ORRRC Requests for Proposal & Contracts

ORRRC Timing Contract for 2023-2025

SUMMARY

The Ohio River Road Runners Club (ORRRC) requests quotes for the servicing period from 1 January 2023 through 31 December 2025 for its three major races.  In the past, the ORRRC has issued a single contract that encompassed all three major races.  To provide more opportunity to interested timing companies, the ORRRC requests that each major racing event be quoted separately, which will allow the issuance of separate contracts to different timing companies based on the requirements of the ORRRC.

Additionally, even though the contract(s) will be for a 3 year period, an early termination clause will be made available, in which either party can terminate the contract for the following year’s event.  This must be done by providing written notice to the other party within 90 calendar days of the conclusion of the current year’s event.

EVENTS & DESCRIPTION

The ORRRC will hold three major racing events per year that require external timing services. The three events include:

ORRRC MARATHON & HALF MARATHON: this event is typically held on the first Sunday in April each year in Xenia, Ohio. It currently involves two race lengths with partially overlapping courses (same start/finish, but the full marathon has a 6.5 mile additional spur) and may include a third race, a “Quarter Marathon”, in future years. Each race will receive timing services, including mid-course split-mats and final results. The combined events tend to have approximately 300-1,000 participants (historic maximum around 2,500); there is typically an attendance split of 20% marathon / 80% half-marathon for this event.  More information may be found at www.runxenia.com .

ORRRC GHOST ‘N GOBLIN 5K: this event is typically held the evening of the second to last Tuesday in October each year in Dayton, Ohio. It involves a single 5k event with approximately 1,500-2,000 participants (historic maximum around 3,000); approximately 40% of individuals sign up at the expo. More information may be found at www.daytongng.org .

ORRRC MIAMISBURG TURKEY TROT: this event is held on Thanksgiving morning in Miamisburg, Ohio. There are two races in this event, a 5-mile chip-timed event and a 1-mile fun run. The combined events tend to have approximately 6,000-8,000 participants (historic maximum 10,000). More information may be found at www.miamisburgtrot.com

DESIRED SERVICES & REQUIREMENTS

For the purposes of this quote, timing or scoring services are defined as:

Registration Services

⯀ You must provide registration services online prior to the race, as well as race-day sign up services/capabilities. 

⯀ You must have the ability to accept/process and data enter paper entries, prior-to and including at the race expo(s).

⯀ In the case of Turkey Trot, you must continue to provide online registration (aka “live registration”) through the end of the expo. You must provide the hardware to enable this online registration as well, including setup, maintenance, and tear-down. 

⯀ As required by the individual race director, you must provide a mailing list of the virtual entrants to the shirt vendor 2 weeks prior to the race. 

⯀ You are responsible for merging online/pre-registration, paper entry, and race-day registration files/data. 

⯀ You must provide administrative access to the registration system for the race director(s), ORRRC membership coordinator, ORRRC Board officers (to include the ORRRC Treasurer), and other designees as determined by the race director(s) or the ORRRC Board.

Bibs, Chips, and Timing/Scoring

You must provide alphabetical sorting and assignment of bib/chips to participants, as well as the packaging of bibs/chips with labeled envelopes. This will facilitate easier distribution of “race packets” by the ORRRC. You must deliver packaged chips/bibs/packets at least one calendar day prior to the start of the race expo/packet-pickup event (which are typically held starting the day before the event, or in the case of Turkey Trot, potentially including the weekend before the event).

 You must be able to prepare/process the following quantities of bibs:

⯀ MARATHON/HALF-MARATHON: up to 2,500 timed bibs, split between two (possibly three) race distances. The bibs must be categorized in different designs (e.g. color markings) to correspond with the number of race distances (e.g. marathon, half-marathon, quarter-marathon) in this event. Must be able to prepare/process up to 40% of the above quantity within the final week before the race.

⯀ GHOST ‘N GOBLIN 5K: up to 3,000 timed bibs. Must be able to prepare/process up to 40% of the above quantity within the final week before the race.

