Novice School - Feb. 20th - SPC

[Jamie]

Are we doing one?

[Native]

You're the first to bring it up, but it's certainly ok with me. I can't imagine anyone would object (although it's fine if someone does; just post it here, please).

That said, you have any thoughts?

[Jamie]

First to bring it up here, but I've been asked. From the new schedule, doesn't look like the traditional January weekend is in the cards, but you have a two-day SPC event schedule in March -- do it then? Or try a different format? Long on questions at this point...short on thoughts.

[Jeremy]

Could it work at Brooksville? Maybe try to get the day before the Jan. event.

[Charles]

Could it work at Brooksville? Maybe try to get the day before the Jan. event.

+1 for Brooksville, 10000x more space, no reason we can't use space almost all the way to Kohl's if we wanted since radios and station coverage won't be an issue.

[Native]

Yeah, I was thinking March. Doing it in Jan. was preferable back when our points season was the same as the calendar - get the noobs up to speed early so they can compete the rest of the year. Now with our Sept-Jul. season, IMHO, a Jan. school is not so important, and, getting a school together (I"ve chaired the last 2) during the holiday season, well, it sucks. We could put it off until October, which would be more in keeping with the "season." But, it's hotter in Oct. than March which would really be tougher on school staffers and the students...

We've traditionally done the school at SPC for a couple reasons, as far as I know: The compactness of the site makes communication, and rotation between stations, easy and quick. The shaded picnic tables lend themselves to the lectures, and a comfortable lunch, as opposed to standing at B'ville, in the sun. SPC seems to attract more novices in general (I've never actually counted, it just seems that way). The first two reasons are probably more valid. Not saying it can't be done at B'ville.

I may as well say it now, I'm not chairing a school this time (that may, or may not, be a good thing 8) ). I'll be happy to offer the info and materials, etc. to someone who might want them, and will "advise" in the background if wanted, and I'll instruct if I'm wanted, but that's it.

That said, I'm not married to any date or location (although I do favor SPC) or format. Seems to me that the chair(s) will have some liberty to use the same format as we have previously, or make changes...although the "usual" format has been reasonably well-received by the students and is well-known by the usual group of instructors, fwiw, but that doesn't cement anything.

Discussing some of this ahead of time is good. And I'll probably sound like a broken record (or scratched CD ), but it seems to me one of the things we'll need, earlier rather than later, is to find a person (or two) who want to chair.

[Jamie]

Could it work at Brooksville? Maybe try to get the day before the Jan. event.

+1 for Brooksville, 10000x more space, no reason we can't use space almost all the way to Kohl's if we wanted since radios and station coverage won't be an issue.

I'm not sure the extra space is all that useful, other than to spread out the stations a bit. I think Steve's right -- we get a better novice turnout at SPC, simply because it's closer to more people.

[Charles]

Do we really want wusses that won't drive more than 20mins from home for an event?

[Jamie]

To pull 'em in and get 'em started, yes!

(Ignoring that Brooksville is 20 minutes from my house.... )

[Charles]

To pull 'em in and get 'em started, yes!

(Ignoring that Brooksville is 20 minutes from my house.... )

Which means SPJC isn't 20 mins from your house and you've shown up there a few times

[Loren]

I agree with every word of what Steve said. Every word of it.

(I've trained him well)

Seriously, SPC will draw more novices. Would suck to put on a school and not have enough people attend to make it worthwhile. And the "curriculum" that we've used for the past 3-4 years works VERY well and seems to teach the novices what they need to know.

I'd save Brooksville for a more "test and tune" kind of event for the more experienced folks.

[nc4me]

It's official. The novice school will be during the February 2-day event. The school will be saturday and a traditional FAST race on sunday. After everyone left today's event Steven approached me about chairing this school and I accepted. Steven will be emailing me the info which I'll review over the next month and a half to formulate a plan for the event. I will start to inquire about some FAST members being instructors for this school at the January event so we can make it through the holiday season without unnecessary distractions.

The only thing that I'll ask of you all for now, is that you do not volunteer for this school until the January or february time frame. That will help me from having to deal with people backing out because of other things and have to redo stuff. When january and february come around and I'm actually organizing the event. If at that time you know you can make it, either as an instructor or a course worker. Let me know and I'll add you to the list of volunteers. Obviously there will be last minute things beyond our control and some people may have to back out, but this will keep it to a minimum.

If you do have any suggestions for me about how to make the school itself better or run smoother from years past. Please post in this thread, as I'll be looking at it frequently and I'll take your suggestions to heart since you've done it before. Thank you.

[Loren]

I think I like this Chris guy. 8)

[Native]

like him? I'm thinking major man-crush...

Thanks very much Chris, for stepping up for this. After the great job you did with the Nov. event, I've got every confidence that you'll be guiding us to an excellent novice school. I'll get you the info you asked for, just give me a day or two to find it and sort through it.

As for the rest of you, Chris is serious about wanting suggestions - feel free to post up ideas, likes/dislikes about past schools, etc.

[JoshMcg]

How is a school event different from a typical autocross?

[Loren]

It's all about instruction. There are typically about 2 instructors for every 6 or 8 students, so you almost always have an instructor riding with you to help you improve. There are several exercises (slalom, skidpad, braking, etc) and a classroom session, plus a full course at the end of the day.

The school is usually limited to about 20-24 students, so you get gobs of seat time and instruction all for the price of two autocrosses.

Well worth the money for a novice. (and, yes, you have to be a novice... no old-hat autocrossers scheming for seat time!)

[Jeremy]

The biggest thing I have been noticing with novices is that they don't get close enough to apex cones. I would suggest modifying the "cornering" portion of the previous school courses and try to design something that allows for a wider line. Probably going to be hard since that portion is usually shoved into the narrow end of site. Something similar to the 2 fast corners in the middle of yesterday's course would be awesome.

[Loren]

The biggest thing I have been noticing with novices is that they don't get close enough to apex cones. I would suggest modifying the "cornering" portion of the previous school courses and try to design something that allows for a wider line. Probably going to be hard since that portion is usually shoved into the narrow end of site. Something similar to the 2 fast corners in the middle of yesterday's course would be awesome.

Would be nice, but can't be done in conjunction with the other exercises that need to take place at the same time. We can try to modify that exercise in the space available to stress getting close to the apex cone. (though I thought that exercise as we ran it last time pretty well required both proper turn-in, apex and track out to get through the second part of it smoothly)

[Jeremy]

OK, I wasn't at the last one.

edit: actually I haven't been to the last 2.

[Loren]

Yeah, we turned it into a right-left-right sequence where the last two turns were PAINFUL if you didn't set up for and properly apex the first turn. But, if you did it right, you could sail right through it. It frustrated a lot of people... but if it was too easy, it wouldn't be a good learning tool!

We used this course in 2007 & 2008... so, yeah, you missed it!