The end of call-takers?

We have a new policy that will take effect for spring sports where we won't take any prep or college call-ins (no phone calls, no fax, e-mail only). SE is convinced this will decrease our workload; I think it will decrease his, hence the policy. We already have some coaches e-mailing their stuff to us, and in most cases it takes more time to retype the stuff off e-mail than it does to take a phone call.
I think it's a good idea in theory, but I can't imagine we'll ever get all of our coaches to do it, to say nothing about doing it correctly.
Hate to be a naysayer (although it seems that's about all I do these days), but I have visions of an unhappy ending to this policy.

 

when i instruct coaches or scorekeepers to email us results, i specifically show the form we want so we won't have to spend so much time revamping it. it still has to be studied closely for typos, our style, etc., but it does help.

 

I wholeheartedly agree. Your SE is going to find that some of these people don't want their stuff in the paper that badly.

 

Another part of the problem is that for our prep writers, it's really helpful to talk to the coaches a lot of the time. The response to that is to have the coach call us after e-mailing the game. My thinking is that if you start putting up too many hoops, at some point, the coaches are going to stop jumping through them.

 

Which is probably the intention. How big a paper are we talking about?

 

The big advantage to calltakers in uniformity; they present the material to the writer in the same style. No matter how many times you tell coaches you need it a certain way, it's guaranteed to be across the board.

 

What phoners have YOU been working with?

 

40-50k, and about 30-35 high schools.

 

I prefer the phone calls. That way, if you've got a question, your answer is a few words away. Inevitably, with most e-mails or faxes, you've got to do the same leg-work anyway, only now you're a little closer to deadline.

 

That is a good point.

 

I've had it and seen it happen all too often; with preview information, too. Why not just make the call to get that game off the schedule quickly?

 

Yes. I'd love to reduce our calls to scores only for two-thirds of our schools and lay off a position. They always call late. The numbers rarely add up. The part-timers haven't learned our box style despite their multiple-year tenure. The numbers NEVER add up to the totals. The SE never sets a cutoff time. Maybe we can make deadline for once if we do it my way.