Another one for skippers and crew bosses. This week we tweaked the messaging. Now you can select who you send a message to based on their status. Try it out, from the dashboard click on your boats schedule, then click on the envelope in an event. That will bring up a window. Type your message and select who you want to send the message to. Your choices are crew that is Confirmed, on Standby, Available but not confirmed, the Maybe and the Unavailable. Checking all the boxes will send the message to everybody that changed their status for that event. 
Author: rostermonsters
SUPER USER MODE!
Did you know there is a Super User Mode? There has been one for some time but we didn’t say too much about it as we didn’t like it and depending on what computer and browser you had it was sloooow. This week we revamped the Super User Mode (SUM) to be as fast as the man of steel. Why use SUM? We all have that one friend or weird uncle that just ain’t computer literate. To keep track of him on your crew go to the confirm signups page. If you are a Skipper or Crew Boss you will see a pencil after the event name in the events column.
Click on the pencil, that will bring up a new screen just for that event. From there you can edit your crew’s signups for that event. Don’t forget to click on Confirm to finalize the changes
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Login Flexibility
This week we made some changes to the log in. Now you can use any of the three ways to log in as long as they have the same email address. Lets say you use the user ID (email) and password method but if you use the same email address for Facebook you can now use either system to log into RailMeets. Same deal for Google+. Confused, think of it this way, your email address ties everything together and your records, info, signups etc are grouped by email. Use a different email and the system thinks you are a different person.
Bosses to the left
Based on user feedback we made some tweaks to how the crew for your events are displayed. Now the first couple of leftmost spots are always the boat owner and the crew bosses. Next the the crew is listed by most active to least active, if there is a tie then the order is alphabetical. What was happening was there were a few owners /crew bosses that have busy travel schedules and had a habit of signing up late. The crew boss would confirm crew but accidentally leave off the owner because he was on the far right side, doh! Remember from left to right – owner and crew bosses first then crew with most activity listed to the left. Crew gets more points for being confirmed or standby, then available, maybe and unavailable. No points for not entering anything, aka “unknown”.
Chicago NOOD and Crew Bosses
I was at the Chicago NOOD this past weekend. Thanks to RailMeets I crewed in two different boats a J/109 and a J/111. Thanks to those of you that stopped me to introduce yourself and provide feedback, ask questions as well as suggest features. Always a pleasure to talk to our users.
A common theme was how can I help my skipper keep organized and keep the team on top? With RailMeets a skipper can set up a crew member as a crew manager or as I like to say crew boss. Here is how a skipper can do it. From the Dashboard click on My Boats, then click on your boat name. Next scroll down and click on Crews. From there find the crew member that you want to promote and click on Set Rolls. From there you can select Crew, which is the most basic, Manager can update and assign crew and events. The owner can do everything related to this boat. Each boat needs at least one owner or crew manager. New crew defaults to Crew
Now the new Crew Manager can approve crew requests, look for new crew, send invitations and confirm crew for a race. With power comes responsibility make sure the owner is involved with and on board with your decisions. You can also use this feature if the boat is a partnership, the sailor that set up the account can promote the other owners to owner status.
Sweet Home Chicago…
We are based in Chicago and we are proud of our heritage and our city. Our season is short but intense. If you go to the RailMeets home page we feature our city on point. The picture was taken from the vicinity of the Wilson Ave. water intake crib looking southwest. The boats racing are part of the notoriously competitive Chicago Corinthian Yacht Club’s Wednesday Night Series. CCYC is one of the clubs that use RailMeets to help organize their racing. We can help with crew finders, dues collection, rating certificate storage, schedule management and many other tasks to make your clubs racing better. Drop us an email and let us know how we can help your club. 
