Bob Graham

The Bob Graham 24 Hour Club

Help with Filling out the Ratification Form

Occasionally people have problems with filling out the ratification form. This page hopefully will guide you through the process. This help is aligned with version 2.12 of the form.

Getting Started

Download the Membership Ratification Form - Excel spreadsheet and leave this page open in your browser to help you.

Suitable Programs

The spreadsheet was originally written in Microsoft Excel but has since been updated using OpenOffice. So either of those two programs will suffice as will LibreOffice. Please be aware that Apple’s Numbers messes things up so try not to use that program. Please make sure that you save the file as MS Excel 2003 format. For Numbers you need to use the Export menu item to do this. Programs such as Preview do not allow you to make changes to the document so cannot be used. Also don't save in something like Google Docs, send the file as an attachment with the email.

Because different programs may be used to fill out the form it’s not possible to rely on scripting or macro languages to enforce data integrity so it’s up to you to follow the guidelines.

While doing “everything” on a mobile phone seems de-rigeur these days, it’s better to fill the form out on a desktop or laptop where the extra screen size means you don’t miss anything.

What can I edit?

The only cells that you should change are those with a grey background like these…

Important information and instructions are in cells with a red background whilst cells with a green background indicate help text.

Filling out the form

General points

Just fill out what’s asked in the manner that it's being asked for.

  • Read the instructions and help text.
  • If an item doesn’t apply, leave it blank.
  • Don’t delete parts of the spreadsheet.
  • Don’t add “helpful” comments or such like, they increase the time taken to process the form from a few minutes to several tens of minutes at our end.
  • Don’t use abbreviations for your club name (if any), you may know what it stands for, we almost certainly do not.

Where do I start?

There are six sheets in the spreadsheet: Info; Example; Clock-1; Clock-2; Counter-1; Counter-2.

Start with the “Info” sheet and enter your personal details: name, age and so on in to the appropriate cells.

Next, look at the “Example” sheet on how to fill in the different parts of one of the other four sheets.

What date do I enter for my round?

The required date is that on which you complete your round. As an example: if you begin your round at 2000 on Friday 20th July and take 22hrs35mins then you finish at 1825 on the 21st July so you’d enter YYYY-07-21 - YYYY being 2024, etc. The required format (YYYY-MM-DD) allows easy sorting. The form has each part in a separate cell, that for the year is auto-filled, it’s just a case of filling in the appropriate values.

What’s the next step?

The instruction block on the “Info” page indicates which of the four other sheets you should use. There are two options for both clockwise and anti-clockwise rounds, choose the one that matches the order in which you visited Sergeant Man and High Raise.

How do I record the names of those who helped me?

There is a large block on each of the four sheets for this, there’s also examples of what and what not to do on the Example sheet so have a look at those. Enter the helper’s name and put an ‘X’ in the column for each leg on which they helped and/or roadside help. Even if they helped on just part of the leg just put an ‘X’, don’t add text like “to Harrison Stickle only”.

Do

  • Use one line per individual, forename and surname in different columns.
  • Use the name used in the membership list for existing members.
  • Put a ‘Y’ in the membership number column for those who succeeded earlier in the year but don’t yet have a membership number, we will reconcile all these instances later.
  • Put an ‘X’ in the next column if your supporter has previously helped on a successful attempt.

Don’t

  • Use initials - is J. Smith actually Jane or John?
  • Add those attempting the round with you unless on a reciprocal round, see the “Reciprocal” section below.
  • Add extra “helpful” text.
  • Mark existing members as “Reciprocal”.

How do I fill out the timings?

Down the left hand side of the sheet is the list of summits and road crossings. There are two values for each: hour and minutes. The timings must be in 24hr format so 10:30pm must be entered as 22 in the hour column and 30 in the minutes.

Remember that Midnight is 0000 and is the start of the following day not the end of the current day.

What’s the “Reciprocal” column for?

Reciprocal rounds are those where runner ‘A’ supports runner ‘B’ and vice versa. They are by their nature very lightweight attempts and generally not recommended because of the risks both in safety and in the sense that if one runner drops out then the other no longer has a witness. See this page for more information and guidance.

The reciprocal field should not be used if you are a pair or part of a group being supported by others on the fells. A good litmus test is: “If my friend wasn’t with me would I still have enough supporters for it still be a valid qualifying round?” If your companion is already a club member then don’t use the reciprocal field, put an ‘X’ in each of the leg columns.

If reciprocal is checked then don’t check the individual legs, that’s implicit in a reciprocal round. I.E. it’s either reciprocal or individual legs not both.

What do I do when I’ve finished filling out the form?

Save it in the required format: MS Excel 2003 (or at least avoid “bleeding edge” versions). Doing this means that we can script any action on all the files and not worry about coming across a PDF file for instance.

Give the file a sensible name, ideally with your own name in it: “John_Smith_ratification_form.xls”, having a hundred or more files named “ratification.xls” is awkward!

Then email it as an attachment to the Membership Secretary using the address on the form. Don’t link to documents in programs like Dropbox or similar online, actually send the document in the email.

Common Problems

Strange values appear in some cells. How do I get rid of them?

As you proceed with entering your details the calculations are done in sequence. Since the calculations have to have some data to work on, temporarily incorrect values will appear. These will correct themselves as you progress.

Should I delete the sheets for the options I don’t use?

No, do not do this.

One of my pacers succeeded earlier this year and doesn’t have a membership number. How do I indicate this?

Just put a ‘Y’ in the column for the membership number. We can only sort this out at our end once we have all the successes in order.

Why do you need to know my age, nationality and how many times I’ve tried before?

A bit of housekeeping really. We get asked things like “What’s the average age of a BG completer?”; “What’s the age of the oldest female completer?”; “What’s the success ratio?”; “Am I the first completer from XXX?” So these just let us find these things out. They also help with the yearly summary posted on the News page and the lists on the Records page.

In Summary

  1. Read the instructions.
  2. Fill out the information asked for.
  3. Don’t add information that is not requested.
  4. Don’t clear or delete parts of the spreadsheet.
  5. Save the file in the required format.
  6. Send the file as an attachment by email.

Hopefully the above will help with the process of filling out the form. If you have any other questions or problems with the form then please contact the Membership Secretary, Bob Wightman, whose details are in the Contacts section.