Here's a few more ideas about the Rookie series
as I proposed in an earlier email
If you didn't see it, I propose two separate series, Rookie and
Championship.
The Rookie series would concentrate all our Rookie recruiting
and training efforts into a series of events, leaving the other
series fully targeted at competition for Championship trophies
in a very competitive environment. This series would also
provide seat time and fun runs for experienced drivers willing to
train and coordinate these Rookie activities.
These events would be conducted very much the same way
we run SFR events today.
We wouldn't need Rookie classes any more, these events could
run using normal SCCA and regional classes, but all entrants
would be Rookies. Instructors would get the same number
of runs, but their runs would all be "FUN RUNS".
Eligibility could be expanded to two years, and winners of
trophies would automatically lose eligibility (they could
still fun run as instructors, of course). We might allow
non-members to run as Rookies, if turnouts were lowered
enough. Whatever the Championship eligibility was,
anyone who signed up for the Championship series
would lose eligibility to compete as rookies.
There would be no pre-registration, and a normal registration
table would be required as today. I would want to consider
letting instructors participate for no fee, given the
contribution they would make to the program. It may be necessary
to raise the entry fees on Rookie events to cover the costs of the
site. Perhaps a differential for members and non-members as we used
to do.
Fees for the Championship series could be adjusted
to very closely cover costs, because it is pre-registered --
amounts could be odd dollars and cents, because there would
be no problem with making change at registration. Overall
fees would almost certainly be noticeably lower than
they are today. Championship walk-ups (experienced
people from other regions, etc.) could pay $25.00 as today.
Passengers would be encouraged (we might want
to eliminate passengers in the Championship series)
We could allow more than three or even more than four runs,
depending on numbers. Competition as in the Championship
series would not be the prime goals of this series. Likewise,
we could shut down to two runs on short days with many
people, just as we do now. Chairs would make the call as today.
Championship events would always be exactly three runs.
(One hopes that later series start and no rookies will make
them small enough to be manageable).
Work assignments would be training stints, and would be
ASSIGNED by event chairs rather than volunteered. Some
inefficiency in running the events might occur due to new
workers, but this would be OK -- it's all part of the training.
The same level of safety would be required in all cases.
All Instructors would also be assigned to work positions, acting
as trainers for the rookies with them. Chairs
must take this into account when assigning work, making sure that
experienced trainers are at all key positions. In this way the
program would provide us with fully trained and safe workers
(at least bettter than how we do it today).
Each event would have two or three co-chairs. One must be an experienced
autocrosser, the others must be rookies learning the ropes.
The experienced chair would concentrate on helping the
rookie co-chairs do the required work, making sure it was done
right -- not doing the work. In this way the program would give
us a steady supply of trained event chairs.
The first event maybe two events each year would be Rookie
events -- certainly the Super Bowl Extravaganza. Championship
events would be scheduled as far as possible not to overlap with
National Tours, Pros, Divisionals elsewhere. Rookie events
could overlap without much problem. In those cases where
big events migrate to overlap with our Championship events, we
could sometimes help this by swapping a Rookie event with a
Championship event. Recall the recent past when we had events overlap
with Tours, and many competitors went away -- we still had
plenty of experienced people to run events -- I chaired one, for
example. All events after Nationals would be by definition Rookie
events.
The Autocross School would be integrated into the Rookie Series.
Entry requirements would include having run at least two SFR
autocrosses, and there would be at least two Rookie series events
before the school. The event on the day following the school would also
be a Rookie event.
Given these rules, and the goal of a ten-event series, the overall series
would look like:
- Super Bowl Extravaganza Boondoggle for Rookies!
- Maybe two more events in Feb-April
- Autocross School in May-June, then another event
- One event during July-September
- Five events in Oct-Dec, what was formerly called Slush
Mid-summer would be the time of most Championship competitiveness;
Fall and Spring would be time for training Rookies.
Rookies who are autocross starved in the summer would have the
NASA events, AAS, and Sacramento to keep them satisfied.
Qualification for the Championship series should be such that
someone starting in Rookies in September could be qualified
to run Championship events the following year. Say, four
rookie events or a Rookie trophy.
There would need to be a Rookie Series Chief and a Championship
Series Chief to make this work. I will volunteer to run the
Rookie Series for two years if we enact this proposal
_AS_DESIGNED_ If a different program is enacted, well,
business as usual.
Jerry
Jerry Mouton mailto:jerry@moutons.org Laissez les bons temps
rouler!
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