138MustangGT

Saturday practices at FSF are now being reserved for those people who do more than is required in working, volunteering, and pre-event obligations. More often than not, these people who arrive at 0700 and who leave at 1700 (5pm) have usually NOT gotten to walk the course other than lining the cones or ensuring its safety, rarely get the time to carefully prepare their car or concentrate on the line they'd like to drive.

an example:
Me, I show up, start people to working on registration (God Bless Katie), then get help creating a course... by the time the course is finally safe it's 830. There is always the guy who needs me to hold his hand so he can register because he is late and registration is closed, or there is some other issue... not that I mind, but I never get a free second. Luckily in Gainesville I put my race tires on Thrusday usually so I am ready to rock.
The last Gville event I couldn't even compete in MY run group because I was fixing a problem.
My first TRUE look at the course is usually from the drivers seat on my first run, slow ASS.
Before I started doing all this extra work, my run times would decrease by 5 seconds over a series of 4 runs, now I'm lucky to drop 2 seconds.
BUT, you may say people like me KNEW what we were getting into. True, but no-one asked for this reward... it was just given to us.


SO... Why exactly is this being done?
-To reward the few behind the scenes people for diligent work.
-To allow these people to get some seat time where they can actually LEARN instead of worring about ensuring the guy at the gate gets relieved.
-To give an incentive to OTHERS who want this reward.

HOW do you get invited?
-Impress one/a few of the people who are already invited by
a> volunteering to stay around and help alot.
b> learn how to work some ofthe tougher equipment, like the timing box.
c> become a CO-CHIEF to one of the CFR Solo2 chiefs or fill in an empty position (i dunno what's empty, but hte positions are stuff like, Timing, Registrar, Merchandise, Trophy, Safety, etc)
d> bust your ass

To quell some worries, the course on Saturday was pretty damn wide ass open. VERY DIFFERENT FROM SUNDAY'S. On Saturday it is safe to assume that the more experienced drivers (Leonard excluded, LOL spinboy) are there and higher speeds are safe. Sunday, novices have to be accounted for and thus the track is slower. I know that Sunday's course was DRASTICALLY different from what we ran Saturday. No-one will ever get an advantage by driving on the course more than someone else, it will not be allowed.

I am also seeing if the Saturday Practice can be opened to a few more people, just to get more cars there... we were actually STOPPING on our own because we had driven enough and our cars were overheating. We DO need more cars for Saturday.
I do not know whether we will just let more people attend who would not normally be invited to this "reward day" and charge them regular price OR if we'll just lower our standards for receiving the "reward" and keep the price low.

I will address ANY questions or concerns, and if I cannot supply a reasonable answer I wil lrefer questions to the CFR Solo2 Chairman.

I hope more of your will try to earn this reward, the more people working hard the better it is for EVERYONE.

-Shawn

Zate

i like the idea..i alos liked the idea of $1 per run for fun runs on Sunday... maybe do the same thing onSat for the 'extra' cars you allow.

I want to get more involved.. i need to check my work schedule.. but i'd like ot get more involved in the timing/scoring system frank has going there.. learning it etc etc.. its geek stuff.. should suit me well

BIG_Truck_Driver

I would like to be more involved as well, now that I have weekends off I will be out at more events.

Bill H

Frances and I were meaning to tall to Katie about helping her out but nevr got the chance to. We would both be interested in helping out, and if you could get me in touch with Katie somehow (email address or something) that would be great too.

Iroc Joe

Yes, I'd actually like to get involved in actually working the events...Shawn, do you have anybodies e-mail address or some way of contacting someone to set things up?

Leonard

The general CFR SCCA SoloII site is: http://www.eec.com/racing/

Here's the page that denotes the 'official' positions: http://www.eec.com/racing/Admin/people.html

azhrei_fje

Zate,

I appreciate your support. To those here who don't know me, I'm the guy that seems to have people all pissed off that they weren't invited on Saturday. My name is Frank Edwards. I'm the guy who did the novice walkthru at 9am, followed by the driver's meeting a little later.

I haven't read some of the other posts, only what has been cc'd to me via private email. Shawn did a good job of describing what it's like to do some of the administrative work in putting on an event. He described how the event chairman has very little time to themself for prepping the car by checking air pressures, changing shock settings, and so on. He really didn't tell you much at all about how much work goes on in the background. I'm going to describe some of that. If you want to attend an invitation-only event, contact me if you think any of these next few paragraphs are things you'd be interested in. You can also send hate email my way, but I won't even read it, so save your fingers some work.

