Race Contract Administrator’s Guide

The system is used to manage bookings and contracts for the Steeplechasers race services business. The primary functions provided by the system include:

• online availability calendar

• race database, providing online schedule and details of races and clients

• electronic contract generation, signing and archival capabilities

• Email system designed to automate the communication with race directors, race services administrators and race services leads

• Automated initialization of the preliminary schedule for the current year from the previous year’s bookings

This system is designed to simplify the administrative workload required to manage the club’s race services business.

Email Conventions

All emails generated by the system use raceservices@steeplechasers.org as the from address. Emails that are generated at a race director’s direction from the FSRC website are addressed TO raceservices@steeplechasers.org. This email address is associated with one or more individuals in the steeplechasers.org organization, and those individuals will receive the email. When responding to this email, individuals should ALWAYS respond from their steeplechasers.org email address and copy raceservices@steeplechasers.org to ensure that all communication is shared with the race services team.

Contract Race Life Cycle

Summary:

1. Race Director contacts FSRC to request race services, either through direct email or a form on the FSRC website

2. Race services admin corresponds with race director, obtaining required details of client, race, and requested services.

3. Race services admin enters data into contractility system and uses system to generate and send contract

4. Race Director agrees to contract electronically

5. Race services admin generates invoice document

6. FSRC Treasurer generates invoice from accounting system, including the invoice document

7. Race Director and FSRC Race Lead receive automated emails 5 days before contract race with logistical information

8. Race Director receives email after contract race with link to survey

9. Race is automatically renewed for following year and placed in renewed pending state until FSRC and race director resume correspondence

Detail:

This describes the life cycle for contract race management.

• New Race: Race director sends Race Services Request email

  • see When We Learn About a New Race

• Renewed Event: Race director responds to the Post Contract Race email or Post Contract Race email reminder

  • if the race director says that the race will not be held

    • from Race Calendar view click on the contract race or from Race Table view, select the contract race, click Edit, then click Delete

  • if the race director says they’re not sure, or they don’t have all the required information yet

    • from Race Calendar view click on the contract race or from Race Table view, select the contract race, click Edit, change State to tentative, then click Update

• Details are learned from the race director about an contract race that is in the system but not yet committed

  • see When Race Details are Confirmed by Race Director

  • from Race Calendar view click on the contract race or from Race Table view, select the contract race, click Edit

  • make sure State is set to tentative

  • update the details which are known, then click Update

• All details are known for the contract race, and the race director is ready to move forward

  • see When Race Details are Confirmed by Race Director

  • click Update and Send Contract to generate a contract

  • Contract email is automatically generated to the race director

• Race Director agrees to contract electronically

  • Race director click’s ACCEPT AGREEMENT button in email

  • contract is put into ‘confirmed’ state

• Race services admin generates invoice document

  • from Race Calendar view click on the contract race or from Race Table view, select the contract race, click Edit

  • click Update and Initiate Invoice

  • the invoice document is generated

  • FSRC Treasurer is notified that invoice should be sent to the race director from the accounting system

• About 5 days before the contract race

  • Pre Contract Race Coordination email is automatically generated, to the race director and contract race lead

• About 2 days before the contract race

  • a reminder email automatically generated, just to the contract race lead

• About 5 days after the contract race

  • for contract races which have finishline or coursemarking services, Post Contract Race email is automatically generated

  • regardless of service, the contract race is renewed

  • see Post Contract Race Processing for additional details

• If the contract race is still in renewed-pending state 120 days before the expected date of the race

  • Post Contract Race email reminder is automatically generated to the race director

• If the contract race is still in renewed-pending state 30 days before the expected date of the race

  • an email is automatically generated to raceservices@steeplechasers.org to indicate contract race is still outstanding [pending implementation of https://github.com/louking/contracts/issues/165]

  • admin should delete the contract race manually

  • from Race Calendar view click on the contract race or from Race Table view, select the contract race, click Edit to get to the Edit Contract Race view, then click Delete

Event State Flow

Event Use Cases (What To Do…)

When We Learn About a New Race

We learn about a completely new race that we have never provided services for. The inquiry could arrive either through email generated by the Race Services Request View, a direct email, etc. Often there is incomplete information. Regardless, you should create the contract race with whatever information you have.

You can create an contract race in one of two ways.

1. From Race Calendar view click on the contract race date

2. From Race Table view click New

Once the form is displayed

• fill in as much information as you have available to you

• click Create

If the Race has Finish Line Services - Race directors may be contacting you with incomplete information, and if so you will have to chase them down to find all the relevant bits. This may have to be done over time as often when they first contact us they may not have all of the information themselves.

If the Race has Only Premium Promotion - Premium promotion is executed through the communications group rather than race services. We’ll still be using this tool to track that. It is expected that the communication group will look at the contractility data periodically to determine what races are to be promoted. See When We Contract for Premium Promotion (Communications) for more details.

When We’re Contacted for a Race We’ve Done Before

If we’ve done a race before, there will already be a database entry for the race, and likely the contract race was renewed after the previous year’s race.

