Da Groj

Native wrote:

Spin Out wrote:Any chance of just showing up on Saturday?

We do walkup onsite reg. at SPC for those who can't (or don't) preregister.

Actually, you specified preregistration only for the Saturday endurocross, so that's what the announcement said (give Mark a point for reading it!). I can change that if you want.

marsh wrote:I'm trying to arrange some holidays that would put my in Bradenton for this weekend and will try and make one or both days.

...but are you buying another car to bring with you?

Actually, you specified preregistration only for the Saturday endurocross, so that's what the announcement said (give Mark a point for reading it!). I can change that if you want.

I've been doing that a lot, lately - I think I need a vacation... and one point, heck, two points, for Mark!

So, yeah, interest in this event is pretty low - only 18 Saturday and 27 on Sunday. No reason not to allow folks to walk up. We could even extend prereg. too, for that matter...

Wouldn't break my heart to have low turnout for an enduro.

I was curious at the lower than normal numbers...what is the minimum to run an event?

I'm coming up with ~26 bodies?

Something else I've pondered is if FAST has thought of printing up business cards to generate additional club members? I realize the club isn't about making money, but a club must continually grow to replace members that have moved on, etc. I come across many autos at my place of work that might be interested, but without standing outside waiting for them to return...no way to pass the word.

Example: I'm in VA currently...signed up for an event up here (first of the season-FL has it so nice) and they have > 135 signed up plus another 15 on wait list...

Loren wrote:Wouldn't break my heart to have low turnout for an enduro.

Yeah, I hate to say it, but I agree. A low turn out would be nice for Saturday, lotsa runs and most likely a early afternoon finish.

Either way though, I'm in for Sunday. I'll at least I'll stop by Saturday if anything just to say "hey" and help out for a bit.

EDIT: Hmmm, why are both events are showing that Registration is Closed???

solar 90GT/03Si wrote:Bill, glad to hear that they gave you a "stay" what a mess that must be, and besides Canadians are pretty much Americans anyhow and vice versa.

Thanks. If I didn't say "out" or "about" most people would never know. I never say "eh".

meicalnissyen wrote:Yeah I thought all you had to do was renounce the wearing of a took and you were naturalized on the spot

That is "toque" or "tuque". And you can't have it!

Well, if it would solve my problems I guess I'd let it go.

WAFlowers wrote:

solar 90GT/03Si wrote:Bill, glad to hear that they gave you a "stay" what a mess that must be, and besides Canadians are pretty much Americans anyhow and vice versa.

Thanks. If I didn't say "out" or "about" most people would never know. I never say "eh".

It's not that you say "out" or "about".......

It's that we hear "awout" and "abowwwut"


Which got me thinking about my favorite Canadian joke.....

How do you get 100 Canadians out of a swimming pool on the hottest day of the summer?

Just yell "Ok now, everyone out of the pool!"


Let me also take a moment to say, because it cannot be said enough, that we are lucky to have both of you.

RC

rcroft wrote:It's not that you say "out" or "about".......

It's that we hear "awout" and "abowwwut"

I've been told for years: it's not what you say but how you say it.

How do you get 100 Canadians out of a swimming pool on the hottest day of the summer?

Just yell "Ok now, everyone out of the pool!"

They are just too polite and ready to follow authority figures.

Last year I spent more time in Canada than any year since I moved here over 11 years ago. I found that I am acculturated; I'm not exactly "American" in my outlook, but I'm not really "Canadian" either. What other Canadians put up with (and what I would have 11 years ago) I found I had no patience for and tended to "push" to get things done. Very un-Canadian of me! :shock:

Let me also take a moment to say, because it cannot be said enough, that we are lucky to have both of you.

Thanks Ron. I really appreciate that.

Tim M wrote:Something else I've pondered is if FAST has thought of printing up business cards to generate additional club members? I realize the club isn't about making money, but a club must continually grow to replace members that have moved on, etc. I come across many autos at my place of work that might be interested, but without standing outside waiting for them to return...no way to pass the word.

Tim, I'll try to take a stab at answering this. It's really about "balance". With the sites that we run at (SPC in particular), and the way we choose to run our events, and the number of runs that we've grown accustomed to, 60-70 entries per event is the maximum we can comfortably do. We could do more, and yes, some clubs do 100-150 or even 200 cars per event... but we've decided that the fun factor does NOT increase with that many more cars, only the hassles.

We used to publicize our events heavily on the Tampa Racing forum and any other local forum we could find, and that's what built the club initially. Every event got a very thorough pre-event post on TR stating everything that a newb would need to know, we answered questions, encouraged people to come out, and it worked very well. We got to the point that we were pushing 60-65 or more cars per event and on the verge of having to turn people away, so we made the conscious decision to STOP the outside publicity and let the club exist on "word-of-mouth" and the website for a while. And that's been working well for quite some time.

