Volunteering yet again

hawkwind racing · Post by **hawkwind racing** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:01 pm

Yet again we dicuss the subject of "VOLUNTEERING" this comes up each year without a resolution , I believe the offer was made to run the event up till 7pm friday if enough volunteers could be found to say back and help with the cleanup , only the sound of crickets could be heard when volunteers were asked to come forward at the AGM .
Back in may of 2006 a meeting was held to dicuss club business , volunteering was one subject , 3 models were put forward to find a solution to the volunteering shortfall,these were
1.Hand over the running of the speedweek event to a private company proficient in running such an event , this solution was rejected due to the fact that entry fees would be greatly increased to cover the costs and profit of such a venture . is this now a viable solution ??? I would suggest that a minimum entry would be north of $1K
2.allow teams /drivers / riders to choose if they wanted to volunteer labour ,those doing so would provide a minimum of 4 hours for each person in each team and pay the existing $250 entry fee , those choosing not to would be sluged a $750/$1000 entry fee ,if to many entrants choose the high $ option the labour shortage would not be cured and it could create an us and them situation , is this worth a try ??
3.That new entry forms would be created , listing times and tasks for jobs to make speedweek operate successfully , each individule would tick a time and task and volunteer for a minimum of 4 hours before ,during or after speed week ,this would be a condition for permission to race but due to no racing for 2 years this seems to have been forgotten ?? this option will need several changes to work 1. compulsory pre registeration as per Bonneville and a method to distribute jobs/times from over subscription to jobs / times of under subscription , any ideas? this option was seen as the best solution ,all members assisting equally to make speed week happen

this is where we got to http://www.dlra.org.au/forum/viewtopic.php?t=333

lets kick it off again and get something up and running for 2010

cheers
Gary

Cookey · Post by **Cookey** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 8:55 pm

Great move Gary,

What you started back in '06 needs to be resurrected and some serious work done before 2010.
As was shown at this years event (and the overwhelming positive feed back from it), the DLRA Speed Week has certainly come of age as a major event in any speed demon's calendar.
My thoughts are that the club needs to form an event committee who are responsible for the entire event planning and administration.
This team can be either elected or appointed or perhaps be an extension of the existing race committee (who did not get together at all to my knowledge at this years event)!
Speedweek '09 in my opinion was an outstanding success and we all owe a great debt to the people who worked so hard (and you all know who they are) to ensure that we got permission to race and with our club membership now over 800 and many more race cars and bikes coming together, the future is looking better than ever

David Leikvold · Post by **David Leikvold** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 10:23 pm

There are plenty of good ideas on the old thread. I think we should start to compile a comprehensive list of all the jobs that need doing, when they need to be done and for how long and how many people need to do them. Do this list for the existing one track layout first and then do another list for a two track layout. I think it's probably more realistic to do just one long course and one short course to start with and see how that goes. If we got onto it quickly we might be able to do it in 2010.
Any volunteers to start a list? :wink:

Seriously, I'd be happy to help out with it if we can organise some suggestions here and then do a list and present it for discussion. So I'll start: From what I've read so far we need three people at the start line all the time. We need people to keep the toilets on the salt and at the drivers' camp clean and tidy all week. We need people to control pre-stage all week. We need people to be in the chase car for the long course. We need timing people.

What else?

OLDtimer · Post by **OLDtimer** » Sun Mar 22, 2009 11:42 pm

Rob Carroll is drawing up a draft roster as we speak. Along with other committee members, I will be going over it to see if anything is missing. Pete. DLRA#6

540ci · Post by **540ci** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 12:18 am

As an horse riding coach I attend a lot of equestrian events. It is a condition of entry as a competitior that you do some form of volunteer work, as required by the show committee, or if you can't work provide someone who can. You may not be called on to work at every competition but if you are given a job you are required to do it or you ride non competitively (hors concours) at that competition. This means that any wins or placings are not counted in pointscores or championships. The length of time you are required to work for is usually 1 to 3 hours. This certainly helps keep the horse shows running.

Now I realise this might not be practical as certain skills and training would be needed for jobs such as starters and timing etc. but for jobs such as wrist band checking, running food and drinks to track officials etc, could certainly be performed by volunteers.

Most of the equestrian clubs also hold training days at which instruction is given to people in the jobs they will be required to perform at an equestrian event. Also there is usually a couple of people on the committee of every club whose sole job is to organise volunteers to do the jobs. Maybe something along those lines could be adapted for this event.

Post by **DLRA** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 7:57 am

I'm also keen to see this happen and I believe the web site and the forum can be of great assistance in making this happen. It can provide a focus for everyone's input. There are many people who need to have input to this process and this would be an ideal efficent and cost effective way to do this.

I'm happy to set up any or all of the following;
1. A new section to the forum just for event organisation, this can be a public, members only or private forum (depends on how much dirty laundry gets aired). This new forum can be used to formulate the list of jobs etc and detail what needs to be done.

2. Add a new section to the web site just for event organisation, it could contain all the information you guys are taking about and more. This would be the final definitive version of what ever we come up with.

Happy Frank · Post by **Happy Frank** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 11:43 am

I'll put my hand up here to do a half or full day on the pre stage or start line or similar job. I'm a member of 000 Racing (Plucka's Monaro) and we had a few people spare this year. Due to work can't get there early or stay late but willing to help during the event.

540ci · Post by **540ci** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:24 pm

I'm also happy to help out. Pre stage is basically the same as marshalling entrants for big horse shows. God knows I've had enough experience at that over the years!!!

gidge348 · Post by **gidge348** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 6:27 pm

I believe that conscription of “All” members for a few hours in the week is the best option to address volunteer shortage.
There are about 1000 members or so and at a guess say half were at speed week (say 500) if EVERY member had to put in 2 hours over the week that is 1000 volunteer hours over the week or 20 extra bodies every hour…..
All that would be needed is a page that members can log onto and put in their preference of job and day. Those that volunteer early get the pick of jobs those that volunteer late don’t.

jrbcastle · Post by **jrbcastle** » Mon Mar 23, 2009 9:54 pm

540ci wrote:I'm also happy to help out. Pre stage is basically the same as marshalling entrants for big horse shows. God knows I've had enough experience at that over the years!!!

should be easier at lest you can turn the cars off