An event setup usually starts 6-8 weeks prior to the proposed date. I contact the Florida State Fairgrounds and beg for a weekend where we can use parking lots A & B (where we were on Sunday). I now have dates scheduled in July, Aug, and Sept. Our Sept date has moved because the fairgrounds told me they have to have that area and there was nothing else they could do. (As you can see, we are "low man on the totem pole" for that kind of thing.)

Then I create event flyers. Yes, these are the ones you see on the website in PDF format. (Visit http://www.eec.com/racing/ and scroll down until you see the link to "Autocross Log and Schedule".) Since Microsloth Word can't seem to get its act together with Adobe Acrobat, I have to manually edit the PDF file and move the hyperlink fields around to get a usable PDF flyer. This is a bummer because it means I can't automate the process. It takes about 30 minutes to do a flyer if I have a pre-existing flyer to use as a template. It takes a couple hours if I don't.

The flyer has be placed on the website and the appropriate links updated. Not a big deal except that I have a real job to do and this is all voluntary stuff that doesn't make money, like my day job does. The flyer also needs to go to the Checker editor so that it appears in the monthly newsletter (lately, it doesn't appear to be showing up; could be that I got it to them late).

Some event officials need to be obtained well before the event. A Safety Steward must be found before the insurance coverage for the event can be requested from SCCA National HQ. This person's SCCA membership number must be reported on the insurance request. It is best to have multiple safety stewards, since the primary SS cannot participate in the event without a backup SS on duty. Other officials include Registration, Tech Inspection, Driving Instructor, Work Assignments, Course Design, Setup/Cleanup, Timing and Scoring, and Equipment. Each of these jobs requires someone who will attend the event, or find a replacement if they can't make it at the last minute. It's best to have two or three people for each position; otherwise, a flat tire could delay the event for an extended period (such as the Registrar or Safety Steward not arriving on time).

The person placed in charge of the equipment needs to make arrangements for the truck to be at the site the day before so that the course designer and a crew of volunteers can setup the course for the next day. This will take 4-5 people approximately 1.5 hours. Once complete, the course designer should draw a map of the course to have available for entrants at registration. The safetysteward will review the design on the morning of the event and any necessary changes must be made before the event is allowed to begin. The equipment chief is also responsible for ensuring that the generator has fuel, that there is chalk available for marking the course, and that brooms, shovels, and other supplies are present and in sufficient quantity.

The registrar needs to be one of the first people at the site in the morning. They need to setup the laptop and begin taking registration almost immediately if all entrants are to be processed before the event begins. This means: checking drivers licenses, verifying SCCA membership (for discounts), handling applications for new members, verifying the information already in the computer with the yellow registration card filled out by the entrant, and giving instructions to the driver that their car needs to be "tech"'d (described more below). This is a high strees job that requires early arrival and somewhat quick typing skills.

The registrar is not really the FIRST person to arrive. Ideally, a worker has been found who will man the main entrance to the site and ask attendees to sign the insurance waiver and hand out wristbands (so we know at a glance who has signed). They also should hand out yellow registration cards so that people can fill them out before approaching the registration table. This job lasts 1.5 hours and should then be switched to another worker. This fulfills the individual's work requirement for the event. These people generally have only a little time ot walk the course, and even less time to change wheels or make other upon-arrival adjustments to their vehicles.

Tech insepctors should arrive early also. They are responsible for verifying the condition of the entrant's car as it relates to safety. Battery must be securely mounted, no loose articles in the car, good tread on the tires, air pressure in tires within acceptable range, and so on. The tech inspectors should help newcomers determine what class their car will run in after they move out of the Novice class. Inspectors should also give novices hints on how to choose tire pressures, alignment settings, and other such simple adjustments, but they need to do so without overwhelming the novice with information.

The event chairman will announce the closing time of registration via the PA system hooked up by the equipment chief and the setup crew. The driving instructor should take the novices on a walk around the course and describe how a vehicle should be controlled in order to get the best time on the course. The best "line" thru the course depends on the characteristics of the vehicle, and the driving instructor should endeavour to be as complete as possible without overwhelming the novice with too much information. Basic information such as how cone penalties are determined and how the red flag should be used are also discussed by the driving instructor during the walkthru.

Timing and scoring personnel should take the data file created by the registration process and use it to figure out the run groups. Run groups break the entire entrant list into more manageable pieces and defines what the work/run order will be. In general, CFR tries to schedule work-first-run-second for all work groups, typically with the novices working first or second shift. This allows the novices to see how other cars are running the course so that when they get out there, they already know where others are making mistakes. The timing and scoring personnel are also responsible for teaching the people who will be working first shift how to run the equipment. Generally, this can be a high stress job, especially when there are 4 cars on course and the starter is sending vehicles before the T&S crew have entered the car number information into the computer! The T&S chief also has to train the rest of the T&S crew how to receive radio reports from the course workers and record the cone penalties and off-course excursions in the computer. Also tricky when there are multiple cars on-course!

