• The track ties into the computer through a serial port.  Most laptops no longer have a serial port, so the pack purchased a serial to USB converter. It comes with driver software that needs to be installed on the machine so the cable will act like a serial port.  After installing the driver, it is best to reboot the computer so the computer will reload the driver software and have it active on the USB port. 
• Plug the cable in while rebooting
• Once windows loaded, right click my computer and select manage
• Then select device manager
• Expand the selection labeled ports (com & LPT1)
• Look for the port that mentions the radio shack USB ... label and note the com port number (COM1, or COM2, or COM3, etc)
• In the race software, select the finish line, and choose the correct type
• It will ask you to select the COM port to communicate to the finish line, select from the drop down the COM port that you noticed from the device manager
• That will then allow the finish line to communicate with the computer and race software
• Best to get the software loaded ahead of time and tested ahead of time
• We preloaded the names for the Tiger through Webelos II races based on the Scouttrack roster.  These same names and associated numbers were prefilled on the registration sheets.  This made checkin and computer coordination easier.  Then we just deleted names from the computer for anyone who didn't show.  It meant that the numbers for cars weren't sequential but the software handled it fine.
• Schedule seemed fine.  We started out a little slow in moving cars around, but caught up later.  We also had some small down time when lane 4 was giving us grief. Finished up about 12:30.
• How does the track work with the software?
• Names are loaded into the software (we did it night before and then deleted ones who didn't show, except for sibling, adult, and open)
• type of race selected (we used lane rotation, but there are other methods where it is more tournament based)
• Then have the software schedule the race (it will setup the cars for race 1, race 2, etc)
• Then the track is active
• Select the large display setting to give the easiest viewing on the projector
• The starting gate needs to be activated by pushing the button and turning the red light onw
• When the starter manually turns the gate, the first car breaks the laser signal and starts the timing
• When the last car breaks the finish line, times and places are displayed along with racer names
• This will be displayed for about 10 seconds on the screen and then the software will load the next race
• It starts over from activating the gate
• We had several cars jump tracks, what we learned
• Can't necessarily see a pattern for the cause that a car would jump (different lanes, different cars, no pattern)
• Need to have some spotters watching the track and determining if a car jumped track or if we had a bad start (since everything is based on time, the races need to be consistent)
• On at least on time a car got sideways and then righted itself and we reran the race.  That one car had drastically different time for that one race (obviously) so it seemed right to rerun
• There was some mention that the lane jumping was related to the cars placement on the track, but not sure if this was really a factor or not
• If a race needs to rerun, the scorekeeper would back the software back to the race in question, manually reset the race results, and then re-run.  The new results will be put in.
• The new software gives you an option to lock results when races are complete.  This prevents you from accidently over writing the data and was very useful.  It gives a message after you run the last race for the set, asking if you want to save the results.
• We had a separate file for each class.
• Trophies
• We did not give trophies in the open class and there was some discussion about whether that was correct or not
• The thought behind giving trophies in the open class is that people win those races and feel like they should win a trophy
• Arguments against are that the class is open to everyone (including adults) and it is the place where disqualified cars go
• Some people have told me that they would be upset if we gave trophies to people who broke rules
• Others have told me that they would be upset if we gave a trophy to an adult (we do give medals to the adult class)
• One suggestion is that we should at least recognize the winners in the open class
• Check in worked well, but there was some confusion on the color of the dots.  Two of the greens looked similar, so we may need to mark them differently in the future.
• Remember to bring towels for setting cars on the table.  Otherwise they will roll.
• The drill and hot glue were helpful for people making modifications to the cars
• Still had tears at the end of the event. Probably just a biproduct of competition.
• Might be worthwhile to have a second computer for registration that could enter names into the race files and then just load them with a flash drive on the official race computer.  Just a thought.
• Racetrack (and Scale I think) are stored in the garage attic of Bobby and Julie Davidson.  They were very generous in offering up their storage space.
• Also need to troubleshoot the track well before the race.  We know that lane four is still giving us grief and may need a part to be replaced.