The Morning Rush

[Loren]

Couple things...

Our policy has generally been that on-site registration closes at 9am. My experience from observing registration has always been that pre-registered drivers aren't written off as no-shows at precisely 9am. Nor should they be. We can give them 5 or 15 minutes, and it's been my experience that we usually do.

Today, I was one of those "late guys", I rolled in at 9:05. (would have been on time, but hit EVERY light on the way in). The other "late guy" was apparently sent packing when he showed up "late" right at 9am and his slot had already been given to someone on the waiting list. I was told that my slot had been given away, but wasn't quite sure if my leg was being pulled or not. If anyone had pressed that issue further, I'd have just gone home, but they didn't.

Interestingly, I just checked our website AND the event details on the registration site, and there is NO mention of 9am anywhere. If we're going to deny pre-registered drivers entry if they show up after 9am, this needs to be published and made very clear. We shouldn't turn someone away for not meeting an unpublished deadline.

---

What bugged me a little, and the point of this post, is the "rush". Registration guys need to stick around to handle waivers and answer questions for at least another half an hour after the official "close of registration". And the people who show up right before registration closes, shouldn't be left out in the cold for their tech inspection, either. My car was never teched today, in spite of the fact that I proceeded directly from registration to the paddock area and prepped my car for tech. It's like 9am was "quitting time" or something, and everybody from registration to tech evaporated!

I'm all for policies and entry limits and all that, but our events are held on weekends, and as such, we should be just a little flexible on time... and a just a tiny bit more relaxed about "finishing" those morning work assignments at any particular time. Think of "registration" as our "information booth". They need to be there to answer questions and point people in the right direction. And tech should have a list of all cars and be sure that all are inspected before they call the job "done".

Feel free to discuss and admonish me for showing up 5 minutes late this morning.

[Jeremy]

Feel free to discuss and admonish me for showing up 5 minutes late this morning.

Charles and I were the last 2 registered, so thanks Loren for being late and thanks to the guy that got sent home for providing me the opportunity to drive today.

[Jamie]

Our policy has generally been that on-site registration closes at 9am. My experience from observing registration has always been that pre-registered drivers aren't written off as no-shows at precisely 9am. Nor should they be. We can give them 5 or 15 minutes, and it's been my experience that we usually do.

Today, I was one of those "late guys", I rolled in at 9:05. (would have been on time, but hit EVERY light on the way in). The other "late guy" was apparently sent packing when he showed up "late" right at 9am and his slot had already been given to someone on the waiting list. I was told that my slot had been given away, but wasn't quite sure if my leg was being pulled or not. If anyone had pressed that issue further, I'd have just gone home, but they didn't.

I think this links to the discussion on how many entrants, and the decision to cap entrants at a level that was pretty certain to deny entry to at least part of the walk-on list. Good, bad, or indifferent, at some point, registration has to make a decision on who's in and who's not. Do they make a decision at 9 to admit a certain number of walk-on's, then 10 minutes later tell some of them they're out, because those people showed up? Or is the cap flexible again...? Or is their decision deadline flexible...is it 5 minutes? 10? 15? As you said elsewhere, that's the problem with elastic limits...pretty soon, they're not limits.

Interestingly, I just checked our website AND the event details on the registration site, and there is NO mention of 9am anywhere. If we're going to deny pre-registered drivers entry if they show up after 9am, this needs to be published and made very clear. We shouldn't turn someone away for not meeting an unpublished deadline.

True, but everyone who pre-registered got an e-mail Friday night reading in part:

"We have a full grid, and a somewhat longer course than we've run in the past several months. We're going to try and get going a little earlier than usual -- Brian and I are shooting for a drivers meeting around 9:30. The registration cutoff will be *promptly* at 9 so we can keep this schedule."

I know at least some people read it, because I got several replies.

What bugged me a little, and the point of this post, is the "rush". Registration guys need to stick around to handle waivers and answer questions for at least another half an hour after the official "close of registration". And the people who show up right before registration closes, shouldn't be left out in the cold for their tech inspection, either. My car was never teched today, in spite of the fact that I proceeded directly from registration to the paddock area and prepped my car for tech. It's like 9am was "quitting time" or something, and everybody from registration to tech evaporated!

