CI Racing Calendar available yet?

The Crunch

I read the CI handbook (when it arrives), double check with Irishcycling.com which gets me almost all the info I need and then, if I'm super excited about the race, I go to the club's website. There I get a phone number and if I still need more info I call someone.
To be honest, I don't think it's all that hard. What's wrong with talking to people? Club mates, organisers, promoting club personnel. I love the web but it seems to me that it's stopping some people from communicating, not helping them!
Mind you, the CI site needs a lot of work yet.

ragazzo

That makes a lot of sense to me Crunch.

Lumen

The Crunch wrote: »

I read the CI handbook (when it arrives), double check with Irishcycling.com which gets me almost all the info I need and then, if I'm super excited about the race, I go to the club's website. There I get a phone number and if I still need more info I call someone. To be honest, I don't think it's all that hard.

Quoted for absurdity.

Sure, why do we even need newspapers, radio or televsion? If I want to know what happened in the Dail I'll just go round and see my TD.

dave2pvd

Lumen wrote: »

Quoted for absurdity.

Sure, why do we even need newspapers, radio or televsion? If I want to know what happened in the Dail I'll just go round and see my TD.

Agreed.

Look, scrap the handbook. That's a relic of earlier times. (I still have one from 1989).

Have an online calendar that's up to date with links to promoters' websites or race pages. The promoters can each decide whether or not to have online reg. It's not hard.

There are 2 series here in Georgia. Here's an example of 1: GA Cup. All can be reg'd for online. Thorough race details are available for each race, once it comes close. Note: GA Cup is a single promoter. The other series is a calendar with links, which is about to be released. Each race is club-organized.

I do see season-long numbers being an impediment to easy online reg. It means each race promoter needs to get an up to date manifest from CI.

morana

I like this!

Would anybody be up for doing a state of the art calendar for next year. all online of course. I will try to get all the info from the road commission for the group. A template to organisers outlining what we want etc. I wont be a board member after this years agm but woiuld still do it if we had some others on board!

Regarding the year book we do a printed version but I think it should be a very minor run. Breaking News will be an ezine from now and this should allow us to focus more on the leisure end of things as well as the racers.

we also need to put in place a "rate my ride" type website to give feedback for organisers. Hopefully that will come on stream pretty soon and we will have an events entry system in place also.

anyway keep it coming its not being ignored.....:D

morana

Ok...so what do you need from a calendar

Race name
Date
Race sign on
contact person
entry fee

?????

nomadic

The road should really use MTB as a template. Race info is out well in advance on http://www.irishxcmtb.com/ (which isn't perfect but is adequate) and you can pre-reg. I know there's not as many MTB races to co-ordinate but surely its not rocket science to organise.

dave2pvd

morana wrote: »

Ok...so what do you need from a calendar

Race name
Date
Race sign on
contact person
entry fee

?????

I think you only need urls to each race website. Provide guidelines to each organizer as to what needs to be in the 'race bible'. Some of the content needs to be mandatory, some optional. Don't try to collate sign-on address, time and contact person info. That can come from the external content,

Don't do state of the art for now, embed a Google calendar. Then just about anyone in CI can modify/add to it. Aren't you already doing a Google calendar?

I was reluctant to use this as an example, as it is unfinished, but here is where the GCS listings are located.

Demote phone numbers to less accessed pages. Make full use of the internet for passing on info. If it's done right, no one needs to make phone calls.

Again, please stop printing information. When it comes to bike racing information, once the ink has dried, it's already out-of-date. This should be a cost savings to CI (you can convert those paper-based ads to web-based).

For feedback, use a forum (what a concept, right? ). For yet another Google example, look here: GA Cross. Click on 'forum' on the left. It goes straight to a google forum - can't recall if login is req'd or not.

I'm not saying things over here, in this corner of the States, is the way to go. It's just an example. We have our problems, every year. There's politics, every year. But info is definitely easy to find.

niceonetom

What nonsense is this?

ragazzo wrote: »

that is the way it works at the moment. Check CI calendar and find appropriate race and then check promoting clubs website for full details. Also use irishcycling.com for details.

