DRAFT 2019 registration form is up–please review!

[cvcalhoun]

Reminder: This is a draft, for comments. There is no “Submit” button precisely because we do not want anyone to attempt to submit it.

I have just put up a draft of a registration form at http://register.freezingsaddles.com. I would ask that anyone who plans to complain later about the contents of this form, or the information it collects, do so now before it goes live (which I anticipate will be Thanksgiving or shortly thereafter). While I am not taking votes on the form (after a disastrous attempt at that a few years back!), I will say that your comments will be given much more consideration now than a week from now.

A few notes:

1. The link to the sticky will be replaced with a link to this year’s sticky once we have one. In a separate post, I’ve asked Henry whether he will be doing that, or whether we need a different volunteer.
2. I have not allowed for the registration of slackers, or friends of BAFS, or idle buggers who can’t be bothered to compete, or whatever we are calling them this year. (Warning to the newbies: discussions on such critical topics as what to call hangers on who don’t compete can take pages on this forum, but are typically good humored.) If we want to impose any conditions at all on such people (e.g., that they must have competed before, or must live in the area), I would favor registration for them. However, in keeping with the general rule that anyone who performs a function gets to decide the rules for that function, I will leave that to the registration czar (Sunyata) to decide.
3. I’ve indicated a cap of 250 registrations. Last year, this was done at hozn’s request, because it apparently makes the backend easier. Obscurerichard, does that seem like a reasonable cap this year?

Topic

[cvcalhoun]

@SurlyTed1187 183026 wrote:

Why not 10 teams of 25 riders?

My own view is that we lose something with teams that large. Each member starts thinking it’s not worth making an effort, because their points are such a small part of the total.

However, it is chuxtr’s call. And as mentioned, the total number can be adjusted some to come up with teams of the desired size.

[jrenaut]

No slackers. Anyone who joins the Strava club shows up on the Friends of BAFS page and is welcome to hang out, join rides, play games, etc, but they will NOT show up on any leaderboards.

[rachel_c]

@chuxtr 182919 wrote:

Another thing … Are we really going to try to create teams based on locality? I don’t think Casey did that last year. And seems like it would be a total PITA to do. If everyone wants to be on a team where all their team members are close by, I’m guessing it will be nearly impossible to put together 20+ teams. Plus I always thought part of the “spirit” of FS was for people who lived in different places to get to know each other.

I agree with you sort of….. For those of us marooned in Maryland it would be nice if a group of Marylanders were on a team because we would be able to do more group rides. Last year was my first BAFS and I did make the journey out to Vienna and Arlington and various places to meet teammates. However, no one was really excited to come that far into Maryland territory. Maybe it’s the crazy drivers? Anyway I get that it would be a total pain in the behind, just my thoughts.

[cvcalhoun]

As several of you have noticed, the form still does not have a submit button. That is because it is still not live. It will go live as soon as obscurerichard is able to clear out last year’s data. Unfortunately, he is at a conference in Las Vegas this week, but he anticipates that he will get to it this weekend (although he may need some assistance from hozn to get started).

So please be patient for a little while longer. We are working on this!

[spelter]

As a newbie the form looks great. I also like the idea of a somewhat local team.

[Greenbelt]

@rachel_c 183067 wrote:

I agree with you sort of….. For those of us marooned in Maryland it would be nice if a group of Marylanders were on a team because we would be able to do more group rides. Last year was my first BAFS and I did make the journey out to Vienna and Arlington and various places to meet teammates. However, no one was really excited to come that far into Maryland territory. Maybe it’s the crazy drivers? Anyway I get that it would be a total pain in the behind, just my thoughts.

We have a fairly active winter riding bunch out of College Park — usually riding in the Beltsville research farms or along the river trails and commuter routes toward DC. I’ve been distracted by a side project (moving my wife’s bike shop) this summer and fall so haven’t scheduled as many longer social rides, but hoping to get back into that in time for Freezing Saddles next year. -Jeff

[Emm]

@rachel_c 183067 wrote:

I agree with you sort of….. For those of us marooned in Maryland it would be nice if a group of Marylanders were on a team because we would be able to do more group rides. Last year was my first BAFS and I did make the journey out to Vienna and Arlington and various places to meet teammates. However, no one was really excited to come that far into Maryland territory. Maybe it’s the crazy drivers? Anyway I get that it would be a total pain in the behind, just my thoughts.

I agree….One of the benefits of local teams is scheduling team events like happy hours and group rides. If you have a group from DC, MD and VA, you might get some DC people willing to go to VA or MD for a happy hour or group ride, but likely not many going from VA to MD or vice versa. Especially during the week.

I think if we don’t have local teams you’ll still end up having most people only do local events, just no longer with their team.

I get the points issue though, and as much as I hate to agree with Steve O, I think playing with how we calculate them would be a good way to solve this so that DC teams aren’t at a disadvantage.

[cvcalhoun]

FWIW, when we didn’t have local teams, our team still managed to meet in DC. And the meetups were at least as frequent as with my later (local) teams. After all, even when you have local teams, you’ll have a lot of people who live in one area and work in another, so scheduling isn’t necessarily easier. @Emm 183165 wrote:

I agree….One of the benefits of local teams is scheduling team events like happy hours and group rides. If you have a group from DC, MD and VA, you might get some DC people willing to go to VA or MD for a happy hour or group ride, but likely not many going from VA to MD or vice versa. Especially during the week.

I think if we don’t have local teams you’ll still end up having most people only do local events, just no longer with their team.

I get the points issue though, and as much as I hate to agree with Steve O, I think playing with how we calculate them would be a good way to solve this so that DC teams aren’t at a disadvantage.

[dbehrend]

Organizing and balancing local teams sounds challenging.

If it simply means a change in the types of gatherings and opportunities for revelry, as Emm and cvcalhoun suggested, I support not having local teams this year.

Last year was my first FS. My team was mostly from Maryland, but we were spread far enough apart that frequent gatherings were challenging.

[LhasaCM]

@dbehrend 183168 wrote:

Organizing and balancing local teams sounds challenging.

If it simply means a change in the types of gatherings and opportunities for revelry, as Emm and cvcalhoun suggested, I support not having local teams this year.

Last year was my first FS. My team was mostly from Maryland, but we were spread far enough apart that frequent gatherings were challenging.

I was on a DC-centric team last year, where scheduling/life/dispersion across the city meant little in-person interaction outside of the opening and closing HH’s. Conversely, I did manage to make it to a few social rides with folks that were more far-flung; I think with a lot of things – proximity isn’t enough to guarantee socialization.

[chuxtr]

@LhasaCM 183171 wrote:

I think with a lot of things – proximity isn’t enough to guarantee socialization.

Yes, being social is what’s needed for socialization.

[musclys]

I was on a NOVA-centric team, but I had teammates from DC and it’s not like NOVA-centric means close proximity. It’s a long ride from western Fairfax County to Alexandria. And, if like several of us, you have young kids, proximity is one but only one consideration for weeknight carousing.

As for locale-based teams punishing DC-centric teams in the points column, that assumes that any trade-off in total distance isn’t made up by the fact that Washingtonians may be more like to bike commute exactly because their commute is shorter.

Which is to say: Pretty sure we’re overthinking this.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@musclys 183218 wrote:

Which is to say: Pretty sure we’re overthinking this.

You must be new here.

[musclys]

@TwoWheelsDC 183223 wrote:

You must be new here.

Heh — I was going to add “as is typical,” but I knew others would be happy to pick that one up for me.

[Author]

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