Without leaning on the schedule too hard, we did tell everyone we were shooting for a 9:30 drivers meeting. So registration (who'd been working since 7) and tech (who'd been working since 7:30 or 8) had that remaining time to get their cars ready and grab a quite coursewalk. In that same half-hour, Ron had to plug the walk-ons into the computer, and I had to integrate them into the run groups. You would cut that down to what?

I'm all for policies and entry limits and all that, but our events are held on weekends, and as such, we should be just a little flexible on time... and a just a tiny bit more relaxed about "finishing" those morning work assignments at any particular time. Think of "registration" as our "information booth". They need to be there to answer questions and point people in the right direction. And tech should have a list of all cars and be sure that all are inspected before they call the job "done".

At the end of the drivers meeting, we did ask for those who hadn't been teched to identify themselves to Tim (who identified himself). He mentioned two cars on the list he had to me, and both those drivers found him and were inspected. I suspect that since registration marked you as a no-show, tech wasn't looking for you. If you were actively looking for them and didn't hook up, I apologize...if you'd mentioned it to me or Brian, we'd have taken care of it.

In the end, if things were rushed this morning, it's because Brian and I decided to push the drivers meeting forward -- those working registration and tech have nothing to apologize for, because they were working to our schedule. Everyone who pre-registered was informed of that schedule a whole day in advance, so it shouldn't have been a surprise. For all but two, it didn't present a problem. FWIW, Steve told me he's offering the other guy who was late an event credit, just in case there was any misunderstanding.

[Native]

I'm too tired to respond to this right now.
But I will later.

[Loren]

I think this links to the discussion on how many entrants, and the decision to cap entrants at a level that was pretty certain to deny entry to at least part of the walk-on list. Good, bad, or indifferent, at some point, registration has to make a decision on who's in and who's not. Do they make a decision at 9 to admit a certain number of walk-on's, then 10 minutes later tell some of them they're out, because those people showed up? Or is the cap flexible again...? Or is their decision deadline flexible...is it 5 minutes? 10? 15? As you said elsewhere, that's the problem with elastic limits...pretty soon, they're not limits.

If I were running registration, I would say "okay, it's 9:00, registration is closed" and I would take no further walk-up entries or names on the waiting list... and then I'd wait 10-15 minutes (if necessary) to see if any of the no-shows showed up. At 9:15, if there were any no-shows left, THEN I would give them to the first names on the waiting list.

Sounds like we may have decided to experiment with pre-reg only, which renders much of this moot.

True, but everyone who pre-registered got an e-mail Friday night reading in part:

"We have a full grid, and a somewhat longer course than we've run in the past several months. We're going to try and get going a little earlier than usual -- Brian and I are shooting for a drivers meeting around 9:30. The registration cutoff will be *promptly* at 9 so we can keep this schedule."

I know at least some people read it, because I got several replies.

<sheepishly> I'm one who didn't read it. I probably thought it was one of the automated event reminders that MAE sends out and deleted it. ("I didn't forget that I registered for this event, MAE, leave me alone!") Important stuff like that should be posted to the event thread on the forum. (should also go out earlier than the night before the event, not everyone is as rooted their computer as some of us are) Had I known about it, I'd have planned on being there plenty early.

Without leaning on the schedule too hard, we did tell everyone we were shooting for a 9:30 drivers meeting.

See above.

At the end of the drivers meeting, we did ask for those who hadn't been teched to identify themselves to Tim (who identified himself). He mentioned two cars on the list he had to me, and both those drivers found him and were inspected. I suspect that since registration marked you as a no-show, tech wasn't looking for you. If you were actively looking for them and didn't hook up, I apologize...if you'd mentioned it to me or Brian, we'd have taken care of it.

