Dear Friends,
We were absolutely thrilled by the success of the Early Bird registrations, in just a few days all of the Early Bird slots were taken.
This surprised and surpassed our highest expectations. It was fantastic to see the enthusiasm from Pink Ladies all over the world. When registrations re-open in January 2017, we are sure there will be an equally enthusiastic response.
Following in the IBCPC tradition of previous festivals, we want to reiterate that the Festival is an international event that is not a competitive event, but rather is an event that celebrates those who have had a diagnosis of breast cancer. This is a participatory event, everyone receives a medal, and everyone is a winner.
Currently, 61 teams have requested an account, 52 teams have successfully registered, but only 47 of these were eligible for the Early Bird discounts. The registered teams are from the USA, CANADA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND, GREAT BRITAIN, IRELAND and ITALY.
Registration is temporarily closed while we verify and account for all the payments received to date.
In addition to the 61 teams above there are already another 26 teams waiting for registration guidelines that will be sent in January. PLEASE ensure you secure your place by registering as soon as you can after registration re-opens on January 2017. The Standard Registration will be open until 30 June 2017, unless all the slots available expire before then, as happened for the Early Bird Registration. Once we reach the total number of 120 teams registered to participate in the Festival, any further team registrations will be at the discretion of the Organizing Committee.
1) THE OPENING OF STANDARD REGISTRATION
PLEASE NOTE: Bulletin no. 2 information of the opening date for STANDARD REGISTRATION (€ 300 per person) has been CHANGED. STANDARD registration will open on Friday 20 January 2017. All registration information must be input using the online platform. Access to the registration platform should be requested in the REGISTRATION section.
Please follow the instructions in Bulletins no. 1 & Bulletins no. 2 in addition to the online registration pages.
The details of the Standard registration can be found in Bulletin no.2 point 3.
Registration for incomplete team individuals and/or groups (these will be formed into mixed crews) also opens on Friday 20 January 2017. All teams registering individual paddlers as part of mixed crews (from 1 to 21 paddlers) must be members of IBCPC.
As was done during Early Bird registration, SUPPORTER (paddlers and non-paddlers) registrations can be made at the same time as a team registration, with a €100 down payment for each Supporter. Once all the slots for teams have been filled through registration, non-paddler supporters can be registered, as per Bulletin no. 2 point 3.
There will be a Supporter’s race with crews formed exclusively by non-breast cancer paddling supporters. Once registration re-opens in January there will be a facsimile health certificate under the REGISTRATION section. This certificate will also need to be completed in order to register as “Paddling Supporter”.
Please keep in mind that full payment of the registration fee (after registration and receipt of the down payment) is 30 November 2017. After this date, any unpaid registrations will forfeit the down payment and participation in the Festival.
The names of all participants for whom a down payment has been made must be input by 30 November 2017. The health certificates for all paddlers (Paddler and Paddling Supporter) must be completed and submitted by the same date. ONLY after you have uploaded the health certificate, will you be able to register participants as Paddlers and Paddling Supporter. Please remember that you have to input the names into the website program and NOT in e-mail communications.
Templates one for the health certificate, and one for the waiver of legal responsibility and the permission to use images can be downloaded from the Festival website under the REGISTRATION section beginning 20 January 2017. The final deadline for submitting these documents is 30 November 2017. If not received by this date, the registration will be cancelled and the down payment will be forfeited.
The health certificate is mandatory under Italian law for paddling participants. Please note that it certifies the overall good health of the individual and it is valid for one year therefore you should submit it after 8 July 2017. The certificate must be correctly filled in and signed by a licensed medical doctor/physician. Every participant will be individually responsible for his/her health conditions.
2) FEE PAYMENTS
Many of the Early Bird-registered teams did not include bank charges, fees and expenses in their bank wires. This is probably because their local banks did not indicate or know to charge ALL fees and expenses to the sender account. In order to avoid this difficulty for the next rounds of registrations, please communicate to your local bank that the international bank wire transfer should be effected as “OUR”; this means that all charges taken by the local bank, by the bank receiving the wire (the Festival bank) and all intermediary banks must be taken from and paid for by the sender account.
Please remember that all payments must be made ONLY by bank wire in EUROS and with the IBAN code that will be given in the Welcome e-mail after the online registration.
Please follow the instructions for the bank wires and include in the NOTE section of the wire instructions: “Team USER code, number of paddlers, number of supporters”. These are the ONLY instructions that should be in the wire Note. Please do NOT put in the names of the individuals who are making the wire transfer and do not write long notes. The only information we can use to identify your payments and to ensure that your registration has been accepted is the information requested above.
Registrations will be complete and finalized ONLY after the Organizing Committee receives in the Festival bank account the down payment. Usually, an international bank wire transfer takes 4 to 5 working days. Remember please that your registration status can be seen in the section Payment summary of your team’s account. You will not receive a specific e-mail regarding your payment. Please refer to your Team Area information on the website.
3) REGISTRATION procedures can be found in Bulletin no. 2 point 6.
IMPORTANT: We would also like to stress that all communications will be sent ONLY to the main team e-mail contact. Consequently, each team should please check the first page when you request an account that the main team e-mail is the one you want communications sent to. You can modify the main team e-mail address if you want. If you do not make any modifications to the e-mail shown on the screen at the time of account set-up, this will confirm your use of the main team e-mail as it appears. When the team account is first set-up, the team can modify any of the information found on the team account page. Subsequent modifications to this main team e-mail address after registration can only be done by contacting: info@florencebcs2018.org, with the Team USER code and the name of the team in the Subject line of the e-mail.
4) PENALITIES for withdrawing
The teams must provide the names of all the participants online (NOT by e-mail) and fully pay the outstanding registration fees by 30 November 2017. As stated above, any team that has not paid in full by 30 November 2017 will be cancelled from the Festival entries and will forfeit the down payment. After 30 November 2017 and before 15 May 2018 any person who withdraws from participation in the Festival may be substituted by a teammate without any additional costs, and the participant personal data should be modified directly on the team account of the registration system. After 15 May 2018, any participant changes will be charged an administrative fee of Euros 20 for each change. If a participant withdraws and cannot find a substitute (among team members or supporters), he/she will forfeit the entire registration fee.
5) ACCOMMODATIONS
Florence is one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world; consequently, there is a very large choice of hotels (all categories) available. Accommodation listings will be available in January 2017. Any accommodation and tourist service that you may need can be made using our travel agent partner who is working with the Festival team in order to provide the best deals and the highest quality of comfort to the participants of the Festival. More information will be found in the TOURISM section of the Festival website from January 2017. Don’t miss this opportunity to book the best offers reserved for Festival participants.
PADDLES UP and get ready for January because many teams want to take the slots for the last available crews! Please make sure you lock-in your place by registering as soon as you can.
For any question please write to: info@florencebcs2018.org, with the team USER code and the team name in the Subject line.
