How to deal with name changes and duplicate name records

The creation of an online registration system for the Klondike Road Relay has been a long time goal. We tried doing it 5 years ago but couldn't get it done. The problem was how to integrate 18 years worth of data with an annual event. In the past we have handled each year as a single event. Combining all the data into a single database has presented some interesting problems. The single biggest is that of having Teams and Racers with similar but not identical names.

For instance as a racer you may be listed as Jane Smith in years 1993 and 1994 then in 1995 as J. Smith and in 1998 as Jane Adams and back to Jane Smith in 2003. What we have done is combined all the identical names into one Racer Record. In this case all the Jane Smiths appear in one record, the J. Smith as a record and Jane Adams as a record.

While this may not appear as an issue, once the Historical data comes on line this summer you may want have all your records to appear under one name. In order to have that happen you will need to let us know via the Links Below. It is also conceivable that there were 2 Jane Smith's that participated. If this is the case please let us know.

What we need to know is what are the Participant ID Numbers (PIN) are that are affected and the Years affected and any other relevant information including the name you want all records to show.

The same problem applies to team names. Not only were the names spelled differently each year but also some teams included a sponsor name as part of the name. What we have done is tried to combine all identical names into one record but this was less successful.

We have added a field called "Sponsor" so if you were Atlas Travel Magnificent 10 one year and Whitehorse Travel Magnificent Ten the next year you can combine the records to be just the Magnificent 10 and show the sponsor for each year as separate items. If your sponsor is an integral part of the Team name then it can be left as is. The choice is yours.

We need to know what the Team ID Number (TID) for each year that needs to be changed and what name you want to use.