@danieldekay

From the box of things organizers need to deal with, in case you wanted some insights about guest list management.

Scenario A “Single leader signs up for a marathon, and gets in – of course. A few days later, he sends an email – sorry guys, I forgot to mention who my partner is”.

Scenario B “Single leader signs up for a marathon and gets in – of course. A few days later a random follower, or two, sign up saying that the leader is their partner”

What’s so wrong with these scenarios?

The single leader, who did not indicate not being a single leader, gets “internally” paired with a “single follower”, a species that is much more common. Thus: two people get accepted, the leader/follower ratio stays good, and the hopes for a well-balanced event are kept.

By “hijacking” this process, the whole balancing act of the organization team is sabotaged. Of course, it’s easy to make ONE exception, but once you start making exceptions, everyone wants to be the ONE exception, making the mess even more messy.

So, please: figure out if you want to sign up as a couple BEFORE you sign up! And ladies, I know you really really want to be in these events, so please, find a partner who honors that agreement when signing up, and don’t try any trickeries after the fact.

From an organizer’s point of view, single-follower registrations can only exist when there are single-leader registrations. Organizers could enforce a “pairwise registration process”, which sends the frustration just back to the followers, as they will have NO chance to enter without finding a partner, which is why single leader registrations are so important for organizers to create variety/diversity in their events.

Source: originally posted on Facebook on January 14th, 2015