First off I would like to tip my hat to Don McKenna for guessing way back
when the 3-month trial membership and members-only-event rule was being
debated that it would INCREASE turn out, because people would be inclined to
use the 3-months of time they purchased. Looks like he was quite correct...
I'm not sure throwing all the rookies into Street Tire class is a wise
thing. Wasn't the whole point of the rookie program this year to have
rookies run in the same run groups as their regular class drivers to learn
more? We would probably end up with only slightly fewer rookies and the
rest not learning as much. The other problem is that the run group opposite
this big block of rookies has to deal with a totally rookie crew working for
them, which not only leads to bad cone counts but also safety issues on
course when almost every shagger is green. I remember last year when I ran
in Rookie Street Prepared, and it drove me nuts being part of a big block of
rookies and having none of the course workers have any clue and often
getting them selves in very unsafe situations. I would hate to see things
go back to that.
With the extra hour of time before the first run group, how about we revisit
the limited time window registration idea? I.E. from 8 to 10 people can
only register to run/work in the first 4 run groups and only 125 cards
maximum will be sold. Then from 10 to noon we sell another 125 (plus any
left over from the morning pool) cards for the afternoon groups. This would
help keep the "mid day course walk" from happening at almost 4PM, and also
cap registration to a manageable number. This would of course put yet more
load on the registration people, but when the issue is controlling
registration levels I'm not sure where else to do it.
The idea that somebody raised about parking on the bay side of the wood post
barrier seems like a very good one. Not just to slow down transient
traffic, but it also allows a LOT of room for a very well laid out grid to
help pump the cars through the course as efficiently as possible.
Is there *really* no way we can rebel against the powers that be and do
annual-tech? Seems that one thing would smooth out things a lot, and free
up another couple experienced workers for other jobs.
And lastly, just as an FYI, this boom in amateur motor-sports does not
appear to be isolated to AutoX. A buddy of mine just got back from Sturgis,
the annual Harley Davidson rally in South Dakota, and reported an incredible
near %50 increase in attendance over last year. This huge influx of
"rookies" caused huge problems, both in lawlessness/crowd control and also
safety. Not a day that week went by where my friend didn't see at LEAST a
couple bikes mashed up on the side of the road and people lying down under
blankets (to avoid shock ya know) waiting up to TWO hours for totally over
taxed paramedic services. Death toll for the week was probably somewhere in
the 10-20 range, with 9 happening in just one brief afternoon
thunderstorm... Draw your own conclusions, there are several obvious
parallels with our own high-attendance woes, though solutions are equally
elusive and at the same time urgently necessary.
-Carl
> ----------
> From: Rich Urschel[SMTP:OSP13@attglobal.net]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 30, 2000 3:45 PM
> To: Kelly, Katie
> Cc: 'Smokerbros@aol.com'; Sherry.Grantz@aspect.com;
> 'ba-autox@autox.team.net'
> Subject: Attendance
>
> We have one month to figure out how we are going to
> manage the slush series. We have five months to figure
> out how we are going to manage the regular season
> next year. I suggest we separate the issues and focus
> on the more immediate one whiles reserving the right
> (as we always do) to do things entirely differently
> next year.
>
> Let's ask for registrar volunteers for slush only without
> obligating them to doing it for all of next year.
>
> We sold 100 memberships in four events. Assuming the
> 31 drivers out of 37 members ratio holds, that's 20 new
> drivers per event.
>
> Allowing a member to bring a non-member friend to
> drive would make a joke (lie) of our member only policy.
> We voted for members only. Let's stick to it or repeal
> it entirely.
>
> I agree with Charlie that not offering rookie classes
> will have little affect on slush attendance. It doesn't
> mean that all the rookies should run out and buy R
> tires, either. Think ease of learning on streets. Think
> street tire class. Think rain. Then decide.
>
> I suggest the following as an interim solution. Let's
> figure out how many drivers we can handle at GGF.
> Let's drop the rookie classes and recalculate the
> run groups to slightly more heavily load the
> morning groups. Let's close registration as usual,
> and determine whether we can handle any additional
> new members at that event, let's sign them up
> and evenly distribute them throughout the afternoon
> run groups.
>
> Dealing with rookies all at once will greatly reduce
> the effort required to accommodate them while making
> it much easier to get them whatever assistance they
> want/need. It sounds like we need to change the
> website in any case. When I asked last Sunday if any
> rookies were asking for help, the answer was "yes,
> many", but noone could tell me who they were. That's
> become the norm lately. At earlier events where we
> had sign up sheets we had rookies with multiple offers
> from instructors.
>
> We might also want to start thinking about no "WRG"
> in addition to only three runs and no fun runs unless
> time allows.
> Rich Urschel
>
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