Waiting for the flood

It's been 10 days since we mailed out the 2007 PALM applications. So far we've received 119 applications back. Last year the average application had 1.6 people on them. This means that about 190 people have signed up already. Last year we only had 68 people signed up half way thru February.

What's going on?

• At the last PALM meeting I made a special plead for the staff to sign up early. Maybe everybody at the meeting went home and immediately mailed in their applications? Nah!
• Maybe everybody who missed out last year because the ride filled early mailed in their applications. That's a possibility. We had to send back the applications of over hundred would be riders and we've had a lot of emails asking when the applications would be out.
• It was warm in January. Maybe people thought that it would be spring in a couple of weeks and that PALM couldn't be that far away. That's probably the reason.

Well, it's winter now, but don't wait until the first 60 degree day to mail in your PALM application. Last year things ended in a rush: 300 riders registered in the last 10 days. It was nuts.

We split the registration duties in half. One person opens the applications, makes sure that they are in order (proper signatures, correct check amount, etc.), fills out ledger sheets for our accountant, and cashes the checks. The other half of registration consists of entering the applications into a computer, generating confirmation letters, keeping counts of the meals, buses, and tshirts, doing meal lists, etc. My wife and I do the second half. We have 190 registrations hanging over our head. We who are about to die salute you. It's a good thing that it is winter.