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Creating a Meet

Click + New Meet from the dashboard to launch the meet setup wizard. The wizard walks you through nine short steps. Most take under a minute, and you can go back and change anything before you finish. Your progress saves automatically as you go, so you can close the wizard and pick up where you left off from your dashboard.

If you haven't created a meet yet, SecondCall will send you a getting-started email a few days after your account is created. It includes a checklist of what to have ready before opening the wizard and a link to get started.

It helps to have these ready before you start: meet name, date, and location; sport type; age group structure; your event list; session structure if the meet runs multiple days; the staging area term your meet uses; and any meet info you want to share with attendees such as parking details or links. That said, most of this can be adjusted later, so do not let an incomplete list stop you from getting started.

Step 1: Basics​

Enter your meet name, location, start date, and end date. For single-day meets, set the start and end date to the same day.

Step 2: Gender Terms​

Choose the terms used in all race call notifications for male and female athletes. Options include Boys/Girls, Men/Women, Males/Females, or custom. A live preview shows exactly how the terms will appear in a notification.

Step 3: Age Groups​

Choose the age structure that fits your meet.

  • Age Groups: standard two-year bands (8U, 9-10, 11-12, etc.), typical for youth meets. Check the groups your meet includes. Less common bands like 6U and 5-6 are available, and you can type in a custom group name (e.g. Masters) and add it to the list.
  • Individual Ages: single-year levels (9, 10, 11, etc.), typical for youth championship meets.
  • Custom: define your own division names. Use this for school divisions, JV/Varsity, Open/Masters, invitationals, or any structure that doesn't fit the standard bands.

Step 4: Meet Types​

Select all the disciplines your meet includes. Track and Field and Cross Country are the two top-level categories.

Track and Field includes three sub-types. Select all that apply:

  • Outdoor Track: sprints, distance, hurdles, and relay events on an outdoor track
  • Outdoor Field: jumps and throws in an outdoor venue
  • Indoor Track and Field: indoor track events and field events

Cross Country is a single type with no sub-options. Select it if your meet includes cross country races.

Step 5: Events​

Select the events your meet includes. Events are grouped by discipline and category.

Outdoor Track groups include Sprints, Middle Distance, Long Distance, Hurdles, Relays, and Race Walks. Outdoor Field groups include Jumps and Throws.

Typical events are pre-listed with checkboxes. Use Select all or Deselect all within any group to work quickly. Each group also has a + Add custom event option for anything not on the standard list. A running count of selected events is shown at the bottom of the page.

Step 6: Event Combinations​

This is the most important step in setup, and the one that deserves the most attention. It cannot be changed after the meet is created.

This screen shows every combination of age group or division, gender, and event that your meet could potentially include based on your earlier selections. For example: Girls 11-12 100m, Boys 9-10 Long Jump, Girls 13-14 3000m, and so on.

For two-year age group meets, SecondCall pre-checks the combinations that are typical for that structure and unchecks ones that are uncommon. For example, younger age groups are unlikely to run the 3000m, so those are unchecked by default. This gives you a reasonable starting point, but every meet is different.

Go through the full list and make sure the checked combinations match exactly what will be offered at your meet. Each checked combination becomes a subscription option in the app and a race call option for your announcer. Unchecked combinations will not appear for either.

Take your time here. If a combination is wrong, app users won't be able to subscribe to it, and your announcer won't be able to send a call for it.

Step 7: Configuration​

Two settings that apply to every notification and every event request at your meet.

Staging Term: the location athletes are directed to in every race call notification. Type in whatever your meet uses: "check-in," "staging area," "the tent," "call room," etc. A live notification preview updates as you type so you can see exactly how it will read.

Open Request Escalation Threshold: how many minutes an event official's request can sit unanswered before the system escalates it. At 50% of the threshold, the request turns amber on the announcer's dashboard as a visual alert. When the full threshold is reached, a push notification goes to the meet director and anyone logged in under the Operations role. The default is 4 minutes; 3 to 5 minutes is typical for most meets.

To receive those push notifications, the announcer and operations staff need to install the SecondCall app and connect their access code inside the app. This is optional but recommended, especially if your announcer steps away from the PA table during the meet.

Step 8: Meet Info​

Add the information app users will see when they open your meet. Both fields are optional but recommended.

Meet Description: a rich text editor for parking instructions, facility details, what to bring, rules, and anything else attendees need to know. Supports bold, italic, underline, strikethrough, ordered and unordered lists, and links.

Links and Resources: add up to 20 links that appear as tappable buttons in the app. Each link opens in the user's browser. Common examples: Athletic.net meet page, parking map, meet program, course map, team tent assignments. Links can be added, removed, and reordered at any time from the meet detail page, so it's fine to start with what you have and add more closer to meet day, such as a ticket purchase link, concessions menu, or day-of updates.

Step 9: Review​

A full summary of everything you've configured: meet name, location, dates, meet type, gender terms, age structure, age groups, events, staging term, and escalation threshold. Review it, go back to any step if something needs adjusting, then click Create Meet.

Access codes are generated automatically when the meet is created and will be waiting for you on the meet detail page.

When the meet is created, SecondCall will send you a confirmation email with a summary of your meet and a reminder that it is not yet live. The email also includes ready-to-use copy you can paste into team emails or meet announcements to let attendees know about SecondCall.