If you had to pre register for local club matches

[Graham Smith]

What if you had a set number of slots, then allowed pre-registration for say 75%, leaving 25% open for morning of? There will always be morning of's and always be no-shows.

We don't go that far but we try and leave 7 slots plus no-shows for the day of.

Now, let me tell you the issue with that. You will get people who say:

"Well, if you have 7 empty slots, why can't I have one of them?"

"Well, can I reserve one of the walk-on slots?"

"Well, can you put me on the walk-on list?"

I can guarantee you that there is nothing you can do, no way you can arrange things, no plan you can come up with that will not end up offending someone. And you can be absolutely guaranteed that no matter how much some people complain, they'll never offer to take over.

[West Texas Granny]

Our local club has been having great turnouts even when the mornings are below freezing. A harbinger of things to come this spring I believe. Add that to a sustained growth in those showing up to shoot probably means our club will be going that route.

Prepay is a whole other nut to crack. One sure to cause problems so putting a published policy in place will be needed before going that route. Would I have a problem with my local club doing it. No. The only thing that can mess things up is someone coming to shoot who has no idea said policy exists and doesn't get to shoot. Do you say sorry and come back next match or do you say OK.

[Graham Smith]

As I said, we don't prepay but do pre-register. I have a mailing list that comprises almost everyone who's shot one of our matches in the past 5 years (assuming the email is still good). Everyone on that list gets an email at least 10 days before the match. Once pre-registration is full, everyone who tries to register will get an email telling them it's full and giving them match day walk-on instructions.

IOW, we try and make sure that everyone is kept informed. If after all of that, someone still shows up not knowing what's up, well they can't say we didn't try.

[Jeff F]

Both monthly matches I go to have pre registration. If you dont you take the chance of the matches being full and not being able to shoot.

[Olivers_AR]

Every club around here has preregistration online the Monday or Tuesday before the match. Most matches open at 9:00 pm and fill by 9:10 or so. Usually a waiting list and sometimes there are enough dropouts that you can get on. Hard to be a walk-on at this point.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Olivers_AR

[Walt]

I shoot two clubs on a regular basis. One club does Pre-Registration and the other doesn't.

The club that doesn't do Pre-Registration is fun to shoot but has a tendency to run a little long. I generally don't worry about it too much and block out the entire day on my schedule. This seems to happen mostly from getting a larger than expected turnout. From the club perspective, I don't think it matters too much as there doesn't seem to be any time constraints as to how long the USPSA crowd has the pistol bays occupied.

The second club that I shoot at does Pre-Registration but does not offer Pre-Squadding or Pre-Payment options. I wouldn't mind Pre-Paying (I'm one of those guys that rarely carries cash and needs to make a special trip to the ATM before shooting a match) if the option were available, but I can understand why clubs would want to steer clear of processing credit card payments online.

This second club is somewhat new to me. I've just started shooting there this year but there always seems to be something going on to improve matches. In the last several months I've seen two pistol bays expanded and additional steel added to the prop shed. The match director even made a remark of going the digital route for scoring at some point. I'm finding the club to be very impressive and it would seem others see it the same way. I hear grumblings at every match about how pre-registration is maxed out in a day or two. I've seen walk-on shooters every month but I can't say that I've ever seen anyone turned away (I'm sure it has happened, I just haven't witnessed it).

Between the two clubs, I actually prefer the Pre-Registration process. It seems to keep squads at a manageable size and there isn't an excessive amount of time spent standing around. It also gets us broken down and leaving the club at an approximate time (In the case of the second club, I think they need to be completely cleaned up and out of the way by a certain time).

The only issue I've ever ran into with Pre-Registration is with a third club that I shoot from time to time. They do Pre-Squadding and use Palm devices for scoring. While I've never had a problem getting registered, I have gone to a match with a walk-on friend who I couldn't get squadded with. While not the end of the world, it was a bummer to car-pool out to a club and not be able to shoot together.

In any case, my answer to the question at the start of this topic....

Yes, I would shoot a club with Pre-Registration (and would probably prefer it over no pre-registration)

Yes, if available I would most likely Pre-Pay for the match if the option was available

[Paul-the new guy]

I kind of wish my home club would go to this. They limit the number of shooters because they have to be out of the range by a certain time and my biggest fear is to drive the 1+ hour to get there only to be turned away.

One of the other ranges I shoot at decided to pre register shooters for one match because they had rented the bays out and I didn't get the e-mail so I brought a bunch of guys to shoot and was told there is only room for 3 of you and you cant squad togehter.... they did end up letting us all shoot though

[Seeker]

I also wish we had preregistration for our monthly matches. To make it truly effective, you would need pre payment as well to avoid people just getting on the list regardless if they intend to always show up.

[DrawandDuck]

I ask my shooters to simply reply to my match announcement e-mail that they will be attending. I then pre-register in practiscore and squad when they pay at the range.....it really speeds up the process. For those who do not show I simply delete and for the walkups I simply add them...I do not have the huge numbers like some of you, 34 last match so not that big of a task for me.

Yes, if the match asked me to pre-register I would do what I could to assist in helping the match admin. life a little easier.