You need to verify the current details with the race director and update the contract race which was created as a result of the automatic renewal process.

You can find the contract race to edit in one of two ways.

1. from Race Table view, use the Search box at the top of the table, and enter the race name

   • you should see all the contract races associated with this race

   • click on the contract race for the coming year, then click Edit

2. from Race Calendar view, navigate to the date of the race’s contract race

   • click on the contract race

Now you can edit the contract race with the current details and when ready send the contract.

• fill in as much information as you have available to you

• change State to tentative

  Note

  this is very important, if you don’t do this the race director will receive extra confusing emails and we’ll lose track of what we’re doing

• click Update

  • or if you’re ready to generate a contract, click Update and Send Contract

When the Race Director has Questions

Some questions you get will have to go through the Race Services/Equipment Coordinator, as you won’t be able to handle them – generally these are questions about how to manage a race rather than contract related stuff. Probably best way to handle this is to forward to the Race Services/Equipment Coordinator, copying the RD, with appropriate text that the Race Services/Equipment Coordinator is best suited to respond. If the Race Services/Equipment Coordinator gets information from them which needs to be in the database and you’re not copied, he’ll need to get it to you.

When Race Details are Confirmed by Race Director

As the details are confirmed by the race director, use the Edit Contract Race view to update the contract race. When all the details are known and the race director is ready, generate the contract.

You can edit an contract race in one of two ways.

1. from Race Calendar view navigate to the contract race date and then click on the contract race

2. from Race Table view click Edit

Before you can generate a contract for finish line services, you need at least the following:

Race

the name of the race

Date

the date of the contract race

Course

the course the race will be run on

Start Time

time of day that the main contract race starts

Distance

distance for the race

Client

the name of the client

Services

one or more services which the client is contracting for

Max Participants

this is used to determine the pricing for finishline services (this is set to 200 for a new race or a race that had fewer than 201 finishers the previous year. If it is a repeat race and the number of finishers in the previous year was greater than 200, it’s the number of finishers the previous year rounded up to the next 100.

Lead

the leader who will run the finish line operation on the day of the contract race. This needs to be finalized well before the contract race so that emails are sent properly to all concerned

Before you can generate a contract for premium promotion service (only), you need at least the following:

Race

the name of the race

Date

the date of the contract race

Course

the course the race will be run on

Client

the name of the client

Services

one or more services which the client is contracting for

The remaining fields are useful as well, and should be filled in if applicable and known.

When Race Director Accepts Agreement (Race Services Admin)

When a race director accepts the agreement, the race services admin will receive an email. The contract race will automatically be transitioned into the committed state.

The lead for the race needs to be identified well before the contract race so that resources are allocated correctly and emails are sent to the appropriate people. Generally we should have a commitment for a lead before sending the contract to the race director, however the system does not enforce this.

When the items in the contract have settled, the race services admin should initiate the invoice process. Many contracts will have all the items in the contract settled at the time the contract is agreed to by the race director, but some services may require additional information only available closer to the race. E.g., for chip timing the race director needs to identify how many bibs will be chipped before the invoice process can be initiated.

When it’s time to initiate the invoice process, the race services admin clicks Update and Initiate Invoice from the contract race edit view.

You can edit an contract race in one of two ways.

1. from Race Calendar view navigate to the contract race date and then click on the contract race

2. from Race Table view click Edit

When FSRC Admin Initiates Invoice (Treasurer)

When the race services admin initiates the invoice, the treasurer will receive an email which contains a link to the invoice document generated in When Race Director Accepts Agreement (Race Services Admin).

Using the accounting system, the treasurer should generate an invoice to the client as indicated by the financial policies. The invoice should include either a link to the invoice document, or a downloaded PDF of the invoice document. Once an invoice is generated, the treasurer should click the Invoice Sent button on the Edit Contract Race view.

When We Contract for Premium Promotion (Communications)

The communications team handles all premium promotion, regardless of whether the race has also contracted for other services.

To determine the contract races for the next premium promotion email, use the Race Table view filters:

States

select committed

Date Range

From the day the email goes out, To [3 months] after that

Service(s)

select premiumpromotion

The table will be filtered to only the contract races which should be in the next email.

The CSV button can be used to download these contract races, if desired.

When Changes Need to be Made to a Committed Agreement

Occasionally, after the race director has agreed to the contract, there needs to be a change. E.g., if the race director decides on premium promotion after the initial agreement, a change needs to be made.

When the contract is in committed state, the Update and Send Contract button is desensitized.

If it’s necessary to change the contract after the initial agreement, simply edit the contract race, make the needed changes (e.g., add premiumpromotion), and change the state to tentative. By changing the state, the Update and Send Contract button will be sensitized, and can be clicked to send another contract.

Note once this is done, the system voids the previous contract and it is not accessible.

When an Exception to Standard Availability Rules is Needed

Normally, contract races are allowed on weekends and not allowed on weekdays. There are some holidays during the week when we want to allow contract races, and some weekend days we don’t want to allow contract races. For these, we need to configure exceptions.

To create exceptions, use the Contract Race Exceptions view.