At 10:03 PM 9/25/99 , Glen E. Thompson wrote:
>
>The main problem I've had with this approach is burnout of the people
>running the event. They get there at 7:00, setup, run the event all day,
>and pick up the course. Besides the satisfaction of doing a good job,
>what else do they get?
Actually, this can be a _benefit_ of this approach -- as part of having
the opportunity of spending only half day at the event, more participants
will need to volunteer to help run it! You need course _tear-down_ people
(in addition to the normal course _setup_ people); you need afternoon
registration people (in addition to do morning registration people); and
you need afternoon event chair, safety steward, worker chief, T&S, etc.
(in addition to the morning ones).
One objection to the approach might be that you don't have that many
people willing to volunteer! But if it allows them to spend 1/2 day
plus a bit in an official capacity instead of all day contributing
little, you might be surprised how many are willing to contribute.
This can offload your overburdened volunteers in a major way!
Of course, there will be some who do work all day -- you may even need
a few to do that due to lack of qualified volunteers -- but they of
course should be getting double the runs (since they are there all day),
and that should be some compensation beyond "satisfaction of doing a
good job".
> The person that
>shows up, runs, works his session adds no value to the event.
I have to wonder how many people you just insulted. ;^)
But then you say...
>A number of us view autocrossing as a social event as well as a
So, you host a social event... and you think all the guests add no value
to the event (unless they helped setup or cleanup)?? ;^)
(Glen, I am sure you didn't mean that the way it came out, but I
couldn't help but rib you for it. ;^)
>A number of us view autocrossing as a social event as well as a
>competitive event. So you don't want to spend all day at an event. If
>everyone feels that way, there won't be any events.
I disagree. A half-day social event is pretty common... and most whole-day
social events result in people coming and going throughout. If you disallow
coming and going, you end up with a much less attended social event.
Most people have lives beyond autox; some can't always devote a whole day
to it; some will devote a whole day, but many of those would often rather
not; and some will spend the whole day, even if not required to... and
nothing says you have to go home mid-day! Win-win... -win!
Food for thought,
Brian
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