Well, my fingers are tired or I would continue to describe the jobs of the Area Coordinator, Event Chairman, Safet Steward (as concerns safety during the event and not just course design approval), Work Assignment chief, and cleanup crew.

Remember that these people spend all of their time at an event trying to make things run smoothly for YOU! Not only do they arrive very early and leave very late, but many of those jobs have behind-the-scenes tasks to perform: re-solder the cables for the timing lights when they fail, produce the event results from the (lousy) format generated by the laptop software, do a financial auditing of the event to see if we at least broke even, make sure there's oil in the generator, dump the trash on the way out of the site, buy new batteries for the radios, fill out the post-event audit form to be sent to National HQ, and so on.

And remember: "To those whom much is given, much is required."
--
Frank Edwards
Solo Chairman
Central Florida Region of the SCCA

0HP930

Just so you know Frank, we really do appreciate the hard work you and the other volunteers put in to make these events happen.

Having just moved to the area I am really happy that there is a SCCA Solo II event just 10 minutes from where I live.

For this reason I have already corresponded with Shawn and added my e-mail address to the volunteer list.

I know some people have had some questions and comments about how these things work, but I am sure everyone here really appreciates these events despite what may have appeared to be criticisms.

Its just that all of us want as many runs and as much practice as possible, so lets hope that this translates into a lot of other volunteers so we can reduce the burden on the current volunteers such as yourself and keep these things as fun as possible.

Zate

Hey Frank.. thanks for registering and replying.. and welcome to TampaRacing..

We do appreciate everything you guys.. very very much.. there is a huge shortage of things for car enthusiests to do around Tampa.. as I told you we dont advocate street racing and its events like the monthly autocross at the FSF and the Club 1320 (street racing like event at Bradenton Motorsports park once a month that is really popular) that give some of the people in the area a chance to drive like they arent supposed to in a safe controlled LEGAL environment..

I remember a time last year when events at the FSF werent attracting many people and more importantly werent getting the support from the people who came in helping out. Here at TR we are trying very hard to push autocrossing and last weekend i think we had about 15 members out there.. about 10 of those racing.. we are hoping to get at least that many next time. I think once some of these people (myself included) get a little mroe experience we would love to help out.. i for one amvery interested inhelpingout with the scoring / timing system after using it a little last week..

the organisation last week was great.. we got plenty of fun runs and it all just seemed to flow so smoothly.. thats a direct result of the hard work people like yourself.. katie.. neal.. will.. shawn etc etc put in outside of normal event times to make this stuff happen.. like you said..it takes alot mreo than just turning up on the day to get these events to run like they do..

so welcome to TR.. i sincerely hope none of our members send you any hate mail.. there is absoloutly no reason they should.. the event was superbly run and administered.. and happy posting

Zate.

azhrei_fje

Thanks, Zate.

Yes, I remember our conversation. And I want to welcome you guys to the SCCA. If not as members, at least as competitors. It's not much fun competing against the clock without someone to gauge yourself against.

And no, I don't expect to get any hate mail! From the folks I met last weekend, it seems like you've got a pretty good crowd there.

I do want to add, however, that in talking with some of the other event officials after the close of the day on Sunday, that we're going to raise the number of timed runs to 5 at the next event. We had such EXCELLENT response to the worker signup process. I mean, we sign people up to work the course and often they don't show up at the timing tent right away, so we have to delay the next run group while we wait for the workers. But on Sunday, everyone checked in and they did so EARLY! This made the whole thing so much faster, and much more pleasant for the officials! One easy way to reward that kind of help is to provide an additional lap for each and every driver.

So we're going to do 5 laps next time. And if the work assignments go just as smoothly, we'll increase it to 6 laps in August. And up to 7 in Sept! Our plan is to raise it each event until things start to fall apart, and then we'll back it back down a notch. Having those volunteers to help coordinate work assignments, for example, will ensure speedy worker shift changes and hence, more seat time.

I also want to apologize if I tanked on anyone last Sunday. I am just so used to having people show up for fun runs, but not wanting to shag cones for a few minutes in return. So I kind of got my hackles up when I saw a long list of cars parked by the start waiting for fun runs and I started thinking that those might be the people who're going to make the runs and then leave, not allowing their friends and other drivers to make THEIR fun runs. I was very pleasantly surprised when that didn't happen. So my apology is for prejudging the crowd that I had there on Sunday, and that includes the TR folks.

CFR looks forward to having you back in July!