Warren Leach wrote:Sorry, I don't get it.
OK, you have to take five minutes to fill out a form. OK. Lots of wasted time.
But online you have to go online and......fill out a form. Sure, some is autofill. But does it take less than five minutes? No, it does not (frankly I find the online site incredibly clunky).
Hint, when you have to post instructions online on how to do online registration, it might not be great.
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And Instruction version 3.0?
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There's plenty of problems with using motorsportsreg; those are motorsportsreg problems, not online registration problems - we can definitely find or make a better online registration system but that's a topic for another thread.
The real benefit is that once you spend that initial amount of time filling everything out, *most* of the time, it will only take 1-2 minutes to preregister for anything. As long as your own information doesn't change, all you do is log in, register, get confirmation. I've never had any major issues registering w/ motorsportsreg or mailing in my entries, but I can tell you I drastically prefer using motorsportsreg even with all its quirks.
I'm online most of the day. When I get a notice that LA has a practice/championship, I can take care of it right then if I wanted. It's not necessary to have online pre-reg, but it does make it more convenient. Even if it only saves 30 seconds/person. A championship day of 120 people saves 1 hour, makes people "feel" better about the convenience, and will continue to do so each and every event. I don't know how it is for SD, but considering how heavily LA events are marketed online (and even in person, we typically tell people to go to solo2.com for more info), online registration is a natural expectation.
SD can keep their mail-in registrations & form cards - as mentioned in the SDR thread, at least just make us fill it out once/year/ever.
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PROBLEM:
- Trying to make the lives of the typical & new entrants easier. I could care less about how much work is saved or not by the people behind the scenes
WHAT TO DO:
- 1) reuse registration cards for points cards holders or somehow keep track of it so I don't have to fill it out every time I'm in SD. only change it if they are using a different car/class/etc. if nothing has changed in the last event, all they have to show is their points card. I don't have to re-enter my information each time I buy something from Amazon - I expect the same from other places I give my money to as often as I can.
- 2) maybe have a list of current points cards holders available at registration for those who forget/lose their points card. i have enough stuff in my wallet, thanks.
HOW TO DO IT:
- 1) people behind the scenes can do it however they want, whether it's simply storing the registration cards or some version of it in the timing trailer, or keeping a consistent database to use from event to event, or moving to online registration that stores the data so they can import/export at will.
- 2) print out a sheet with points card holders before first event. you can print out a new one each time, or just add in the new members by hand to save paper
WHAT DOES THIS SOLVE?
- Makes the lives of the paying customers slightly better, even if it just saves me 5 seconds because there is beauty in efficiency.
With that being said, moving toward some kind of online system will help facilitate the long term "enjoyment" of the general membership. Granted, I've read that some long time SD members may not have access to PC's or Internet or whatever; however, all of the notifications I've received about SD events are through email, the SDR site or forums. So somehow, those without PC or internet access are still getting the message passed onto them; they'll be able to do the same with an online system in place - no one said you had to drop the mail-in registration all together.
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Jon, if you are trying to get something like online registration implemented, it might be better to try to start it at the club level. Convince your own club rep to host one event where you take prepayment for a practice via paypal or whatever online. If a lot of people like it, you will know. If a lot of people don't, you will know. I think this is how online payment started in LA region - Jayson set something up. Eventually, it got used every event. I hope we get it up & running again for Sunday events.