Method and system of electronically receiving and processing...

Data processing: database and file management or data structures – Database design – Data structure types

Reexamination Certificate

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Details

C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C707S793000, C705S002000, C705S002000, C709S203000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06289348

ABSTRACT:

FIELD OF INVENTION
This invention relates generally to a method and system for electronically receiving and processing information from individuals. More particularly, this invention relates to an organizational method and system for receiving information over an electronic network from potential and actual members of an organization, automatically generating membership groupings, automatically generating schedules of organizational events, providing information about products related to the activities of the organization, and automatically notifying the members over the electronic network of the membership groupings, schedules and product information.
BACKGROUND
It is common for organizations, such as sports leagues, to register large numbers of individuals to participate in the activities of the organization. Due to the large number of individuals, coordinating the registration of the individual participants can be time consuming and cumbersome. For example, a typical youth sports league may include over 2000 participants. Registration of the participants requires determination of the age, gender, and address of each of the individual participants. In addition, league organizers must collect league fees. The time required to register the participants and collect the fees can be prohibitively great.
Once all of the participants are registered, the organization (league) must generate team rosters which include all of the participants. Generation of team rosters requires grouping the participants by the above listed factors of age, gender, and address, plus other factors including participant preference and experience.
Once team rosters have been generated, the league organizers must generate game schedules for all of the teams. Generation of schedules requires matching team rosters which fall into similar groupings of participants. Generally, the matching includes configuring the game schedule so that every team roster of a particular grouping plays every other team roster within the grouping. Typically, the generation of schedules also includes consideration of playing field availability, season length, holidays and other time constraints.
Typically, participation in the activities of a sports league requires the purchase of products which are required for participation. For example, participation in a basketball league may require the purchase of proper shoes or athletic apparel. It can be difficult for league administrators to properly advise participants of the required products.
In the case of youth sports leagues, most of the league administration is performed by volunteer parents who only have a limited amount of time to dedicate to league administration. Therefore, league administration resources can be very limited. Typically, it is nearly impossible for a league's limited volunteer staff, using antiquated tools and communication methods, to respond to all participant's requests for league information, questions and concerns.
The administrative efforts required to register participants, collect league fees, generate team rosters, generate team roster schedules, suggest product purchases and answer general questions is enormous. Coupled with the fact that league administrators are typically volunteers with limited amounts of free time and administrative systems, makes league administration nearly impossible.
It is desirable to have a organizational network system which allows a plurality of individuals to easily register as members of an organization. It is desirable that the organizational network system have the capability to receive information from the individual members, and generate membership groupings and generate a schedule of events and activities of the organization based upon the information received, and automatically communicate the groupings and schedule to the members. Additionally, it is desirable that the network system be able to automatically provide the members with information about products which may be useful to the members during the course of the activities of the organization.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is an organizational network computer system which allows many individuals to electronically register over a computer network as members of the organization. The organizational network computer system has the capability to receive information over the computer network from the individual members. The information of the individual members is used for automatically generating membership groupings, and generating a schedule of events of the organization. The network computer system can also provide the members with information about products which may be useful to the member during the course of the activities of the organization. The network computer system automatically communicates over the computer network the membership grouping, the schedule of events and the product information.
A first embodiment of this invention includes a group organizational system operational as a computer program on a computer network. The computer network provides communication between a host server and a plurality of remote individual users. The group organizational system includes an organization database, a registrant database and a roster database. The organization database includes information relevant to an organization and predetermined registration qualifications. The registrant database is in communication with the remote users and the host server. The registrant database receives registration information from the remote users. The host server includes a registration generation program for comparing the registration information of the remote users with the predetermined registration qualifications to determine whether a remote user qualifies as a member of the organization. Whether the remote user is qualified as a member of the organization is automatically communicated through the computer network to each of the remote users. The registration database is updated to indicate whether a remote user is qualified as a member of the organization. The host server further includes a roster generation program for generating a plurality of rosters including the members of the organization, based upon the registration information of the members of the organization. The rosters are stored in the roster database. The rosters are automatically communicated through the computer network to the remote users.
A second embodiment is similar to the first embodiment. The second embodiment further includes a schedule database which is in communication with the host server. The host server further includes a schedule generation program for generating a schedule of events of the organization based upon the rosters and predetermined scheduling constraints. The schedules are automatically communicated through the computer network to the remote users.
A third embodiment is similar to the first embodiment. The third embodiment further includes a product database which is in communication with the host server. The product database includes product information about products relevant to the organization. The host server further includes a product generation program which generates a product list based upon the registration information of the remote users and the product information of the product database. The product list is automatically communicated through the computer network to the remote users.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention.


REFERENCES:
patent: 5846132 (1998-12-01), Junkin
patent: 5933811 (1999-08-01), Angles et al.
patent: 6023679 (2000-02-01), Acebo et al.
patent: 6049776 (2000-04-01), Donnelly et al.
patent: 6073109 (2000-06-01), Flores et al.

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