Ed Hearn Listen Up!

[HYDRO21Z]

One point keeps coming up in all the posts....

We have no plan for the future!!!!!!!!!
Promotion is sorely needed, but what are we promoting?
Sponsors are needed, but what do we have to offer in return for thier investment?
We need growth, but what is the future for new racers to plan for?
There have been plenty of good ideas brought up here and in other threads,
but are they going to become a reality?

Not to stray too far from topic but,

John Runne and I are in the second year of building a new race site. Our first race was received by the City so well that they are asking me what more they can do to help us for 2007. I already have a large contribution from the Tourism bureau for the event, and businesses wanting to be a part of the next event even after only getting one day of racing due to weather.
I plan to use some of the ideas posted in the last few days to enhance our efforts.
I think we will have to do more as clubs, but it would sure be helpfull if APBA could do more for the clubs to make putting on races easier, and more affordable.(even though SO racing is already a very affordable sport)
All this discussion is beneficial to creating ideas, but where will the effort come from to implement them?
I believe it fall to the clubs once we have a plan. (Plan- theres that word again)
Just my opinion,
Dennis 21Z

[Kristi Ellison]

Dennis

#1.What do you think APBA can do more of to help the local and national clubs?

#2 Are you and John putting a show together....not just a race....I ask this because you are building on what you started last year and this year in order to retain interest and gain sponsorship you will have to bring a little more to the table.

#3 Do you have all the support of the club and the participants?

#4 Have you involved a local charity or community group?

#5 Will you have the race secured early enough to allow adequate time planning for the participants to ensure you a good turnout of boats.

If the answers to #2, 3 and 4 are yes, than in my opinion you are pulling a plan together to develop this site for the future and if all the local clubs did this once or twice a year I strongly feel we will start moving foward.

Kristi

[Blackhawkguy]

Keep trying and don't give up

What is funny, really not so funny if you think about it, is allot of the ideas posted in the last few days on this thread have been implimented before, the collard shirts are one that I remember being mandated in stock in 1988. Any way my point is nothing people are doing is new just re-discoverd things that work and have been working. I have seen a trend go around and around for over 30 years now, we fix our problems but then we let ourselves fall back into our bad habits. We just need to keep trying, and stay on top of things and it will turn around again, then keep on top of things and maintain what we have worked hard to accomplish

Kerry

[Kristi Ellison]

Kerry

I agree with you these are the things our parents did when we were kids (at least mine, not sure how old you are) and it worked. I personally think we got lazy and stopped involving the community, we are all too busy to go and talk to people and develop the relationships we need to so we can be more sucessful. We took for granted that things would not change it has come back to bite us!

Kristi

[DougMc]

What is funny, really not so funny if you think about it, is allot of the ideas posted in the last few days on this thread have been implimented before, the collard shirts are one that I remember being mandated in stock in 1988. Any way my point is nothing people are doing is new just re-discoverd things that work and have been working. I have seen a trend go around and around for over 30 years now, we fix our problems but then we let ourselves fall back into our bad habits. We just need to keep trying, and stay on top of things and it will turn around again, then keep on top of things and maintain what we have worked hard to accomplish

Kerry

What can be done by APBA or local clubs to help retain the institutional knowledge that keeps being lost?

Are there booklets produced that have the information that have been lost? Are they just not being used by organizers? Are they sitting on a back shelf somewhere which could be scanned into a .pdf? Could such ideas be put into the back of the 2007 and future rule books?

I have never been involved with putting on a race, but will be involved in putting one on next season.

[bill van steenwyk]

A Big Reason Things Fall Apart

Many good ideas on this forum, some new and some not as has been pointed out. BUT one thing that has been missed or at least not put in writing when pointing out that things work for awhile and then seem to fall apart, is the fact that these things certainly run in cycles AS DO THE PEOPLE WHO DO THE WORK. Kristy, I know you realize this because we have talked about it in the past, but nothing happens at a boat race without the PEOPLE who work the judges stand, set up and tear down the course, get the equipment to put on the race to the race site, work with the sponsors, on and on and on and on. The other 90% who have the fun off the 10% who do all the work need to be made to realize that it takes everybody or it is a very fast burn out process, especially in the case of a series like USTS. Look at the judges stand for example and I am sure the same situation exists in every category. The same people do the work weekend after weekend. My wife Eileen has been working the judges stand in USTS except for the last year or so with the same people for 20 years. All racing has to get more of the participants involved or the ones who do it all burnt out and sometimes leave altogether, and the people who get all the benefit never understand why. 10% work so the other 90% can play and the inevitable result is when people leave the sport for whatever reason they are burnt out and really don't miss it at all.
I have had the feeling for a long time (certainly not original) that we waste one of the most valuable resources we have which are the "retired" folks that would still enjoy participating in some way that would probably relieve the folks some that do all the work. I don't know how you accomplish this but I do know I see old boat racers everyear that really enjoy coming to the boat races, but never hear from anybody that they could be of help in some way.
Perhaps this resource could be tapped? Butch Leavendusky is a prime example.He always comes to the USTS race at Alex and either is a turn judge or drives a pickup boat. Surely there are others who no longer participate but could and would help in this way. They aren't all cranky like me.

[Kristi Ellison]

Bill
All good points and why I keep saying you have to have worker bees available. People are always presenting great ideas to me about what I should do at a USTS race....when my answer is "that is great who is going to do it???" answer: blank stare.

