Got a question for you guys. My car club puts on 3-4 shows a year. They aren't big, ranging from 120-400 cars depending on the show. We have one snag we keep hitting and that is registering the cars without developing a huge traffic jam from cars waiting to come in. I realize there is going to be some backups, but when the backflow starts going around the block, the local guys with the badges and pretty striping on their cars seem to get a bit peeved. The question is, what is the smoothest and/or quickest method you have seen to register cars at a show? Thanks.
Take their money for the entry, hand them a entry bag and tell them to bring it back filled out once they get parked. We always had plenty of banks supplying free pens for the entry bags!!
pre entry is always good, if you can make it a real bonus to be pre registered. There is a local truck club that puts on a pretty good sized show every year, they let people cruise in and then go register after they are parked pre registered or not. You get a little sticker or used to that you are required to display so they can make sure that everyone registers.
What we did when I was in the club was simply have someone at the gate taking their entry fee and another person would hand them the goodie bag and entry form. The bag held their windshield card and a pen, so all they had to do was pay, then go park. It was up to them to come to the registration table and fill out the forms there. Doing it this way got the cars parked quickly with no delay at all at the gate. Why some shows insist you pull over and do the registering before you enter is beyond me and it really clogs up the process. Don
pre-register only, have a guy in the parking lot with a clipboard with a list of all the pre-registered cars (sorted by last name), he either lets them in or turns them away. Then as the cars enter the show area, they are directed where to park, by a crew of at least half a dozen guys. And they are parked as they come in, not by class or anything. Groups need to know ahead of time to all get together and come in at once, so they can park together. Once parked, the owners go to the registration table to sign in and get their stuff. I don't know if this would work for your club, but it works for ours.
Because we do benefit shows, we like to entice participants to buy raffle tickets. At the gate (no pre-reg), we sell you a $5 raffle ticket. You show your ticket at the reg table, get your bag, and have a chance to buy more tickets. That way, registration is "free", and you are automatically entered to win a prize. Works pretty well, no clogs.
Here is what I started a number of years ago at one my clubs shows. At the entry we had lists of prepaid, had 3 guys working and 3 rows of cars flowing into one. If they were on the list, they went in and got theirg goodie bag and paperwork inside. If they were not pre registered, we would collect the money, place a small round colored dot on their headlight while they were in line showing they paid. Hand them a form and let them in along with the prepaid. Once inside they go to registration with the form we gave them and got their goodie bag and papers filled out. This worked really smoothly for a show that had about 500 to 600 cars and only 2 hours to get them all in. But we always got them in fast.
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