I've worked in the trailer a "few" times, even with complete rookie crews.
The events where the crew worked best was when there was enough time given
to fully explain, without feeling rushed, what each job is.
The problems come when there is all this yelling to get things started.
People feel rushed, they get stressed, they get confused, and they can't
think, so more people yell, and then you have to stop everything.
Believe it or not, working in the trailer, especially when there's an
announcer :), can be really, really fun. It really, truly doesn't have to be
that stressful.
By the way, radios are a good tool, but when we become too reliant on them,
things fall apart. Did anyone notice how smoothly Round 13 went? That was
without a PA system or radios. Do you think there's anything to be learned
from that?
Katie K.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: adozzell@sc9.intel.com [mailto:adozzell@sc9.intel.com]
> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 5:41 PM
> To: PETER.THANA@Roche.COM; ba-autox@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: 2000 Winter Slush Series-revised
>
>
> I wasn't slamming you Peter, I was trying to say that you should
> not have been put in a position to have to deal with that. I agree
> with a previous response that we should make an effort to train
> good trailer crew so that we never have a situation when there's
> less than 2 very experienced people in the trailer so that the
> event moves more smoothly and we continue to expand the list of
> people who can fill these positions. And I'm experienced and
> willing to train and have been training so I'm free to complain ;)
>
> Another place where I think we need more experienced people is with
> both setup and teardown. I know when I chaired my event earlier in
> the year that I would have been lost with Jim there to help pack up
> Moby Dick. I personally vow to learn better how stuff goes into
> the motorhome, but it would be cool if there were 50 people who knew
> it well.
>
> Tony
>
>
> Peter wrote:
>
> >Tony,
> >
> >I worked the trailer during the second group on Sunday,
> which is about when
> >we had that 10 minute break between groups you were
> referring to. Let me
> >tell you that between the four of us in the trailer, there
> was very little
> >trailer job experience. I had done announcer a couple of
> times, and our
> >card sorter was great, but that's it. And I really think
> that we did a good
> >job considering the circumstances, especially our scorer and
> cone counter,
> >who had never worked the trailer before and *absolutely*
> never missed a beat
> >or got behind during the 1.5+ hours we were there.
>
> >The fact is though, that we didn't especially know what we
> were doing going
> >in, but there just wasn't anyone else to help. *I* made the
> decision to
> >take a few minutes in the beginning to get things sorted
> out, because once
> >you get behind in the trailer it is very hard to catch up.
> I also told the
> >entirely rookie trailer crew for group three that if they
> got behind, they
> >should just hold the start and take care of it rather than
> screwing up
> >everyone's times and causing even more delays and frustration.
> >
> >I run in the PAX/Street Tire group, which often has 15 or
> fewer entrants.
> >While we only usually take about 1/2 hour to run, the group
> we work often
> >takes three times that long to run. Sometimes worker shortages are
> >unavoidable. As for putting experienced people in the
> trailer, keep in mind
> >that there have to be at least a few experienced people out
> on course to
> >ensure the safety of our rookie course workers.
> >
> >So I hate to sound like "if you feel the need to complain,
> then volunteer to
> >do it yourself", but yeah, that's basically what I'm saying.
> >
> >Peter Thana
> >SFR AS-ST
> >
> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> From: adozzell@sc9.intel.com [SMTP:adozzell@sc9.intel.com]
> >> Sent: Monday, August 28, 2000 3:40 PM
> >> To: Kevin_Stevens@Bigfoot.com; ba-autox@autox.team.net
> >> Subject: Re: 2000 Winter Slush Series-revised
> >>
> >> Kevin highlights one of my pet peeves with recent events.
> >> The trailer should be able to handle a 15 second overlap
> >> with no more than 3 people in the trailer if they know what
> >> they are doing and are paying attention. A solid trailer cew
> >> is essential to a smooth event and maybe we should restrict the
> >> trailer crew to those folks that can do the job.
> >> At the 8/13 GGF event Jim Ochi and I ran the trailer alone and
> >> we averaged 21s overlaps for our run group and we had time to
> >> hold the start and run out onto course to reset cones that had
> >> been knocked over and missed by the crew on course.
> >> I can buy the safety argument for overlap times and I can buy
> >> the argument that you have to wait for folks to finish their
> >> conversation before running to pick up a downed cone, but I
> >> don't agree that the trailer cannot keep up.
> >>
> >> I'm hoping that doesn't sound too harsh but the trailer hurts
> >> our events on a number of occasions.
> >>
> >> Tony
> >> (still in nomex)
>
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