IFPA World Footbag Championships
The IFPA World Footbag Championships are coming up soon in Oakland California From August 1-7th. Two days ago i got an email from with important information about the Championships. So in case you guys are not part of the Footbag.org mailing list i thought i would post it here.
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Hi, everyone, Please read this carefully if you are planning to attend the 2010 IFPA World Footbag Championships coming up in just 8 weeks in Oakland, California. There are important deadlines coming up and we strongly request your help in making this event a success. (1) REGISTRATION & PAYMENT: All competitors MUST pre-pay by July 18th (about 6 weeks away). There are no exceptions. Go to http://www.footbag.org/registration/register?tid=1265745512 immediately and register. If you already registered, please help us out and pay now by returning to this same link and clicking through to the payment screen. You must pay online or have a friend pay for you (see Q&A below for full details). Please also make sure your e-mail address is up to date on your IFPA membership (footbag.org profile) so that we can contact you if there are any problems. (2) OPEN SINGLES NET - FORMAT CHANGE: If you are playing in Open Singles Net, please be advised that this year it will be a SINGLE ELIMINATION format. That means we will not be doing the traditional round-robin pools for the first round! Instead, we will go straight from the seeding to single-elimination brackets for Open Singles Net. Note: Intermediate and Women's Singles Net, as with all other net events, will be the traditional round-robin pools for qualifications, moving into brackets after the first round. (3) HOTEL RESERVATION DEADLINE EXTENDED: The reservation deadline for the host hotel (Marriott - Oakland City Center) has been extended to July 1st. Please reserve your room soon, however, as the hotel is starting to fill up! Better safe than sorry -- you can cancel for no charge if you find a roommate and combine reservations as long as you do it in advance. So please just get yourself a room so you're sure you'll have a place to stay that is convenient and where everyone else will be! The Marriott has the nice feature that it is connected to the main tournament site, and we will be able to hang out in the lobby of the convention center most nights until quite late, without getting hassled. So this is really going to be a great place for everyone. The details on the hotel are on the registration form so please just click the link above. (4) MORE INFORMATION: More information will be coming soon or is already available on the website. Please visit http://www.footbag.org/events/show/1265745512 where you will find links to the general information website, a map showing the relevant sites, links to registration info and more lodging details. Detailed information for net and freestylers, including 2010 rule changes we are applying to this year's competition in both disciplines, will be forthcoming, so please keep an eye out. Finally, for detailed questions about registration and payment options, please scroll down to see the Question & Answers section below. Thanks! Steve --------- REGISTRATION & PAYMENT -- QUESTIONS & ANSWERS: Q1: I do not have access to Paypal in my country. What can I do? A1: Find a friend or family member in a country with Paypal who is willing to help you to lend you the money so you can confirm your registration. You can re-pay them on your own time (by mailing a postal/international money order, by sending a bank transfer, a bank cheque, or whatever makes sense). See A3 for more details on what to do once you identify someone to help you. Q2: Paypal operates in my country, but I don't have an account. What are my options? A2: You don't need an account to pay via credit card (Visa, MasterCard). So, if you have Visa or MasterCard, you can pay using the normal method (see above) -- simply choose Visa or MasterCard at the payment screen and fill in your details. If you do not have a credit card, your only option is to borrow a friend's card (easiest) or to set up your own Paypal account and connect it to your bank account for electronic funds transfer (bank transfer). The instructions are on the main Paypal site in your country. This can take up to 10 days, which is still plenty of time -- so if this is your only option, start it TODAY! It will be something you can use again later, so it's worth the effort. Once you have your account set up with bank transfer funding, you can pay using the normal method above. Q3: For whatever reason, I can't send the money directly using the online system, so I need a way to send it separately. Can I do this, and if so, how do you know the payment you received is for me? A3: We don't have the resources to easily coordinate this for a lot of people, so my strong request is that you avoid making us do anything special for your registration payment. 