I organized my first poker run last Summer, here are a few things I learned for next summer...


We did a poker run - check your state and local ordinances about the use of the words "poker". Some areas get pissy about this and call it gambling. My perspective is its a fancy raffle, but they may not see it that way. You may have what we know as a "poker run", but may have to call it something else. You may have to use something other than playing cards, or you may just need to buy a permit for a small fee.

Living in SW Washington, most of our ride was in the country, and pit stops for the card draw were in areas like small towns, etc. Make sure your event date does not land on a date where that small town you plan on going through is having some huge, close the city down, festival.

Once you have your route planned, check with your state DOT to find out about planned construction

We ran ours as an unorganized ride in the sense that people took off in their own groups... it wasn't one long procession where we all left at one time. If you do it this way, keep your registration and departure window very narrow and stick to it. Dont let people register early (if they pre registered, don't give them their map when they show up). Don't give riders 1.5 hours to decide when they will show up and get going, etc.
We were a little loose about this. For some reason there were people that showed up two hours prior to planned registration. We obviously were not ready for them, but when we were ready we let them go early (once we knew the other stops would be ready). Problem occurred at the end point. We had people get there way too early, and way too late. There was a band, and food, so they should have been ok with hanging out (it was also at a local leather shop, so there was stuff to do), but they weren't. Once they ate, they were ready to split. I had to wait until everyone was in before we could tally all the hands and figure out the winner. There were a lot of slightly irritated folks
Normally if you have a crappy hand, you can leave and part of this problem would have been a non issue... but we made the problem worse by also selling raffle tickets on the day of... and we had really good prizes for both the raffle and the poker hand... so people that had a crappy hand still needed to hang out for the raffle drawing.
Another issue that came up with this is we really didn't get that "big party" feeling at the end because so many folks rolled in and out over the several hours. We had 115 registered bikes, 150 registered participants (passengers). I don't think there was ever 100 people there at any one time.

if you have pre-registration, have a special sign in table just for them. Dont make them stand in the same line as "day of" registrants

I went back and forth on shirts. If you are looking to a lot of sponsors to cover costs like food, etc... shirts are a great selling point for sponsorship. They are a pain in the *** though... you need a design, you need sponsor logos (print quality), you need to distribute them, you need to figure out the size mix (don't bother with small, very small % of M, get more XXL than you think - which will cost you more)

I think that is a fair list of the big things I learned on my first time out. We raised $16,000.00 our first time, so we feel it was pretty successfull. It was a charity run for our local childrens hospital (Childrens Miracle Network)

edit: oh yeah, limit the amount of "stuff" you are giving them at registration. We used the whole run as a marketing opportunity for the two credit unions involved in organizing the run... they were walking away from the registration table with too much crap in their hands (shirt, ride pin, map, marketing handouts, receipts, etc)

If your registration point als

 

ThrillSeeker, thanks for the info. You guys have really helped me out already. The Relay for Life is in the end of April, so I have plenty of time, I hope.

 

not a problem, I hope it goes well for you

April will sneak up on you quicker than you think, were already half way through Jan!!! Nail down your sponsors ASAP!! You want their money before they give it to someone else.

 

here is a link that may provide some help

http://www.biker-events.com/2006/08/...ood-biker-run/

you will also have to research the site a little to get all the answers you will need and also feel free to email the writer of the article as he will answer your questions

 

Thanks Crusher. Going to check out that site now