Scorebridge is the scoring program software used by the majority of Scottish clubs who transmit their single-session tournament results to Member Services, which results in direct crediting of master points to the players’ records on the SBU MEMPAD database. Increasing club reliance on Scorebridge, which also has an interface with BridgeWebs, has led to various questions and indeed difficulties for some users.
Following the small MEMPAD meeting in Stirling some months ago, and the establishment of direct communication between myself and Stephen Bligh, I will host a day workshop on June 11 at the New Melville Club on the west side of Edinburgh. We chose Edinburgh to maximise time with Stephen. He will spend some six hours with us and have the advantage of meeting his users face to face. Clubs will have the advantage of putting direct and immediate questions to him.
Start time will be 10h45 and the meeting will close approximately 16h30 – 16h45.
Such a ‘workshop’ needs careful preparation to get maximum value from the presence of the Scorebridge developer. His time is precious, above all as he is engaged in a commercial activity.
The SBU will fund Stephen’s travel and time. We will have laptops available for demo purposes.
Clubs are requested to name attendees with email addresses so as to reserve a place. We may be limited in numbers depending upon what catering can be provided; putative attendees will be informed by end of May in that respect. Each club is asked to send one email to Fiona Greenwood fionagreenwood11@gmail.com – listing their attendees and catering needs/preferences.
Clubs/attendees are invited to submit …
A) A list of subjects they would like to see raised and discussed;
e.g. do we need a Scorebridge/MEMPAD User Group; how can we best use the club database; should Scorebridge hold all SBU membership numbers, what are the future development plans for Scorebridge, how do we make the TD job easier, what is the Scorebridge release strategy, should we have beta versions, etc?
B) Specific questions they wish to be addressed;
C) What improvements they wish to see in Scorebridge in general, and specifically in the area of the interface with MEMPAD;
D) What areas of MEMPAD need improvement, if they affect either Scorebridge or BridgeWebs.
E) Thoughts on how the workload of updating MEMPAD, Scorebridge and BridgeWebs player data can be optimised / reduced.
F) Please note that there will be specific time allocated to discuss MEMPAD matters, but the priority with be Scorebridge.
Answers to the above and any other questions on content should be directed to matchpoints@sbu.org.uk – not to Fiona.
Perhaps I can take the opportunity to emphasise that for both Scorebridge and Jeff Smith programs it is essential that clubs check regularly that they have the latest release level installed. If you come with a question or complaint and it has already been fixed, you may wish you had checked beforehand.
Both Scorebridge and Jeff Smith have made recent updates, and may well do so again before the 11th June. MEMPAD also has frequent updates.
William Whyte
SBU Member Services