A: After you press “Send Message Now”, you will see a notification on the screen that tells you how many recipients the email was sent to. It’s also a good idea to “Copy Sender” so that you receive your own copy of the email.

Wouldn’t that be nice? Well… it IS when you use MotorsportReg.com’s Check-in feature!

Built in to our premium plan accounts for organizers, this tool gives your registration team a quick and easy online, real-time check-in process. Combined with online payments, it makes checking in your attendees as easy and quick as a couple of mouse clicks.

No more multiple attendee list printouts, no more manually searching down a list of names and trying to figure out if they are paid, no more trying to keep track of check-in notes… it’s all at your fingertips. In fact, it’s at everyone’s fingertips! The check-in tool allows you to have multiple check-in screens open at the same time to allow for different check-in lines.

The simple layout of the check-in box lets you easily see the most important data:

• What the attendee is registered for (segment, class, group)
• Do they owe any money?
• Vehicle info, transponder number, and car number

The check-in notes field lets you enter any additional pertinent information (crew members, notes about changes, personal info to update, etc.) And online payments are a snap with the ‘Pay Now’ button right from the check-in box.

Whether you want to go paperless for the environment, or because you simply don’t want to cart 57 file boxes back and forth to every event… get started with online check-in powered by MotorsportReg.com.

Click here for more details on this premium-plan feature.

You can find both of these under the wrench icons at the top of the Form Builder.

Co-Driver Picker

The Co-Driver Picker is all about forming teams. It could be a traditional team, like an endurance race where more than one racer will be driving a car, kart or riding a bike. The team members should be included in the timing and scoring data for MyLaps Orbits and displayed on entry lists. It could also be when two racers will be using the same vehicle in two different classes and the organizer wants to assign the same number for convenience. Or it could be an educational event like a high-performance driving school (HPDE) or Tire Rack Street Survival event where two students are sharing their street car but can’t participate simultaneously (at least not comfortably!)

We refer to all of these cases as teams. Once the primary person has registered, the new Co-Driver Picker allows subsequent participants to join the team which is displayed in several sections of the EventMaster 360:

• Registration screen (in Assignments under “Co-Driver” column)
• Assignment reports have a new “Co-Driver” column available
• Attendee and Driver Experience detail reports
• Label generator

Participants can select their own teammates once a Co-Driver Picker is placed on the registration form and registrars can manually assign a teammate on the attendee screen.

Text Blocks

Our core registration form components of Questions, Packages and Assigners each allow organizers to provide some help text which is displayed in a lighter color gray text under the related item on the registration form. Unlike these “hint” fields, the new Text Block is a full blown HTML editor (just like you’re used to for Text & Waiver) so you can include links, images, bulleted lists, tables and more.

Want to sell more t-shirts as part of your entries online? A great photo of your super cool shirt would probably do better than two sentences telling me it’s super cool! Do you think your participants would benefit from additional instructions or clarification around what they’re signing up for? Experiment with adding directions like in the image.

Just be careful to preview your form and make sure you don’t scare people away with a wall of words or long scrolling page of photos. Remember: the registration form is for getting registered! Brevity and conciseness will be your best friend here.

Unlike the other options for the form, the text block has no form field so it has no value. It should only be used at the bottom of any nesting you might create and should not have any children items on the form layout.

A: You ONLY need to use that function when you have an item on the Registration Form Layout that you want to show up for a limited period of time. A good example of when you want to use this feature is a late fee that you want to kick in 5 days before online registration closes.

You do NOT need to have the visibility of every item on the Registration Form Layout restricted by date if the items are available for the same time period registration is open. This creates issues and extra work when the event is cloned and the dates need to be updated.

You can find examples and more information in our help documentation found here.

Last November we had the privilege of attending the Formula 1 US Grand Prix at MotorsportReg.com customer Circuit of the Americas.  The facility was amazing, the racing was phenomenal and the fans from around the world were incredible.  Any guesses on which nation’s fans were the loudest?  Mexico!  In 2011 Sergio Perez became only the fifth Mexican to compete in Formula 1 and the first since 1981.  The Mexican fans came out in droves to support “Checo” for the race at COTA.   Everywhere you looked the Mexican flag was flying.  And you knew when Perez was driving by because you could hear the Mexican fans cheering over the sound of the cars.  And that’s no easy feat!  Check out this video we took from Turn 3 during a practice session and you’ll see what we mean.  Sergio Perez finished 11^th in that race, just out of the points, but was signed by McLaren Mercedes this year where he hopes to pick up a few more podiums.

So raise your margarita glasses in celebration with our south of the border neighbors. Salud!

Deferred payment processing allows you to collect payment information at the time of registration but not charge the account until a later date.  It’s similar to making a hotel reservation.  The attendee puts their card on file and “reserves” a spot at your event.  And at the time of your choosing, you charge the card.  You can charge the card when confirming a registration, after your cancel cutoff date, the day of the event or even the day after the event. You have 100% control. This feature is part of our Premium Plan.

It is especially attractive to organizations who offer liberal refund policies like programs where any driver who doesn’t turn a wheel is entitled to a full refund.  With deferred payment processing, you simply don’t charge their account, eliminating the need to process refunds.

Attendees love this feature too!  For them, there’s no penalty for signing up for an event (especially if they have cash flow concerns).  And based on our statistics, on average, attendees sign up 7 days earlier for events offering deferred payment processing than not.

