Another plea - record submission
I have also been involved in the discussions with Dave & Jacquie (and Andy) about record submission and thought I might add some additional comments and reiterate Andy's plea for your help.
At the moment, Dave & Jacquie are drowning under the weight of records submitted to them. It is great that so many people contribute - and really appreciated - but it creates a huge problem. At the moment, every record submitted in a format other than spreadsheet has to be input manually. With lots of people submitting annual reports, this is creating a truly gargantuan workload for the recorder(s) which is simply not sustainable. A way to solve this problem is desperately needed.
Dave & Jacquie do use bird recorder software, but it is assumed most people would not want to buy this. Far easier to put sightings into a generic spreadsheet, from where it can be uploaded automatically into their database. They are looking into making an optional spreadsheet template available online (if that would make it easier for some people to get started) and will even try to help anyone to use it if necessary. It is actually far easier to enter data into a basic spreadsheet than making up a table in a Word document and free spreadsheet programs are available.
So your help to try to make this work would be really appreciated. If there is anything else that can be done to make it easier, your suggestions would be very welcome.
I have also been involved in the discussions with Dave & Jacquie (and Andy) about record submission and thought I might add some additional comments and reiterate Andy's plea for your help.
At the moment, Dave & Jacquie are drowning under the weight of records submitted to them. It is great that so many people contribute - and really appreciated - but it creates a huge problem. At the moment, every record submitted in a format other than spreadsheet has to be input manually. With lots of people submitting annual reports, this is creating a truly gargantuan workload for the recorder(s) which is simply not sustainable. A way to solve this problem is desperately needed.
Dave & Jacquie do use bird recorder software, but it is assumed most people would not want to buy this. Far easier to put sightings into a generic spreadsheet, from where it can be uploaded automatically into their database. They are looking into making an optional spreadsheet template available online (if that would make it easier for some people to get started) and will even try to help anyone to use it if necessary. It is actually far easier to enter data into a basic spreadsheet than making up a table in a Word document and free spreadsheet programs are available.
So your help to try to make this work would be really appreciated. If there is anything else that can be done to make it easier, your suggestions would be very welcome.