Comprehensive Participant Management including Refunds, Bib Exchange and Event Transfers Helps Runners and Race Directors
Moorestown, NJ – August 10, 2012 – RunSignup, the leading innovator of online tools for Races and Running Clubs, today announced the availability of a comprehensive set of tools for participant management including:
• Refunds – allowing Race Directors the ability to easily issue refunds themselves, or set dates and refunds fees for runners to do their own self-refund.
• Event Transfers – Race Directors can transfer runners from one event to another. For example from the Marathon to the 10K. Race Directors can also set dates and transfer fees so that runners can self-transfer.
• Bib Exchange – Race Directors can enable runners to either gift or transfer a bib to another runner. Race Directors can set date limits on this, as well as set transfer fees.
• Wait List Integration – Wait List entries are automatically invited to take refunded participants slots, or to receive bib exchange transfers. The Race Director has full control of enabling this capability with settings for dates and extra fees that may apply.
A recent issue of Road Race Management newsletter (http://www.rrm.com/) had a headline article about race policies regarding bib transfers and refunds. Most races do not enable these features due to the headaches of managing all of the changes. This results in problems like “bandit” runners (those who did not sign up), unknown number of participants actually being at the race, lost revenue to races who are seeing bibs sold on Ebay and StubHub, bad results (a 25 year old uses a 55 year old runner’s bib), and dis-satisfied runners. Read more here – http://runsignup.blog/2012/08/10/refunds-bib-exchanges-a-runners-right.
“The beauty of our participant management capability is that a Race Director can set it up and then it is on auto-pilot,” said Bob Bickel, founder of RunSignup. “We made sure the system is easy enough that runners can basically take care of themselves by working with a number of races and timing services on these features during our beta period.”
“For large races that sell out like our Cooper Norcross Run the Bridge (http://www.runthebridge.org/), we think having a Wait List and letting runners exchange bibs is a much friendlier experience for our runners,” said Kim Marino, Assistant Race Director. “It allows us to plan better on how many entries will show up on race day, and our results are more accurate.”
All of these features are available today to any race using RunSignup.
This is a quick video on how Race Directors can set this up – (https://runsignup.com/How-To/Customize-Refund-Transfer-Settings)
This video shows how Race Directors can remove or transfer participants privately – (https://runsignup.com/How-To/Remove-Transfer-Participants)
About RunSignup
RunSignup is the leading innovator of online tools for Races and Running Clubs. Services include RunSignup for race registration, RunSignup Clubs to enable membership management, and RunSignup Sites for creating free websites for any running related organization. Over 1,000 race directors, timers, and running club officers use these services today. Services are free except for processing fees when conducting monetary transactions like race registration or club membership renewals. RunSigup is founded by runners for runners, using technical capabilities to bring the power of cloud computing to benefit the running community.