Continuing our series of guest posts, we're keeping topical with a review of Namur Roller Girls' league management web app, TrackKarma by Glasgow Men's Roller Derby's Rosie Peacock.

TrackKarma is completely free to use*, although it can only be used as a web application (there is no self-hosting option). The self-reporting on the website says that, at the time of publication, 376 leagues are currently using the service. At present, the service is available in both English and French, and has no user limits.

Trackkarma (TK) is an app (well, a website that runs like an app) developed by Namur Roller Girls.
Their launching blurb is as follows….
“Ever dreamed of teams charters, training sessions, attendance, league agenda and directory all gathered in one single tool?
Here it is: TrackKarma, the application that will change the world (or at least your league).
In TrackKarma, members can:

• Manage their player profile and import a cute picture
• Check monthly agenda of games and training sessions
• Inform of their absence at practice
• Communicate with their bench crews
• Visualize team charters and game rosters
• Register to coach at practice...

Bench crews can:

• Organize players into teams
• Select players for game rosters
• Add games and related information to the agenda
• Communicate with their players
• Check players' attendance...

Which sounds AMAZING, so Glasgow Men’s Roller Derby (GMRD) decided to give it a whirl.

Previously GMRD have tried alternatives to Facebook groups such as Slack, but we struggle to get everyone on board with using alternatives as although Facebook is handy for social media, it’s also the devil. [For a review of such options, we recommend this article - Ed]

We have been trialling TrackKarma for about 3 months now and these are my thoughts:
I am a terrible technophobe, and I find TK very easy to use.

It makes sense and I don’t feel stupid using it (yey!).

It is incredibly useful for keeping record of training sessions, games and attendance; however, like most ‘extra’ bits of work we ask skaters to do on top of training, some folk are using it really well, and others haven’t logged on at all.

Initially we asked everyone to be responsible for updating and maintaining their own attendance, but this was a bit optimistic on our part and so now we ask coaches to update skaters’ attendance after each session they coach.

The TrackKarma service can be found at https://www.trackkarma.com/

*TrackKarma is supported by a Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/trackkarma . As well as supporting their hosting costs, this Patreon also pays for additional development work and feature support.