Randal

[BillChunn]

At Detroit Sportsmens Congress when we shoot indoors during the winter we setup 3 stages on the basement range, have a "drop in" speed shoot as a first stage or a field course that combines all three stages into one big one. Basically it's a 4 stage match. If we get energetic, we'll setup a classifier on one of the outdoor ranges and that becomes an optional stage (that doesn't go into the match score) that costs an addition $2 to shoot. Sometimes new shooters want a classifier stage so they can get a USPSA classification or people want to do a "warm up" stage before the actual match.

We tried running the match without pre-registration. The people that would show up at 9:00 AM sometimes had to wait 2 hours before they fired their first shot. This became very frustrating and people left, pissed that they drove all the way to the club and then didn't get to shoot. We had to change.

So we went to an e-mail announcement and slot reservation system. You replied to the match announcement with a primary and secondary squad time request.

We did a timing analysis (automotive manufacturing engineers are handy like that...) and found that we could get 12 people through all 4 stages in 90 minutes. We set squad times at 8:00, 9:30, 11:00 and 12:30 for a total of 48 shooters. Once the match filled up, we started a wait list to fill in the cancellations.

During the match, everything has to be organized so the shooters know when they were on deck and for what stage. Brass had to be swept and targets taped in a timely fashion to keep on schedule. We created a board with magnets on it showing all the shooters when they would be up and on what stage.

The club members that helped setup on Saturday shot through the match after setup had been completed. That usually accounted for another 10 to 12 shooters so it totaled out at about 60 competitors for a winter indoor match.

We didn't go with the pre-payment idea but if you didn't show up for the slot that you reserved, you were put on the "wait list" for next months match and only shot if there was a cancellation.

HH

[Graham Smith]

Once we got past the first few matches worth of b!tch!ng about having to pre-register, most people have come to not only accept it but like it. Now we are starting to run into some other issues. I'd be interested to see what the people on the registration end think.

First off, as the MD, I need to make sure that the people who regularly help setup get registered. Also I need to be sure that the regular people who shoot the match every month and frequently act as RO and scorekeeper get a fair shot at registration. Without these two groups, there won't be a match.

The way I've been doing this is as follows. We can handle 75 people at a match - and that's a stretch sometimes. I cap pre-registration at 68 (including me and two others). That gives me 7 slots plus no-shows for walkons. Right now, I send out the crew invite 10 days in advance, an email to the regulars the next day, and everyone else the day after that. This month, the slots filled up in about 18 hours - before the final email even went out. That meant that the occasional shooter and new people never even got a chance to pre-register.

So, here is your chance to be the MD for a day. What, if anything, would you do different?

[h4444]

Where I've been shooting matches at lately you have the option of pre-registering and pre-paying. Due to limited slots/space and the fact that the last match was my first with them, I pre-registered and pre-paid, but you don't HAVE too.

I kind of like pre-registering here though,,,kind of guarentees my slot. :-)

[sargenv]

Since I'm a match and range volunteer... well, I don't usually have to even pay for club matches. I've put in enough time that I'm part of the furniture..

[Walt]

Once we got past the first few matches worth of b!tch!ng about having to pre-register, most people have come to not only accept it but like it. Now we are starting to run into some other issues. I'd be interested to see what the people on the registration end think.First off, as the MD, I need to make sure that the people who regularly help setup get registered. Also I need to be sure that the regular people who shoot the match every month and frequently act as RO and scorekeeper get a fair shot at registration. Without these two groups, there won't be a match.The way I've been doing this is as follows. We can handle 75 people at a match - and that's a stretch sometimes. I cap pre-registration at 68 (including me and two others). That gives me 7 slots plus no-shows for walkons. Right now, I send out the crew invite 10 days in advance, an email to the regulars the next day, and everyone else the day after that. This month, the slots filled up in about 18 hours - before the final email even went out. That meant that the occasional shooter and new people never even got a chance to pre-register.So, here is your chance to be the MD for a day. What, if anything, would you do different?

Graham,

I don't know that there is anything you can do to the current system without someone being upset. From what I understand, you have a set time that you need to be off the range (and cleaned up) as well as a time as to when you can start shooting (both of these elements are out of your control, correct?) Short of expanding the match itself (using the 100 yard range in addition to the others or enlarging squads a bit) I don't know that there is anything you can do to make extra room for new and occasional shooters (which is unfortunate because USPSA clubs are limited in the area - at least in my area).

I think that no matter how you handle registration, the guys that shoot at the club regularly and going to do everything that can to take advantage of the early notice. That may mean one guy having a smart phone and signing up himself and his 6 shooting buddies as soon as the email hits his inbox.

You could setup a blog/website for USPSA at Southern Chester and post announcements as to when registration is open to the public, and include the link to Formstack. York IWLA handles pre-registration with a public announcement on thier blog, instructing anyone that wants to shoot email them with details. You could continue to email the setup crew and usual RO's a day in advance to ensure you've got enough volunteer help to run the match.

Just kind of thinking out loud....

[Graham Smith]

You could setup a blog/website for USPSA at Southern Chester and post announcements as to when registration is open to the public, and include the link to Formstack.

I actually have an information form on Formstack that I have considered expanding for just that purpose. It's a work in progress...

[h4444]

Since I'm a match and range volunteer... well, I don't usually have to even pay for club matches. I've put in enough time that I'm part of the furniture..

NICE - I like that one.