This year we have had people trying to enter more than six months in advance of a race, causing mayhem for organisers and making their job harder, longer, and more stressful. Think of LesF, as entries are already coming in, theoretically he needs to arrange to separate mail by day, any time he goes away, for almost the rest of the year. Really? You think he will do that again.
We currently have priority given to home division entries up to the Friday four weeks before the competition, and late entry fees after the Friday 2 weeks before. With all entries treated as ‘first come first served’.
How does the community feel about a change to:
- Entries Open on the Friday, 1 month before the competition. The organiser is not expected or required to do anything with any entries until that date.
- When entries open, they are accepted in ranking order, not date order. So home division paddlers get first places, then paddle up entries in ranking order.
- Entries are only complete if they are accompanied by the correct entry fee, payable at the date entries are opened. Cheques are not banked until after entries open.
- As soon as possible after entries open, a list of accepted entries is published on line.
- After entries open, and the backlog is processed, entries are accepted as received, with no priority to any division until the race is full.
- Once the race is full, no further entries are accepted, except to make an event quorate.
- Late entry fees are payable by all entries received later than the Friday 2 weeks before the competition.
- What is ‘ranking order’? Bib order (easy for organiser) or the provisional ranking from canoeslalom? This is harder for organisers to manage, but could be automated with a change to the bib download to show absolute ranking positions.
- If provisional ranking, as at what date? Rolling would be a nightmare, so I would suggest ranking as at the date the entries open.
- How do you differentiate between a C1M paddle up (10th out of 40 in the division) and a K1M (49th out of a division of 200) when accepting entries in ranking order.
- Do we accept that if the competition has a limit of 250, and already has 247 entries, but the next post brings 5 more entries, the organiser can accept all five, then declare the competition full?
- How does electronic entries fit into this? Do we make teh electronic entry system available when entries open and not beofre? or 1 week earlier?
Reminder PERSONAL madness not in any official capacity.