Organize awesome events.Our all-in-one event management software keeps organizers sane & attendees happy.

Just like many of you - I’ve spent countless hours scrambling before an event assigning my run groups, pairing instructors and gathering paperwork. Anything that could save me precious time before an event was better than gold!

Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Viet-Tam Luu, former Director of the San Francisco Region SCCA. While these are Tam's views on his experience, we don't think it's unique to the SCCA nor women nor road racing. Is the motorsport subculture sufficiently inclusive to stay relevant and healthy?  What do you think? Share this with your fellow club members and reflect on what you are doing to engage your next 100, 1,000 or 10,000 members.

Choose three words that would best describe road racing in North America? Allow me; I won’t mince any words here: old, white, male.

It’s not a condemnation of a specific organization or its membership, and it’s not universally true, but any random sampling of the active members in our sport would bear me out.

At the end of a six-year run serving on the Board with San Francisco Region SCCA, I look back and reflect on our particular successes and failings. As a Director, one of my personal goals has been to attract new members to the club. Our stagnant membership numbers show that with regards to that task, achievements are still far outnumbered by unfulfilled and unaddressed opportunities. Like a racer still chasing that elusive pole position, the challenges ahead of us still loom, ever slightly beyond our reach. How do we move forward as an organization? What should the club of the future look like, and how do we get there?

Like every other organization, our clubs do not operate in a vacuum. The social climate in which we live is changing, and it behooves us to understand and adapt.

We're big fans of this quote. The more we can help our community grow, the bigger the community becomes. And that benefits us all. 

So I searched through our blog and pulled out some sage advice on how to run great events, straight from our organizer's mouths.  Maybe you can pick up a trick or two from our experts?

A few weeks ago we posted a blog asking "do you have what it takes to be a motorsport event organizer?"  We shared 7 key skills motorsport event organizers said were must-haves.  Quick recap-

1. Organization
2. Attention to detail
3. Communication skills
4. Computer skills
5. Time management
6. People skills
7. Perseverance/ patience

One our organizers, Norm Nelson whom we featured in a Pole Position blog not too long ago, wrote in with another important skill and we just had to pass it along.

The boss was away last week, so...

Well, to be honest, it really wasn't much different than normal.

That's not surprising though, because we've worked hard to put things in place to keep MotorsportReg running smoothly, even when we're not at the keyboard.

A couple of weeks ago we shared the results of a survey we did last year to see if you have what it takes to be a motorsport event organizer. Turns out if you're organized, pay attention to details and have good communication skills, you're probably suited for the role.

Now let's look at what kind of people actually are organizers. Below are some charts that illustrate the demographics of the people who took our survey. Some surprising, some predictable, but all still interesting. 

Here at MotorsportReg we pride ourselves on having one of the best customer service and support experiences in the business.  Not only do we support our end-customers, the event organizers, but we also support their end customer, participants.  In fact many participants who email or call us, don't realize that  we're not the ones putting on the events.  That's why we promote that using MSR is like adding another member to your team!  Last week alone we received nearly 1,200 emails and 180 phone calls.

We thought it might be educational (and interesting) to share some of the gripes we get from attendees about registration forms.  Below are a few of the most common ones (in no particular order).

We work with enough event organizers to know what keeps them up at night when preparing for an event:

• Will I have a good turnout?
• Will I earn enough money to cover all of my expenses?
• Will there be enough participation/ competition for the attendees to have a good time?

While we can't predict the outcome of your event, we can help you get started on the right foot.  Encourage attendees to sign up early!  This is the best way to predict the success of your event with enough time to make adjustments if necessary.  Here's how to do it:

If you've participated in track events for any length of time, you may have thought to yourself, "I bet I could do this!" But unless you've volunteered with an organization you may not know how to get started.

With the excitement of a new season (and possibly a reality check from the weather), you might not realize that it's time to get down to business! And if you haven't started your season yet, it's fast approaching.

We've put together a pre-season checklist to help you prep for a winning season:

3. Set up a membership event- Get this annual pain in the b*tt task out of the way and make it easier for you and your members by accepting online membership renewals.

2. Create a gift certificate event - There's a whole year of holidays and special occasions ahead of us (Valentine's Day is just around the corner).  Give your participants the chance to get a gift they really want!

1. Get your events listed early - Do it NOW!  900,000 people looked at our calendar last year and they're already determining which events they're going to attend this year.