This is the first weekend that we've had a low turnout in a very long time, I wouldn't panic about it. But, if it does turn out to be a trend that is strong enough to affect the operation of the club, we can return to stronger "marketing" methods.

For now, if you run into folks you think might be interested, just write down the website address and hand it to them.

I see we have 27 registered for Sunday, and registration is closed, so since I'm working registration Sunday can I put my name at the top of the walk on list?

I suspect that registration is closed on accident. That's probably part of the reason that registration is low.

But, it's also the big Sebring race weekend. That's going to take away a few people, as well.

Personally, I'd always rather race than watch a race... but that's just me.

Loren wrote:so we made the conscious decision to STOP the outside publicity and let the club exist on "word-of-mouth" and the website for a while. And that's been working well for quite some time.

I think that's the wrong way to run the club. Not only because you are missing out on new drivers, but because you are missing out on future chairmen, trailer towers, etc. People that are invaluable.

If you don't advertise because you don't feel like it, that's fine. But to make a conscious decision to stop, is stupid IMO. I just hope you don't end up like the SCCA where you have to make a decision on whether or not you can keep running events because you are losing money. It might be harder to get attendance back up than you think.

Maybe you need to rethink this policy. There are probably ways in which you can advertise and still satisfy your goals.

PS. This has nothing to do with the possible low attendance of the next event. Just a general comment.

solar 90GT/03Si wrote:I see we have 27 registered for Sunday, and registration is closed, so since I'm working registration Sunday can I put my name at the top of the walk on list?

And I'm towing the trailer ONLY if I can register! (How's that for a threat?)

I'm sure registration will reopen shortly.

Jeremy wrote:I think that's the wrong way to run the club.

Say it isn't so.

Loren wrote:
Personally, I'd always rather race than watch a race... but that's just me.

I said the same thing last year when out first Lakeland Event was held on the same day as the SP Grand Prix 8) . A friend had tickets and he couldn't believe I wouldn't go because I'd rather drive than watch.

WAFlowers wrote:

meicalnissyen wrote:Yeah I thought all you had to do was renounce the wearing of a took and you were naturalized on the spot

That is "toque" or "tuque". And you can't have it!

Well, if it would solve my problems I guess I'd let it go.

haha, can I get one at TAR-jay ? (target)

either way, good to hear we allowed you to stay

Wow, I'm sincerely touched that y'all are worried about the health and success of FAST. I think it's great, and appreciate the advice and opinions, both positive and negative.

FAST is healthy. As has been stated, if times have changed and it turns out that event attendance is consistently lower than we'd like, we'll do something about it. It's one event, a special event, and on a major race weekend. The last enduro was attended by fewer than half those invited, fwiw.

We have never asked anyone to not talk about the club, or invite others to join us. If y'all know folks who might dig autocross, or like FAST, please feel free to send 'em our way.




Registration has been re-opened and extended until the 18th. Please sign up! The deadline was changed to try to make our registration process more consistent between sites (Brooksville has a 10-day reg. deadline). We probably should've advertised that first...sorry.

SATURDAY

SUNDAY

As the event chair I want to promise something to the people who have signed up for the Saturday event or are debating weather or not they want to.

This will be the fastest course on SPC that our wonderful safety team will approve. I am not posting a course map, because I'm almost certain we will be able to make changes that accommodate a little quicker of a pace, but I promise you that it will be fast. If we walk the course in the morning and we think we can make it faster while staying in the margins we have for safety, we will.

We will get as many runs in as possible. There will not be an extreme course modification that takes place Saturday night, so we will be running up until 30min before we decide to pack it up for that day. What does that mean? Well, as soon as the course is done we have a 15 minute break before the drivers meeting, once the drivers meeting starts the first run will be within 45minutes. My goal, is to have the first driver off well before 10:30.

Also, if at 11:30 the workers don't mind working an extra half hour or so, you can be assured that we will be getting in "a ****load" of runs. I don't think that 3:30 is bad to leave an autocross, and I don't think the people who volunteer for cleanup and securing out items should mind leaving around 4ish. This means we have 5.5-6.5 hours of solid run time. With even 30 people, that is just retarded amounts of runs.

This is NOT a to-be-missed event at fast.

Maybe even some after-event-post-depature-bench-racing at Quaker Steak and Lube around 5pm? (Jeff, me, and the other alcoholic racers...)

Carl delivers, folks! and you heard him - "a ****load" of runs." Both Saturday and Sunday...