The Ridge September 28-29

I just looked over the IRDC monthly minutes meeting and noticed this:

The lack of volunteers was raised as a concern. The Race Chair stated that any
volunteer positions he is unable to fill will be filled with paid help.

What does that mean? If you don't have enough volunteer corner workers, are you planning on hiring them?

Someone else asked me a similar question at Mission this weekend and I wondered were it came from. At this time I have no anticipation of a shortage of corner workers at the Ridge, from what I have heard informally we should have a good turn out volunteers for the turns. Some I've talked to are really looking forward to the race at the Ridge, myself included.

I think it might have been in regard to pregrid. IRDC has not had someone for that position this year. David Bell and myself have filled in for the Pacific races this year with some help from Scott Ahrens and Bruce Boyd. Jason has found some volunteers to take on the position, but they need training. Julie Winslow and Dave Riel from Portland have agreed to come to the Ridge later this month and help out with running pregrid and hotpits and training the new people.

Hoping to see everyone at the Ridge.
Thomas Liesner
IRDC Flag Chief

No disrespect intended, maybe the question is better addressed to an official with IRDC or the Race Chair himself, rather than here addressed to no one in particular which will probably only result in speculation or misinformation?

I respectfully disagree. I see no problem with discussing Conference race issues on the Conference forum.

Thanks for the clarification Thomas.

A discussion about the differences between "for profit" racing organizations and member driven "not for profit" clubs occurred at the IRDC general meeting amongst the dozen people who actually care enough about an organization that benefits all of it's members to show up and help guide it's operation.

The race chair raised a valid question about what happens when we have 150 people who consider themselves "customers" show up at a scheduled event only to find the handful of volunteers that make the event possible (both those involved in raceday marshalling AND those who treat planning the events as a second job) have decided they have given enough. He stated, perhaps somewhat impetuously, that he supposed he would hire people to fill the spots the club members didn't feel like filling.

I understand his frustration because we have probably encouraged our members and members of our associated clubs to enter our events and treated them like customers to encourage them to keep coming back in the future. I have come to the realization that has been a critical mistake. We shouldn't be encouraging entrants to just trade some of their money for an opportunity to share an experience with their racing "family". The people who are doing all the work have ZERO profit motive to make these events happen - quite the opposite. Most are taking time away from either something profitable or some other opportunity solely because they think it's something worth doing. There are no free market forces at work, we are a group of people who formed into a club to share the effort required to do something that we enjoy at a reasonable cost.

The expectation is that those who can spare the time and effort carry the weight for those who can't but that has changed. Now, paying the cost of a race entry is apparently considered to be a fair contribution to your club in lieu of any effort on the members part. Lets just cut to the chase - if you haven't made any contribution other than paying a race entry to the local club that hosts races, you are freeloading. In a family, you don't owe other family members money you share goals and take responsibility for each others well being.

I get it - not everybody can take on the committment to be a race chair, hold a club office, or take responsibility for some segment of raceday operations. EVERYONE has time to volunteer to help at registration for a couple hours once a year, work a corner for a day, help tear down the course, or one of the other dozens of simple things that need to happen for a race to actually occur. If every member set themselves a goal of giving just FOUR HOURS A YEAR to helping the club operate we would have the ability to run fantastic events without using up the most good natured among us until they dont want to come out anymore.

More directly to your question - the remark was casual and is now being taken out of context. Any change of that magnatude would require a vote of the Board and a drastic change in the philosophy of the IRDC.

The economics of our races would change DRASTICALLY if we hired the help we need. On top of that we would turn our FRIENDS, the volunteers, into employees and at that point the President and Race Chair become managers responsible for all manner of things that would be no fun at all. While I was willing to volunteer to be President of IRDC as a service to my racing family, if you had to hire me to run the club as a manager you definitely couldn't afford me and if you look at the quality of the people who are VOLUNTEERING to make races happen I think that is true throughout the organization.

By the way, Thomas (one of those critically important VOLUNTEERS) is right on the money. We should have a boatload of volunteers AND entrants at the Ridge.

My personal thanks to all of those volunteers who are the dedicated backbone of our events.

