News 2012 Masters North American Championship

  • Thread starter Sherri Campbell
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Sherri Campbell

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July 14 is the late fee deadline for registering for the Masters North Americans at Richmond YC on San Francisco Bay, racing Fri-Sun July 27-29. The club is located on the "Richmond Riviera" which is a warm and sunny place to return after racing in the waves on the Berkeley circle. Read on for info on a great charter package.

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The registration deadline is two weeks before the regatta??

Certainly that is not intentionally bbeing done to encourage those whose idea of planning ahead for a trip is buying gas or whose busy schedules can sometimes suddenly open up at the last minute to find another way to use their recreational time??

I have been hosting regattas for singlehanded and dublehanded dinghies since the late 1960s and I cannot remember a single event when someone failed to call on the night before the event to "make sure we were still having the event becasue 'we just found the time to sail this weekend.'"

Registration for the Easter Laser regatta is accomplished between 8:30 and 9 am on the morning of the regatta. Some sailors look at teh weatehr forecast and load their boats for the overnioght trip from Kansas only if the Friday night weathercast inspires doing so. We welcome anyone who shows up. Perhaps that is why the event was once again larger then the US nationals this year.

Despite the fact we feed sailors six meals, provide water between races, and provide trophies for virtually anyone for whom we can invent an award, our hosting system is sufficiently well organized we can easily flex to accomodate between 30 and 100 sailors.

It is truly unfortunate we have hosts who are incapable of remaining flexible enough to accomodate those last minute entries.

Perhaps our Class leadership could take it upon themselves to assist event hosts in setting up and planning for laser events so our generous volunteer hosts could be taught the necessary skills to accomodate every one of our very few remaining sailors.
 
An argument could be made that a discount might be best for late registrants...to encourage those who are on teh fence about coming.

"We won't have time to print a t shirt for you but we sure would love to have you come sail anyway."

At the very last minute.

We didn't have a chance to order any food for you so your entry fee will be lowered and you will have to fend for yourself.

There are those who believe we have failed if we do not find ways to use EVERYTHING that happens to sell more people on coming to play with us.
 
I did not post here to annoy and cause a fight. I believe we should be looking for ways to ENCOURAGE attendance by those who aren't quite sure about atending our events.
People who are not quite decided tend to wait until the last minute to commit time and funds.
If there is a penalty for last minute entry, the last minute entrants simply have one more reason to stay home.

I see that result as a very extremely horribly bad thing. I fully understand those who want lots of advance notice . I fully understand planning and the difficulty of planning for an unknown crowd size.

I also do NOT like the use of a financial penalty which will cause some to stay away.

I would prefer a notice that says, "It takes a while to order and get t shirts. but we really want you to wear one home from our event. If you do not sign up by XXX date we will probably not have a t shirt for you. In fact, if we have a big banquet we may not even be able to feed you. Please, on whatever day you decide you are coming, send us a note and tell us!!"

I simply do not like the use of PENALTIES for people we are asking to come play with us.

The event chairs need to look for fun ways to beg people to come play!!!

And the rest of us need to constantly help think of and tell everybody else about great ideas for making sailing with us an irresistable temptation.
 
When no one decides to sign up until the last minute, that's a bad thing. More and more people don't like paying early (even though they already decided to come ages ago) and giving them an incentive to do so helps the regatta planners. Using the D10s this past month as an example, we barely had anyone sign up until the last week/day of. It was a disaster for the regatta planners because they didn't know how many to expect (food trophies, etc). A T-Shirt isn't enough of an incentive to make me sign up early. Paying less is IMO the main way to get more folks to sign up early. You watch the numbers of boats signing up the last day before a late fee kicks in, it works.

I still think the class needs to set up a small page of Who's Coming for every event on the calender. That way for smaller events people can do a quick yes I'm coming and then it's public so people including the planners can see who's coming to the regatta.
 
Thanks for chipping in some thoughts.

How about we always call it an early entrant's discount as oposed to a late entry penalty??

I simply do not like anything related to the concept of, "give me some extra money or you can't come to my party."
 

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