Organizing a Basic Skills Competition

This post is fresh in my mind since my figure skating competition is in two days as I’m writing this. I have been running a USFS Basic Skills Competition for three years, and let me tell you: it does not get easier each year. Well, after the first year it got a little easier because I felt more comfortable with the process. US Figure Skating has a wonderful guide on organizing a competition here http://www.usfsa.org/Programs.asp?id=335 I used it the first year like the back of my hand. I was so paranoid I would miss or forget something. Now I have my own disorganized system. I’ll take you though my steps so you can get an idea of what is involved with running a Basic Skills Competition. The first three steps are in order, after that you run the show.

Courtesy of U.S. Figure Skating

1. Get the USFS Basic Skills Competition Guidelines. There are certain rules you will need to follow when writing your announcement. The announcement includes times, dates, events offered, registration form and all the details about the competition. If your state offers a Basic Skills Series, consider being a part of it. Offering a series attracts more skaters and gives the skaters something else to work toward!
2. Send, a copy of the announcement and an approval request to the appointed Basic Skills representative for your area for approval. Once approved you can start distributing the announcement. Look for a USFS approval sanction in the mail and display it at the competition.
3. Distribute the announcement to everyone you know!
4. Secure a USFS Accountant, Referees, Judges, and Photographer/Videographer.
5. Get volunteers and lots of them. You will need people for the registration desk, the awards table, the raffle table, runners, ice monitors, announcers and music players, I personally don’t have a skating club to support the competition so it makes it more difficult to get volunteers. I absolutely hate asking people to volunteer time out of their weekend to help me, so I always give the judges and volunteers a nice little gift as compensation. They appreciate it, and it makes me feel better too! Ice Mom gets free registration because she does soooo much work to help me out!
6. Gift Bags and Medals- Order things or get donations for the gift bags. I try to differentiate my competition from others with amazing gift bags and unique medals. I figure if kids have a good time and remember how cool the gift bags and medals are they will want to come back. This was a post on Ice Mom’s site not long ago, so thanks to those who helped! In this year’s gift bags I included leg warmers, Silver Blades hardcover book, pony tail holders, ice cream gift certificates, water bottle, candy, towels with our logo to wipe off blades, USFS zipper pulls, stickers, and jelly bracelets.
7. Medals or Trophies- I suggest finding something unique and for a good price. Medals or Trophies can be expensive, but it’s pretty obvious to spot the cheap ones. Trust me: people notice. The first year I ran the competition I bought medals for first though third place and ribbons for fourth through sixth. After all the company raised their prices on the medals, so I was proud of myself for saving some cash by buying the ribbons. Oh boy, was that a mistake! The skaters were disappointed and that make me feel horrible so I set out on a task to find a unique medal they couldn’t get anywhere else. Now I spend $6-$7 for each medal and ribbon.
8. Design a T-shirt or sweatshirt that people can order in advance to remember your competition, or hire a screen printer to come the day of the event.
9. Order flowers to sell the day of the event.
10. Consider doing a raffle. Get donations from local businesses and raffle off the items as a fundraiser.
11. Once your deadline has passed, write the schedule or have someone do it for you. My local area representative does it. I am so grateful to her, it’s not even funny. She schedules the timing of the events and will even schedule the judges for me.
12. Write a program.
13. Consider walkie-talkies. They make life easy. The competition chair can talk to the referee, the announcers, the registration desk, and everyone else the day of the event without running around the rink to find someone.
14. Make posters for kids to sign with your logo. Well they are not posters but I don’t know what to call them. At a couple of the competitions in this area we print a sheet of paper with each skaters name and the logo of the competition and hang them in the lobby with markers. The skaters sign and put fun notes on each other’s poster. At the end of the day they get to take it home and have a free keepsake of the event.
15. Document everything. The announcer, referee table all needs documentation on what to say and who should be checking in with music etc.
16. Try not to go insane!

The list above is definitely not all inclusive, but as I’m writing it I’m thinking about all the things I have to do to prepare for my annual competition in two days. I really have to go, so please feel free to ask me more detailed questions about the event. Monday, when this blog posts, the competition will be over and I’ll be stress free and happy. OK maybe not stress free.

Have you ever helped run a competition? Have you been a volunteer at a competition? Do you have suggestions for me next year? Please comment.