There has been some discussion in the round 8 results thread regarding novice hours, keeping points and being able to see your results for future years.

I'd like to open a discussion regarding Novice hours, the value of them, and how to handle them in the future.

1) I'm personally not a fan of the "buy off your novice hours" plan going forward. I see it's value in 2009, but think it was a stop gap measure at best.

2) I think that Novice hours have a value in creating an idea of community. In another thread Tony mentions that it is a 90/10 ratio of "consumers" of the MRA vs. "community members" of the MRA, and I agree, but instead of catering to the idea of the consumer, I'd rather see an approach where we bolstered the idea of the community member. In the end if the steps we take make this sport MORE expensive in $$ then we will lose consumers as a result.

3) Maybe we've been approaching the novice hours problem from the wrong end. Service to the club can come in many forms. A lot of these can be away from the racetrack on race weekend, and some can take place during the weekend, but not during the race day. Some ideas that come to mind.

- Working on the PR committee to spread the word about our events at bike nights, shops and other social gatherings. Young/new members are often the most enthusiastic about racing. Let's make that enthusiasm contagious to the outside community.

- Filling the gap where the air fence crew is going to leave a void. With a race tentatively scheduled for PPIR next year, there is easily a need for a large air fence contingent at that event. I also hope that we continue to plan to use the air fence at Pueblo for the 2 events tentatively scheduled there.

These are two ideas for ways to utilize novice hours in the 19 seconds I've been thinking about it. There are hundreds more ways in the off season, from helping at the banquet (which I believe will be more staff intensive on the MRA side this year) to calling existing members after license packets go out for 2010 and encouraging them to sign up and race with us again.

This kind of "personal" contact is what makes it FEEL like a community to the members. Will it work? Who knows, but it is my belief that there is a stronger chance of someone saying "YES" if they are asked in person (or over the phone) than if you just send them a packet of information. The same is true of the novice hours. As a community we should be talking to our new members as much as possible, reaching out to them instead of making them come to us. (but that is a different topic for a different time)

Thoughts?

Scott