fgf has a very interesting interview up now.
a rare look into the mind of a uscf official.
maybe the donimator should take a look.
part of the interview tries to explain the need for 8 zillion uscf officials that seem to be at every event.
but it is mostly refering to world class events... which doesn't really help local promoters who want to know why they have to pony up for so many officials.
now, world class events aside, i am of the opinion (at this time), that more officials probably confuses things more than helps an event run smoothly.
i've heard that more officials = "more eyes".
but in reality, more officials seems to = lap counter, wheelpit official, assistant officials, etc. who are not really watching the race because of their other responsibilities. (i.e. changing the lap cards).
i understand the need for officials. don't get me wrong.
but could some of these more "menial" tasks be given to volunteers by the promoter, in an effort to cut costs and allot more funds to the event itself?
at least on the local level?
it seems like a couple of helping hands and another video camera could go a long way.
i don't want to trash our local officials because they are doing us a service, i think it is usa cycling that seems to be making it harder and harder for local events to happen...
i hope they are not suprised when things like abr, and obra. i think it might be a good idea for some people (current officals or not) to look into being abr officials...
3 comments:
Great post, they are definitely valid concerns. can't speak for "world class" events or events I wasn't at, but at the 3 events I did work:
-we didn't have a person dedicated to being a wheel pit official, lap card official, or any other specialty officials. During crits, a wheel pit official is necessary, not to ensure that the flat-tired rider takes his own wheels (and not someone else's) but to ensure the rider gets safely reinserted into the race where they came out, so it's an issue of making the race fair and, first and foremost, safe. I wouldn't call a wheel pit official a "menial" task. A lot of the time, the roving Chief Ref does this work anyway.
Lap cards - events I worked, those of us working the lap cards were also scoring - which is a critical factor in ensuring accurate (and deep) results as best we can. I never saw anyone dedicated to working lap cards who was not also scoring the race. But yes, a non-official volunteer could very well run the lap cards.
One thing to remember is that race promoters *can* (and arguably should) recruit members from their club to become officials and work their club's events (donate their time), except fot the Chief Ref position.
(dis)pencer, your post reads like foreshadowing. Interesting to see where this goes...
I'm pretty sure that's the official who made me want to cry at Nats.
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