I forgot to take the trailer off the first time.
Greg
----- Original Message -----
Mark,
I agree with all you said. Unfortunately the event organizers were
inexperienced with divisional/national level events. I'm sincerely sorry that
this happened at an event sponsored by NER. Although we have a lot of
experience (running big events) it can be hard to pass it on to people that need
it, especially at a major event where the more experienced people are
preoccupied with getting a good finish.
One thing I've noticed over the years is that very few good practices actually
get written down. It would really help the Solo program to have an appendix
(not part of the official rules) in the Solo II rulebook that included some of
the following items:
- Instructions for course workers (watch behind the cars for the telltale wiggle
for example)
- Pre event checklist and timetable for setting up a divisional level event
- T&S and audit procedures
- Grid procedures
- Tech procedures
- Registration procedures
- The Roger Johnson course design notes
Any chance we can get some best practices documented in the Solo II rulebook? I
think this kind of guidance would go a long way toward accomplishing what the
National program has been trying to do for years, namely insure consistency
across the nation in how events get run. Once this stuff is down on paper it
will also encourage people to suggest useful modifications to the procedures and
we will be able to evolve to a higher level.
I think this would be worth bringing to the SEB for discussion,
Greg
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Sirota" <mark@sirota.org>
To: "Kurt Eikenberg" <dogpatch88@mac.com>; <autox-cm@autox.team.net>
Sent: Thursday, August 22, 2002 9:25 PM
Subject: Re: Timing & Announcing Problem at NEDiv Championship Event
> --On Thursday, August 22, 2002 8:27 PM -0400 Kurt Eikenberg
<dogpatch88@mac.com>
> wrote:
> > I have since learned that the people receiving the cone penalties called
> > in from the course were located in a different location from the
> > announcer and the announcer could only report penalties that he actually
> > saw. If true, it would explain a lot. A bad situation.
>
> Kurt,
>
> Here's some more stuff that I haven't had a chance to tell you since then.
>
> Let me start at the end -- I think the practices in place for most major
events
> are sufficient -- there is a process for getting all penalty information to
the
> announcer, and all penalties are posted on the yellow sheets (the second page
> from the corner stations and master radio log) after each run, and the
> computer results are also audited after each run.
>
> But at this event, that's not how it happened. The cause was that while the
> Chief of Scoring and the Event Chairs were all hard working, smart people,
> they had never even run an event that used corner sheets and audits, never
> mind working T&S at one or being Chiefs/Chairs of such an event.
>
> I was, officially speaking, the Chief of Timing at that event. I was
> asked to do this less than a week before the event, if that gives you any
> sense of how well the Timing & Scoring process was prepared. I accepted,
> on the condition that they understood that my family would be there and I
> was not willing to spend the entire weekend holed up in T&S.
>
> Then they posted the run order, with us running in first heat -- that's
> something most events try carefully to avoid, because first heat is when
> the Chief of Timing really needs to be in Timing. So a little lack of
> communication there too.
>
> (This was especially difficult for Bob and I, as not only was I Chief of
> Timing, but he was the Chief Steward -- AND he had two kids running in
> Formula Junior, which also ran in the first heat. I asked them to switch
> us right after they posted the run order, and then we asked again on
> Friday night, but they couldn't find a way to do it.)
>
> Now, mind you, I was NOT the Chief of Scoring -- in a very unusual move,
> they split Timing and Scoring into two separate positions. I was told all
> of that was under control. I didn't learn that it wasn't until about the
> middle of the day on Saturday.
>
> Near the end of the day on Saturday, I went in to check on everything,
> and learned that they had not been auditing penalties at all, just times
> (which are much, much easier). So I (with a lot of help) spent two hours
> after the event auditing the Saturday results, and found over 100 errors.
>
> On Sunday, I did my best to put better practices into place with regard
> to auditing, and it went a lot better -- I only had to spend 40 minutes
> at the end of the event. But I never did manage to fix the rest of the
> Scoring process, including how penalties got relayed from corner station
> to the truck to the announcer. It was different every heat according to
> who was in there, and I guess during our heat (when I obviously could not
> be there) they still hadn't figured out the importance of this.
>
> So it was a rookie mistake by some new folks who stepped up to the plate
> to volunteer to run this event. I think it was an isolated incident, and
> it certainly sucked in the way that it played out for you.
>
> But we should all learn from this -- after each run, go check the master
> time log for your time and the corner sheets for your penalties. Those are
> the authoritative sources. You have the right, according to the rulebook,
> to refuse to take your next run until those are posted. Don't trust the
> computer results or the announcer; those are unofficial unless marked
> otherwise.
>
> Mark
/// unsubscribe/change address requests to majordomo@autox.team.net or try
/// http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
/// Archives at http://www.team.net/archive/autox-cm
|