Novice Instruction

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Novice Instruction

Postby Anonymous » Sat Dec 23, 2006 5:33 pm

Since the other thread got into Novices...

Do we have a dedicated Novice instructor?

Could we do a better job at it?
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Postby Loren » Sat Dec 23, 2006 6:55 pm

I think it is beneficial to have a dedicated Novice coordinator at each event. Doesn't have to always be the same person, just needs to be someone who is a fully qualified driver, and preferably a trained safety steward.

This person should identify all of the first timers at the driver's meeting, arrange the novice course walk, and be sure that Novices are fully tended to with pre-drive ride-alongs, instructor rides, and whatever else they need.

It is important to note that this is a "coordinator" position. When we have a lot of novices at an event, one person can't tend to them all. The job is to facilitate getting the Novices what they need. Find a qualified instructor to do the Novice walk. Find the novices and find a willing experience driver to put them in the car with. Find the novices and locate a qualified instructor to ride with them. You can do SOME of this, but don't try to do ALL of it because while you'll take good care of some of the novices, you'll completely miss others.

To run a novice class or not? The argument has been made "what if a Honda club comes out and all of the novices end up running in the same class?"... well, if we have a Novice class, they all run together, anyway! I think that's just an issue that whoever is handling run/work assignment will have to work around at each event. Not a big deal.

With an uber-simple classing structure, it's easy to put Novices in their "appropriate" class. I've never seen Novice classes be very well-populated, anyway. Most first-timers seem to choose to run "in-class" even when given the option. So... why bother with a separate Novice class?

Identify the first-timers and other "green" folk at the driver's meeting for sure. Try to tend to their needs, absolutely. But I don't see much need to class them separately.
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Anonymous

Postby Anonymous » Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:24 pm

Here is what I do regarding run groups...

Say I have 10 Novices.
50 Total entrants running 2 heats would make 25 people in each heat.
I split the novices in half and run 5 novices in each heat.
Simple, I think.

And there is never a chance that one heat may have more Novices in it than another.

With the low attendance numbers at Brooksville, every courseworker is important. By my calculations it takes 12+ people to run an event. So if you don't get at least 40 people at an event, splitting Novices up unequally becomes a huge issue.
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Postby Loren » Sat Dec 23, 2006 7:58 pm

I agree with that. Simple is good. Logical is good. Trying to fit a fixed structure to a variable issue... not so good.
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Postby Alizarin » Tue Dec 26, 2006 12:09 am

See if you can follow this...

I'm not object to a novice class, but I do like the idea of running novices in the off-heat for the class their car should be in. That way, people with experience with that "type" of car can be available to instduct or ride, and there's no worry about the people who can possibly provide the best novice instruction being out working the course, or worrying about their own runs.
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Postby Jamie » Tue Dec 26, 2006 4:40 pm

I think "best novice instruction" has more to do with experience than with the type of car -- it's a matter of getting the basics across. By the time most drivers really benefit from the nuances of someone experienced in their particular car, they're not really novices any longer.
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Postby muddy » Tue Dec 26, 2006 6:05 pm

Loren wrote:I think it is beneficial to have a dedicated Novice coordinator at each event. Doesn't have to always be the same person, just needs to be someone who is a fully qualified driver, and preferably a trained safety steward.
In that case, why not make it a responsibility of the Safety Steward. With attendance being so low, I don't think we should take another person away from working the course for this position. Once the event has begun, the safety steward does not have much to do. You could also enlist the tech guys to assist with instructing during the heats.

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