President's Cup stumbles out of the gate
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Topic created by Nancy on Sun Jan 22, 2017 at 6:44 pmI never heard that little voice inside your head that tries to warn you if something might not the good idea as you thought you thought it would be.When a group of were discussing ways to celebrate the club's 50th anniversary, a score-O event to find 50 control flags seemed like a great idea.However, today's '50 flags in 50 minutes' event was not quite the bold start to the anniversary year I hoped.Weather was not the issue; temperature was in the mid 40s, and although it was not cloudy, it wasn't rainy.Controls were not the issue; course setter Ralph Tolbert set up a nice challenge, with all controls within 500 m of start.What was the issue? The e-punch cards. I hadn't even considered that they couldn't hold 50 controls worth of information.Some of the participants had cards that could, but many of them had cards that gave up at 30 or 36.Those who came said they had a good time despite not getting full credit for their efforts.A lesson to be shared with my colleagues planning similar events for later this anniversary year.
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Reply by kathyu on Sun Jan 22, 2017 at 7:02 pmNo apologies necessary. A perfect day for a learning experience. Thanks to Ralph and Nancy for a workout at Myrick, and congrats to the folks who swept the course.
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Reply by camperpat on Sun Jan 22, 2017 at 8:07 pmIt was a fun day and looking at the map and clue sheet reminded me that this was the thinking sport lol! I guess if ur doing the rogain in July I may need a punch that can hold more controls Thanks for a fun day and it was good to see everyone
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Reply by Steve on Sun Jan 22, 2017 at 10:20 pmWell, this creates an interesting dilema. I was not at the President's cup, but I was planning to have 50 flags for the rogaine this summer. Do the kits have SI6 cards? Should I plan on giving out free cards to all participants? Since the flags will be spread out from Hay Creek to Warwick, I am not sure how many teams will get more than 36 flags. Opinions are welcome.
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Reply by Sandy on Mon Jan 23, 2017 at 9:25 amFirst, my apologies to Nancy for not catching this when setting up the score-o. I know better but just wasn't thinking.
I have taken two approaches to the rogaines I've hosted.
1. Issue two SI-cards to every competitor. They use one SI-card for one area and the second for another. So for example, at Fair Hill it was one SI-card for everything south of the main road that cuts through the park and the other for everything north. At Shades of Death, since people went out on two different maps it was one SI-card for the first map and a second SI-card for the second map. This has the advantage of being able to use the DVOA rental SI-cards. It has the disadvantage of having to add points together for the two SI cards. If you decide to go this route I can give you the details on how to handle the last step.
2. Rent a bunch of SI-cards that hold more than 50 controls. Ask people to self-select as to whether they think they will get to more than say 30 controls. This is what I did for the recent rogaine at the Water Gap and it worked fine - very few people visited more than 30 controls and most of those that did had their own high-capacity SI-cards. People are generally pretty good about knowing what is reasonable for them. If after getting the maps they think they will get more than they originally thought, you can always swap their SI-card at the last minute. If you decide to go this route you will need to monitor registrations to know how many of the high-capacity SI-cards you will need to rent, you will need to figure out where to rent them and you will need to figure out how to pay for the rentals. -
Reply by rpboehme on Tue Jan 24, 2017 at 8:37 pmSo, that being the case, how does one determine the capacity of their SI Card? Is it part if a specific numerical range (newer cards, etc.). I purchased mine when I stared to not have to borrow and to support the kids.
[not that I would go more than 30 controls..maybe on a non-injured day ;-) ]
Rich -
Reply by furlong47 on Tue Jan 24, 2017 at 9:48 pmThe first page of this document (.pdf) lists the capabilities of each card (and their serial number ranges if you don't know your model) nicely
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Reply by rpboehme on Thu Jan 26, 2017 at 2:34 pmThank you Julie. I will need to check things out this evening.Rich