No, that's the way it fails to work at the moment. There's conflicting dates, missing info and links to dead sites. If your argument is 'if it ain't broke then don't fix it' well, sorry, but it is broke. Let's fix it.

irishcycling.com is a commercial site and has nothing to do with CI or this thread. We don't pay them anything - we do pay CI though.

CI sanction these events, they should know and where they take place. And they should be able to tell us.

ragazzo wrote: »

Cycle racing in this country is a minority sport compared to many other sports. How many spectators will attend the races this weekend and how many pages will race reports and photos take up in our national newspapers.
People posting messages on a boards.ie forum does not make it a major sport.

I'm also fairly sick of this attitude that seeing cycling as a tiny niche pursuit. It's not. Ultimate frisbee is a niche sport, cycling is big enough to draw hundreds of competitors. Just because we're not the GAA does not give us all permission to be rubbish. It doesn't need to be a "major sport" for participants to deserve to be kept informed.

ragazzo wrote: »

The membership of CI is mainly involved at club/leisure level and racing fixtures/calendars do not matter too much to them.

Well, they should matter to them.

The Crunch wrote: »

I read the CI handbook (when it arrives), double check with Irishcycling.com which gets me almost all the info I need and then, if I'm super excited about the race, I go to the club's website. There I get a phone number and if I still need more info I call someone.
To be honest, I don't think it's all that hard. What's wrong with talking to people? Club mates, organisers, promoting club personnel. I love the web but it seems to me that it's stopping some people from communicating, not helping them!
Mind you, the CI site needs a lot of work yet.

Could those advocating a return to the 1980s please refrain from doing so on the internet. The ridiculousness is too much for me.

I'm really stuggling to see the argument some people are making here. CI should not feel the need to provide accurate and up-to-date details of the races it sanctions because...

...ignorance and word-of-mouth was good enough for the boy Kelly, it's good enough for you lot... ???

...the internet is so impersonal. We should all just exchange phone numbers... ???

...sure cycling is so small we all know each other all ready. What do mean "new people"? ???

Honestly, I can't see any sensible reason for not wanting a master race calendar that clubs and CI must keep up to date.

Anyway, it's all moot as CI themselves, or at least Morana (again, great job here), do see the value of it.

If I could I have every club organising a race have to fill in a form that detailed,

Date
Location
Cats catered for and whether the intention is to run separate races or CP
Distances
Map of circuit (I expect some to take exception to this one, googlemaps has been around for years. Accept it.)
Contact phone
Contact email
Club Site

High Nellie

Make it as less complicated as possible.
One 'official' CI calendar on CI website with ESSENTIAL information at least - events and clubs to add links to their website for more info if they wish,

To add to previous post which suggested:

Race name
Date
Race sign on
contact person
entry fee

• Race name
• Venue (including county)
• Date
• Sign-on location
• Categories available: including length for each category and whether they are mixed or not.
• Time of sign-on and close.
• Time of event.
• Entry fee
• Prizes?
• Contact person (which shouldn't really be necessary if all the essential info is available)

Getting this info onto a website before the season should not be complicated but it seems that it is for some reason.
Perhaps CI shouldn't sancion events unless this info is provided by some stipulated time in advance. If clubs can't organise even this basic stuff maybe they don't have the organisational ability to run a good and safe event.
After this essential info, clubs could have a link to whatever other info they have. This will depent on sophistication and organisation of clubs - route profiles etc etc.
Most racers committ huge effort, time and money to the sport and the way the calendar is presented does not do their efforts justice.

rattur

Good stuff!

I really like the attitude of Morana and others here who see the need for some changes and do realize how little effort is actually required to make those. Keep it going!

My example from a big race in Estonia was obviously not totally comparable but it's not like they started out big! I know how much effort organizing a race takes and my respect to those who do that but if you've done the hard part then putting up basic information about the race shouldn't be that difficult! It's like giving up 500m from the finish... I'm pretty sure that some of the volunteers looking after the traffic work in marketing, digital agencies, etc and they could be used much more effectively (build a website and promote it) leading to an actual revenue stream for the organizers for which they could pay people to sort out the traffic etc meaning these guys would be able to take part in the race as well...

morana

Ok I will talk to the CEO on Monday about this and see what we can try do. We do use Google Calendar for the events and it can be accessed fromthe CI website but I do agree maybe we should do it better.

