This month we will discuss a good problem that more races are having – selling out, and how to handle some of the hassles of runners wanting to change their race or transfer their bibs.
With the growing popularity of running, more races are starting to reach a maximum number of runners they can handle. If your race is selling out early, there is a good chance that many of those runners signing up 3-6 months beforehand might not be available to run your race come race day due to injury or other plans.
Races are starting to open up Wait Lists. There are many benefits:
- Allow runners who can no longer make it to be replaced.
- Fine tune how many runners will be at your event.
- Collect email contacts for next year (your race may not always be this popular ;-).
There are a variety of configuration options you will want to think about for your Wait List:
- Pick people by Lottery or by First In, First Out (FIFO).
- When the Wait List opens for signing up (as soon as the race fills up or at some future date)?
- When do you want to add people from the Waiting List?
- How many spots can a runner reserve?
- How many new runners do you want to open up to, or open up just as spots are removed/refunded?
RunSignUp has recently released this new Wait List functionality. If you have other ideas on how this could be made even better, let us know.
Participant Management is another factor for race directors. Runners want to transfer from one event to another. Runners want to transfer their bib to another runner. A small number of requests can become a heavy burden.
RunSignUp is now beginning to open this functionality directly to race directors and runners. If you are interested in these features, let us know.
Of course, one of the big issues with Participant Management and Bib Transfers are refunds. Again, we are working with a few races to fine tune the features, but will be coming out with more thoughts on this in June!