Waiting for Start-O

[andy]

I like the choose your start time option.

A note about starting at the same time as people going to the first control: it's daft to separate such courses. If you are keen to avoid it then make sure the few courses with large entries have different first controls.

I went to the same first control as the girl who started at the time at the SOL on Saturday and that was pre-allocated times

[mharky]

Interesting... I presume you only know this because she got there before you!

[andy]

Interesting... I presume you only know this because she got there before you!

Yup.. I was all over the place

[Red Adder]

137 entries on one course - many clubs would be delighted with that many entries nowadays on a Cat C.

One of the paybacks from SI etc was that organisers could save resources on start, and espcially finish. With the dearth of volunteers I'm not surprised that the occasional log-jam occurs but I for one wouldn't want to go back to pre-assigned times on Cat C.

[mharky]

Why? How does it involve extra man-power?

If start times are allocated online with pre-entries, or at registration for EOD no extra people are required. At the start you can get away with 3 people, even 2 at a push. One at -3 calling the -3 time, checking people off the pre-entry start list, taking slips of EOD people and inserting any late people where possible. Then someone at the line with any final info and saying "go on the long beep". Pre-allocated starts at minor events would still have a punching start, it's just you have an allocated time to do your punching start.

[Arnold]

Or you could do it on the day the old fashioned way.
Put up a noticeboard where people put their name against their chosen time.
You don't even need slips or checks against lists at the start, just trust people to turn up at the right time. It's just a way of organising people after all.

[mharky]

This would have to be in the "assembly", and it would have to be weather proof. And there would have to be one for each course. And you would have to make sure people entered before they went and booked their start times.

I thought the old-fashioned way was having a people sat in the front seats of cars for each colour class. Each with a start-list, control cars and codes. People came up and entered, you asked them when they wanted to start and put them down on the list. You wrote it on their card and gave them the descriptions. Race entry was paid for by buying your map at a different car.

Surely the best way at busy events is to do the same sort of thing, but with computers. As I have seen at many events, you pick up and entry slip, put your details on it and then pay for your entry. You get a start time and then go to the start. A couple of people are front of house taking the fees and collecting the slip and filling out paper start lists and checking map numbers, then another 1 or 2 people are inputting all the entries into the system before the people finish and get to download.

[Red Adder]

At start 4 people - 2 shifts required of 2 - 1 to line them behind the right line and check SI Card, one to manage the start box and set people off. When you have start times you seem invariably need a third person to deal with people who come late and / or want to change to times and cause more work than the occasional moaner complaining about having to queue. (I actually don't mind seeing a bit of a queue as it means the event be successful - helping a club keep going and putting on more events in future)

Registration does mean more work if you have to assign start times - you have to ask questions, check sheets, fill in sheets etc. I've seen registration done well by two people - just taking entry form and money, scanning entry form and issuing a description sheet / ticking off number of maps available for the course. If you have to assign a time I can guarantee each entry will take a minute longer - therefore you will need two more helpers.

I can see that an event could save 4 helpers, and I know for small clubs with stretched resources that can mean the difference between holding events and possibly having to cancel

[EddieH]

BUT the whole point of what Mharky and I propose is that it doesn't require any more people as the start allocations are ONLY to ease organisation/ lessen queues.

Quite simply anyone that fails to get to ther start, be it late or ridiculously early and wanting to go any, they can do if the time is vacant. However anyone with a time is guaranteed it.

[JK]

A technique I saw at a Swiss multi-day event in Graubunden was to have a table with pens and a big bit of boxed paper. You just wrote your SI card no or name into the box for the course you were entered in. These were some way before the actual start so that you could shelter / warmup or whatever and then turn up at the start in time for your punching start.

Of course being good law-abiding swiss citizens (as of course you would know they all are if you ever listen to their TV/radio news - as each crime is announced the perp's nationality is announced and they never seem to be swiss) there were no people jumping queues or trying to start at the same time as someone else's allocation.

JK