Work Assignments at DE
03-14-2011, 10:33 AM
#31
Rennlist Member
if price for DE event would go down 50% because of that I would not mind to work at flag station. it is a better way to spend time than to sit in a chair doing nothing. Current $200+ for DE day is quite a lot.
03-14-2011, 03:34 PM
#32
Three Wheelin'
I have worked the morning tech and it's amazing the kind of **** you find on people's cars. Since the cars have been looked at during "shop tech" the week before, we check pads, throttle return, helmets, did you take everything out of the car?
We find people all the time with all manner of crap in the car. On a two day event, they have loaded up and headed to a hotel, and forgot what's in the trunk. Floor mats, etc. On one occasion, we abused the guy and told him he'd have to buy us coffee. Then he did! The guys with the out of town tech forms, or from a local shop (vice the one the region puts on) tend to be the ones with the random junk in the car. We have a surely chief tech who loves to pick on folks.
We find people all the time with all manner of crap in the car. On a two day event, they have loaded up and headed to a hotel, and forgot what's in the trunk. Floor mats, etc. On one occasion, we abused the guy and told him he'd have to buy us coffee. Then he did! The guys with the out of town tech forms, or from a local shop (vice the one the region puts on) tend to be the ones with the random junk in the car. We have a surely chief tech who loves to pick on folks.
I help with the tech line, and my best find so far, was a BIRDS NEST in the engine compartment of a relatively new 997
CVR also includes PIT IN/PIT OUT procedures as part of our classrooms
03-14-2011, 03:45 PM
#33
Rennlist Member
based on several threads on 997 forums during winter i would guess it was not a bird`s nest but most likely - mice. several folks wrote about that - mice like to chew up stuff in engine compartment and another popular location - just above CF air filter in front trunk.
03-14-2011, 08:43 PM
#35
Racer
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I would love to meet the "mechanic" who did the pre inspection and missed the birds nest! For that matter what owner doesn't at least open the lid to make sure there isn't oil everywhere or a belt missing?
Just to help Dave understand the attitudes out there I would love the people who would rather not do "work" assignments to explain what exactly their objection is. As I see it you are at the track for two days, you do about 1- 1/2 maybe 2 hours on the track each day and some clubs might ask you to do another 1 or 2 hours of work. What exactly is the problem with helping a volunteer organization to survive by volunteering? Just to help you put this in perspective, the guy who is running the show (the track chair) is probably putting in some 40 unpaid hours in for every event that you attend.
Let me also ask how many of those who would prefer not to do work assignments have at the other end volunteered for a role on the track committee?
If any of you out there are thinking that clubs are moving away from these "work assignments" (with the exception of flagging) because they want to improve the quality of the processes let me correct your thinking. Most clubs are doing so because of the constant whining of the attendees that they don't want to waste their time doing them and because it is usually more trouble than it is worth hurding the participants to their expected roles.
Just to help Dave understand the attitudes out there I would love the people who would rather not do "work" assignments to explain what exactly their objection is. As I see it you are at the track for two days, you do about 1- 1/2 maybe 2 hours on the track each day and some clubs might ask you to do another 1 or 2 hours of work. What exactly is the problem with helping a volunteer organization to survive by volunteering? Just to help you put this in perspective, the guy who is running the show (the track chair) is probably putting in some 40 unpaid hours in for every event that you attend.
Let me also ask how many of those who would prefer not to do work assignments have at the other end volunteered for a role on the track committee?
If any of you out there are thinking that clubs are moving away from these "work assignments" (with the exception of flagging) because they want to improve the quality of the processes let me correct your thinking. Most clubs are doing so because of the constant whining of the attendees that they don't want to waste their time doing them and because it is usually more trouble than it is worth hurding the participants to their expected roles.
03-14-2011, 09:22 PM
#36
Rennlist Member
Thread Starter
This thread is meant to simply delineate what other regions do with respect to work assignments and to gather people's opinions on how work should be handled. Rennlist reaches the ENTIRE PCA empire and I felt that looking for ideas here was an intelligent thing to do.
Nothing 'bad' should come out of this discussion nor should anyone feel that they are being singled out.
Questioning how things are done is an important part of life. When a club such as ours has a seemingly tight work schedule (i.e. insufficient number of bodies) and there are other regions that have no work schedule, it makes me want to understand what's going on!
That is all.
Nothing 'bad' should come out of this discussion nor should anyone feel that they are being singled out.
Questioning how things are done is an important part of life. When a club such as ours has a seemingly tight work schedule (i.e. insufficient number of bodies) and there are other regions that have no work schedule, it makes me want to understand what's going on!
That is all.
03-14-2011, 10:01 PM
#37
I imagine its either
1) Money or
2) We've always done it "this way".
Some PCA regions are 50+ years old and have a "tradition" of doing things. When clubs were small, the only way to make an event happen was to "do it all" by yourself. I would say not till the 1980s or 1990s that there seemed to be enough "money" behind the idea of hiring professionals. In the east, it used to be RCA flaggers at Watkins Glen, and maybe even Pocono. Lime Rock didn't offer any by comparison, but now they do.
