Discussion: Registration

Registration for the West Point A-meet is now open!

Event Website

Registration

Looks like a good time! There's a typo in the event description for the sprints. Is there a discount for the Rec courses like last year?

Yes, there should be a discount for rec courses. We'll make sure that gets fixed. Thanks for the heads up!

BG & WP fresh off the press, spring is coming and the years roll on!

will there be a COF discount as well ? just wondering

Members of any federation are supposed to also get the O-USA discount.

What is this "USOF" that has sanctioned the races?

We noticed the USOF problem, we are in the process of getting it fixed.

Nick - the discount for COF members will be the same as the O-USA discount. Unfortunately, the program we are using doesn't seem to do the subtraction automatically, so we will refund you the discount when you pick-up your packets at the meet.

For those interested in recreational courses, an option has been added to the registration page. Recreational courses are offered on White, Yellow, and Orange for $5.00 and do not require epunch. The selection for recreational courses is separate from regular course selection, so if you want to run a rec course, make sure you choose "Not Competing (None)" for that race in the regular course selection box, and then choose your rec course from the options lower on the page instead.

It will do the subtraction automatically. Just select COF for National Federation and enter your membership ID.

Wonderful, thanks for the correction, Charlie! Still trying to get the hang of the new program here.

I tried to sign up, but the page before clicking register, shows 3 rec courses added in "Total Amount Due" section, even though I did not select any rec courses. I selected my regular courses above, but did not select anything for the drop downs in the rec courses section. Have I done something incorrectly, or does something need to be updated?

Hmm, let me run through the system and I'll get back to you on this.

Okay, its an issue on our end, but right now it isn't clear how to fix it. I'm talking with Kent about the problem - I'll post here again when we get things fixed. Thanks for your patience!

@CHARLIE-B: Selecting USOF, COF or IOF, and entering an ID number (0 for non-OUSA) will engage the OUSA discount. Choosing "Other" -- as in "Other Federation" -- should do the same, but does not. This has been corrected in the Flying Pig version of O-signup, by combining options into "IOF Other".

@GuyO: I see. I guess it all depends on whether a discount really is offered for "Other". We don't offer a discount for "Other" for the GNC; only USOF, COF and IOF, even though our website lists only USOF and IOF, all three are selectable on the registration page. The pricing on the Pig website only says USOF, COF and IOF - at least right now. Of course, it's not such a big deal for us as we have only had one "Other" sign up and in the end he used "IOF" to claim the discount anyway!

But what you are saying is that "IOF Other" is not IOF, but actually just some other national OF member. Right? Sounds good to me.

"IOF Other" means any IOF federation other than OUSA or COF. "None" would cover participants who are not members of any federation -- like non-OUSA Americans.

I did not think about non-IOF O-federations. Do any exist?

@mgb - Turns out there was a programming bug, but Kent has fixed things up, so you can now safely register without being charged for unwanted rec courses.

@GuyO: It seems to me that all of this stems from this part of the USOF A-Meet Fees Computation form. It reads a bit oddly, but I assume that what is generally referred to as the IOF discount is really the "IOF federations" discount. These fees actually double the standard sanctioning fees per runner for non-federation runners.

Non-member surcharge:
Total per-Race competitive entries, excluding members of USOF, COF, and IOF federations.
Race 1 adults _______ x $4.00 = $_________
Juniors _______ x $2.00 = $_________
Race 2 adults _______ x $4.00 = $_________
Juniors _______ x $2.00 = $_________
Race 3 adults _______ x $4.00 = $_________
Juniors _______ x $2.00 = $_________
Total _______ SubTotal $__________

What exactly is an "IOF member"? Any member of a federation that is an IOF member federation?

hannah.burgess: I was able to register now, and the calculation worked well. Thanks for getting that fixed. I did get an error when I was being redirected back from paypal though. An error screen came up saying something about not having access to certain scripts on the server. I should have copied what it said, but I unfortunately closed the window.

Is the O-USA discount applied for each course (up to $12 total) or just for the event ($4 max)?

