I advocate doing regular (but not normal!) events to keep interest high and training intense. That's no secret. Our lineup, over the next 12 months (insert 3 Virtualmeets, likely) :
November 20 - FranFest (partner challenge.)
January - No Grains - All Brains! Eating challenge.
March - Murph 2011 - in the snow. Hugely popular.
April - Fight Gone Bad (Good Friday)
May - BaseLine Week (Angie, Michael, Grace, Kelly, and Fran, plus a deadlift meet, over 6 days.)
July - Midnight 5k - with bands. A fundraiser.
September - Catalyst Games 2011 (our annual championship.)
Yesterday, Cody asked how the heck we got all these people to turn out; it's no secret that FGB V is seeing declining enrollment, sadly. I don't have the answer to increasing turnout for FGBV (it's more awesome than ever!) but here's what we do:
1. Add the event on our site. Build up to it for a few days.
2. Don't release event details or rules all at once...or add a twist, in the case of Murph.
3. Stress, in all your posts, that you're encouraging competition of self. As one beautiful email read today, "I now consider myself a competitor, but on my own terms." Loved it. Our grand prize - a cruise, donated by a sponsor - went not to the top male or female Rx finisher, but was randomly drawn from every person who finished all events (ie didn't quit, or 'tap out.')
4. For the big stuff, use a venue outside your box. We used a giant waterfront Pavilion, right on the river. Absolutely gorgeous. Sound system, lots of room, bleachers....well, you can see for yourself on our Catalyst Games 2010 site. Can't do it? Change your box around. You have to let people know they're not just paying for another workout.
5. Despite having a time cap on every event, don't award a DNF; instead, make it clear that every rep counts.
6. Have scaled categories, right down to the very lowest level.
7. Pump up the kids.
8. Hold a 'best photo' contest - we had 2000 entries submitted on facebook for the Games last weekend. Of the 7 new members gained so far this week, 6 saw pictures on facebook before calling.
9. Invite media. If you have to, make it a charitable event (winners of the Catalyst Games 2009 got to donate $250 each to any charity they wanted.)
10. Build excitement at the venue. We let anyone who owns a business and trains at our Box put up a banner for free. Lots of colour. And most wound up kicking in a prize anyway. We feigned surprise when the offered.
11. Build the family all year. YOU can't talk 50 people into participating; but their friends sure can. Our cruise winner was dragged in, kicking and screaming....but as soon as we said "3,2,1...go!" on the first event, she tried hard.
12. Create souvenirs that won't be duplicated. We gave away cowbells with Catalyst Games 2010 logos on them. They make a lot of noise. They also look great on people's mantels.
13. Drag out the suspense. We build things up to a fever pitch.
14. Reassure folks that there won't be anything they can't do. We trickled out all four events early....but the last was only released 48 hours before the competition. Everyone knew they could finish, at least.
15. Offer online signups. We use MindBodyOnline. Pretty easy to commit to something online that you'd never do in person, and if there's money involved, they won't back out.
16. Set a rate instead of having each person fundraise. I hate asking people for money, and if you took a poll, I'd bet that most people pay the minimum themselves instead of asking for help from friends.
17. Keep putting out philosophical articles, stressing the value of completion v. competition. Remind the most nervous that it's in YOUR best interest to make THEM look good on Games day.
18. Feature the athletes individually. Put up athletes' profiles for ANYONE who will answer a few questions. Use these to demonstrate the huge spectrum of athleticism that will be present; to build up the family by telling everyone's stories; to show who's endorsing your program with their participation.
19. Instruct referees to keep everyone fair, but when in doubt, to give it to the lifter. To that end, it helps not to have a high degree of technical difficulty; we use "ground to overhead" instead of "snatch," because we don't want to have different judging standards for different athletes.
20. Keep reminding people that they're a part of something bigger than themselves; that they're not alone out there. We had lots of 'Catalyst' banners; we also had some awesome 'CrossFit' banners.
21. Get some high-level acknowledgement. When Lisbeth posts our pic on the A-blog, everyone hits 'like.' When we did FranFest last year for charity, Jason "Rhabdo" Kaplan wrote a nice paragraph on strategy. The guy holds the world record - 1:57 - and all I had to do to get him to contribute was to ask. No one's asked my opinion, but wouldn't it be amazing if we had a CFHQ trainer at Ontario Sectionals next year, running a WOD for spectators, or doing the first event with the competitors?
22. Get some graphics work done. Our shirts were great (we printed the poem, "Invictus" on the back; last year, we used Jon Gilson's "Don't Quit.")
23. Build continuity between events. We release the next event a few days after each event, because the afterglow effect is still big. We'll als be adding a points series in January, and a 'league' system at the same time. More to come on those ones.
24. Include the spectators, if possible. Our photo contest is one way; these are the most likely 'next CrossFitters' around your Box. Grab them.
25. Give people a common place to reflect and share memories. Facebook is great, but if you're not friends with everyone, you'll miss stuff. So I opened up the Games blog to comments, just for one day, for people to share stuff.
26. If you have athletes with special needs, GET THEM IN THERE. They need competition. And you need to deliver it to them.
27. If you see anything 'cool' in other sports, steal it! For instance, motocross - a growing 'fringe' sport - uses 3-digit race numbers instead of the standard two. So we did, too. They just look cool.
28. Standardize the judging as much as possible. Miss a rep? Yellow card - repeat, please. Miss another one? Red card. Do 3 reps over. Take the subjectivity away as much as possible.
29. Use a microphone. Mention everyone by name during each and every heat. If you're comfortable doing play-by-play, that's even better.
30. Sponsors - if you want them, remind them that CrossFitters are an extremely loyal group. Mention to 50 CrossFitters that Dr. Chiro supports the program, and he's got far more value than in any other possible medium. Charge accordingly.
31. Use off-brand, 'insider' logos to maintain the sense of group differentiation. In the pictures from the event, you'll see a lot of 'Green Army' shirts. That's us...but there's no mention of Catalyst on there. Also, everyone here knows that anyone wearing a 'Sport of Fitness' hat has puked during a WOD.
I'm forgetting things, I"m sure. I'll add more; please add posts to 'comments' if you have ideas!