⯀ TURKEY TROT: up to 8,000 timed bibs and 2,000 non-timed bibs. The bibs will be categorized in 4 different designs (typically a red, blue, green, and yellow corral), which correspond to specific markings for each of the different corrals.  Must be able to prepare/process up to 25% of the above quantity within the final week before the race.

Data Handling

You must provide race results in a timely fashion to the ORRRC race director or their assigns. The race results must include sorting by overall, sorting by age/sex group, and a list of the award winners based on the criteria established by the ORRRC race director. Such results must be delivered to the ORRRC race director by the requirements set out below, however, the fastest delivery without errors is desired. The results, finish/awards data, participants, and registration data will be furnished to the ORRRC and the ORRRC race director, with a format determined by each event’s ORRRC race director. You must furnish an email address, prominently visible for participants to use for questions, comments, corrections, or general issues. 

⯀ MARATHON/HALF MARATHON: Must be able to post results online for each race distance separately at intervals of 15 minutes after the first finisher of the half marathon. Real time results posting is desirable. Must be able to make corrections to the results for and within 10 days post-race. Must be able to generate awards listings (award, name, address) no later than 10 days post-race. Marathon distance results must be sent to the Boston Athletic Association within 14 days of the event and must comply with all requirements of the Boston Athletic Association for acceptance and verification as qualifying times for the Boston Marathon.

⯀ GHOST ‘N GOBLIN 5K: Must be able to post results online within 120 minutes of the final finisher. Real time results posting is desirable. Must be able to provide awards quality results for award winners within 75 minutes of race start. Must be able to make corrections to the results for and within 10 days post-race, as well as post finalized results at the ten-day mark.

⯀ TURKEY TROT: Must be able to post preliminary results online within 120 minutes of the final finisher. Real time results posting is desirable. Finalized results must be posted within 10 days of the event. Must be able to make corrections to the results for 10 days post-race. Must be able to generate awards listings (award, name, address) no later than 10 days post-race.

 You must possess privacy policies & security practices in place to prevent third party access or usage (intentional, accidental, or criminal). Only the ORRRC may be provided any race data; no third parties may have access to any data associated with our events, nor may it be used by your company, nor derivative nor associated nor subcontracted companies, in any way for services not directly related to these ORRRC events.

Equipment

You must provide all equipment to conduct race timing/scoring as laid out in this contract. This includes, but is not limited to the provision of functioning laptops; appropriate, working software for data entry; timing detectors/receivers/mats (herein called “receivers”) and equipment; and race clocks. At least one member of the staff must possess the technical competence and experience to troubleshoot on-site, set-up, and tear-down all equipment.

For all races a separate start and separate finish line are required. Both the start and finish line must have a primary and separate backup system. Intermediate/split timing receivers are required for the Turkey Trot and the Marathon/Half-Marathon.

The timing receivers must support the following at each point of the race:

⯀ START LINE (ALL RACES): must be able to support coverage over a minimum of 10-meters-wide road surface

⯀ ORRRC MARATHON FINISH: must be able to support coverage over a minimum of 3-meters-wide road or path surface. Must provide one finish line clock. Start line equipment may be moved to be used for the finish line.

⯀ GHOST ‘N GOBLIN FINISH: Must be able to support coverage over a minimum of 10-meters-wide road or track surface. Must be able to process finishers at rates up to 8 runners per second, with sustained rates of 150+ runners per minute over several minutes. Must provide a finish line clock. Must assume separate equipment for start/finish lines due to insufficient time to move and test equipment.

⯀ TURKEY TROT FINISH: Must be able to support coverage over a minimum of 10-meters-wide road surface. Must be able to process finishers at rates up to 10 runners per second, with sustained rates of 200+ runners per minute over several minutes. Must provide a finish line clock. Must assume separate equipment for start/finish lines due to insufficient time to move and test equipment.

⯀ REDUNDANCY: The timing equipment must possess and support dual-timing redundancy for start and finish lines.

