Howdy ECCC race promoters –

[POTENTIAL PROMOTERS: PLEASE READ THIS EMAIL CAREFULLY]

Thank you for proposing to host an ECCC event.  It is one truly of the most rewarding experiences a student athlete can have during college, it benefits the conference and showcases your team and school to the entire region.  It is directly due to your hard work on our high-quality events that makes the ECCC the biggest conference in the country.  Working together as a conference has always brought a stellar racing calendar with exceptional events.

We're going to follow a similar process to last year in determining the road calendar for 2006: each school makes a brief presentation, we vote on Easterns, then we discuss and work together to assemble a great schedule.  There will be a strict 5-minute maximum time limit imposed on all presentations (there will be a titanium gavel).  You are encouraged to practice your presentation for brevity and clarity; make sure you are able to convey all salient points in your presentation.

5-MINUTE EVENT PRESENTATIONS:
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  * Bring what you need to persuade the conference that you will promote a quality event.
  * Think “event” and discuss benefits for racers, spectators, media and sponsors.
  * Please do not lobby for dates in your presentations (except Easterns).
  * Propose multiple dates for your event; there are more potential events than weekends.
  * Presentations must be in Microsoft PowerPoint 97-2003 format (.ppt files).
  * Email presentations in no later than Friday, 5:00pm to mark(at)eccc-info.com.
  * Please, no audio/video, animations, and other gigantic files. 5MB absolute maximum file size.

SCHEDULING PROCESS:
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  * View presentations by potential Easterns hosts.
  * View presentations by other potential race weekends.
  * Vote to determine the Easterns host. One vote per team of the meeting attendees.
  * Start at the first weekend in March and move through the schedule.
  * We work together as a conference to make the best possible schedule.

EVALUATION CRITERIA TO CONSIDER:
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  * Track record of successful ECCC event promotion.
  * Location in conference (central vs. supporting regional competition).
  * How many students are you going to introduce to Collegiate Cycling?
  * What is going to build excitement around the event?
  * Weather considerations (we typically start “south” and migrate northwards).
  * Medical, safety and risk mitigation plans - these are THE most important part by far.
  * On-campus/downtown vs. off-campus races.
  * Sponsorship funding, media promotion, infrastructure, community support.
  * Potential to show off Collegiate Cycling to a large audience.
  * Authorization from school/town/police in-hand vs. verbal vs. who knows?
  * Course difficulty/challenge (especially for Easterns).
  * Capacity for large field sizes.

Hopefully this email will serve to speed up the scheduling process for 2007 and net the best possible calendar.