Registering players for a tournament

Organizers usually think of registration as a single list. It is three different things, and confusing them is what causes the mess at the door.

The gap between the first and second lists is the number worth knowing about your own club: at a free event it can be half, at a paid one usually far less - why a small fee improves attendance.

Collect what you will actually use. Every extra field costs you entries, because each one is another reason to abandon the form.

• Name. Always. In full if the event is rated, otherwise as they want to appear in the table.
• A contact. One channel, so you can tell them the event moved.
• Rating, if you seed by it. Optional, and clearly marked optional - beginners abandon forms that demand one.
• Year of birth - only for junior or veteran categories. If you have no age prizes, do not ask.
• For rated events: full name, federation identifier, date of birth and federation. That set is required by the report, and it is worth collecting in advance rather than at the desk.

What not to ask at a club evening: address, workplace, passport details, anything you cannot name a use for. If a field cannot be justified in one sentence, remove it.

Whatever you choose, the entry list and the pairing should be the same list. Copying names from a spreadsheet into pairing software at the door is where typos and missing players come from - running it from one place.

• Signed up and did not come. Normal, and the reason you confirm on the day rather than pairing from the advance list.
• Came without signing up. Also normal. Never turn them away - somebody who came and did not play does not return - about retention.
• Arrived after the pairing. Decide in advance whether they enter from round two, and announce it.
• An odd number. Somebody receives a bye. Announce the rule before, not after - how byes work.
• A name spelled two ways. Trivial until the same person appears twice in the standings.
• Left after round three. Withdraw them before generating the next pairing, or the pairing includes somebody who has gone home.

Half an hour, one person, and a few rules that keep the round starting on time.

• At the entrance, not in the hall. A desk somewhere at the back means people wander in looking for it.
• One person, not the organizer. The organizer is setting up boards and answering questions; the desk needs somebody whose only job it is - who does what.
• Confirm, take the fee, hand over the table number. Three actions, in that order, in under a minute per person.
• Mark arrivals as they come. Not from memory afterwards.
• Close on time and say so. “Entries close at 18:45, round one at 19:00” - and then close at 18:45.
• Greet newcomers by name. The desk is where a first-timer decides whether they will come back.

Rules differ by country, so this is about habits rather than law - but the habits are the same everywhere.

• Collect only what you use. The best protection against handling data badly is not having it.
• Say what it is for. One line on the form: entry list, pairing, standings.
• Publish less than you collect. A public table needs names and results, not contacts or dates of birth.
• Children need consent from an adult - for entry and separately for photographs.
• Do not keep old lists indefinitely in a shared document anybody can open.
• Photographs are data too. Announce that you are shooting and give people a way to stay out of shot - using photographs afterwards.

If your events are rated, the reporting requires more detail - and that is a reason to collect it deliberately for those events only, not to add fields to every club evening.