The O-USA discount is generally $4 ($2 for -20) per-race registration. If there are two races in one day, but you can only register for both or none -- like a prologue / chase -- that would be subject to just one O-USA discount.

The discount it per race - so up to $12 total if you register for all three races.

Remember, the OUSA discount is for OUSA members. You can't claim it if you don't have that membership... The organizing club (if it's doing its job) will check the entry list against the membership list that OUSA sends them shortly before the meet.

In the 21st century, the event management software would connect to the Federation's database and automatically validate memberships and discounts, thereby saving the event registrar at least 4 hours of mundane work, which time is, as always, best applied to soliciting sponsorship and raising the media profile of the event.

4 hours of mundane work... or maybe 10 minutes of cleverness with spreadsheet functions.

Ten minutes of cleverness, preceded by 50 minutes of programming, followed by 3 hours of debugging the reinvented-wheel macros.

I start checking O-USA memberships several weeks out (by spreadsheet), and do it several times before the event. If a membership may expire by the event, I will send an e-mail reminder. This is particularly important with Championships.

Checking membership once, close to the event, potentially sets up check-in "gotchas", that are best avoided.

With non-Chmapionship events, though, is it really fair to USA O-ers to rigorously check O-USA membership, when it is not possible to verify COF and IOF memberships at all.

No, I meant 10 minutes of writing and copying a debugged formula that will tell you if each person's stated membership status is correct, and flag any discrepancies. The only thing I'm not counting is dealing with those discrepancies if there are a lot of them. (An online registration system that checks status could nip most of those in the bud so that they never get as far as the registrar.)

@tundra/desert and J-J:
If you have or know of a good online membership/event registration system that could be implemented for the US, please contact Glen Schorr and/or Greg Lennon.

No I don't. That was my whole point. If Orienteering USA is willing to make its database available for queries (I haven't even started about thinking how to implement proper security), our own registration system will be very happy to query it, not just for membership eligibility verification but as one of the entry points. (If you are an Orienteering USA member, please enter your number; next page: all personal details that O USA has are filled in—and I did say above that I haven't given any thinking yet to security.)

So, yes, thinking of a ready-made solution is nice (if you don't ask for it, you'll never get it), but making the database available to developers would be a good starting point.

What form do registrars get the list in? I'm pretty sure Robin sent me a spreadsheet a couple of years ago (for Grievance purposes), but I don't seem to be able to find it right now.

I have a spreadsheet from 4 years ago.
qry_A_MeetList:Mem ID;LastName;FirstName;ExpDate;Birth;SI.;School;
I haven't been registrar since—next time is coming up.

How much info do you really need to protect on the eventual database that isn't in countless results pages anyway?

Surely name, age, sex, SI number, club, ousa membership status - is not private info.

Out of curiosity, do many people claim to be USOFOUSA members when they are not?

And to those who read JanetT's post but not the earlier ones, afaik members of other O federations do get the member discount.

I don't think OUSA has a list of SI numbers. Or, if they do, I'm not sure it makes any sense. But there are membership numbers.

Oh, wait, Vlad's post implies that they do. So, it doesn't make any sense. I certainly never registered an SI number with the federation, and I'm unaware of any way to do so. Was it gathered behind people's backs somehow? Or am I missing something?

JJ, I think Vlad was only referring to the OUSA membership, for purposes of computing fees.

He said there's a field called "SI.". (And "School" as well?)

@ndobbs: I guess the problem is that people whose membership has expired need reminding that they should either renew or not claim the discount. Also, some people get confused between club membership and OUSA membership.

The fact that there is a field doesn't necessarily mean there is meaningful info, or any info, in the field. In this particular case there were some SI numbers in the field named "SI.", in a file called "USOF Members.xls" that an A event four years ago received from USOF. I have no idea where they came from, nor whether they were correct as of the date of the event. Not all rows had this field non-empty—I'd say less than 20% of the rows did.

Ah, I just found a copy of this that I have from 2006. Somehow there is an SI number for me. (It's not the one that I have now, though I don't remember when I replaced it.) Misguided.