Well said Rick. As a volunteer at races for the past 23 years, I couldn't agree more. I've just finished volunteering all three days at the Mission conference weekend - it was fun, but exhausting. For the Ridge, I'll have to take half a day Friday and half a day Monday off work without pay, drive in horrible traffic for five hours each way, pay for a motel and gas and food - and I guess I just have to decide whether I really want to do that. Thank you for expanding on what transpired at the IRDC meeting. My intention was not to take a comment out of context. If you were going to be hiring inexperienced workers, my decision as to whether or not to make the trip would have been easy - I wouldn't. I value my safety - and yours - too much for that. It will be a sad day if Conference has to go the way other race groups have gone and pay to have someone whose only interest is a paycheque watching their backs (and fronts and sides).

Bonnie said:

.......I value my safety - and yours - too much for that. It will be a sad day if Conference has to go the way other race groups have gone and pay to have someone whose only interest is a paycheque watching their backs (and fronts and sides).

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Some of us have experienced that situation already. Many of the 'track day' activities' (which are really on a small scale compared to a competition weekend) have used mostly paid workers with no experience. In general, the 'quality' of the work performed isn't even up to what's being paid for. Very sloppy communications, no sense of what's important and what isn't, no training in emergency response techniques, etc.. And then the constantly rotating nature of 'temporary workers' really makes it difficult.

It's easy to understand why the well trained, long history workers would not want to be mixed in with 1/2 temps filling in.

Maybe it is time to step up with our wallets as well as our time.......and give more generously to the workers fund.....

Our entrants have always been very generous in terms of worker fund contribution and I hope that continues. It is great to at least defray the expense of volunteering and be able to show our appreciation with gas money, discounted hotel rooms, and small gifts that say "thanks for your invaluable service".

Throwing more money at the problem won't fix it though. Someone still has to actually accomplish all of the tasks that need to be completed to have a race. I did a pretty detailed study of what would be required to run our races with paid staff instead of the volunteer model we currently use when I was President of the IRDC. There are a ton of reasons why it is a bad idea that would drastically increase costs, reduce participation, and cause skyrocketing liability but to illustrate lets look at one simple example:

I was lucky enough to have an OUTSTANDING race chair during my tenure as President who consistently made my life easy and he had the backup of several past Race Chairmen who could be expected to throw themselves at any concievable problem at a moments notice. After each and every race all of us were typically huddled with the volunteers near drivers services discussing as equals what went right, what went wrong, and how that could be improved in the future knowing that those people are there because they love racing and care about us as people.

If we turn it into a business those people are no longer equals - they are now subordinates. I have a financial responsibility to the organization to manage their assets in a fashion that maximizes financial success and minimizes liability. Instead of discussing issues with like-minded friends who share my goals I now get to write up and document liability raising mistakes, hand out pink slips, and replace workers wherever possible with the least expensive alternative to preserve financial viability.

When that day comes, I will find another organization to run with or sadly retire to a less complicated hobby.

I really need to get off my soapbox, but I will close by saying that its easy to forget how lucky we are to have people who actually care about us who volunteer to make all of the magic happen. It isn't minimum wage that makes a 60 year old scramble down a hill lugging a fire extinguisher into a dangerous area to make sure you are ok. It isn't dreams of getting a raise or a promotion that makes someone stand all day on hot pavement teching and weighing cars, or standing in the pouring rain to help them on pregrid. People don't ask for time off from six figure jobs or emerge from well earned retirements to do the donkey work of planning and managing race events because they think it is a great career move.

What we have is an unbelievable cornucopia of racing opportunities and venues made possible by the efforts of passionate volunteers. It has gone so well for so long that I think people have a tendancy to take such good fortune for granted. Conference racing is a unique experience that should be cherished and protected because it would be very hard to recreate if lost.

Thank you again Rick - I was just going on the forum to reply to Greg when I saw your post come up.

Two things you said are right "on the money" so to speak:

1) "throwing more money at the problem won't fix it"; and

2) (this one especially) "In a family, you don't owe other family members money you share goals and take responsibility for each others well being."

We need help in all the disciplines. Speaking personally, I can't involve myself in the politics of the organization, because it makes me crazy and I'd just quit altogether. So, I stick to showing up at the races and working trackside. I am eternally grateful for those who do the work behind the scenes, and this is my way of paying it back. The drivers need to do the same thing. If you can't or won't get involved with running the club, then at least figure out a way to help at the race weekends themselves, either by stepping up personally or providing a crew or family member to help out. I'm not quite 60 - but getting darn close! - and most of my compatriots are in the same boat. You HAVE to figure out a way to take care of everything that's required to run a race, or your sport will die - simple as that.

