[FWM News] Clarification about FW membership and online registration

[Far West Masters news]

A significant number of Far West racers seem to be finding the process 
of activating an account on SkiRaceReg.com to be confusing.  The 
wording on the signup and "renewal" pages of SkiRaceReg.com may be 
somewhat confusing because there's not a clear distinction being made 
there between "setting up your account on SkiRaceReg.com in order to 
enter races" and paying your Far West Masters membership dues for the 
season.  These are not the same thing and are handled completely 
separately!!

So, let me try to explain what's going on...

(1) Far West Masters membership

Done the same we always have: there's a membership application for new 
and renewing members that is MAILED or HANDED to Marcie Pettigrew, our 
membership VP, along with a check for your FWM dues.  The Far West 
Masters membership application was included with the fall issue of the 
Forerunner newsletter that was mailed to all recent members in 
September.

The application is also posted on our web site on the "How to Join" 
page, which explains how to get your USSA masters competition license 
and join Far West Masters.

http://farwestmasters.org/info/membership#fwmMembership

Most of you have probably already done this.  (The rest of you 
people... send your membership renewal to Marcie ASAP!!)

(2) SkiRaceReg.com is for race entries.  

The race registration web site does NOT handle Far West Masters 
memberships, nor does it know whether you have paid your dues this 
season.  Far West uses this service for race entries.  That's all - 
only for race entries.

When you see wording on the signup or login pages that says you need to 
"renew", translate that to "activate your SkiRaceReg.com account so you 
can submit race entries online".  The terminology "renewing" that shows 
up on the account signup pages came from usage by some other divisions 
who process their membership dues through the system.  That is NOT 
applicable for the Far West Masters race series - our membership is 
handled separately and SkiRaceReg.com has no information on your FWM 
membership status.

[We'll get the Member Lookup page on farwestmasters.org up-to-date at 
the beginning of December so you can check your membership status 
there.  It is NOT yet updated with this season's membership data]

In order to open your SkiRaceReg.com account so you can enter Far West 
Masters races online for 2010-2011, you DO need to provide a credit 
card number.  This establishes your payment information for any races 
that you enter.  There is no charge for opening the account; there is 
no charge for your Far West Masters membership through this system.  
The credit card number that you provide to activate your SkiRaceReg.com 
account is ONLY charged if and when you actually enter a race.

If you need further assistance with opening your account, you can send 
a message to raceadmin at farwestmasters.org.

Please also be sure to check your spam filter settings and email blocks 
so that you will recieve messages sent from skiracereg.com and 
raceadmin at farwestmasters.org, as these two email addresses will be used 
for communications through the race entry system.  (E.g., your login 
help help message won't help if it can't get delivered to you because 
you blocked the sender!)

~ Deb

-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
Deb Lewis
Technical Director of Race Services and Scoring; Webmaster
Far West Masters
mailto:dlewis at farwestmasters.org
http://farwestmasters.org