Issue #11 - August 2015
In This Issue

What an exciting two months for the site!  There are so many important things to convey this month that we will again get away from our usual features.  We will resume them next month. We will be working as hard as ever this month but you may not notice it as much as you would if we were inserting 30,000+ performances. We should get caught up this month and continue to increase the quantity of inserted results. 

WMA Endorses MastersRankings.com!!!
What does this mean to you?

We are honored that World Masters Athletics has endorsed MastersRankings.com (aka athleticsrankings.com) as the official WMA Rankings list for masters athletics. This is another huge step in the path for this site to be successful. This move is one of many demonstrating that acceptance and awareness has increased significantly. We are hopeful that more nations and athletes will help deliver accurate, real time, all-inclusive rankings to you. More companies and benefactors will hopefully notice and be a part of helping us motivate people to be active and healthier. This site will further excel with the help of athletes, companies and benefactors when we invest donations into staffing and the system.
Plan for MastersRankings.com 
What's Next?
 
Now that most of the major championships are over, September will be devoted to catching up, clarifying policies and raising sustainable funding. The focus for the past few months was to get as many performances into the system before the WMA Championships so competitors would be able to prepare better.  Inserting well over 70,000 performances entailed improving programs, developing new tools and training our new staff member.  We were often testing programs while inserting performances into the site and consequently have many errors to correct.  Testing the programs this way is better because we have significantly improved the programs so we will be able to get so many more performances listed much faster with less errors without stopping inserting results.  Some of the things that have suffered as a result of this push are communications, responses and error corrections; increasing awareness; processing complete meet results you have sent; updating information on the site like Frequently Asked Questions and Policies.
September Priorities
End of year goals
Click on each underlined bullet above to find out more
Errors in Rankings & MastersRankings Policies 
Please report errors!!!!!
 
It is okay and frankly, we need your help keeping this site accurate.  It is obvious reading between the lines in your correspondences or watching you timidly trying to tell me about an error that many of you are not comfortable about "tattling" on someone, concerned that your motives will be questioned...  All reports will be kept confidential and each will be fully investigated with a fair and consistent judgement and resolution.  I glibly said we've doubled our staff this year.  My wife has been dragged into my insanity.  She is a woman of unquestionable integrity and consistently and fairly assesses things (aside from her significantly poor judgement agreeing to marry me 26 years ago - everyone make mistakes through so do not be too hard on her).  She and I will be the only people to see your posts as we grow (or any future staff member we allow to see that information will be properly screened and obligated to maintain confidentiality) and confidential information.  I have proven a multitude of times that I do not reveal sources and Linda is no different.
Ineligible Meet Policy
 
Over the coming months we will be reviewing eligibility of meets submitted for rankings as this was recently brought to my attention.  Some of you have understandably not been confused by what you were certifying regarding "organized meets run in accordance with USATF / WMA rules."  Any 2015 performances determined to be done at a no-conforming meet will be removed from the rankings.  A policy will be developed for performances at meets in 2013 and 2014 that do not conform.  I have recently removed performances from meets prior to 2013 which may not have met the criteria but these will be reinstated because I do not think it was clear enough to justify removing marks that were published in the official season rankings. We need to look closer at the 2013 & 2014 meets with this in mind before we set the policy.  We will also set the policies for the statute of limitations on enforcing rules and removing questionable or inaccurate performances.
 
Your feedback, suggestions and insights are welcome and appreciated. Please email or call me with your advice or to discuss.
Meet with MastersRankings.com in California
Know someone or company I should meet, want to help fund raise, have questions or ideas about the site and want to meet? Call or email me to set it up!  I will be in San Jose, California until October 7th and would love to meet to further improve this site and your masters athletics experience. There are many companies in the area that must want to support this worthy cause.
This site has come a long way toward the plan to be an all-inclusive, real time, worldwide rankings site. The exciting developments over the past two months should be hugely beneficial for the site's sustainability. These accomplishments in a short amount of time demonstrate how productive and effective we are and will continue to be.  Imagine what this site will be like within the next year!

Thank you for all your support and encouragement.  

Sincerely,
John Seto
MastersRankings.com, Inc.
a 501(c)(3) Public Charity
PO Box 624
Pleasant Valley, NY 12569
(845) 489-7818