So what are you waiting for?  Stop standing in line at the bank and start using deferred payment processing!

MSR: Bill, tell us a little bit about yourself…

Bill: I was a founding member of the BMWCCA Bluegrass Bimmers club and eventually became the Chair of the National Driving Events Committee for BMWCCA.  In 2006 I “retired” from more than 20 years of practicing architecture to accept the full-time position of National Program Manager for the Tire Rack Street Survival® teen driving program, run by the BMW CCA Foundation.

MSR: Tell us more about the Tire Rack Street Survival School…

Bill: The Tire Rack Street Survival (“TRSS” ) school is a safe teen program designed to go beyond today’s required driver’s education and give teens across the U.S. the driving tools and hands-on experience to become safer, smarter drivers.   Our goal is to teach students some of the basics of car control, to enhance their enjoyment of driving and to improve their competence as drivers. We want the students to understand how their actions govern a car’s responses, and as a result to become safer, more effective drivers on the road.

MSR: What makes your driver school stand out amongst the other teen driver schools?

Bill: Students will learn how to properly use their own cars, not some fleet of brand new ones, based on the physics of car control. They will learn how their cars feel and sound just before and as they exceed the limits of tire adhesion in a controlled situation, helping them to avoid accidents in actual everyday driving situations where they might experience problems.  If it’s a hand-me-down Volvo station wagon on bad tires they learn what that feels like.  If they don’t have ABS they learn techniques on how to stop properly.

During the event, they don’t just sit in the classroom listening to boring lectures. Students will maneuver their cars through exercises laid out using orange traffic safety cones in a closed parking lot. They will experience each exercise element several times, in order to learn from their mistakes and to improve their skills. A trained driving coach accompanies each driver to provide real-time feedback while performing maneuvers. There is no stopwatch, nor head-to-head competition with other cars. The students are here to improve their skills, not to compare themselves with someone else.

MSR: What motivates you?  Why do you keep doing what you’re doing?

Bill: More than 5,000 teens die every year.  That’s more than the military has lost in both overseas wars combined in the last 12 years.  I feel that’s unacceptable.  Working with a team of incredible volunteers all over the nation and feeling their same passion is what gets me up in the morning.  The BMW CCA Foundation is a great organization to work for and our corporate sponsors are very supportive.

MSR: What lessons have you learned about running events?

Bill: It truly takes a village!  Whether it’s working for our chapters DE event or a TRSS in Portland, it takes volunteers an incredible amount of time to put on any event.  This takes time away from their families and adds to their load at work. I’m lucky that I get to be a part of that. I hope that people have a good time at our chapter events and I know that we are doing a good job with Street Survival.  I just wish we could do more.

MSR: Has MotorsportReg.com helped make your events easier and more fun to organize? Any favorite MSR features?

Bill: OMG! Yes!  Our in house registration system was a house of cards that was continuously failing and caused way too many problems.  And my favorite MSR feature is the next one coming.  You guys are constantly improving and tweaking.

MSR: Thanks for sharing Bill!

Bill: My pleasure.
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If you know a teenage driver who’d like to participate in a Tire Rack Street Survival school, click here for more information and to find a school near you.

If you’re a member of a local car club and are interested in hosting a Tire Rack Street Survival school please contact Bill at bill.wade@streetsurival.org.  TRSS currently partners with BMW CCA chapters, and SCCA and Porsche Club regions to host their events, but have worked with smaller independent autocross and other motoring enthusiasts clubs.  Some financial backing is provided which makes it a win-win situation for everyone.  Also, TRSS is always looking for help at their schools.  If you’re interested in volunteering your time, check out the school schedule here.

Q: I refunded an attendee’s payment, less a $30 cancellation fee, per our policy. How do I account for that the difference in the amount they paid and the amount that I refunded to them?

A: You can create a Cancellation Fee package to apply to the registration when an attendee cancels.  Then you refund them all but the amount of the cancellation fee. Here are the steps to do that:

1. Create a new package (go to Settings >> Registration Form tab >> Parts Bin >> Add New >> Package). Name the package “Cancellation Fee” and input the cancellation fee amount for the price. You will also need to create an inventory item called “Cancellation Fee”.
2. Do NOT put the package on the Form Layout. Leave it in the Parts Bin. This will allow you to access it when you go to Edit a registration, but will also keep it from being visible to the Attendee when they register.
3. When an attendee cancels, go to their registration and click the link to Edit or Add packages. Enter a “1” in the quantity for the Cancellation Fee >> Save.
4. Now process the refund. The $30 Cancellation Fee you applied to their registration will balance out with the $30 you withheld from their refund.

NOTE: If your cancellation fees vary, create the Cancellation Fee package with a price of $1. When you edit the registration to include the fee, set the quantity (for the Cancellation Fee package) to be equal to the dollar amount of the fee. For example, you would enter a quantity of “50” for a $50 fee.

• Require valid membership or prevent non-members from registering
• Require guest names for additional tickets for social events
• Enforce race compliance fees
• Verify that a race transponder is on file
• Setup a password protected section of your registration form for special “bonuses, ” and
• Enforce base and indexed/PAX classes for auto cross.

In case you missed it, you can find the recording of the webinar here.

If you want to be notified of upcoming webinars, send us an email at support@motorsportreg.com and we’ll add you to our email listing.