Work assignments

[jbrotbeck]

In my past life, I was worker steward. Mind you, this was in a large region where we had 150+ pre-reg entries and a cap of 200 . I got the pre-reg list by 8pm the night before the event and pre-planned the work assignments as much as possible. This was not only great motivation for everyone to pre-reg, but also allowed the worker steward less stress on the day of the event. The best thing about this system was it allowed for quicker turn-around between heats. Not sure if this is already being done, just throwing it out there for discussion.

Another option would be to wait until the morning of the event after registration is closed, then have the worker steward hang out near the trailer and assign people their positions before the start of the 1st heat.

Also, I have a question (AJ, or anyone else with the info): What percentage of our entries are typically pre-reg (ballpark)?

[lagunamiata]

We're probably at 75% that pre-register show... 25% walk up that morning.
Typically we close registration at 5pm the day before the event to give the keeper of the laptop time to download the files from MAE and set up the event that night.

[jbyrd]

My question is: How do you pre-assign workers unless with out pre-assigned run groups?

[lagunamiata]

Use the force!!

[grey ghost]

I would like to see a rotating schedule for the classes so we all have a chance to run in the afternoon or early morning. check out atlanta's schedule. If we went to that it we could set up the worker sheets with open signup area's. say you run mid day you could come early and work the first heat or you could come later and work after you have run. this would increase entries cause the competitor controls how much time he spends at the event , verses going into the day planning on being there all day.

We could even have them sign up on line so the only fill-in spots would be the walk ups saving registration time.

[cr89x]

John, I'm already ahead of you on this idea. I'm going to try the best I can to get them close to done Friday evening. We do have a large number of walk ups, especially at zMax, which makes things harder. Nothing will be set for sure until 930am Saturday.
Last year I started a new way of doing workers. Immediately after registration closes, Michael does the run groups as quickly as he can and prints off my paper work. By the time the drivers meeting starts, I have first and almost second run group assigned. Answer start the day I finish my paperwork for the day. This has enabled quicker change overs and the ability for someone else to pick up my paperwork and send people out.

I have NOT and will NOT give out assignments to participants before their scheduled shift. I've done this before with some people and they would go out to their duty instead of checking in with me first. It messes things up with my paperwork and my head. Also, people have come to know that my pre assignments are more or less carved in the pavement. Sorry that you and your three buddies want to work a station together, but you are split up. This aids in being sure attention is given to workers surroundings and not which bar they will be attending that evening. Sorry all.

I've come to take a firm fist to working and it is clenching tighter. I still have a list from last year of participants that did not work. I'm still looking for you. ZMax is a large site and hard to get enough worker coverage. Increasing attendance is making it easier though.

Thank you for bringing this up John. As Rich always said, " If you don't like it the way it is, you do it!"

[grey ghost]

I have posted this a few times over the years and gotten about the same type of response.
I guess Idea's from diffrent Regions can not work in NC because we want to do it our way.
this type of answer is why this region will continue to struggle to get the numbers to afford the big lots.

the presign in for workers would still need to be signed off by regs and then as they go out to work. if you know how many workers you need then the sign in sheet shows that. and if the sheet for your 1st choice to work is full. you may choose another. you could even have pre- signing for course set-up and the walk ups that do not get there early get to clean-up.

for the people that do not work in So. Cal. we keep a running tab of them if they show up again we would require them to work before they got to run. if they did not work then they would be banned and could not run for 18 months. If you have a list you could send them a
letter or email of the new policy. we did and for most they did not like the peer pressure of not doing they part. and would be at the next event to make amends.

we tend to have some heats that are oversized and have more workers on course than needed, and then we have some begging for workers. a presign in with a limit would balance out the extra's to a heat that would be underperscribed.

bear in Mind a lot of the core workers out of the list are also ones that can be balanced out by heats. combine the Pro with the Novice the two largest classes.

I'm Rambling just my two cents.

thanks Rob.



w

[05astock]

What big lots are you speaking of?

[lagunamiata]

Rob - I for one can't get my mind around what ATL does. If I saw it in action, I may be a believer...

We'd probably need someone that's seen this in action take the lead and make it work. SOLO chairs can't do it, too much work on their shoulders already.

[MattP]

The Atlanta setup is great, but you need a much larger core group to pull it off. We wanted to do similar in SCR, but we never had the manpower.

