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Thread: Volunteer Service Commitment

  1. #1
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    Volunteer Service Commitment

    This may well come to be known as the Anderson-Dingell amendment;. (Not because of the MRA's own Derek 'DingleBerns' Berns, but rather out of respect for the perseverence of Michigan's Representative John Dingell: http://dingell.house.gov/issues/affo...-america.shtml.) It's all up to you - as soon as this passes it can go away...

    My previous post is here: http://forums.mra-racing.org/viewtop...r=asc&start=40
    Scott posted this last summer: http://forums.mra-racing.org/viewtopic.php?t=9498

    Rather than get bogged down with specifics at this time, I'd like to open the topic with a simple statement of intent, start a discussion of the principles involved, and start compiling volunteer opportunities. I will submit a formal change request later (done, see: http://forums.mra-racing.org/viewtopic.php?t=11486).

    The intent of this change is to bring parity to the club's Volunteer Service requirement; to have a requirement for racers which doesn't distinguish between Novice and Expert; the size and nature of the requirement is TBD. I am in my last year as a Novice and look forward to accepting and fulfilling (nay, exceeding) a Volunteer Service commitment as a first year Expert.

    What is the purpose for 'Novice Hours'? Is it pennance? Hazing? A profit center? Is it a purpose so unique and valuable that the concept of 'Expert Hours' is nonsensical?

    The machinations that led from a state where Novices actually worked corners to one where they get the privilege of directly paying for corner workers are such that while in their 'here and now' they seemed to make sense, once you stand back and observe the current situation it has to look more than a little bizarre. We all benefit by having numerous, happy, corner workers; why is it that only Novices bear some (nominal) responsibility for them; that Experts bear none?

    The basic principle is that we are all in the same boat; the tide that bouys me also lifts you. When I pull on a oar you move forward; when you pull I benefit. Why on earth do we have a service exception for Expert racers? These are the very people that have the greatest experience and insight available to the club.

    What I'd like to see is a situation where every racer has a volunteer requirement: don't fulfill it and your season's record is purged. This may well be an equitable trade for some racers (both Novice and Expert) that don't compete enough to care about documenting their season's effort. Fine. Exceptions for board members and employees however, are expected - these people already do too much.

    We all have capabilities that the club can use both at the racetrack, in front of the public, or behind the scenes. The absolute size of the commitment is immaterial for this discussion, as would be the relative weights of various activities. Here are some possible activities:

    • On track coaching of Novices by Experts; akin to what RO was doing at the last race (sorry, Ricky).

      Jim Wilson's PR events - who really thinks that trying to staff these with Novices instead of Experts does the club justice?

      Writing an article for a publication, either print or web.

      Adopting a SuperStreet rider or a new Novice.

      There have got to be some on-going data entry needs...

      I'm guessing that most of the Board members could come up with straightforward tasks that could make their lives much easier.

      I have always felt that accepting an invitation to drink beer and eat pizza while benchracing kind of makes a sham of the current Novice volunteer commitment, but I have bitten my tongue (until now). If the structure of the club were such that there were opportunities for the general racer to participate in comittee meetings, or actual work sessions, I would be more pleased, (even if they involved drinking beer and eating pizza).


    Track and Report involvement
    We could acknowlege people for their contributions at the award banquet. I got sucked into http://www.presidentschallenge.org/index.aspx from work. It is self-managed: you log an activity with a duration. Then you can see how you are stacking up against various demographic groups.

    In closing I would like to challenge the board members and employees to cosider how many volunteer hours they could consume in a year.

  2. #2
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    Self-gratuitous bump.

    Is my argument so cogent and complete that there is nothing to add?

    Or is is so ludicrous as to merit not even one response?

    (...Don't make me put up a poll :lol: )

  3. #3
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    Chris surely by now you know that the majority of racers can't even read and then you post up a novel. You gots to keep it short and sweet for us racing ADD types.
    All kidding aside we can discuss at the rules meeting.

  4. #4
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    Quote Originally Posted by rybo
    Chris,

    In light of recent light CW turnout the idea of using the function to again fulfill service hours may not be a bad one. We've moved away from this in recent years because the training and commitment necessary to be a quality cornerworker usually extends beyond a racers willingness to do the work. We would really need folks to be willing to commit to a full days service for it to be actually useful the the club.

    That being said the last round offered service hour opportunities for novices (in accordance with the current rule set) that went unanswered. The bulk of the scoring for the weekend was done by board members and their families.

    At this point, we probably don't have enough manpower to MONITOR the expansion of the service requirement to all members. Every project would require some kind of supervision / verification by a board member and I'm not really sure that we have the horsepower to get it done.

    I appreciate the sentiment that it's a club atmosphere and that people should want to serve their community, I'm just not sure that making it a requirement is the way to go about it. My motto in this area is "inspire, don't require".


    I believe that the novice hours do serve a purpose in their current form, and if the program is delivered correctly it can inspire a spirit of service that can extend into the expert years. We have several experts that step up year after year to help the club.

    My .02

    Scott
    Casey D

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by chrobis
    Scott -

    ...but the monitoring/management of the service requirement could be fullfilled as yet another service requirement. (How so very self-referential and complete.) Kind of sounds like an offer of service, doesn't it?
    Casey D

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