When I renewed last year we were still on the paper ID cards.
Just came across my first plastic ID card running an unrated tournament today. Put the ID number into WinTD but apparently I didn’t specify the USCF directory correctly in my default prefs file. Was about to flip to the player rating lookup when I noticed the QR Code on the ID. Hit that with my iPhone and got the player’s MSA record, quicker than I could have looked it up.
Thanks USCF, and whomever thought of incorporating the QR Codes!
Now I’m thinking I might need to renew for a year, even though I don’t expire until late 2015.
When the new membership cards were introduced at last year’s Delegates’ Meeting, it was announced that they would also be sent to life members. I’m wondering when that will happen.
There are more than 10,000 life members. The printer cannot run that many in a short period without a problem. Franc announced that life members who want one can contact the office to get one.
I didn’t want to wait until mine expired (life member) so I asked at the end of June and received one before mid-July. Ken Ballou saw it at the US Open.
Now all that is left is my paper NTD card, but it still looks to be in good shape after a bit over a decade.
I heard this at the meeting and probably should have spoken up then. The comment doesn’t really make sense. Why does it have to be done in a SHORT time??? These are LIFE memberships! We process way more than 10,000 memberships over the course of a year. Why can’t this be organized so that a few life memberships are done each day? Over the course of a year we could process all the life memberships and this shouldn’t be that much extra on any single day. It’s hard to believe some procedure couldn’t be put in place to accomplish this.
If it can’t handle 10,000 extra membership cards over the course of a year, then what are we going to do if memberships increase a small amount?
I think most people couldn’t care less about the ID cards and there is no need for them. Therefore, I think it’s a complete waste of time and resources.
Even if you’re right that most people don’t care about the ID cards, it would not be a complete waste of time and resources since some members (like me) do value them.
My sample size is small, but most people who I’ve talked to about them seem to like them, as does the OP.
I rather like the ID card. I would probably have been just as dismissive as Micah, but I actually do like it.
What would be really neat is if SwissSys and WinTD incorporated a feature that a player could be entered into a tournament just by scanning the ID Card. With something like that (speeding up on-site registrations) the cards might get a LOT more popular.
Since that time, I have noticed more members bringing their cards to tournaments where I direct. It has certainly helped with getting those members registered quickly and accurately.
It may be a while before SwissSys or WinTD could handle card scanning, but people have already used the bar code on the card to go to the MSA record when using their phone to connect to the internet.
Run the WindowsFormsDemo.exe file. A window will open that has a “WebCam” tab.
From here, you can use the webcam to decode the ID card code (I think - I’ve tested it with a QR Code and it works, but haven’t tried a USCF ID yet.) But I think you can decode, highlight the member ID from the msa link, copy it, then paste it into the WinTD ID number field.
If/when I get spare time (Ha! ) I’m going to look into modifying the source code to isolate the USCF ID and copy it to the clipboard automatically. Then it is switch to the demo, capture the qr code via webcam, then back to WinTD for a simple paste.
The cost per card is basically the same as with paper. The additional cost is the printer with which to do the printing. The time was the original set up of the printer and getting it to play nice with everything else.
But the mention of a waste of time and resources is just dripping with irony considering the source.
) I’m going to look into modifying the source code to isolate the USCF ID and copy it to the clipboard automatically. Then it is switch to the demo, capture the qr code via webcam, then back to WinTD for a simple paste.