Yesterday's event ran fantastically. Good job Ed and Barry! You've put the
Boondoggle to shame.
I have some observations and tips, as a many time Boondoggle chair, that might
help upcoming chairs handle the huge populations. These are only suggestions,
but I couldn't even follow them exactly, because each motorhome crew likes to
do things a little bit differently. And remember, the Boondoggle is called
that for a reason, so please, consider the source, and that these are only
SUGGESTIONS.
First, remember the goal of "on-the-fly." The goal is to keep the cars cycling
through, so there is very minimal lag time between run groups, if any at all.
What I'm about to describe should help.
1. Card pick-up and sorting. Do this about the time the current group starts
their third runs. How do you do this? I don't know. Either do it yourself, or
better yet, get someone else to do it. It's always better to get other people
to do stuff, so you can be available to make decisions. That is YOUR JOB. All
you do is make decisions. So, make the decision to get the cards collected and
sorted early. You will soon see why this is so crucial.
2. Course worker change-overs (our biggest strength, in my opinion). Either
mid-way, or about the time the current group starts their third runs, start
getting people checked off and relieving people out on the course. Those
working in the 4th and 8th run groups are going to have to work a little bit
longer than everyone else, but we all rotate work/run groups, so it all evens
out anyway.
3. Trailer crew changeovers. This is the hardest part. At the Boondoggle, this
all ran without a hitch, UNTIL, and this surprised me, the "experienced"
people came to work. I think this is because they all know what to do, and are
resentful of anyone telling them how to do things, which I understand because
I am absolutely the same way. Unfortunately, though, that's when we ran into
our first stall between groups. So, I'll describe to you my ideal, and you can
take this or leave it, but when this strategy was followed, we had NO LAG time
between run groups, which was cool.
Change people over one-at-a-time, BEFORE the end of the previous group. You
don't have to change everyone over all at once. So, you might, for example,
change the announcer first. That's the easier one. One guys stops talking, and
another guy starts. Easy. When all that's under control, and you can see all
is still running smoothly, change the next position, like the scorer, for
example. When that's under control, change the card sorter. That's an example,
you don't have to follow that order (or even this advice), but again, the key
is to do things slowly and calmly.
Research has shown that the survival of a species is dependent upon that
species' ability to adapt to CHANGE. Intelligence plays an insignificant part.
We need to accept that there although we divide up everyone into run groups,
there is no real division between the end of one and the beginning of another.
It requires flexability and a willingness to "think outside of the box" (I've
always wanted to say that). It means that you might have some straggling cars
from one group and then the beginning of the next group all lined up at the
start. Some people find this shocking, against the status quo, and terrible,
BUT again, this is why it is SO important to have the cards picked up and
sorted EARLY, and the card sorter needs to be aware of this.
Obviously, you don't want to send cars out if the motorhome isn't prepared for
it. That could create a DISASTER (which happened at a Boondoggle, hence its
name). On the other hand, I found, when we did things early and slowly, that
we ran into very little lag time. People are more than willing to do the job.
All you have to do is ask.
Cheers,
Katie K.
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