All this talk of balancing run group sizes brought up ideas I've been
pondering for a long time. I'm sure they're not new, I'm just curious
why things are the way they are.
Specifically, what if we had preregistration for events? You could
sign up (and optionally pay) online, show up, pay if you haven't
already, pick up an already-completed (neatly printed out rather than
the usually chicken-scratchings) entry form. (And if you want to
really think pie-in-the-sky, how about totally paperless entry? Tech
workers with wirelessly-networked handhelds?) You'd have less
congestion at the registration table, less cash sitting around,
easier-to-read entry forms, and you could also, for example, get an
idea of class and run group sizes ahead of time, and adjust
accordingly.
More generally, I wonder why it is that the region that encompasses
the supposed "technology capital of the world" still does everything
with pen-and-paper? Other regions have online registration, results
posted live on their websites, etc. Feels like we're stuck in the
Stone Age.
It seems to me that--properly implemented--moving some things into the
computer age could make things better. (And yes, I'm well aware that
computers can fail and break--but the current system isn't
failure-proof either--time posters make mistakes, entry forms get
misplaced, etc.) It would take some investment in time and money
(though I'd be happy to volunteer my services) but I think in the long
run it would be worth it...
- Tam
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Viet-Tam Luu
viettamluu@gmail.com
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