CeeBee wrote:Dee
Are you busy!
We've just run at Div 3/4 and Scottish Schools event. The Saturday morning is always chaos as so many entries come in on the day for Div 4 newcomers who take time to fill in a card. It would be really useful if we could have online entries for Div 4. (We will do online entries next year for this event if possible).
MEMBERSHIP
The paddler could enter their SCA/BCU number so we would have a record and we can then check the SCA/BCU cards on the day and take payment for day membership if they are not a member. All Div 4s would therefore have RTC for membership proof.
ADDITIONAL DATA INPUT
We would need more data entered for Div 4 paddlers since it wouldn't automatically pick this up from the bib information e.g. club and yob. (A by product on online entries for Div 4 is that this would give us data on Div 4s which could be useful for sending these paddlers information or 'congratulations' when they get promoted.
I've been at the Sheppy 3/4 all day so do sympathisewith this.
There are a number of reasons why we don't tackle div 4s at present not least of which is that I think the amount of work involved is not justified for the number of div 4s that will enter in advance. I think it is unlikely that we will add them for next year, but may think about it for 2019. In the meantime, organisers can add div 4 entries to the systemso that they know their entry has been received.
CeeBee wrote:
PAYMENT
We would like the option to accept payment on the day once they have entered as really we just want the entries in to get a start list compiled and only want to charge them if they actually turn up. We are happy to do this for the Div 3 paddlers too so we get the entries in advance - we find some paddlers pay in advance and others give us the entry cards or e-mail that they are entering and we then get the payment on the day - could this be an option that organiser select when the event is set up?
Probably not:
- most of the transaction fee goes straight to stripe but a small (pennies) proportion comes to us to pay for things like hosting. We do need this income to run the system.
- the whole premise of the system works on the basis that an entry must be paid for to become accepted, the change sounds simple but would be quite a major overhaul.
If we go ahead with div 4 entry it might be possible to do it for them as they would be outside the current process, but I'm not sure.
You can of course keep the entries open until the last minute so people could decide and enter on Friday.
CeeBee wrote:
ADDITIONAL NON RANKING CLASSES
We would also like the paddlers to enter the Scottish schools classes for K1M, K1W, C1M, C1W and C2 - these are all paddlers who are ranked above Div 3. They are charged the same single fee as Div 3 for the first Scottish Schools entry (they are only charged £3 for each extra Scottish Schools class).
One option to this is to add an open and state in your text that open entry is restriced to Scottish schools entries only. Your ranked paddlers can then enter the open.
We have added an open to Llandysul for panceltic and junior champ entries and this seems to work well.
(Note: the system will not prevent non-valid entries, but realistically if you state eligibility then it's up to paddlers to check - I might add an option for organisers to add eligibility text to the entry page itself).
The first entry pricing should be fine, you can set it to whatever you like on the system. The discounts for additional classes is like multiclass discount so I will see if I can bear it in mind when we look at how we code that to give you the flexibility to add it to the open entries. (Though the multiclass discount is going to be pretty tricky as it is).
CeeBee wrote:
And lastly, a nice to have would be for the paddlers to be able to enter their school name and whether this is a primary or secondary school when they enter the event. We have a club, primary school and secondary school trophy. We can do this bit manually if this is too much extra work.
I'm not sure that there is justification for adding something so specific. However, there is an option to add a sponsor to an entry - this is free text and appears in the start list along with the club; it can be edited by the organiser. I think you could ask paddlers to add their school as their sponsor for the race. This is not controlled like much of the entry so some will forget
and you might get some variations due to abbreviations, but hopefully would provide a good solution.
Llandysul asked paddlers to do this for junior champs and it seems to have worked as far as I can see.
The downside is that it ends up in the club column rather than in additional column as neither Simply Slalom nor the siwi timing system have anywhere else that it can go.
Would this work do you think?
Kit Washer, Entry Clerk, Chauffeur, Reluctant Organiser, Online Entry Advocate .....
Anything I post under this user is my personal opinion; I am not posting as a member of the Slalom Committee!