Discussion: 2014 US S/M/L Championship Early Deadline March 1

The web site is now open. The first deadline for early registration is 3/1/2014. Letchworth camping and cabin reservations are available starting 2/1/2014. It is a popular time of year to visit the park because of the beautiful fall colors, reserve early!
2014 US Nationals

The M/L events are going to be WRE events and combined with NAOC the following weekend in Ottawa it will be a great week of orienteering with six days of high quality competition.

http://naoc2014.ca

Rick & Linda

Apparently it is possible to rent cabins now! They will go fast!

The early registration deadline is MARCH 1. Save yourself some money.

that is early..web site opened mid-january, and early bird is over 7 months away.

NAOC early bird ended a week ago and they are the week after US Nationals. The refund policy is until mid Sept so if you are most likely planning to go anyway might as well register now and let the meet organizers get a good idea on numbers and plan on logistics. Spread the word so others don't miss out and can save a few bucks.

i am not criticizing here.. NAOC opened back in september (and early bird fee was there for almost 5 months).. i definitely would like to promote US champs as well for our friends/club members since is so close to us, however with 2-3 major events have payments deadlines really close to each other.. might not be such a big deal for individuals, ( maybe more for those with 2-3-4 in a family)..anyway will spread the word...

7-month-early deadlines are uncommon for USA events, so awareness of it could be critical for success.

I happen to be one of those that like to improvise in life a bit, and frown on events that have such early deadlines. Having said that, will sign up, since I know I will be attending and can get to with relative ease.

Also, sherpes, as Delyn pointed out, refunds are available until September.

refunds are available until September

but an administrative fee of $10 is applied

Save $15 right now, if it turns out you can't make it any time til September 13 it just costs $10 to cancel. If you can't be sure enough right now to front $10 just register anytime thru September 14 for regular price. After that Late fees for an extra week.

It seems very natural to recoup event costs already incurred, like mapping, permits, and advance promotion, as quickly as possible. Setting an early deadline is the most obvious way to do that. If there is no early deadline, there is no real incentive for participants to register early and all costs paid by that date have to come out of the club's funds. If it wasn't a nonprofit club putting on an event but a huge megacorporation with easy access to capital, there'd be no problem, but for a small outfit not having these funds possibly means a slew of restrictions or difficulties with its other programs, unless someone with "deep" pockets comes in to tidy the organization over, usually one of the club's principals in person.

Orienteers are quite accustomed to their friends funding their recreation activities upfront. Let's not turn this custom into entitledness any more than it already is. Early deadlines should be a norm, not an exception, more so than in say trail running in which there is no capital-intensive mapping taking place months or years before the event.

It would be very nice if all events had early deadlines like this. I don't mind paying months out as long as refunds are available should the situation change.

As it stands now, some events have very early deadlines and others have deadlines a month before the event.

This year, at least for me, it has created a situation where if I want to get the lowest fees I have to pay for every A-meet I am going to within a period of less than 2 months. Spring and Fall, all at once. That's a big chuck of change, and it pinches things financially. I can't imagine a family with 3 kids trying to pay for 5 events all at once. It actually places a different hurt on those trying to save.

Just registered! Thanks for the reminder.

Yay for WRE's! Looks like a great week!

Extra early deadlines with non-trivial discounts can be effective in encouraging participants to register early. Changing admin fees for refunds can have the opposite effect...