I wanted to report on our experience with electronic race waivers, since I think that's an easy option for organizations to pursue that want to a) streamline the race check-in process and b) reduce their paper waste. I first mentioned it in this post on
Green Racing but I think I can elaborate and -- who knows -- maybe some others out there will benefit?!
First off, for a full perspective you'll need to check with us
after the race, but the experience of setting it all up and announcing it to the teams last week in the second
Captain Communication has been enlightening. We've got around 150 registered participants in the race and as of this morning there are 95 completed electronic waivers. Over 60% in just one week is a great participation rate. I credit this to a couple of factors, partly because racers recognize what a hassle those waivers can be and partly because we enticed teams with a 5 minute head start if their team has all their waivers done by early June. The enticement is important, in my opinion, since it's a concrete incentive to get participants off their butts and to log-on to the race website.
Speaking of race website, lots of planning went into setting this up and we had a legal review of the particulars. It wasn't just an overnight decision to rig up a web page, it took lots of planning so don't underestimate the amount of work involved if you're trying to roll your own online forms and waiver system. Don't skip the legal part, either! My "real" job is web software development so I have an advantage over many other organizations. There's also a few legal connections around the
Untamed family so we're very fortunate.
It would be interesting to examine the amount of energy required to run the waiver section of the website, including the electrical power and database requirements for storage. I don't know anything about the paper production process, but I wonder how much more "sustainable" building and powering this online waiver system is compared to the old fashioned method of paper forms. The electronic method certainly reduces visible paper waste (all those waivers to shred 6 months after an event!), but there are power requirements the new method requires. Sounds like an interesting (or not so interesting?) graduate school program for somebody out there . . .
I'm going to assume the electronic system, especially over the long haul and many races, will be net positive when it comes to the human footprint on the planet. I don't imagine a giant factory with billowing smokestacks is required to run our website! I know
ARFE is excited about our electronic form initiative, too, so don't just take my word for it.
A bit more about the software . . . I can let you in on the fact that the
Untamed Virginia race website, including the online waiver engine, will be packaged for re-use by other organizations in the near future. It will be part of a bigger software offering with some very cool features and fully customizable, so you aren't stuck with our
Gary Fisher or
BRMS logos and grey/orange colour schemes. The most interesting part for race organizations is that it will be a component of an entire race system managed by
USRaceWorks that takes an event from inception through to completion and handles the tricky parts like secure online payment, participant rosters, results posting, and even live satellite tracking! That's right: satellites aren't just for the big dogs like
PrimalQuest anymore.
It's appropriate that, at this time, I share with you that I will soon become an employee of USRaceWorks working on software and who knows what else. It's a great opportunity for me to combine the things I really enjoy: computer nerdery and endurance sports.