Volunteering is great and important, but maybe it's time to do things similar to a co-op. You want to race..then you get to contribute x number or hours in some capacity each season to maintain your license. I don't see anything wrong with that. Since we all have a vested interest in making this work I don't think that is too much to ask of our fellow racers. Many private schools do similar things. If you want to participate in thier school thant the parents/kids need to contribute a number of hours each year as part a requirement with their enrollment. Do the same with licensed drivers.

I understand the use of hyperbole when making an argument, but let's not turn this into something it isn't: Paying for qualified people to help out at the track does NOT turn us into a business all of a sudden, where the bottom line is the most important thing. I would like to think we can find enough volunteers (one way or another) to help us with putting on our events, not to mention continuing to take care of those we already have, but this is a very different time than when Conference was founded. Among other things, you don't have to volunteer (or even come to the track) to get your fix of sports car racing; all you have to do is turn on your TV, computer, or other connected device and there's so much to choose from it's silly.

If we need to start finding, vetting, training, and paying for our track workers, it's not the end of the world. It's definitely not preferred and we should be trying really hard to find an alternative, but we all know that the racing doesn't happen if there aren't enough (again) qualified people out there making it possible. If that means we choose between paying for our workers or giving up on racing... well, I guess that's a choice we make when we need to.

As always Rick very well said!! Such important concepts that you voiced sometimes get lost. Thank you

Interesting idea Martin. Implementation would be interesting and the result even more interesting.

rick_bostrom said:

...... It is great to at least defray the expense of volunteering and be able to show our appreciation with gas money, discounted hotel rooms, and small gifts that say "thanks for your invaluable service"......

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For the people who drive 70 or 120 miles to attend an event, the cash in the workers fund to offset expenses is a great thing. But I've never taken a dime of it even though the only track I qualified at was Portland. Always felt I was at the track because I wanted to support the racing, not for financial gain.

On the other hand one of my most FAVORITE things in the whole world is the iCSCC Race Officials Division patch that Randy Blaylock had made for us a couple of years ago. For sure a great reward to the workers. Before my body gave out on me, I also earned the IRDC Turn Worker of the Year award in 2011 after I managed to get back for a year of work after my heart surgery. It's setting here on my shelf above the computer (another highly prized thing).

Those two items, money cannot buy.

Just to be clear Richard, the ROD patches concept was Lynn Rimmer's brainchild.

I am a member and co-founder along with Dave Haire of the GPDA (Ground Pounder Drivers Association), the group that financed the production of the patches. We were glad to be able to help make those happen, as we know very well how important all of the volunteers are, be they race officials, corner workers, pre-grid, or any other person that takes the time to facilitate Conference racing.

I'd like to take this opportunity to apologize to Bonnie specifically and workers in general if my earlier post seemed rude, I'm sorry for that.

Richard, I'm glad you view your awards and recognitions in the spirit they were given, with sincere appreciation and affection for a job well done.

Cheers.

Thank you Randy.

All valid and worthwhile discussions ongoing about the issue. I don’t profess to know the solution, I just know there’s a problem.

A specific example. This past weekend I was the communicator and quasi “corner boss” at Turn 1. I was lucky to have a very experienced worker with me, and another inexperienced one for whose assistance I was very grateful. At one point I was trying to help the newbie with blue-flagging, and missed seeing a collision that happened behind me in our turn. At Seattle, we have had to work with just two of us on a corner, and again often that second person has little or no experience. So, along with having to communicate and flag, we’re also having to train the new person, which results in it being impossible to do our job to the best of our ability. I end up praying most of the time that nothing happens! (Unfortunately, "nothing happens" is practically impossible at Turn 1 in Mission – I had writer’s cramp at the end of each day!)

So, as Steve pointed out, whether the person is paid or unpaid is really not the issue – it’s whether they know what they’re doing! That’s where a racer would really come in handy, someone who knows what’s involved in pre-grid, knows what the flags are for on the corners, has at least a bit of an understanding of how registration works. Expanding on Martin’s post, here’s a good idea that came from a racer friend in a personal email to me:

I think the workable solution to the gradual but decided decline in workers is to dragoon drivers and crew. If we had a big van between breaks we could tell drivers that part of the cost of entry is to work, corners, race control (support), pre gridding etc. If you enter the race you then have to work or have one of your crew work the same number of races you entered. Driver could quickly gain the skills and would also have a much larger appreciation for all that the workers do. Simple solution. If the drivers do not want to work they would be expected to kick in say $50 buck per race extra to provide greater support for the volunteer workers. Not for paid workers. I for one would not want to put my life in the hands of someone there just for a paycheck. I trust our community of people but would someone from the street really rush up to a burning upside down car with an extinguisher and get the driver out if need be? I think not. Fortunately those sorts of situations do not arise so frequently but when they unfortunately do I want our people who are reliable to be able and prepared to respond.

