BOK Trot

[Roger]

... if you have sufficient helper-time available then that you don't feel the need to charge it on to the customer then I shall enjoy waiting to see if the weather is nice before coming to your event - Thanks!

But you may find that all the maps on your desired course have been taken by the people who made on-line entries in the previous few days, maybe having seen the five-day weather forecast.

Whenever I've done entries, most of the problems and accompanying hassle have arisen from EOD. So personally, I'm keen for competitors to enter in advance -- even if it's the day before. Other people may make different judgements.

[Guest88]

Yes, well then my previous comments would apply to your event.

If you look at the economic model of your event on the day - it would be in the economic interests of both the competitor and the event if you draw a map for him on the day at cost of £x + normal event entry price. I'm guessing that x would be 2 or 3 at the most, but if I had already spent petrol and time on getting there, logically I would be happy to spend as least as much again once in that situation (as I can't recover the costs that I have already incurred) which could be as much as x=£30.

So if you can find someone to draw maps at £5 a time, they gain (£5 just for drawing a map), you gain (you get another £10 for no additional capital outlay), the competitor gains - he gets to run having already spent the incurred costs.

At the moment, your event is what an economist would say is not "economically efficient" - you can change the pricing structure once maps have sold out and improve the situation for all parties.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economic_efficiency

But I would agree with you about it being a lot less hassle if people enter during the last few days before, although I don't understand why you wouldn't charge more on EOD to reflect this as variable pricing on this kind of basis seems to be a fairly accepted thing nowadays -
e.g. the problem that I am currently facing is that if you want to do airport check-in on the day itself and check a bag in with Ryanair (rather than online check-in and jsut cabin baggage) they will charge you an extra £12 every flight. If anyone knows what the best max volume rucksack of good quality which fits in with the cabin baggage limits of easyjet and ryanair - maybe yuo can post here and let me know - thanks