Posted by Susie McDonald on December 06, 2006 at 14:19:13:
In Reply to: t-shirts posted by Jen Sweeney Coleman on December 05, 2006 at 19:40:38:
Hey:
I just wanted to mention, from a former race director viewpoint, ordering t-shirts for a race is very difficult to do (unless you have ESP). A race director will have to order t-shirts at least a month or so, prior to that race. You have to guesstimate how many smalls, mediums and etc. will be needed for pre-registered and race day. I say you have to guess, because a month prior to a race, you usually only have 5-10 people pre-registered by that point. After ordering shirts one month in advance, you are basically sweating bullets hoping to have enough for all runners and volunteers. This is just one job duty, out of 50 that a race director encounters. Normally the shirts come in only a few days before the race and if possible, the race director will have to pull the pre-registered counts and put those shirts aside.
On race day, the race director will have to depend on volunteers to give out those shirts correctly and not mix-up the boxes of pre-registered shirts with day-of-race shirts. There are instances where a new volunteer will accidentally give out pre-registered shirts to day-of race registrants. What can you do, you can't fire that volunteer? You need that volunteer to come back and help with other races.
I have pre-registered for some races, where I didn't get a shirt until a few weeks after that race. I try to understand that being a race director is a very difficult, and it is a volunteer position for each race. That is why my husband and myself have retired (for now) from being race director for the Saraland Harvest Run. It is very difficult to spend 2-3 months preparing for a race, while working full-time jobs and taking care of small children.
Recruiting race directors is very, very difficult. No one wants to volunteer and be in charge for a race. I have noticed lately, that PCP officers have ended up being race directors. So in addition to their volunteer duties as an officer, they have to take on being in charge of a race too.........wow, that is a lot of volunteer work!!!
Anyways, I don't know the particulars of what happened with the past few races, but I just wanted to pass along the difficulties of putting on a race and being a race director.
Susie McDonald
(I waiting on my Turkey 10 shirt:))