As mentioned, though, back then the idea of a "club" was personal invovlement and responsibility to others in the club. Early days of PCA, you had to be "sponsored" to join. Now its $42 and owning a Porsche. I'd say sometime in the late 1980s and 1990s, as motorsports hobby grew, clubs began to realize folks would pay extra for flaggers, or a "meal" or other things once thought as more "ferrari" crowd
And now there are whole cottage industries around motorsports. Private clubs, semi private clubs, single marque clubs, multimarque clubs, "event organizer" groups etc. Folks's perceptions and desires have changed and some clubs have changed to accomodate them. I know its a stereotype, but someone who just plunked down $150K for a new car may not expect to have to sit in the rain or heat and flag for 2+hours.
1) Money or
2) We've always done it "this way".
Some PCA regions are 50+ years old and have a "tradition" of doing things. When clubs were small, the only way to make an event happen was to "do it all" by yourself. I would say not till the 1980s or 1990s that there seemed to be enough "money" behind the idea of hiring professionals. In the east, it used to be RCA flaggers at Watkins Glen, and maybe even Pocono. Lime Rock didn't offer any by comparison, but now they do.
As mentioned, though, back then the idea of a "club" was personal invovlement and responsibility to others in the club. Early days of PCA, you had to be "sponsored" to join. Now its $42 and owning a Porsche. I'd say sometime in the late 1980s and 1990s, as motorsports hobby grew, clubs began to realize folks would pay extra for flaggers, or a "meal" or other things once thought as more "ferrari" crowd
And now there are whole cottage industries around motorsports. Private clubs, semi private clubs, single marque clubs, multimarque clubs, "event organizer" groups etc. Folks's perceptions and desires have changed and some clubs have changed to accomodate them. I know its a stereotype, but someone who just plunked down $150K for a new car may not expect to have to sit in the rain or heat and flag for 2+hours.
03-14-2011, 10:45 PM
#38
Rennlist Member
Best,
Matt
03-18-2011, 07:57 PM
#39
Racer
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: SA Texas
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Dave,
I am of the opinion that the reason that clubs such as ours are having seemingly tight work schedules is that many people (not all of course) have lost sight of what a club like ours is meant to be offering. To my mind this is a situation where the those in the know are willing to share their knowledge with the inexperienced so that together we can all have fun. All that is asked of the newcomers is that they contribute to the event by helping with the labor in exactly the same way the instructors are doing. The problem seems to be that growingly the relative newcomers have a feeling of entitlement that ruins the basis premise. In my TC role had many people complain about work assignments (particularly if it interfered with their plans to go home early). My favorite was an unnamed someone who came up to me with a genuine complaint that he had calculated that the white run group (of which he was a member) was required to do 10 minutes more work than any other group and he wanted to know why. Equally, I have had someone complain that he didn't like his instructor and questioned why we didn't have professional instructors.
Is that the next step once we have done away with work assignments? Should we do away with volunteer instructors? I am sure plenty of them would be delighted.
I see work assignments as being a great way to keep people aware of and involved with the machinations of the club and as such the most likely way we keep on replacing the current track committee as time roles on.
I am of the opinion that the reason that clubs such as ours are having seemingly tight work schedules is that many people (not all of course) have lost sight of what a club like ours is meant to be offering. To my mind this is a situation where the those in the know are willing to share their knowledge with the inexperienced so that together we can all have fun. All that is asked of the newcomers is that they contribute to the event by helping with the labor in exactly the same way the instructors are doing. The problem seems to be that growingly the relative newcomers have a feeling of entitlement that ruins the basis premise. In my TC role had many people complain about work assignments (particularly if it interfered with their plans to go home early). My favorite was an unnamed someone who came up to me with a genuine complaint that he had calculated that the white run group (of which he was a member) was required to do 10 minutes more work than any other group and he wanted to know why. Equally, I have had someone complain that he didn't like his instructor and questioned why we didn't have professional instructors.
Is that the next step once we have done away with work assignments? Should we do away with volunteer instructors? I am sure plenty of them would be delighted.
I see work assignments as being a great way to keep people aware of and involved with the machinations of the club and as such the most likely way we keep on replacing the current track committee as time roles on.
03-18-2011, 08:47 PM
#40
Rennlist Member
I think work assignments are a simple and effective way of spreading out the workload of a volunteer organization. I've never complained until I came across a region that required HOURS of commitment from some and obviously none from others. That region has since changed their policy. We (PCA) are all equal members in a CLUB. I don't get why this is such a big deal, I'm no super-volunteer yet I was happy to take the (MANY) steps in our region to become an instructor to give a little back to all those that helped me. I could just as easily thumbed my nose at DE's and just raced. Maybe all you people that feel it's such a hardship and/or beneath you should just try something else.. like Red Cross or ACS.