But yes, Rich/AJ/Mike should make a trip there if you can. Lots of good ideas to be had.

[drum3]

Atlanta has been a great/innovative region for several years . Their set-up works because they can draw 200+ to every event because they have much bigger population to pull from They basically run 2 separate events , one in the morning , one in the afternoon . They run the same classes together at every event and switch them as a group , 1 month you run the morning event , next month you run the afternoon .
Pre-assigning workers or having worker sign up sheets is fine , but you STILL have to have someone check them in before going out to work or as AJ stated , you dont know who is on course . We discovered that it took little extra time to assign spots on the fly . The only hold up to a quick change over is actually getting the workers to the check in spot . Even at Nationals , the quickest way is assigning at check-in before going out on course .

[yellow CR]

I have been to Atlanta and the morning/afternoon sessions do work well there. The biggest problem with CCR doing so is ZMax and the 5pm deadline we have to leave the venue. Each hour we go over is time and a half for the EMS and Fire we are forced to employ. We just can't afford to have the downtime of a second course walk for the afternoon session. And when I have run at Atlanta's afternoon session, I have been there past 8pm at times.

And as Matt said, we do not have the core that Atlanta has, we are shy on manpower needed to get this done.

As for pre-planning work assignments, you need to run it like Atlanta, where you have to pre-pay when registering for the event. And I feel we will loose out on attendance if we do not have on-site registration.

[SteveCouture]

We did something similar in Detroit Region a few years back. The key was preregistration was required. This was when we were drawing huge attendance and had to cap entries at 200 which filled up well ahead of event day. With that situation it is easy to do the run/work order and work assignments in advance.

[drum3]

Steve , we found out at Nationals , even 1200 competitors , all prepaid didnt mean they would show up for work assignments on time and they still needed to be checked off before going out to work or you ended up with empty worker stations and scrambling to fill those spots .

[cr89x]

My problem is lack of timeliness and those that do not pre register. Like I said, I do pre assign workers in the morning, not the day before. Also like I said, I'm going to try to do it for this event and see if it might work. I always have problems with people not checking in, checking in late, having to call out three to five people per work group, or wanting to swap run/work groups which I hate.

[SteveCouture]

Feb 17, 2012 6:17:06 GMT -5 drum3 said:

Steve , we found out at Nationals , even 1200 competitors , all prepaid didnt mean they would show up for work assignments on time and they still needed to be checked off before going out to work or you ended up with empty worker stations and scrambling to fill those spots .

I wasn't saying that worker checkin wasn't important.

The question was "how do you do work assignments when the run/work order isn't known". The answer is, if you know all the entries (because registration is closed/filled), you can set the run/work order and make work assignments prior to the day of the event. Yes there will be some changes/shifts the day of the event when/if someone decides to change classes or cars, but that is much less work than generating the ENTIRE list of work assignments the day of.

[grey ghost]

I guess I was misleading, the worker sign up sheet, would need to checked off like we do know. the major change is that the worker can sign up for any heat he is not running if he knows ahead of time which run group he is in.

the sign up sheet would have a pre-set number of worker assignments. when it gets full pull it. you can make a pre-sheet for set-up, tech, clean-up.

example of a possible sign
worker SIGN IN HEAT 1
Trailer 1 timing ______________________
2 radios _______________________
3 announcer ____________________
Starter ______________________
Grid captain _____________________ Wavier Sign______________
_____________________ ______________
_____________________
Corner 1 radio ____________________ Lic Safety _______________
____________________ ________________
____________________
____________________
Corner 2 radio____________________ time slips_________________
____________________ __________________
____________________
____________________
Corner 3 radio____________________
____________________
____________________
____________________
Corner 4 radio____________________
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________

n

[drum3]

Assigning work assignments before you know run groups is impossible . Knowing run groups is impossible until registration closes .....
Why go to the trouble of creating a sign up sheet when no one could sign up until registration closes ?
Its just as easy for the worker steward if you print out a sheet with the entire run group on each and let him check them off as they show up for work .
The ONLY way pre-assigning work and run groups will work is if you force everyone to preregister and prepay .

[cr89x]

Steve and Anthony, exactly!

That is a very interesting idea and we do this for our 24 hour event. I'm very hesitant to do that though.