New on-line Ride Managers Sanctioning Request

[Michael Maul <mmaul@flash.net>]

There is a new service on-line where a ride manager(RM) can initiate a ride
sanctioning request, the Sanctioning Director(SD) can approve/reject, and the office
can approve.  If a credit card is used for payment of the fees - the whole process
can be done from start to finish in 2 working hours.  This includes posting the new ride
in the on-line calendar. Changes to rides can be handled the same way,

This will speed up the process and reduce office work as the information will go
directly into the office database after office approval.

Some of the features in the service are:

 * Sanctioning request submission to the office and Sanctioning Director(SD) on-line 
 * E-mail notification of approvals/rejections to Office, SD, and Ride Manager(RM) 
 * Logging of time/date of each step 
 * Immediate display of how the ride will look in the on-line posting and in Endurance    News 
 * Display competing rides in your region and adjacent regions in a +/- 2 week window
   around your selected date. 
 * Display of possible rides from the previous year in the same window that may have a
   prior call on this years date 
 * Initiation of changes such as location, date, distance for office and SD approval 
 * Ability to add your website listing and extra information about your ride to the 
   on-line listing 

You reach this using your Members services login in the link on the AERC home page at

http://www.aerc.org/     at Members services in the left frame.

The Help page for this service is at

http://www.doublejoy.com/erol/aerc/rm/Help.asp

and we suggest reading this before submitting your first ride.  You can try a demo
first - then delete it before submitting to see how you like it.

***** Several caveats - This works best using Internet Explorer - it will likely
work OK with Netscape but testing is not as complete with this.

Second - for the NE region - you can submit on-line - the form will be faxed to
the SD director Earl Baxter who is not on-line yet and it will get to the 
office faster than paper mail but slower than if the while process were done 
on-line.

If you pay the fees by check - then mail the check directly to the office after
you receive notification of SD approval.

Russ and I would appreciate getting suggestions for additions and changes plus
feedback on the service.

Mike and Russ