⯀ SPLIT TIMING

⯀ MARATHON/HALF MARATHON: Must be able to also support at least two other independent split time locations for each race event over a 3-meters-wide road or path surface.

⯀ GHOST ‘N GOBLIN 5K: Split timing is not required for this race.

⯀ TURKEY TROT: Must be able to support split timing over a 5-meter road or path surface; redundancy is not required for split timing.

Staff

Our analysis indicates we require, at a minimum, the following number of staff for each of our events. To meet the requirements of this RFP, you may need to supplement these numbers, and reflect those needs in your proposal:

⯀ ORRRC MARATHON: 1 lead for timing/results/data integration, 2 assistants trained in setup and operation of the timing equipment.

⯀ GHOST ‘N GOBLIN 5K:  1 lead for timing/results/data integration, 2 assistants trained in setup and operation of the timing equipment.

⯀ TURKEY TROT:  1 lead for timing/results/data integration, 2 assistants trained in setup and operation of the timing equipment.

 Your company/organization will provide all logistics, billeting/housing, meals, incidentals, expenses, and travel costs for your staff and equipment for each race.

PROPOSAL RESPONSE REQUIREMENTS

QUOTE EACH EVENT THAT YOU ARE INTERESTED IN TIMING INDIVIDUALLY AND ENSURE THAT THE FOLLOWING DETAILS ARE INCLUDED: 

COST & FINANCIAL DATA: Provide your final cost per participant for all above services. You may delineate discounts (e.g. repayments, refunds, rebates, etc.) and optional services fees in the proposal, but the total default fixed cost per participant must be clearly defined and distinct from those discounts/options. Include any processing fees in the fixed cost per participant, clearly delineated as such cost. You may elect to highlight services included at no charge per runner/event as well. The following elements are mandatory to disclose as call-outs:

⯀ online registration fees (cost per participant)

⯀ data entry fee (cost per participant)

⯀ paper entry fees (cost per participant; including mailing, billing, and processing)

⯀ bib fees (cost per participant)

⯀ customized bib creation & printing fees (cost per participant)

⯀ timeframe required to create customized bibs

⯀ preparation of bib packet fees (cost per participant)

⯀ total fixed cost per participant

 

EQUIPMENT: Provide the technical description of all timing equipment. Detail which elements of the equipment you own and which you will rent. Provide a brief description of your scoring/timing software, as well as your online-registration software/web presence (including the name of the software or web platform), your company’s privacy policies and the privacy policies of any third parties which will host our corporate & registrant data (e.g. race registration platform and race results platform), and your method for posting results online. Mandatory equipment information includes:

⯀ widest supportable start & finish line width

⯀ linear feet of timing strip/equipment width available for separate start, finish, and split points (as applicable) for the events discussed herein

⯀ number of receivers owned by your company

⯀ timing system manufacturer name, model, and technical specifications

⯀ race registration & results platform, owning-corporation name, and privacy policies/specifications

⯀ maximum number of participants detectable and processable by your timing equipment per minute

 

STAFF: Provide the specific names of each timer assigned to the race, as well as their time (in years) of experience with race timing. State the number of staff provided for handling expo registration, race-day registration, and scoring. Delineate which staff members possess the ability to troubleshoot equipment and software on their own, on-site.

 

EXPERIENCE: List at least one [threshold], but preferably three races [objective] you have timed, where the number of participants and the logistics are representative of the ORRRC races that you are quoting.  Also, provide references and indicate how many years of experience you have with each race.  If you are quoting the Turkey Trot, to be eligible, you must have experience in timing events with more than 5,000 participants.

 

EVALUATION CRITERIA:  During source selection, in evaluating quotes, the following elements will be assessed:

⯀ Experience ⯀ Staff ⯀ Cost ⯀ Equipment ⯀ Online Services ⯀ Registration & Packet Preparation

 

DUE DATE:  Quotes must be returned electronically to the ORRRC Treasurer, Mr. Eddie Weaver, at orrrctreasurer+timingrfp@gmail.com no later than 22 July 2022 at 11:59pm.