Relying on the Race organisers isnt going to work to be honest they willcomplain they have enough on their plates with the additional stuff such as the safety statement that they have to do.

Anyway, I will see how we get on with the good stuff that we have tossed about here....


Enjoy the racing at the weekend!!! Lets hope I win ...at least 1 race:D

High Nellie

morana wrote: »

..... they will complain they have enough on their plates with the additional stuff such as the safety statement that they have to do.

That 'excuse' doesn't hold water. Writing / typing out the essential information suggested would take about 5 min. Certainly no more than 10.

dave2pvd

High Nellie wrote: »

That 'excuse' doesn't hold water. Writing / typing out the essential information suggested would take about 5 min. Certainly no more than 10.

Surely they can put up some info on a webpage??? It can even be a Facebook page. Jaysus, anyone's 11 year old can do that.

Failing that, well, put someone's phone number on there. It's primitive, but if all else fails....

Pat Kavanagh

morana wrote: »

I like this!

Would anybody be up for doing a state of the art calendar for next year. all online of course. I will try to get all the info from the road commission for the group. A template to organisers outlining what we want etc. I wont be a board member after this years agm but woiuld still do it if we had some others on board!

Regarding the year book we do a printed version but I think it should be a very minor run. Breaking News will be an ezine from now and this should allow us to focus more on the leisure end of things as well as the racers.

we also need to put in place a "rate my ride" type website to give feedback for organisers. Hopefully that will come on stream pretty soon and we will have an events entry system in place also.

anyway keep it coming its not being ignored.....:D

'Would anybody be up for doing a state of the art calendar for next year.' - I though CI paid a lot of money for a 'state of the art website'. Is this going to be yet another 'state of the art' calendar, or a fix on the current one?
As for the 'rate my ride' thing - would ye not try to fix what ye have before embarking on any more innovations please? CI can't put together an effecient system for issuing lisences and for making good race info available to members. When that much is sorted, maybe then go ahead with the other bright ideas. Tinkering at the edgs won't fix it - it's obviously a systems/management problem. For a start, the website was poorly scoped - too much dynamic capacity which the organisation hasn't the capacity to keep refreshed.
I don't know what the system is for race promoters to submit info, but that needs to be looked at by someone who has experience in such systems development etc - not someone with another 'good idea'.

morana

Pat Kavanagh wrote: »

'Would anybody be up for doing a state of the art calendar for next year.' - I though CI paid a lot of money for a 'state of the art website'. Is this going to be yet another 'state of the art' calendar, or a fix on the current one?
As for the 'rate my ride' thing - would ye not try to fix what ye have before embarking on any more innovations please? CI can't put together an effecient system for issuing lisences and for making good race info available to members. When that much is sorted, maybe then go ahead with the other bright ideas. Tinkering at the edgs won't fix it - it's obviously a systems/management problem. For a start, the website was poorly scoped - too much dynamic capacity which the organisation hasn't the capacity to keep refreshed.
I don't know what the system is for race promoters to submit info, but that needs to be looked at by someone who has experience in such systems development etc - not someone with another 'good idea'.

Firstly I am a systems analyst by trade working for the Department of Ag as a Technical Architect. I am extremely well versed in delivering systems paying billions of euro out to the farming sector. So I am not somebody with another good idea. Secondly because of the **** up last year which was delevoped by a private sector company we have paid a minimal amount for the system. Do you think I would stand over any system that didnt deliver and then pay good money for it..

The system for issuing licences has had its problem but with 5000 issued before the racing season thats an improvement but its not upto the standard tthat we want to achieve. My suggestion was to get some of the good people here that have a genuine interest to assist on avoluntary basis to provide something that would be of value to the general membership outside of CI control! Again rate your ride could be done external to CI as a community based initative...why not it might be a good idea and might not...what can we lose.

What were your problems..send them to me and I will do my best to get them fixed... Now just to premept what you are gpoing to say about me being this and that and why do I accep the cutrrent system? Well I work with the HP unit for general HP issues testin, selection, feedback from teams etc as well as the new Development structure being put in place allied to this I have my normal work for the board. I train to be the best rider I can and I coach to make others the best riders they can be. So I cant give anymore. Now when I leave CI this year and if I am asked I would certainly consider doing it.

and Btw before you ask yes I do it for **** all!!!