I say … keep the ideas coming!

Steve, you are so right.
Turn on the TV, use your phone, computer, etc. Never leave your home and stay dry, warm and beer all day. Why in the world would someone new come out to the heat, rain, cold, bugs etc? BECAUSE they dont' know what a great time they can have.

Our club members ( a handful in each club at best) are doing the jobs of 15 people. Maybe it's time to change club membership requirements? There is a lot of "arrive and drive" racers that only do that and only join a club to get their license. hmmmmm?

The subject of paid workers has arisen on other club forums and trust me, that is not the answer. I have worked along side paid workers and it was frightening.

We need to go to where the people are, extend them a huge invitation, show them some in car videos, let them know about the great people that are involved with all aspects of racing and then KEEP IN TOUCH with the ones that show interest. When someone gives you their name and number and says they wouldn't mind finding out more, good lord, don't just file them away and expect them to go to great lengths to find you.
We all need to be ambassadors for the sport and get out of our comfort zone and do something about it.

I, when ROD Director, had travelled to Portland for 1 night to attend their general meeting. Cascade has done a pretty good job of attaining new workers. I also drove to Seattle and attended an IRDC meeting. This is not a new problem. The worker fund is alive and doing well and as others have said, throwing more money into it isn' t going to change it.Several years ago, me and several other workers talked at great length with several drivers about reducing the number of race weekends. WELL years later, it finally came about. We don' t have that much time to get new volunteers.

So out of the 5 member clubs, who is going to step forward and bloody get involved and try to do something about this???
Clubs can't rest on their laurels and expect new people to bang down their doors.

We are now coming to another season end. PEOPLE, we have 5 months to pull something together.

Lynn Rimmer
Proud and Tired Volunteer

Before anyone gets carryed away, I know that I am not a MEMBER of IRDC, but I am a conferance member, so I feel I have a rite to say the following. (FYI--some of the 'older IRDC members/drivers chased me away ans some other people also).

I still attemp to support IRDC drivers and will show up when I am asked to to help with their radio systems.

Richard Broadhead said:

Some of us have experienced that situation already. Many of the 'track day' activities' (which are really on a small scale compared to a competition weekend) have used mostly paid workers with no experience. In general, the 'quality' of the work performed isn't even up to what's being paid for. Very sloppy communications, no sense of what's important and what isn't, no training in emergency response techniques, etc.. And then the constantly rotating nature of 'temporary workers' really makes it difficult.

It's easy to understand why the well trained, long history workers would not want to be mixed in with 1/2 temps filling in.

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Richard, Since it has been awhile since you have been to the track, things have changed.

Yes, several years ago there were some track day events that toke place with paid workers that had no idea what a track was, let alone what to do.

Since then IRDC/SCCA members Kieth & Marie have put together a 'paid' crew of people that some, of them are also members of the clubs, that work the tracks as much as 4 days a week PLUS weekends.

These people have had as much training as any of the other workers that you may remember.

Even Safety chief Ricky Lee works on this crew.


I also know that this crew also works with Don Kitch on his school days, as well as BMW, Lotius clubs.

I also know that Pacific Raceways will not let any 'paid' person on a corner that has not had training or is not working with a trained person.


Now, as far as the comment about Drivers and crew working turns or support positions, Solo, ralley require that you put in time 'working' the event as well as driving or crewing.

SOVREN is also talking about doing driver/crew working support because of lack of people.

Yes, I know that it makes it hard if driver/crew work supoort as well as working on the car, but as a club, as Rick and Randy have both said many times, THIS IS YOUR CLUB, WHAT CAN YOU DO TO MAKE IT WORK?

I think it's about time we made senior drivers volunteer a few hours a year, we insist the novices do it, why not senior drivers (a lot of the prima donors would benefit greatly from working a corner).
For years at the ice races we used to rotate drivers out to the corners and it brought about a good racing atmosphere
I raced and did novice observation this past weekend and I only have one crew member.