November 2013 Race Director Newsletter

Timer – Race Director Collaboration

The key to a successful race is having great collaboration between the timer and the race director. Timers have a wealth of knowledge and experience since they work with dozens of races each year and know the best practices.

The Race Director, which is one of the leading scoring and results systems used by timers, has recently completed an integration with RunSignUp. This makes it simple to “sync” the systems, making sure the information on the Registration system is the same as the information on the Timer system. With a login and a few clicks of a button, you can now download registration information into The Race Director, make changes in either system, and it automatically updates the other system. You can even upload results to My-Finish or the RunSignUp results system to enable email and txt message notification for even small 5K races. Just like the big races do!

Read more on how The Race Director and RunSignUp can work together. Race directors should invite your timer to gain access to your race in the very first step of the Wizard. Your timer may already be listed in RunSignUp, so use the built-in search for your timer!

We are here to help!

Just like timers can be a valuable resource for race directors, RunSignUp can also be a help (see examples)! We provide a wealth of resources and tools to help your race. Here are some useful ways to let us be of service to you:

How To Page – This is your central resource. You can look up a topic in the directory or menu, or use the search boxes at the top of the page to explore the topic of interest to you. We have invested in over 50 videos and now have written manuals for most of the system – so you can choose the way you want to learn. Many race directors tell us they set aside time and just review videos to pick up ideas for their race.

Blog – We use the blog as a way of communicating and documenting the latest features (there are a lot). You can look at the “word cloud” for topics of interest, or search in the blog, or simply page thru old blogs to pick up ideas. Feel free to subscribe to always be up-to-date. We also post on our Facebook page.

info@runsignup.com – We have this manned 365 days a year to respond quickly to your questions of ANY kind. Don’t worry about asking what you may think is a silly question. We actually learn from the questions that come in and they serve as one of the ways we determine what new features to do, or where we need to make improvements. For example, we just received our 3rd email about people signing up for the wrong Turkey Trot (we have about 100 using us for registration), so we put up a pop-up to help direct runners to the right Turkey Trot so we can reduce mistakes.

Customer Advocates – We have a team of experts who work with hundreds and thousands of other races. Simply send an email to info@runsignup.com with your contact info, your race name and race location. We will contact you quickly to set up a session to help review your needs and how best to use RunSignUp.

This Month’s Popular Race Director News Blogs

• Getting to the right Turkey Trot
• Event to Event Transfer Improvements
• Participant Caps across Events
• “How To” Updates and PDF Documentation
• Registration Management Manual
• Giveaway Cut-Off Date
• The Race Director – RunSignUp Integration
• Payment Setting Manual
• Direct Payments for Multi-Race Organizations
• Saving Runners Money
• Technology Partner Program
• Group Pricing – Forcing Groups
• Club Member API
• Club Member Report Improvements
• Financial Reports for Partners and Multi-Race Organizers
• Financial Reporting – Complete Guide
• Editing Question Responses
• Even More Customized Questions
• Time Formatted Questions
• Moving to Direct Payments
• Managing your RunSignUp Account