Novice Hours / Community Service

I will be the first to admit that this is not at all a new proposal.

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Delete 4.5.D,E,F,G:
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D. All riders who begin the season as a Novice must complete 4 hours of community service to the club that season. Novice riders must complete 4 hours of service before being upgraded to expert. Failure to complete the service will result in the forfeiture of all points and standings for the season in all classes in which the rider has competed.

E. For the purposes of this section ‘community service’ may include but not be confined to scorekeeping, cornerworking or any other service as defined by the Board.

F. The Board may waive the requirement of community service for a rider for extraordinary circumstances and by a majority vote of the Board.

G. Point calculations for the purposes of advancing to expert (Section 4.3) will be applied prior to application of penalties due to failure to complete 4 hours of service to the club.


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Add:
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4.4.4.C Community Service

1. All riders who are not members of the MRA Board must either:

  • a. Complete 4 hours of community service to the club each season, or
    b. Pay $25/hr to the club for each partial hour not worked.

Failure to comply with one of the above conditions will result in the forfeiture of all points and standings for the season in all classes in which the rider has competed.

2. The period for Community Service begins the day after the previous season's last race, and continues through the end of the current season's last race weekend.

3. Fullfillment of the Community Service requirement will be tracked on the MRA website for all riders, indicating both 'if' and 'how' the requirement has been completed, (i.e., 'Board Member', 'waived', 'x hours / y dollars').

4. For the purposes of this section ‘community service’ may include but not be confined to scorekeeping, cornerworking, race school instruction, bike night events, or any other service as defined by the Board.

  • a. Riders must have prior consent of any responsible Board member in order to fullfill their Community Service in such capacity. (This is geared towards cornerworking and PR events.)

5. The Board may waive the requirement of community service for a rider for extraordinary circumstances and by a majority vote of the Board.

6. For Novices, point calculations for the purposes of advancing to expert (Section 4.3) will be applied prior to application of penalties due to failure to complete 4 hours of service to the club.


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I have wanted to propose a rule change like this for several years, but felt that unless I did it as an Expert, that it would be discounted as the whinings of a Novice. The events of this year have forced my hand, and not by encouraging me to petition for Expert status - that is a completely separate debate.

Our financial difficulties this year poignantly illustrated two related facts: 1) The club can really use a significant level of volunteer service, and 2) a lot of people - both Novice and Expert - were happy to step up to the challenge. On a related note, this year's $50 buyout option created the rather bizarre side effect of in essence making the turnkey Novice race license $50 more expensive than the turnkey Expert license. WTF!

The gross effect of what I am proposing would add up to a total of 1200 hours of volunteer service hours, or $30000 to the club's bank account, (or some ratio of the two), for the approximately 300 racers we had this year, assuming that they all cared about points or standings. (Racers that didn't compete during the season could ignore this requirement without repercussion.) The net effect is harder to quantify, given that all we have tracked up until now is the efforts that Novices make toward their requirement - not what Experts have contributed, nor what Novices have contributed beyond their 4 hour requirement.

I've proposed a doubling of this year's buyout price because I think it should be more expensive than that to buy a clear conscience. The club could do a lot with the equivalent of a part time employee, (granted that administration would be a required but hidden cost), and any money that this brought in could go a very long way in covering PR costs.

Tracking riders' fullfillment on the MRA website would grant recognition to those who contribute the most, (and least), and could ultimately conclude with an annual award.