90% of people without credit cards can use the answer in A2 above to resolve their situation -- you just have to ask a family member or friend to allow you to use their credit card for the payment. If you have NO OTHER CHOICE, then your best option is to find a club organizer or player who has Paypal or credit card to help you. In that case -- or in the case in A1 above -- e-mail me directly *after* you identify the person and are sure they are willing to help you, and I will coordinate with you and the person helping you to get you instructions so I can reconcile the payment and associate it correctly with your registration. (If you don't tell me, I can't figure out who paid for you, so you must talk to me first so the right information is in the payment.) Q4: Do I have to pay by the deadline if I'm not competing but I want a player's pack (i.e., registering as non-competitor)? A4: No -- only competitors (including Master's division) must pre-pay by July 18th. Non-competitors may pay at check-in, though we may not be able to confirm your T-shirt shize if you don't pre-pay. (If you pre-pay, you will have a pre-made player's pack waiting for you with your exact shirt sizes/types as requested.) To be clear, however, it would help us immensely if you pre-paid in any case -- since presumably the reason you're registering at all is that you want to help us out financially with this event. So please really help us out by pre-paying so we can use that money to pay for the hard costs of this tournament. (Thanks!) Q5: Why do you require pre-payment? Isn't that a bit Draconian? A5: This is the World Championships, and as such, it is the most important competition in the sport this year. We need to know how many people are coming, who's competing, and have this all confirmed well in advance of the first day of competition. For several reasons, the only way we can guarantee that you are coming is if you pre-pay -- and, honestly, a major reason is also that we need the registration fees well before the event to pay for all the hard costs. By having a confirmed headcount well in advance of the actual first day of competition, each event director can ensure proper seeding, and even drawing up qualification brackets/pools so that you know exactly where you stand when you check in! Also, it helps us plan and save costs by ordering the right number and sizes of T-shirts, and cancelling events that don't meet the minimum criteria (so we can avoid paying for medals and simplify our final schedule if we know certain events won't take place). We tested this requirement last year in Berlin, and it was a raging success. Before the first day of competition last year, we knew exactly how many competitors we had (and who they were), which made planning substantially easier and led to a much better tournament from the players' perspective. Q6: I don't have a partner for one or more of my doubles events. Is that going to be a problem? Or do I have to indicate who my partners are in the registration form by July 18th as well? A6: We're glad you asked. :-) Yes, you must have partners listed on your registration form by July 18th. We will be sending out e-mails on July 18th to all competitors who do not have partners, with a grace period of 24 hours to pair up. But you MUST have paid by July 18th before we will allow this. If you do not pay by the 18th, you will not be listed in the e-mail we send to others who are looking for partners since we will have cancelled your registration. If you end up without a partner by the end of July 19th, you'll be removed from the particular event in question. If there are an odd number of players pre-paid for a given event, someone will end up being without a partner and thus will have to be removed from the event. So, it's in everyone's interest to pair up early, and ensure your partners pay by the 18th as well! Q7: If my registration is cancelled because I don't pay by July 18th, what are my options? A7: We would be very happy to have you attend as a non-competitor and to pay the US$40 non-competitor fee at the check-in desk during any of the posted times. But we will not be able to slide you in as a competitor once the deadline passes. There will be no exceptions. So if you're worried about it, start figuring out *now* how you will get your payment to us by the 18th. See Q1-Q3 for details. Q8: How do I return later to complete my payment if I only registered but didn't pay? Similarly, how can I return to add a partner? A8: The registration system is very smart and remembers all your choices regardless of which computer you use to sign in. Just go to the registration form at http://www.footbag.org/registration/register?tid=1265745512 any time you like before the deadline, and if you're not signed into your footbag.org account, it will ask you to sign in. Once signed in, you'll see the entire registration form, with all your previous choices (if any) selected. You can close the window if you have no changes, but if you want to make changes, just make them! Then follow the on-screen instructions to confirm your changes to the registration, and if you haven't paid, go ahead and click the "Pay using PayPal" button on the last screen. Q9: How can I make sure my Paypal payment went through and my registration is confirmed? Q9: You will get an e-mail to confirm your payment. To make sure this happens, *please* do not close the Paypal window right away after the confirmation screen! Please WAIT about 5 seconds for it to redirect you back to footbag.org. Then you will see a confirmation from footbag.org, that contains your exact registration details. At that point, and only then, you can close the window. If you close the window too early, I will have to finalize your payment by hand -- so please avoid making me do this. (Thanks.) Just a little patience on the final screen will go a long way! ;-)
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