Monday, January 12, 2009

Promoting - Some Progress

A little restless tonight, not sure why. Maybe it's the upcoming cold weather (expected low for one of the upcoming nights is -4 degrees F. It doesn't sound too impressive until you think of it as being 36 degrees below freezing. Or, to put a different delta on it, it's the same drop in temperature that you experience from riding in a balmy 68 degrees to riding at freezing.

Okay, enough, it's making me antsy just thinking about it.

Maybe my restlessness stems from my severe decrease in my confidence in my smooth pedaling after watching that rollers clip. I will ride rollers tomorrow and more often in the next week, determined to regain some semblance of a smooth pedal stroke. Perhaps it's the fact that I started mapping out routes in California, and then lost my map after I'd gotten 109 miles into one route (the key on gmap-pedometer - save often!). Or that I have only four weeks to magically discover some legs so that when I get to California I don't piddle around all day in a 39x25.

Maybe it was the fact that Bella, Tiger, and Mike all wanted to cuddle up on the bed, up by the humans.

Or, perhaps, it's the upcoming Bethel Spring Series.

Whatever, this "awaked-ness" gives me an excuse to type away at the keyboard a bit.

I read somewhere that people naturally wait to get things done. It's called procrastination, and I'm a champion of the habit. I think part of the problem is that I believe a lot of what I read, and I once read that folks wait until half the allotted time for a task elapses before starting said task. This means, for example, that if I have a paper due in two months, I won't start any kind of significant work on it for a month.

I wish I hadn't read that in school, since I pretty much halved the allotted time by telling myself, "Hey, look, it's only natural you wait a month to start the paper." Then after a month, I figure I have a month until it's due. So I start it 2 weeks later, then wonder why I'm scrambling the night before the due date.

Anyway, I mention this because I have a lot of due dates approaching (and no, it has nothing to do with kids).

A major one is the Bethel Spring Series, with the first race date tentatively scheduled for March 1, 2009. I say tentative because until we file the permits, we can't say we're actually holding a race - that would be 'advertising' the race, and that's not allowed until we have the permit in hand.

Permits need to be filed six weeks or more before a race. Otherwise you end up paying substantial "late/rush" fees, hundreds of dollars in the case of a series of six races.

Naturally this creates its own deadline, that of about, well, a few days, where the permits must be filed. Otherwise the money meter starts running in earnest.

To file a permit, you need a few things. Town permission helps a great deal. Thankfully I only waited until November to request this, and they approved the dates in December. Race names and categories help too. Since I'm pressed for time, and more specifically, my friend who is doing all the filing is also pressed for time, we're sticking with the current format, categories, etc.

One of the important blanks you fill in when filing a permit is the bit where you name the promoter.

This has a lot of legal implications. If someone decides to sue the race, they sue the promoter. If someone wants to pay a race fee, they pay the promoter. If I accept race entry money as an individual, I essentially become "the promoter". And as such I stand to get sued if anything weird happens in the race.

Therefore it's best not to be an individual. A much better entity would be a corporation of some type. In Connecticut you can form a very small company that has limited liability, called, appropriately, a limited liability corporation (LLC).

I didn't have an LLC.

So, today, I finalized the filing papers to create such an entity. And since I did a bunch of homework, I knew the paperwork should go smoothly.

Which means that my friend can file the paperwork.

Which means the races can be permitted.

Which means that...

The Bethel Spring Series will be on.

I feel a bit better.

Maybe I'll do some crunches now.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

It's cold & wet & drab here in the UK, which can really get you down, but you have to look forward to & at your goals & don't worry about what you can't change. If you are reading this then hopefully it might sink in (!) & motivate you to get out there & give it a go, rather than worrying about everything & doing nothing. Good luck for the coming season.

Anonymous said...

I have started to make some progress also. Like getting my lic-
ense renewed and reading up on any of the new rules. I have also started to investigate new winter boots, not really needed, bib coveralls for warmth, again not really needed, rain bibs/jacket, definitely needed, outdoor/patio propane heater. All told around $600 to finally be comfortable, out of the wind, and warm.
In the end we may just get the heater, but even that is up in the air. I may just rough it like every other year, and just make sure the races get off on time and everyone has a safe race.
BTW can you bring the microwave to heat up lunch?

Aki said...

SMB - thanks for the encouraging words.

Anon - Microwave will be there. I hope to have a quiet generator just for the start/finish. This would allow us to put the camera on the right side of the road (sun side). Would that help?

Also a wireless network, printer at your end, so we can print things out right next to you. Maybe we'll get a second printer, to print results at the tent.

Finally I want to figure out some harder sides for the tent. This way we can heat the tent without melting the flapping sides every now and then.

It's cold today. 11 degree F this morning.

Anonymous said...

A solution to the heating problem. We need to get there early, say 6-6:30am and get the tent up and heater going in the middle to radiate the heat. Move the tables inside at 7am.
Are you thinking of using a wireless control for the camera?
We'll talk.

Aki said...

Ideally we'll use the camera and feed it into a laptop (I have one for the S/F, one for registration). I'd like to feed all video into a hard drive so we can retrieve it using "normal" controls. I have to work on this, make sure it works.

I want to put table cloths on the tables and feed heat under the tables, but I don't know how to do that yet.

Anonymous said...

How about we just go to Bethel, Ca.
It has to warmer.