To put on a competition or an event you need some help and some
tools

Here is what you need if you want to put on a competition or
event:

1) A web site to announce the event, register pilots, display the names of the
pilots who are registered, display the local rules, give the location, download
the waypoint list, and display the scores.

2) A pilot registration system that not only lets pilots easily sign up for your
event, but also lets them pay so that they can secure their spot in the
competition.

3) A scoring system that lets you easily download pilots' GPSes (for cross
country tasks), and puts the scores up on the internet.

In this article I will link you to the free tools and templates that make it
much easier for you to do all these things. You can set up all this within a few
hours without any previous experience.

1) Web site:

You can create your own web site if you are or have a web designer and a web
hosting company. Some examples can be found
here and
here. These examples are from flight parks that already have their own web
sites and web designers who work with them.

You can also set up a web site for free and you don't have to be a web designer
to do it. Some examples are
here,
here,
here, and
here.

I have created a template for a free web site that you can "copy" (import) to
create your own web site for free. You'll find it
here. It is not possible to copy the whole web site in one fell swoop.
Rather you can import a copy of it in your own new competition specific
Wordpress.com blog.

You first sign up for a free "blog" in Wordpress (the same software that is used
to run the blogs and comments of the New York Times) and import my template. You
can choose from many different themes/layouts for your web site on the Wordpress
servers. The whole creation/editing system is menu driven and it takes about an
hour or so to understand how most of the system works.
Jamie Shelden
was able to do it without any knowledge of how to create a web site. Just her
experience as a blogger on
Blogspot.

You'll find the step by step instructions for creating your own Wordpress blog
site for your competition or event
here.

2) Registration System:

You can find my freely available pilot registration system
here.
Versions of it are used in the competitions linked to above, as well as the 2010
Canadian Nationals as found
here.

Just follow the instructions given in the link above to create your own copy of
my pilot registration template. I also tell you how to create a Buy Now button
in your PayPal Merchant account so that pilots can pay you when they register
(or send you a check).

3) Scoring System:

You'll find the complete freely available scoring system
here
including the templates. There are complete instructions there on how to use it.
It handles Race to Goal and Open Distance competitions.

If you are doing other types of events, like spot landings, etc., there will
soon be a server available to help you out. You can see its current incarnation
here. Contact
Jeff Nibler <<jeffnibler>> and
tell him what you want in your competition.

An alternate scoring system (that uses the same formulas) is found here:
http://fs.fai.org/.