February 2006 Event Host News

Promoters of oddball endurance events and a healthy outdoor lifestyle

Hi,

It's just the start of February, and we've already enjoyed 3 great Club events. The roster of events for 2006 now stands at 27. Thank you for being one of the very special people who give back to the community by hosting a free Club event!

It's tough being an Event Host. Who do you go to for help and advice? How can you share your hints, tips, beefs and other thoughts that only fellow Event Hosts would appreciate?

To address those questions and also to foster communications between each other, we're introducing this special quarterly Event Host newsletter.

Please be generous with your feedback and feel free to send me your thoughts and contributions. I will acknowledge them directly and in the next newsletter.

Happy Trails,

Sibylle Tinsel
Chief Executive Fat Ass

NEWS

New Events. Please join me in welcoming two new Event Hosts to our ranks:

Sue MacKinnon is a runner in Whitehorse. For the past few years she has organized the "Mount Lorne Misadventure Run", a 21km trail run. She liked the concept of Club Fat Ass and this year is hosting her event under the Club umbrella.

Pete Stace-Smith does not consider himself an ultra runner - at least that's what I heard him say. However, he enjoyed his recent bonking experience at the Vancouver New Year's Day Fat Ass 50 so much, that he plotted to put on the "Run To The Clouds" a 25km trail run with considerable altitude gain and loss.

Veteran Event Host, Craig Moore, also added to the growing list of CFA events. He will host the Vancouver World Run on Sunday 26 March 2006 in North Vancouver. He's also bringing Jesper Olsen, the first documented person to run around the world, back to North America for a speaking engagement in Vancouver. 'Hope to see you there!

Membership Fees.
As announced in the fall, CFA membership fees have gone up for the first time. Annual membership in Club Fat Ass now is $50, Single-Day membership is $20 (if purchased online) and $25 (if purchased on the morning of the event cash/check).

EVENT ORGANIZATION

Manual. Our manual is intended to provide you with a template for a safe and successful CFA event. Your event is supposed to be fun for you, too, and the idea is that you should be able to run in it! I am currently updating the manual to reflect our website changes and the things we learned over the past 3 years. I welcome your comments and will recognize your contributions in the next edition.

Point Series - Point Allocations. The Club Fat Ass point series was great fun last year. As Event Host you are in a good position to collect lots of points for hosting and for referrals. I keep track of the overall standings, but I am relying on you to forward the points you rewarded during your event. I recommend you do this in an extra column on the results sheet. Event points are allocated as follows:

  • 1 point for participation
  • 1 bonus point for pre-registering online at least 2 days in advance (this to prevent event day hassles for you)
  • -1 point if a person registers and is an unexcused no-show (please note, this is at your discretion)
  • 1 bonus point for good sportsmanship/picking up trash along the trail
  • 1 point for volunteers (you don't need to be a member to collect volunteer points).
  • 1 point for each new Club member you refer (names of referring member are collected on the membership registration form)
Waivers. All members signed up online have signed a waiver. All event participants signed up online have signed a waiver and acknowledge this again by signing in on event day. Anybody signing up last minute in person needs to sign a waiver. Best to bring a few blank waivers to the start. Waivers are posted on our website under Host Resources at: http://www.clubfatass.com/host/resources/release
The waiver also helps you to establish if a person is a CFA member, collect their email address for follow-up and keep track of any membership fees you collect. More information on how to deal with Last Minute Event Registrations are posted here.

WEBSITE

It's been exciting to see you use the features of our website to update your own event pages, post photos, reports and photos. Thanks for your patience and understanding when things sometimes were not working for you. I will include a section on website help in the updated manual.

If you haven't tried it yet, keep in mind that the website is best navigated in the free Firefox browser and that you need to be signed in to take advantage of the Event Host privileges.

SPONSORS

As you may already be aware, I was successful in securing a number of sponsors for 2006.

Mountain Equipment Co-op again helped with the Club t-shirts. The 2006 Club colors will arrive in late February.

North Shore Athletics has come aboard as a Sponsor member. All local (Vancouver area) events will receive 3 draw prizes. I will contact you to arrange pick-up/drop off before your event. Owner, Keith Nicoll, also offered the use of tables, shelter/tents and water jugs. If you need them for your event, please call the store and arrange a pick-up.
I am trying to get more specialty running stores onboard in other communities. Please let me know if you have any in mind and I will contact them.

Contact Printing sponsored our cool brochures. They will be included in race packages in British Columbia. If you can distribute a few of them in your neighborhood gym, running store or at local races, please let me know so I can get some to you.

Trail Runner Magazine contributed 2 certificates for annual subscriptions as draw prizes for every CFA event that was listed by fall 2006. If you are in the Vancouver area you can arrange pick-up with me, all others will receive them as a PDF attachment via email.

Mosquito Creek Grill again offers area events a venue for the post event get-together and a free beer for all participants and volunteers. Unfortunately, because of a changed license, minors can no longer be accommodated. Please let me know if you would like to use the Mosquito Creek Grill in North Vancouver for your post event party. If you're not from Vancouver, I'd be happy to help you develop a proposal for your favorite local watering hole.

PROMOTIONS

CFA Brochure. Check out our new brochures. If you would like to distribute a few of them in your neighborhood gym, running store or at local races, please contact me.

Online Calendars.

  • I have submitted all CFA events to a number of local, regional, national and international event calendars. Please feel free to submit your event to community listings and other online resources. Let me know where you list your event.

  • When listing your event, always use the http://www.clubfatass.com/event/YourEventName web address. This address will not change over the years. Some of you have noticed that events have a listing and different URL in the CFA calendar. This URL changes every year and is best not used in publications.

  • Another hint about submitting your event is to avoid having your email address posted online, as this attracts Spam. All contact info is on your website. If a submission form does not allow you to leave the email field blank, you can trick it by typing "contactinfo@website.com".

CFA does not sell or otherwise distribute our member list.