Time to say goodby…
So you are on a bunch of boats but you found the one, the boat is great, the skipper is smart, handsome / beautiful, the crew is all above average and you have new best friends. Congratulations! But what about the other boats that you signed up on? Especially the one that you just didn’t get along, what to do? You can leave the crew of any boat by clicking on “My Boats”. That will bring up a window that shows all your boats. Find the one you want to leave and click on “X Leave Boat” The system will ask you to confirm. You will be removed from their roster and no longer receive any notification from them. 
Don’t go changing…
Last week a couple of you were getting what seemed like some strange errors. We traced it to multiple logins. Here is a top tip, We provide three ways to log into RailMeets, via Google+, Facebook and with an email//password. When you pick one, stay with it. Switching from one login method to another is just like creating another account. To RailMeets that information is different and it thinks that you are someone else. We understand that change happens, accounts get deleted, preferences change, tastes change. If you need to switch your login or want to merge multiple accounts send Marco or John @railmeets.com a note and we will get you fixed up.
CASRA is our newest partner
For the 2018 sailing season Chicago Area Sail Racing Association, CASRA has partnered with RailMeets for rating certificate storage. RailMeets was created to connect crew to skippers, manage crew and help yacht clubs organize their racing programs.
As per the CASRA NOR racers are required to submit their LMPHRF rating certificate. Today I am going to show you how to get started. Lets start at the CASRA homepage. Go to http://chicagosailracing.org/ and click on Rating Validation.
This will take you to https://casra.railmeets.com/signUp . If you are an existing RailMeets user you can log in using your current credentials, The following steps are similar if your start at RailMeets.com. If you are a new user you need to create an account. To get started we need your name, email address and password or use Google + or Facebook to get started. If you use Google or Facebook your basic information will automatically be transferred to RailMeets.
Now that you have an account you need to create your personal profile. We will get to your boat in a minute. Click on the silhouette in the upper right corner then select My Info. While you are there please select CASRA as your club.
When you select CASRA as your club you give RailMeets permission to share your basic information, name, email address, boat name and rating certificate with the five CASRA clubs.
Next step is to add your boat your boat to the system. Click on My Boats then Add Boat. For the boat we need some basic information to get started.
Next edit your boats profile and upload your LMPHRF certificate. Click on My Boats then click on your boats name
You can add more information about your boat by clicking on Edit. If you are looking for crew, check the Looking For Crew box which will list your boat in the RailMeets Boat Finder.
To add your LMPHRF rating certificate click on Edit Certificates
Follow the instructions to upload this year’s certificate. A pdf or jpg is preferred but any graphic format that can be displayed by a web browser will work.
Don’t forget to click on submit. That’s it you are done.
You can also use RailMeets as a crew manager. To get started click on My Boats, click on your boats name, then click on Invite Your Crew.
This will bring up a box where you can paste in their email addresses. The system will send your crew an invite. If they are current RailMeets users they can add your boat to their current account. Crew can manage their participation across multiple boats with one account.
The entire 2018 CASRA schedule is under events. Click on My Boats, boat name, Events then Add Events From List. In the search box use CASRA. We have also loaded the CoYC Beer Can Schedule and the CCYC Wednesday Night Series.
Need crew? Visit the Crew / Boat Finder. As of this writing there are currently seventy crew looking for rides and thirty two boats looking for crew.
The site is mobile friendly and everything is free to free to CASRA racers. When you use your phone to access RailMeets you can use its camera to upload your LMPHRF certificate
Looking for more tips and tricks? Feel free to surf around this blog. Still have a question? Click on contact at the top of this page. Also follow us on this blog or Facebook for the latest news.
Emergency!
Couple more user requested features were implemented last week. We added optional fields to your profile including emergency contact name and phone number. No one expects an emergency but if you have that filled out then information for your emergency contact will be visible but only to your Captain or Crew Boss.
Some of our more generous skippers were asking for t-shirt size. Some regattas give away t-shirts and even some programs like to have a crew uniform. If you are sailing on one of these programs this will help your skipper get it right. Woman’s XS to Men’s XXL
