> It's a shame that you don't miss the ones who try the sport, get blown away,
> and go home. Why not encourage them to keep playing and compare their times
> to some of the cars/drivers in other classes that ran similar times? Maybe
> you could point out which cars/drivers are regular attendees. Eventually
> these people may get accustomed to the sport, familiar with the different
> classes and rules, and build their car accordingly. I'm always comparing my
On an individual, volunteer, rescue basis, that's fine. That's what you do to
encourage a SO, family member, or a friend to participate. More power to those
motivated to spend that time and effort.
As a global marketing approach for autocross, it simply makes no sense.
Autocross requires an ongoing investment of time, effort, ego, and money that is
quite substantial. People without the necessary self-motivation are very
unlikely to continue for a reasonable period, (say 75% attendance for at least
two seasons), with anything less than a massive investment of time and effort
spent nurturing them.
At the same time, there are huge shares of the potential market that don't even
know autocross exists. In SFR we can pull an additional fifteen entries (5%)
any time we want simply by inviting members of one of twenty local car clubs.
We wouldn't dare actually advertise in any of the local newspapers, even for
free - we'd be instantly swamped. Other regions may not be in that same
overload situation, but I know of none that have made any kind of concerted
effort to draw more attendance.
With that scenario, the easy, sensible way to get more viable members isn't to
spend great amounts of time motivating individuals - it's to widen the net and
make the sport known to more people who are interested enough to motivate
themselves. You get, overall, a higher quality (more committed, more involved,
more sustained) participant for much less trouble in what is, after all, a
volunteer organization.
I provide rookie course walks with some regularity at our events, and my
passenger seat is always open to those who want to risk it. (Chuck's use of the
term "hostage" is ENTIRELY inappropriate!)
At the same time, when a prospective passenger, no matter how scenic, looks at
me with deer-in-headlight eyes and says they have no helmet, my answer is always
the same: "There are at least two hundred helmets within a hundred yard radius
of you. If you can't come up with one by the time I get to the line, someone
else will."
KeS
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