Limiting Registration

[Hi-Power Jack]

How many shooters are you talking about? Are you trying to get everyone done shooting in a half a day, or can you go longer?

Based on past experience, if we go past 72 shooters (6 squads of 12) then we are pushing our luck. The last match we had over 80 show up including 5 new shooters and a few regulars left because they just couldn't stay that long.

And therein lies the rub. There is no way we can afford to loose these long time regular shooters.

Have you considered raising the price of the match? Use the extra money to hire some kids

to help set up and tear down - maybe even paste & tape? Match might go faster - start earlier, also.

Instead of $20 - charge $25 - that might thin out the herd a little?

This is just a suggestion to consider - I have no practical experience with the results. Don't really

know the outcome of such a move.

Jack

[Joe4d]

I dont think it is complicated unless you try to cater to a few individuals that feel privileged. Thats usually when things get hard making consessions to idividuals, Set a standard and stick to it, makes it fair to everyone,

If you want to shoot you must pre register, no ifs and or buts, Registration is 9 to 10, at 10 oclock line opens to standbys, until match fills, preregisered shooters not signed up by 10 loose there slot.period. As long as there are no exceptions made no one will complain more than once, If you make an exception for a "regular" that throws a temper tantrum, you'll be dealing with more of it every match.

[Graham Smith]

Use the extra money to hire some kids to help set up and tear down - maybe even paste & tape?

12 person squads are pretty efficient plus we don't want people who are not shooters on the range except as spectators - too many liability issues. Setup and tear down go about as fast as they can go unless we did setup the night before (which has it's own set of problems). Basically the 11-4 schedule is pretty much carved in stone for some very complicated reasons, including range rules regarding when we are allowed to shoot.

[twodownzero]

There is a simple solution found in applying microeconomic theory to the problem: raise the match fee. There is an inverse relationship between price and quantity demanded.

I don't think turning anyone away would be a good idea. Also, I don't think that the excuse that we can't accommodate the new shooters is a good one. If our sport grows enough, it will produce enough revenue for your club that you might be able to expand, move to a new facility, etc.

I'm pleased with the growth our sport has had in the past two years. Some new shooters never come back, but many to, and USPSA has had some great growth. Just look around the forum--there's a lot of newer shooters here (and some have progressed very quickly).

Edited August 3, 2011 by twodownzero

[Jim Norman]

We have just for the first time placed a limit on our matches. It will only be for the winter months as we have limited daylight. We run 7 stages and 77 shooters works. We cut off pre-registration at 77. For people that don't register online they are free to show up and put their name in. We take them in the order they arrive and when we close registration we add them in. we almost always have a half dozen no-shows and we have notified our regulars plus noted it on our website so it worked this time. Interesting is that we have people signing up a lot earlier with the limit. Usually we get about 70-80 by Saturday noon, with the limit we filled on Wednesday!

[EkuJustice]

The speed of a match can change quite a bit even with the same number of shooters depending on how everyone works and how complicated the stages are. Throw in a ton of problems waiting to happen ie alot of activating targets and reshoots can add alot of time. Stage placement in the bays can also help avoid jamming up ie speed shoot right before a long complicated field course. There is a local here that has some massive turnouts and never been out real late. We had upwards of I believe 18 or 19 on our squad once and we kept up with other smaller squads and they did not have to wait on us as everyone works and has a quick turn around on the stage.

[Jim Norman]

Size of stages has little to do with a match. It is all in the turn around of the stage that takes the longest to reset. If all your stages clear in 2 minutes save one, and that stage clears in 4 minutes and you have 100 shooters, you will need a minimum of 400 minutes to clear your match. Add in travel between stages and walk through time and you can add 10 minutes per squad. Say you have 8 squads, you are now running 480 minutes or 8 hours even if the balance of your match, 7 stages would only have taken 270 minutes. It is a question of balance.

[West Texas Granny]

Do you have the option of conducting the match over 2 days instead of one?

Growth is a great problem to have but on the flip side it can completely destroy everything. Pre-registration limits the number of competitors and over time that will turn people away. Not a result that helps anyone. Our own local club has seen increased participation this winter and I fully expect those numbers to continue to increase as the temps rise. Our entry level match is being pressured to move away from its mission of introducing new shooters to competitive shooting and become a 3 gun match. Another problem all MD's of differing disciplines are facing is the growing number of people using the range facilities. We are simply running out of room to accommodate everyone. At the current rate of growth range membership will increase 50% this year moving dues paying membership to over 3,000. Then you add all of the agencies that utilize the range. Anyway I'm starting to drift.

Please keep us informed as to how you work things out and their results. I doubt you are the only one who will be facing this problem.

[Graham Smith]

We had our first match this past Saturday and ran 75 shooters (5 squads of 15 each) through 6 stages. We had 70 pre-registered but had 7 no-shows so we were able to take 12 walk-ons. No one ended up being turned away but some people who wanted to come didn't after being told they could only be a walk-on. That may have rankled them but less so than having an additional 5 or 6 show up and have to be turned away.

BTW, Jim Norman made a very good point that it's the longest stage that pretty much dictates how long things will take to run. But there are also a couple hidden facts in there, The squad the ends on that last stage will almost invariably be the last squad to finish and the squad that starts there will usually be the first to finish. So, if you have one squad that is a bit slower than others, then you might want to consider where you start them.

This also effects tear down. If you can have squads finishing one at a time, tear down goes smoother.