There are two categories of registration: online and on-site. Online registration is the domain of companies like Signmeupsports.com, Doitsports.com, and Active.com. The latter is the silverback of this group. Nobody does it better, and for more events, than Active (we're biased).

Regardless of whom you use for this, there's no way to put on a race these days without using somebody's online registration engine. It's silly to try to do otherwise. Yes, you just may be able to do it a buck or so cheaper if you do it yourself, but frankly, it'll cost you a lot more in the end. Why? The reasons are legion.

First, if you want to list all the reasons why triathlon is a third bigger now in the U.S. than it was five years ago, the one overriding reason is online registration. The sorry fact is, it's hard to get people to take an affirmative act (how many of you send in all of your rebate coupons?). Online registration is so easy, people will actually register for races where they wouldn't if they had to send it in via mail. This glues them to the process of training for, and showing up to, the race.

If that hasn't convinced you, and you still decide to do paper registration, I can relate to you my stories of improper or incomplete data entry, losing checks, checks bouncing, my databasing software's non-comformity with my timing company's software, and on and on. Add top that the management time you allot to making sure this process is done right, and having to task people with this job instead of having them work on something more critical.

If that still doesn't convince you, then perhaps this will: the very fact that you are on Active's calendar of races means you've got a free method of advertising.

And finally, you'll save money. You don't have to print paper entry forms, except for cheap ones you use for day-before and day-of entry. Most of today's popular races, at least on the West Coast, haven't printed a paper entry in years.

Then there's the on-site registration. This requires a fairly sizable staff of volunteers. My favorite way to do this is assembly-line style. You've all seen this. Personally, I favor a different approach than any other RD I've ever seen. I'd rather get the bad news out of the way first. My first station is "waiver." My waivers used to take up an entire page. Were they long? No. They just had type big enough so that you could read them which, when they're big enough to actually be legible, fills an entire page. Furthermore, they had spaces for the competitors' mandatory initials next to each paragraph. And finally, we had a volunteer whose only job was to ask, "Do you understand everything on the waiver? Do you have any questions about it?"

Next station would be rules. I'd give out a page with the list of the most commonly broken rules, along with the warning: "If you break these rules, we will attempt to catch you, and penalize you. Know the rules, and abide by them. We'd prefer not to penalize anyone, but we'll penalize whomever we catch."

You'll hire a timing company. Choose a company with experience in timing triathlons. Ask what it is you get. Perhaps they'll offer a cafeteria menu of services. Choose what you think is important. Do you want to put on an event for a low entry fee? Then don't have your timing company send results to each competitor in the mail (at a cost of anywhere from $.75 to $3 a-pop depending on whether it's just a post card or a full set of results).

Do you need chip timing? It's more expensive, by a buck or two per person. For a smaller, lower-key race, a good non-chip timer will do you fine. Do you want to offer transition splits? Is it a larger race? Are you charging a more expensive entry fee? Those are reasons to use chip timing.

When you've apprised your timing company that you're using Active.com (or other online timing company) they'll be very happy. They won't have to worry about software compatibility, or keying errors (except errors made those who're entering the race) or anything like that. But there's still the issue of getting the database from Active to your timing company, and then there's late registration. For all of this, you'll need to rely on your timing company. In fact, this is what you want. Best if you push as much of it off on them as you can. Ask them how many bodies they need, and then provide the bodies. Otherwise, the more of the burden they'll take for everything that has to do with getting people's names into the database, the better for you. But you must ascertain what it is they won't provide. Are they bringing computers and printers? And printer paper? Are they bringing all the computers they need? Both for registration and for chip verification? Are they bringing enough electrical cords? Make sure you know what they'll provide, and what they won't. Make sure they know that if they haven't disclosed what they need from you once they show up, then you aren't providing it, and they must provide it as part of the price they're charging you.

Because you're relying on them, this doesn't mean you abdicate all knowledge of the process. You need to know what's going on. Basically, there's two competing sets of virtues here: You must force accountability on your timing company. Don't allow them a crack through which they can wiggle, whereby they blame you for something not done. At the same time, it's your race. You must keep control. You must set up fail-safe plans, and redundencies. You can't allow control of your business to fall into someone else's hands.

As you go through the process of figuring out what you need, from goodie bag stuffers to T-shirt hander-outers, to twist ties, to safety pins, and everything else, Here is a short, non-comprehensive, list of ideas about which you might think: