My thoughts on the comments above.
First, I don't think a measurer should be forced to join USATF. As for our Certifiers, that's a different story. They verify work as to it being accurate according to USATF standards. Hence, they do represent USATF in some manner. The measurer doesn't.
We couldn't exist without USATF. They are the ones that set the standard for certifying a course not us. They give RRTC a budget in excess of $13,000 per year. For us this money goes to many things such as
1. paying for this site
2. paying individual to do a verification
3. paying some of the officer's expenses
4. Maintaining web housing on the USATF site
5. Purchasing supplies when needed
6. Providing leadership workshops with expenses paid for the Chair.
7. Providing money to have measurement workshops.
Duane is correct mistakes can be made with data being entered. However, are we going to allow a measurer access to the database? Even if that is done, the checks on all levels would have to be done. What is frustrating for me as Registrar is our Certifier's as a whole don't check the final product online. Ken Hardwick has done a service every year by finding several mistakes that I have made. This is much appreciated, but these could be avoided if our Certifiers checked their courses online. Just because one person pushing info into the data doesn't mean that it will be correct.