I left my car, went to walk the course, and rolled right into the driver's meeting. I didn't find out that my car hadn't been teched until I went to get in it for the 3rd run group. No biggie. Sounds like it was just a minor oversight (caused by complications, blah, blah) this time and "the system" is okay.

Everyone who pre-registered was informed of that schedule a whole day in advance, so it shouldn't have been a surprise. For all but two, it didn't present a problem. FWIW, Steve told me he's offering the other guy who was late an event credit, just in case there was any misunderstanding.

Again, you can't assume that "everyone was informed" because you sent an email out Friday night. Email is not an exact science, and not everyone checks their email after 5pm on Friday night.

Anway... thanks for shedding some light on "the rush". I really thought it was just a trend that I hadn't noticed before, glad to hear that it wasn't. It appears that it wasn't so much a trend, as it was by your plan. I would suggest making your plan a little earlier in than 12 hours before the event next time... and use the forum, as well as an email blast, to get the word out.

[Solar]

I've been trying to stay out of this, but here is my 2 ¢

Why did we as a group all.the sudden decide that we needed a "hard cap" for walk on's ? And as.far as that matters why did we decide to turn away pre registered drivers that were a bit late ? I feel bad for the people that worked registration (John) that had to turn away those people. Then I hear that other pre registered people were able to attend the event !

Sorry guys but I've worked registration many times, and the cut off has always been 9am. Though every time I've worked it at both SPC or Brooksville we have always had a "soft closing" and stayed a few extra minutes to get those drivers in.

If FAST is going to make all events a hard entry cap, then that's what it needs to be. No exceptions.

I don't like this whole discussion , I think we are getting away from our roots as a friendly club. Plus if we can get a few extra drivers in, then we just make the club better.

[Loren]

I don't like this whole discussion , I think we are getting away from our roots as a friendly club. Plus if we can get a few extra drivers in, then we just make the club better.

More is not universally better. This weekend's event was a good example. It started on time, even a bit early. People got a reasonable amount of seat time (4 runs, but equivalent to the time we get with a typical SPC course and 6 runs), and at the end of the day, the trailer pulled out right at about 5:30pm.

We (tried to) limit entry to 70 this time, and achieved 71. What if we had another 10 drivers at this event? 10 drivers, 4 runs, 40 second overlap = a minimum of 27 minutes. Doesn't sound like much, but where does that extra half an hour go? We have to either lengthen the day (which would have put us there packing the trailer until 6pm) or we reduce the number of runs. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to do either.

We can be "friendly" and still have an entry cap. We just need to establish a good way to do it. I believe we're getting there... but that's not really the topic of this thread.

<grumpy old man>The F in Fast stands for "Fun", not "Friendly", dammit! Get off my lawn!</gom>

[garage west]

To their credit, the pre-registered driver and walkup that were turned away were both polite about it. I tried to be polite, too.

[Loren]

To their credit, the pre-registered driver and walkup that were turned away were both polite about it. I tried to be polite, too.

You guys were given a difficult charge, and handled it as best you could.

[Native]

I'm too tired to respond to this right now.
But I will later.

Sounds like we may have decided to experiment with pre-reg only, which renders much of this moot.

Yeah, and much of what I was going to say has already been said. I'll just add that a 2 hour window to get yourself signed in is long enough, and that in my time doing registration regularly, often enough the later registration goes, the later the event starts. It's a snowball kinda thing...

[Native]

To their credit, the pre-registered driver and walkup that were turned away were both polite about it. I tried to be polite, too.

To everyone - the registration guys, unless it's me or Loren, are just volunteers doing a job and doing the job the way they've been asked. They're the messengers - don't shoot 'em. Got a problem with a rule or policy, find me or Loren, please.

[Jamie]

Got a problem with a rule or policy, find me or Loren, please.

That settles it. Loren, go talk to Steve.

[Loren]

Got a problem with a rule or policy, find me or Loren, please.

That settles it. Loren, go talk to Steve.

Steve and I talk plenty. And when we disagree on things, we discuss the issue and look at different alternatives until we come up with a decision that we both agree is best for the club.