EPrill":16gfz24c said:
Today (Friday, May 15) is the deadline to be eligible for the free entry giveaway.
Kevin, you can enter and not pay today. I plan to pay before the 21st, but have deferred my payment at this point.
Cool, I'll probably do that then.
Dayle Frame":16gfz24c said:
The GLDiv policy includes language about cancellations. We have NO fee if you cancel BEFORE the close of registration in MSR. Cancel after reg closes and it becomes another hassle for an already overworked, volunteer force.
That's certainly not the case for Mid-Ohio. All taken directly from the supps:
"A refund(cancellations on entries paid through motorsportreg.com will have a 5% reduction to cover msr.com fees) will be made if the entry is withdrawn prior to 11:59pm, May 21, 2015."
"A $50 fee will be collected for cancellations after May 21, 2015."
"A cancellation fee will not be assessed
(Except that 5% thing!) if the cancellation notice is made prior to the close of online registration at 11:59pm on May 21, 2015. Once online registration closes at 11:59pm on May 21, 2015, there will be a cancellation fee of $50. This is necessary because it requires extra effort on our Registrar and Treasurer's part to process the cancellation so close to the event."
So no mater when you cancel, you'll get at least "a 5% reduction to cover msr.com fees", which doesn't seem like a familiar practice to me. It also means that not only will the $75 late fee go into effect after 11:59pm on May 21, 2015, but online registration will be completely shutdown at that point too. Yeah, no wonder taking a late entry, or doing a refund, is a pain in the ass. If the very easy to use motorsportsreg was left open pretty much until the event, and payments weren't processed until after the event, wouldn't that solve like 80% of the "extra effort on Registrar and Treasurer's part" to process these things? Wouldn't that be an easier thing to enact, versus all these rules, fees, penalties, etc. designed to sign up entrants and seperate them from their entry fees ASAP? $500-600 entry fees isn't exactly chump change, and it's not fun handing them over when you've still got uncertainty about being able to make the event, when you also know that you're going to get penalized if you do end up having to pull out. If you want me to sign up early, just say "Payment is deferred until after the event, and if you don't show up, we tear up your check/don't run your card." Sweet - if I really plan on being there, I'll sign up well ahead of time if that's the case! Because I get the desire to get people to sign up way ahead of time, I've been a race chair, an RE, and on a regions BOD before, I get it. But to the competitor, this feels like being nickle and dimed for "being difficult" in the given "way we've always done it" system. Might be time to change the way it's done then.
Added after Scott's post: The inevitable, "We work really hard!", and "What are you doing to help?!" post. Yes, I know, and i nno way am I saying people are doing a bad job and/or not working hard within this club. I'm just making what I hope are well thought out suggestions, to hopefully reasonable people who will see my point. Like I said above, I've been a race chair, an RE, and served on a BOD. I don't do any of them anymore, nor do I have any desire to. When I left that, I got onto the Prod Committee. That's what I do now, and where I feel I can do the most good for the SCCA as a whole at the moment. I also wave the SCCA pom-poms at any point I can, because I love it. And because of that love, I want to see it get better, which I frimly believe needs to come through making this stuff more accessible, enjoyable, and easier to be a part of, like the "powers that be" are working with me to ensure I have a good time within their club, not against me and that I'm just there to fund their event. The two minor suggestions I've made here were designed to do that, at a "cost" which seems pretty negligible to me. It's not a big deal if they don't happen, whatever, my life will gladly and happily go on and I'll continue to race, because I'm an already hooked in sucker. But I'm not the one SCCA needs to worry about. It's the guy dipping his toes in, or the ones we're hoping will. Getting hit with little fees and fines here and there because you didn't follow "their rules" to a T, is a good way to put a bad taste in someone mouth who's just trying something out. And please, it's not the monetary value of the $50whatever fine that does it, a "breaking the camels back" sort of thing. It's the principle of it. It's what it tells you about the organization, which you're thinking about shelling out A LOT of your hard earned time and money to. It's why the general feeling about the SCCA from most people under ~40 years old is "bunch of grumpy old guys, with a lot of rules and undo difficulty". Yes, all of this is just my opinion, but it's coming from a 35 year old who's been in this for 15 years, done and seen a lot of stuff within this club, and wasn't even an indoctrinated "second generation" racer or anything. Again, don't really care if it falls on deaf ears, as I'll still happily go to happy hour tonight and happily work on my race car tomorrow. If anyone wants to take offense to what I tried to make 100% based on experience and feeling, and 0% on anything personal, so be it. Trust me, I'd be way more upset about saying nothing, than I'd be about rustling jimmies on the internet.
