WHAT IS AUTOMATIC EVELYN 2025?
Developed and released in 2013, the online version of “Automatic Evelyn” is a modern, state-of-the-art web application that performs bowling league record-keeping duties and subsequent website generation for a host of differently formatted bowling leagues. The application is equipped to easily execute the work of a league secretary for practically any bowling variation in North America, including tenpins, duckpins/candlepins, and Canadian five-pins.
LEAGUE SECRETARIAL SOFTWARE
In past eras, the typical bowling league secretary used a calculator and typewriter to tally the results of the teams and players on a weekly basis. When home computers exploded onto the scene, circa 1980, a new era was born that impacted a league’s secretary more than any officer of the league. A faster way to tabulate data and produce output had arrived, through the use of specialized, bowling record-keeping computer applications that replaced the soon-to-become outdated calculator and typewriter method.
Enter, Automatic Evelyn… a/k/a, “A.E.”
AE’s ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
“A.E.” is an acronym for ‘Automatic Evelyn’ that aptly resembles — both in concept and as an abbreviation — the increasingly prevalent buzzword of “A.I.”, that is so commonly bandied about, in ‘Society 2025’.
AE was this author’s innovation as “Bowling’s Answer on the Web” to the earlier introduction of “Artificial Intelligence” (“AI”) — a term which was aimed at the pre-Internet world of the 1980s and 1990s. Based on “SETUP” league information that a secretary enters into the application, Automatic Evelyn dynamically builds data-entry interface screens for the intake of weekly bowling data, as well as “intelligently” generating output for a league’s members in three viewing formats available to all users — standard websites, mobile website versions, and printer-friendly hardcopies, printable from web browsers. AE Leagues can easily, and intuitively, be found at the central league repository website, www.WorldLeagues.net.
The AE application has literally been taught how to code websites in the most effective and reliable way possible — through the process of raw coding HTML, Javascript, CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), and ‘Active Server Pages’ — the latter of which is a behind-the-scenes language used in the application’s decision-making processes. The method of teaching Evelyn how to write its own programming code at the lowest level —
that is, raw coding its every facet from scratch, is what makes the application ‘smart’, because AE doesn’t rely on 3rd party libraries or plug-ins, which sometimes become afflicted by operating system upgrades and anti-virus conflicts.
(NOTE: For the techies
reading this article, it should be of interest that the online version of
Automatic Evelyn was coded entirely, using only NOTEPAD as its development platform!
LIVING ON THE WEB
In 1996, Automatic Evelyn was a ground-breaking desktop application for the sport of bowling, which enabled a full website browsing experience for league members. For a dozen years, the look and browsing experience required no modifications. In 2008, about a year after the iPhone was released, separate Mobile versions of the AE websites were added for league members who preferred using their new toys — smartphones and tablets — for browsing the Internet. After another 5 years of a dual existence of AE standard websites coupled with the simplified framework of mobile web pages, AE advanced the idea, for the first time, of league secretarial software to be available as a resident web application. Now, Automatic Evelyn brings a portability and “on-the-go” nature for league secretaries and their associated league member bases.
And so, Automatic Evelyn 2025 has continued to take its modernization a step further and is available as a web application that takes the complexity, intimidation, and sometimes overwhelming nature out of the job of league secretary, and provides an inexpensive choice for newbie and experienced secretaries and leagues, as well as those who just want to move their league into a 21st century web presence that caters to mobile devices.
SHORT-SEASON RATES
Leagues that operate with shortened schedules, such as summer leagues and mid-season bowling leagues, will be happy to learn that beginning in Autumn 2025, Automatic Evelyn will be extending significant discounts to any league that bowls a season that’s less than 27 weeks in length. The pro-rating of pricing for short-seasoned leagues will be based on the number of weeks to be bowled, whereas the standard fee is based on a season of 27 weeks or more. For example, a mid-season league that runs for only 12 weeks will pay a reduced rate from the standard $24.95 fee, with the cost being pro-rated down to $10.98 (+ 6% tax).
GROUP WINTER LEAGUE RATES
Also, for secretaries and/or bowling centers that are responsible for running several winter (27-weeks or more) leagues, a group discount will be available at substantial savings. While there is the standard fee of $24.95 for 1 winter league, a secretary (or bowling center) that uses Automatic Evelyn for a maximum of 10 leagues will incur a total cost, not to exceed $89.95 + tax for the group, with special pricing for leagues, ranging from a count of 2 to 9 leagues.
AE IS “PRO GROWTH”
The sport of Bowling needs new people and leagues to help bowling establishments to stay in business. With the prospect of short-season leagues becoming popular in today’s bowling culture, the organizers of these leagues are more or less, casual players, and often will only need secretarial help for just one league. The Automatic Evelyn system has a price tag to accommodate these prospective clients and therefore would be a good choice as a tool for a short league, whereas the prospect of purchasing a full-blown commercial product isn’t economically feasible. And so, this is where the pro-growth focus of AE is a worthwhile service to the bowling industry.
OTHER COMMERCIAL SOFTWARE
While Automatic Evelyn 2025 is offering reduced pricing under the conditions outlined above, the motivation behind this plan is NOT an attempt to recruit the clientele of any existing “competition” software. For example, the software title known as “BLS” by CDE Software is an excellent product with a long history — practically the same as Automatic Evelyn, dating back to the 1980s, I believe. The BLS (Bowling League Secretary) package offers a wide range of features, including some robust capabilities — such as handling up to 190 teams, a 95-week season, and up to 12 players on a team — just to name a few of the ‘above and beyond’ perks.
In keeping with the spirit of a harmonious, non-competition alliance with the BLS, and other packages, Automatic Evelyn 2025 will be disabling its features of PETERSEN POINTS and the specialized INDIVIDUAL MATCH POINT WIN/LOSS SYSTEMS, since these are not features that would normally be a part of new league formations.
This Goodwill move should serve to keep things less complicated for customers when faced with making a choice between League Secretary software titles. However, large leagues of a more standard nature that might be on the fence when looking for a record-keeping tool, are still welcomed by AE, such as the 48-Team, 5-on-a-Team, Friday Fellowship Tenpin league of Prince Georges County Maryland, which has been an ‘Evelyn’ client, dating back to its earlier desktop presence of the 1980s. AE certainly won’t turn away any leagues, but stealing satisfied customers from other resources isn’t the intent here.
A GREATER MISSION
Frankly, AE was not created to be a commercial product — all was fine with its local following. But with there now being the mortality issue that we all have to face at some point, there is a potential need for broader exposure for this ‘AE’ application, to achieve the far greater goal and vision which has come to light, towards benefitting the overall sport of bowling, which is on the author’s immediate, though long-term, agenda. Details of this exciting plan, which could dramatically revive the sport, will be revealed at a later time.