Lake Superior R/C Club

At TCORC we run 3 mins between rounds and give an extra minute now and then when guys are back to back. I'm usually the race director... When I'm racing, Dale or Joe Z. will help on the mic too. It works well most of the time.
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Setup is way faster if you have a diagram of the layout in hand (to show others) and 1 guy giving direction.
We have used a $5 fee 'refundable at end of the day' to encourage setup/takedown help- that worked okay.
This year were handing out raffle tix at the end of takedown...we're gonna have a drawing for donated items at the year end party.

There is no real need to have to sit at the table once the race is started. Jlap does it all. That's why we have that program. Getting the race started in 3 minutes vs 7 minutes is our first plan of attack. Doing that will save at least 15 minutes every hour. We are not looking for someone to sit there all night.

The biggest hurdle is starting on time. Yes we should be racing at 6:00 and when I get at the armory at 4:00 to 4:15 I am the only one most the time bringing in the equipment and once the carpet is layed down I set up my pits and get batteries going, then tape down the carpet for 12 years have not missed a night of taping down carpet. The last couple of Thursday nights Tice has not been there so no one is entered while I am taping carpet. Another problem is assigning transponders it takes time to do so and everyone with a personal should have it entered so the checkin time is faster and of coarse the loaners take time when they all have to be used to run a race. Training someone to run a race is easy the program does it all on its own. Learning the program is a different story and it would take time from me to work with someone to do so and we are aleady tight on helpers on Thursday nights with racers getting there in time to help set up, I try to do what I do best to get us going. I run 4 cars, run the program, corner marshall just about every race other then the ones I am in. The problem we have is starting on time both summer and winter and that all depends on who shows up early to help set up so we can get going on time. I allmost forgot shoveling a path to the building, I have done that a lot over the past 12 years. So Shane I understand your problem with the late finish and would be open to any ideas on getting going on time.

Thanks
Gary

I think thats the issue were trying to solve for you Gary. How can we take some of the load OFF you. If you werent "the guy" on every facet of the night, maybe working together you might be able to actually enjoy just racing a couple heats while others fill the void. Noone in this post is saying you dont do a great job, its simply stated you are trying to do more than any 1 guy should have too, on every single club night. There are a few of us who are trying to learn how the setup game works, how to run the computer, etc. in order to help not only speed up the show, but to soften the load on you. We really enjoy the RC bit, and hope we can all work and improve things in the future.

Gary, Shane volunteered to start learning the computer and help out in that area so you can concentrate on other things. We just need someone to teach him the basics and then we can concentrate on running the program a little tighter. Also, we discussed putting something in writing in the clubs by laws that state if you are at the track, you need to be helping with the track setup. Leaving the wrenching until after the setup would greatly help out the start time.

When others learn the computer, the goal is to only allow 3 minutes between races and a short break to print the heats. This will take a least an hour off the back end of the evening.

With just these two small adjustments we can make our club more enjoyable for everyone. And like running the same layouts every night it will only take a couple weeks to perfect it. We have an incredible thing going right now. Our club has the biggest sheet of carpet and lowest operating cost anywhere. By taking the load off of Gary we can continue to build and tweak it to make it even better for everyone.