Doug
One idea we are currently implementing on the USTS is a continuity book. When military units change they pass on continuity books for each job essentially. When something works or how to accomplish a task it goes in the book. An example....How to set up a race course? I don't know how do you? Many people don't so Denny Henderson is helping us put it to paper. How do you load the safety boat trailer? How do you find a new site? What do you need for a good site? etc.. This way knowledge is passed on and we hope more people will volunteer because there is a reference to help them out if the old used up volunteers stop coming to the races! This is a great idea for local clubs.

Kristi

[Steve Johnson]

Series racing

Low boat counts
Over worked people
Bad race courses
weak classes
no prestige
No tow money

Have one only race santion per month as 4 day event.
Sell each RACE as THE mini nationals once per month. That could be

one possible solution 12 point races per year period!
only the best venues need apply : READ excellent water, must have PRIZE money. AOF NBRA APBA all included .
Spread them out across the country evenly . Race south in the winter ect...
This would eliminate ALL conflicts. plenty of workers to go around. Any "local" races to be held are strictly Club,fun only ,test , demo ride days, picnics ect... Fact maybe the emphasis should be on NEW MEMBERSHIP and slightly less on points chasing.
Dave M and Kristy I tip my hat to USTS AND NBRA for the series format,However I feel you are not looking so good Membership wise. So that said.time ateach venue should be devoted to general public test day.

Just thoughts Fire back how many pro members? NBRA ?

[Kristi Ellison]

USTS averages 70-100 enteries per race. Numbers vary based on time of year and distance from our midwest nucleus. Don't have specific numbers today but I will have numbers after the meeting next week. Our participation is up and growing but slowly. I have a very dedicated core of racers that WILL show up at every race no matter what and that keeps us going.

Kristi

[dcrummett]

Dave's absolutely right. One needs only look around and attend a few of these.

Dan
O-49

[DougMc]

The USTS show at Inverness was very weel received this year by the large spectator turnout and by the local officials.

You all did do a good job promoting Inverness. I had one of my clients who lives an hour away in St. Petersburg tell me about the K-Pro crash. The race and the crash was the talk of the town among the who's who in St. Pete.

To get that kind of buzz in a town an hour away means a good job was done.

[Dave M]

Not Sure

I am not politcally involved in the NBRA at all, just a racer who noticed a few races that obviously were doing something right. Numbers does not matter at these races, it is the participation and support of the the people in the area that amazed me. It was promoted. In my own personal opinion the boat count was about an average local race in MOD. Shelbyville had less, and was the best promoted. Not many trailers, but full fields because they have combined classes that are close in speed, both mod and stock run together. Forget it, attend one and see for yourself, hard to explain. But think of this, I am very hard to impress, anyone who knows me understands this. I was very impressed by the NBRA races I went to. I saw something that works, answers a TON of the questions people are already asking on this site, yet not many people actually do a dam thing about it. All blow and no go. So I guess if you truly want to know more about the NBRA, join the membership, get the information packet, and better yet, attend a race or two. You might actually be suprised if you can actually tear yourself away from being die hard only one organization rules mentalities.

So as far as numbers members, I have no clue. I just go and have fun racing with some of the best folks who have the racers best interests in mind.

[Blackhawkguy]

Some rules off thumb

Here are some rules I used to run Grass Lake, most of them are my pet pieves of badly run races

1. Have a start and stop time, meet them
2. Your bigest delay is scorring, the scorrers can only go so fast, get them help and have the next heat sitting ready to go, as soon as they are ready send them out, thirty heats are the most you can run in one afternoon
3. Print a schedual to include time for patrol boat changes
4. Remember the pros have noise and speed, so they are a easier sell to sponsors
5. It's not the number of boats that is important, that is more a matter of paying for sanction, if you can russle up a sponsor you may not need money for that
6. It's easier for a small bussiness to write checks for a couple hundred dollars or less, sell lots of 30 dollar adds in your program, they add up
7. Good trophies are hard to beat, give them out for weekend high point per class back five places (good trophies!)
8 Keep the PA busy, if nothing else play music over it till the next heat is ready
9. Get a lions, rotary, someone involved, help them raise money, they will help you
10. Set up the coarse on Friday, let people test if they want, they may have to meet regulations for legal boats if you do not include it on sanction, it's always nice to have the local police involved, less likely to write tickets

These are some things to use, feel free to add more if you like, next thing you know we have a book on how to, maybe start a seperate thred for this and work it over the next few weeks

[Art K]

rACES

We are basically NBRA racers. But we do go to APBA races, went too 2 races this past season, Alex & Depue. I noticed some things that really need fixing. At Alex so many classes that my son was racing in the dark in D-mod run. I could not pick out our boat the visibilty was so low. At Depue we got blowed out Sat, nobodys fault. But if we wanted too race Sunday we had to pay 2 days entry fee. Lots of trailers and boats on the bank. But with so many classes most classes had 4-6 boats running. They started at !0:30 am and at 5:05 pm we were putting our D mod hydro in the water. Incidently this was the largest class of the day 11 entrys. Would seem like you would want to showcase your largest and fastest class of the day. But of course you would need spectators there were not any that I seen. I hope everbody takes this as constructive criticism. I truly want too see NBRA & APBA grow.
Art K

[Tim Small]

Usts Races

What many people dont understand is the USTS gets 80 to 100 entries at each event with only 10 CLASSES. 5 ON SAT. AND 5 ON SUNDAY. Most races around the country get about the same but run 20 plus classes per day. It then becomes a 10 hour show instead of 3 hours. And the funny thing is the USTS makes money. You will never get new people into the sport watching heat after heat after heat of racing. I race, and it even bores me having to watch soooo many classes at some races. Imagine how the casual spectator feels. Cut your classes or suffer the consequences.