RunSignUp’s Group feature allows participants to self-manage their own group, which means there is no hassle on the race director when it comes to editing the group. The tutorial will explain groups in more detail and walk you through setting them up for your race.
RunSignUp allows you to set up Groups/Teams for your event(s). This feature allows users to create and join Groups/Teams of any type that you define. You can have multiple Group Types of which multiple Groups can be created (you will need to have at least one Group Type for your race, if you want to enable this feature).
For instance you may want to have Groups/Teams enabled for your race, but want to allow participants to define their Group as a School, Church, or Government team. In this case you would want to create a Group Type for each of these examples.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Group Setup
- Group Type
- Group Type Description
- Events
- Advanced Group Setup Settings
- Allow participants to create new groups of this type
- Allow users to create new groups without registering for the race
- Team Joining Ends
- Allow group administrators to add and remove group members
- Allow group administrators to remove group members who registered with special group pricing
- Number of Guaranteed Entries
- Only guarantee entry into the default event for a group
- Gender Restrictions
- Group Size Restrictions
- During registration, require that new groups register at least the minimum number of registrants
- However, don’t require this on event transfers
- Maximum Number of Groups
- Age Ranges
- Overall Race Group Settings
- Race Event Group Settings
Group Setup
To begin setting up the “Group” feature for your race, go to the Participants > Groups/Teams > Setup. Here you will find the “Race Group Setup”. Use the green Add Group Type button to get started.
Group Type
This is a type of Group that users will be able to create.
Please note that this is NOT a Group/Team name itself, but a classification of Groups of which multiple participants can create their own Groups.
You will need at least one Group Type in order to enable Groups/Teams for your Race. You can have as many Group Types as you like within your Groups/Teams setup.
Group Type Description
Here you can describe this particular Group Type. This description will be displayed to registrants looking to create a Group of this Group Type.
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Events
For each Group Type that you have you will be able to decide which Events within your Race will allow Groups of this Group Type to be added.
If an Event is not selected here it will mean that participants registered for this Event will not be allowed to create or join a Group of this Group Type.
Advanced Group Setup Settings
To access the Advanced Settings for one of your Group Types use the + button next to the Advanced Settings header.
Allow participants to create new groups of this type
By default this option is checked and will allow participants to create new groups of this type.
If you do not want participants to be able to create Groups of this Group Type, then you can un-check this option. If you have this option unchecked it means that you, as the race director, will need to add or import groups on your end.
Allow users to create new groups without registering for the race
By default this option is not checked, meaning that users will be required to register in order to create new Groups of this Group Type.
If you would like the ability to create Groups to be open to the public, regardless of whether or not they are a part of the race, you can check this option.
Team Joining Ends
This is an optional field that allows you to define a cutoff date for participants to join a Group of this Group Type by.
If you have a date entered into this field users will not be able to join a Group of this Group Type after the entered date.
Allow group administrators to add and remove group members
By default this setting is checked and allows Group Administrators (Captains) to add and remove Group Members.
If you do not want to allow Group Administrators to add and remove Group Members, thereby putting the responsibility solely on the Group Members, then you will want to uncheck this option.
The user who created the Group is considered the original Group Administrator, but others can be added as explained in How To Manage Group/Team.This guide will also walk Group Administrators through how they can add and remove Group Members.
Allow group administrators to remove group members who registered with special group pricing
By default this setting is not checked, and will not allow Group Administrators to remove Group Members who registered with Special Group Pricing.
When Group Members are removed from a Group that was created with Special Group Pricing, then Members are removed from the Race completely.
Number of Guaranteed Entries
This field allows Race Directors to define how many Guaranteed Entries each Group/Team will be given upon creation, regardless of any participant caps set for the Race.
Please note, that this field will only be available to you if you have Participant Caps set up for your race.
Only guarantee entry into the default event for a group
By default this setting is not checked, so the Number of Guaranteed Entries will be enforced regardless of any Default Events that you have set up. While this setting only guarantees entry into the default event for a group, whether a spot is allowed in the event is based on the total group size.
For example, if a group is for a 5K and a 10K, with the default event being the 5K and 4 spots guaranteed, the 5th person to register for the group is not guaranteed entry even if there are only two 5K entries and two 10K entries.
