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Columbia, MD – The Road Runners Club of America has entered into a partnership with Road Race Management. The goal of the RRCA and Road Race Management partnership is to provide valuable, monthly Race Director’s Tips through the RRCA News. In addition, RRCA members will have the opportunity to subscribe to the Road Race Management Newsletter or purchase the Road Race Management Directory at a discounted fee. Be sure to read the next issue of Inside Track for more information.
“This is a great opportunity to provide vital information to our members”, explains Jean Knaack, RRCA executive director. “Road Race Management has been a pioneer in providing best practice information to race directors for over 24 years.”
Race Director Tip Of The Month
Set a long lead-time when planning your event: A race director with ambitions for a successful event should start planning about a year in advance. If you have set your sights set on becoming a major event, even longer lead times are desirable. This doesn’t mean that you will be working on your event 24/7 starting that far in advance; it means that some aspects of event planning – such as sponsorship solicitation and applying for municipal permits – can move along at a slow pace. If you haven’t allowed enough time for the slow moving parts to unfold, suddenly you will find yourself with no sponsors or no permits and it is time to start ordering bib numbers or to open registration. Panic sets in. Allowing enough time is like building your base in marathon training.
Setting Your Event’s Fiscal Year: If you are setting up some type of distinct entity for your event you should give some thought about establishing the event’s fiscal year right from the start. Most businesses, more or less by default, are set up on a calendar fiscal year running from Jan. 1 through Dec. 31 of each year. However, businesses can set their fiscal years to any 365-day period at the time the business commences operation. (Fiscal years can be changed later on but it is a cumbersome process). It might be advantageous to set your fiscal year so that it starts and finishes during a “slow” part of the year in terms of cash flow. This means the event will take in all of its income and payout all of its expenses during the same fiscal year. For example, the Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10 Mile, held the first weekend in April each year, has a fiscal year that runs from Sept. 1 through Aug. 31st rather than on a calendar year basis. This means the race goes through one complete cycle of the event in the same fiscal year. If your event is part of a running club or a larger organization, you will need to operation on the same fiscal year as your “parent” organization. All RRCA affiliate clubs utilizing the nonprofit group exemption status must establish their fiscal year to match the RRCA fiscal year which is January 1 to December 31.
Race Director’s Tips courtesy of Phil Stewart, Road Race Management.
Since 1982, Road Race Management has been reporting on the business and management of long distance running events. They are the definitive resource for those wishing to produce high quality running events.
For more information visit www.RRM.com. For in depth race director training and networking, join us October 12 through 14, 2006 in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida for the Road Race Management meeting. Information can be found at http://www.rrm.com/meeting/meeting.html.
The RRCA is the national association of running clubs, running events, and runners. The mission of the RRCA is to promote long distance grassroots running as a competitive sport and healthful exercise. The RRCA achieves their mission by promoting the common interests of its members by providing educational opportunities, programs, and services. The organization’s membership consists of over 750 running clubs and events and comprising over 175,000 individuals in theUS.
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