Today is deadline for 2007 PA cards at reduced price
The cost for a USATF membership (aka PA card) is increasing from $20 to $29.95 next year. You can buy next year’s PA card for this year’s price of $20 if you do it today and online. The price goes up to $29.95 tomorrow. This is a good deal for those who already have their 2006 PA cards.
However, if you don’t already have a PA card for 2006 and you plan on running the PA championships or club championships this year and running at PA races next year, then it is better to purchase a membership after tomorrow, since $29.95 will get you a PA card that is valid for this year and next year. Here is the link for purchasing cards online:
https://www.usatf.org/membership/application/index.asp
On a related topic, we had another scoring issue with race day registrations. In the past, club members bought their PA cards on the day of the race and got scored for it. We can no longer count on a PA rep being available on the day of the race. Approximately 90% of Pacific Association members buy their PA cards online. The PA encourages this for two reasons, 1) if everyone buys their cards online, they don’t have to have someone at the races signing people up and 2) online registration is seamlessly and quickly entered into the PA database and the score sheets for road racing and cross country. Applications for PA cards that are not submitted online have to be processed manually, this takes longer. In the meantime, a dummy membership number has to be created for the member so he/she can be scored. When the membership number finally comes in from the PA office, the records for the dummy membership number and membership number have to be merged for all the race results. Needless to say, it is a lot of extra work. The folks that are doing this work are volunteers and we should avoid causing them extra grief if possible.
On a second related topic, we need to assure that all our club members have Spartans (Club #154) listed as their club affiliation on their PA memberships. Most of us do. If you don’t, you are assumed to be unattached and can’t be scored for our team. We don’t want to wait until race day to declare our club affiliations. The PA association and its scorers take a dim view of this. Their position, since we turn in score sheets after the race, is How do we know that you didn’t pick out a fast unattached person at the race and add them to your team?’ So let’s get these resolved before the PA meet and Club championships. You can check as to whether you are listed on the club roster by going to the following link: http://www.usatf.org/assoc/Pacific/data/members.asp?page=adult Scroll down the list and find your name. You should have club # 154 next to your name. If not, you need to add it.
Happy Halloween to everyone. – Paul