Please note, that this field will only be available to you if you have Participant Caps set up for your race.
Gender Restrictions
This setting is off by default. By enabling this feature the user creating Groups of this Group Type will be prompted to select a Gender Restriction for their Group. As the Race Director you can allow this Group Type to allow for All Male, All Female, or Coed Groups.
Group Size Restrictions
If you need to limit Groups of this Group Type to a certain number of Members you can do so by using this field.
You have the ability to set the Minimum and Maximum number of total Members regardless of Gender, as well as define Minimum and Maximum number of Males and Females allowed for Groups of this Group Type.
During registration, require that new groups register at least the minimum number of registrants
If you have minimums set in this section you can additionally require that new groups register at least the minimum number of registrants that you have defined. By default users will be able to create a Group and allow users to join it after it has been created without hitting the minimum number of members.
Note that using this setting can make it more difficult for friends to register because they must all register on the same computer and use one credit card.You may still end up with teams of less than the minimum size for groups created through the post-registration participant management screens.
However, don’t require this on event transfers
If you also have the setting enabled to require new groups register at least the minimum number of registrants, you can select the option to not require this on Event Transfers.
Maximum Number of Groups
You are given the option to restrict the number of Groups of this Group Type that can be created by putting the Maximum Number of Groups that you would like to allow of this Group Type into this field.
Age Ranges
A group type can require that members fall into the specified age ranges. If you do not want to create any age ranges, then you can skip this section, and members of any age can join groups of this type. To create an age range, begin by clicking on the button for Add Age Range.
If you want to allow anyone 18 or younger, you would enter 0 - 18. To allow anyone 18 or older, you would enter 18 in the first box and leave the second box empty.
You can use the Add Age Range button to add as many Age Ranges as you would like, and you can use the “X” next to an Age Range to delete it.
Please note that editing existing age groups will change the settings on existing groups.
Additionally, you can use the option for Require groups to select a single age group that all group members must meet in order to force groups to select a single Age Range defined here, which will require all Members of their Group of this Group Type to be within this specified Range.
Overall Race Group Settings
The Overall Race Group Settings will apply to all Group Types.
Group Passwords
RunSignUp gives you as the Race Director the option to either Require, Allow, or Not Allow Group Passwords.
If Group Passwords are required a password will need to be created for the Group when it is created, and any members looking to join the Group after it has been created will need to enter this password in order to join the Group.
Group Administrators can update this password after they have created it from their RunSignUp Profile as explained in How-To Edit Group Password.
Display Settings
These settings will change the way that Groups/Teams are presented to users.Use the “+” next to the Display Settings header to edit these settings.
Title To Display To Participants
By default this field is set to Group/Team, but it can be changed to anything that you would like in order to make it more descriptive of all of the Group Types that your Race has available.
Please note, that this title should be descriptive of all Group Types, not just a single one, as it will be used in places to describe all of your Group Types.
For instance if your Race is a Triathlon which has a Relay Team category for scoring you may have three Group Types - All Male, All Female, and Coed. In this scenario you may want to change the Title to Display to Participants to “Relay Team" as it describes all of the Group Types in your Race.
Custom Word for "Administrator" (Singular/Plural)
By default these fields are set to Administrator and Administrators, but it can be changed to anything that you would like in order to customize the title given to your group administrators.
For instance you can change this to Captain and Captains, Squad Leader and Squad Leaders, or etcetera.
Race Page Tabs
By default there is a single menu item added to your Race SignUp page when you add any amount of Group Types to your Race that uses the Title to Display to Participants as described previously.
However, if you select Show a Race Page Tab Per Group Type, then you can have a tab for each Group Type in your Race by using this option.
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Age Visible
By default, ages of Members are not displayed to group members. If you would like this information to show, then you can check this option to Show Member Ages to members on the group page.
Race Event Group Settings
The Race Event Group Settings will allow you to set group settings for specific events.
Require registrants to join a group
By default, registrants will be given the option to join a Group/Team if they would like. If you would like to require that all registrants of a specific event join a Group/Team, then you can use the section for Require Registrants to Join a Group:
To use this option, select the “+” button next to Require Registrants to Join a Group and select the events that you want registrants of to join a group for.
Save
After you have all of your settings customized, always be sure to click Save Settings in order to save the changes.
