> Remember the crabby jerk you encountered and don't
> bother asking them again.
Oh, nobody was crabby towards ME. Sorry if it sounded that
way. I had lots of fun myself!
I worked afternoon registration, so I had a good idea who the
first- and second-timers were in the later run groups (which
I was in). I kept an eye out for them, and noticed at least
a couple of them getting the brush-off when they tried to ask
something. It was sort of a "don't bother me, kid" attitude.
And in one case the guy really WAS basically a kid (maybe
19?).
> Remember that there is really no such thing as "race
> officials" at autocrosses.
That may be technically true, but newbies aren't likely to
understand the distinction.
I certainly understand that the folks who do just about all
of the work time after time undoubtedly get to feeling a
little jaded, and that some days will be worse than others.
I wasn't trying to suggest that everybody should be Mary
Tyler Moore, all spunky and perky all of the time. It just
seems to me that a widespread general attitude of
encouragement and enthusiasm towards newbies at events could
help increase their participation in the workload and make
things even more fun for everybody, and that such an
attitude could come from remembering what it was like for
you back when you were new yourself. Does that make sense?
Maybe I should just shut up now. I can't make the February
event, so I'll see you folks in March!
--
-Craig Haggart
haggart@slac.stanford.edu
Sunnyvale, California
'96 Miata M Edition
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