Urgent Marshals Required

[ascarracinguk]

....is it me or are there more and more urgent marshals required emails and threads appearing???? is it the fact that we are all communicating better these days so get these messages through or is ther a genuie problem that marshals are starting to vote with their feet and/or there are too many meetings being run at the same time? either way it cant be good, surely something must be done. there are certain clubs that are very VERY generous and give out a fiver or tenner, put on bbqs etc but is this the answer in the long term or are there bigger problems?

[White flag man]

I think quite a lot of marshals are doing less meetings due to fuel/travel costs, myself included. This has also led to some marshals deciding at the last minute which meetings they can afford to do, instead of volunteering for any meetings before hand.

[The Fat Clerk]

And the finishing time......................................

[blueoval2]

I have cut back a lot this year mainly due fuel costs even doing my local track which is Snetterton its 100 mile round trip each day, I thought about camping to save on costs but my wife and son normally come one day of the weekend so it mainly rules that out.

[Guinness2702]

Originally Posted by blueoval2

I have cut back a lot this year mainly due fuel costs even doing my local track which is Snetterton its 100 mile round trip each day, I thought about camping to save on costs but my wife and son normally come one day of the weekend so it mainly rules that out.

Obvious then, innit! Tell your son, if he wants to come, he has to get a paper round (or start dealing drugs) to pay for his share of the fuel

[ascarracinguk]

Originally Posted by Guinness2702

Obvious then, innit! Tell your son, if he wants to come, he has to get a paper round (or start dealing drugs) to pay for his share of the fuel

or learn to like camping?

[HairyDJ]

I agree that this year has been blessed with many more of those messages than previously. It would be fascinating to know what response they have had each time.

Are they from clubs / events that the regulars are now avoiding, or are they more from the smaller clubs whose publicity / presence (club or marshal level) is not too high? Quite a few web sites don't make it easy to find contacts for volunteering (or cancelling!).

I plan my year at the beginning of the season, based on a mixture of my usual clubs / locations plus Julian's site. I'm keeping closer to home nowadays, but if available am probably out to play somewhere every weekend - not much chance of me being able to help with any last minute pleas. Those who get their lists out late will tend to miss out too.

Once or twice, I have felt a bit annoyed by last minute cries for help - tempted to reply "and please explain why you hadn't bothered to put your event list on Julian's site". The quality of some pleas can vary too - assume that your extra help will come from strangers and make the message friendly with loads of helpful info about sign-on / start / finish times, program, campsite / parking / sign-on locations, "freebies", etc.
Is it because some of the more experienced "old" organisers have moved on without their replacements having either the contacts or the experience to step into those shoes so easily?

In my early days, I responded to a plea on here from BARC @ Rockingham who were on the brink of cancelling - never again! With 2 days rallycross & 1 day circuit experience, I was made PC with a driver as my incident cover & a spectator as flaggie - if I'd known better then, I'd have walked out on the spot.

Generally speaking, the recent pleas seem to be focused on specific areas of shortage - usually specialist duties? Does this indicate a flaw in the recruitment / training process, with new recruits being automatically put to incident duties?
I recall an early SEMSEC training day at Lydden where we were all given a short overview / guide to help us if we were suddenly asked to step up to act as PC. Maybe we should look to have some time set aside at training events to give incident marshals a basic guide to helping out on Assembly / Pits / Start - the one time that you can't get mentored is when they're already desperately short!

[TerryD]

How about lunch breaks???? Organisers can't keep expecting volunteers to work all day without a break!

[sunny.traveller]

I have been on post with quite a few novices lately, on their taster day, and I wonder if some of the taster sessions should be placing some newbies with startline/assembly/pits?

[socko]

I did my taster last November and was in startline then.All ive done is incident since going full orange.
Last week i was the only proper marshal on my post with 2 club flaggers, with only 8 days experience its made me think twice about doing small events on big circuits

[Hepatic]

i think its more to do with big meets sucking the larger numbers of marshals away from the clubbies on the same weekend. BTCC this weekend will mean anything at Anglesey will be thin on the ground and i'd expect Donington / Mallory / Croft / Cadwell may also suffer as a result. The travelling hordes that follow BTCC always have a major effect on the other circuits. Its no ones fault, its the draw of that type of event.

Have to admit being confused at some events lately where bikes and cars have been on the same programme. There are a number of people that do both but for the most part car marshals won't do bikes and vice versa. Maybe that has been a contributing factor to Mallory being so desperate for all grades this weekend...

[blueoval2]

Take this weekend two big meetings on the same weekend, BARC cancelled the meeting at Snett Brands using GP circuit someone is going to suffer!!

[Guinness2702]

Originally Posted by blueoval2

I thought about camping to save on costs but my wife and son normally come one day of the weekend so it mainly rules that out.

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

or learn to like camping?

I don't think his problem is *liking* it - somebody's gotta drive the lad and missus, or persuade them to stay 2 days

[blueoval2]

Originally Posted by Guinness2702

I don't think his problem is *liking* it - somebody's gotta drive the lad and missus, or persuade them to stay 2 days

thing is the good lady has to work most Saturday's so that rules out camping for most events and they do not always want to do both days.

[SouthportFC Fan]

Two big meetings + 4 other publicised meetings in Autosport + others maybe = finite number of marshals spread too thinly.

This weekend's sum is pretty much the same as every other weekend.

Most of us volunteer for the meetings we want to do at the beginning of the season. To those meeting organisers who are short of volunteer officials for a particular meeting, and who have been since early April,who are reading this thread, look to your product.

Repeat after me,

Do not make any comment about marshalling numbers at BTCC
Do not make any comment about marshalling numbers at BTCC
Do not make any comment about marshalling numbers at BTCC
Do not make any comment about marshalling numbers at BTCC
................

[Dave Weston]

Over the last couple of years I have racked up about 100 days marshalling but this year I am going to do less than 20 days. The reasons for this are the costs involved with fuel, food, etc and I am also changing from quantity of meetings to quality, which also includes trying to do at least one day for every club.

[Stuart H]

Originally Posted by ascarracinguk

....is it me or are there more and more urgent marshals required emails and threads appearing???? is it the fact that we are all communicating better these days so get these messages through or is ther a genuie problem that marshals are starting to vote with their feet and/or there are too many meetings being run at the same time? either way it cant be good, surely something must be done. there are certain clubs that are very VERY generous and give out a fiver or tenner, put on bbqs etc but is this the answer in the long term or are there bigger problems?

Personaly I think part of the problem is that some meetings that are too close together ie: Btcc at Silverstone Gt / F3 at Donington and Bsb at Mallory which all happen over the same weekend.

[welche2]

Originally Posted by Stuart H

Personaly I think part of the problem is that some meetings that are too close together ie: Btcc at Silverstone Gt / F3 at Donington and Bsb at Mallory which all happen over the same weekend.

no bsb at mallory park this year.
thundersport gb is doing their own in place of it.
on the 18th/19th june fred from barc is after marshals. 1st time ive recived a letter asking me to do a meeting in the post. its autoglym clasic touring cars with 2 bike races as well. thundersport is the other club asking for marshals for this event. a shame its the same time as itailn superstars at donington park.

[Stuart H]

oh! :/

[Richard Duvall]

I've planned to do as many days as last year but have had to cancel a few due to other commitments. Last year I started camping to save on travelling daily which seemd like a good idea. However, I found that camping wasn't too good for my old bones so I've upgraded to a caravan this year. Not sure how its cost stacks up against saving fuel from daily travelling................ but I do now also have the use of the caravan holiday trips!