Jim Anderson
As we start the new year, as a race promoter i would like to thank the
people that were associated with my races from every point(helping,
officials, etc). All your help was very much appreciated and i cant
thank those people enough! But this also brings up some other issues of
becoming involved that we as the OBRA community as a whole should look
at.
What are the issues of getting involved that we need to be concerned
with?
In a recent issue of VeloNews(Nov. 6, 2000, Pg 26) talks about the
important issues like organization and race promotions. Along with
races disappearing from race schedules and burned out race promoters.
We are rather lucky with the organizers that we have and the enthusiasm
that we have as a whole (OBRA). However, our small group of race
organizers is been the same for many years now. What i'm concerned
about is that we will lose some of those organizers in the near future.
Just take a look at our race schedule, then look at the names of
represented organizers for each race are. There are lots of repeat
organizers and have been doing the same race promotion for years now.
What I think needs to start to happen is have others take on some of the
challenges, responsibility and costs to continue our great racing in
Oregon. This is always an issue with race promotion everywhere in the
US.
What can you all do?
Basically, offer your help and become involved with a race and race
organizer. There are so many things you could do to help out a race
organizer. We all should be familiar with the obvious ones: corner
marshals, registration help, setup/teardown helpers, official, drivers,
etc.
Im really targeting the new racers, and young racers to do the above
mentioned duties. We need the new and young racers to help for several
reasons. Mostly to have some people to pass duties, knowledge and the
trade of bike race promotion on to. All the older race promoters won't
always be around to instruct on how to do things the right way, and it
takes a bit of experience. So learn some of the issues involved in the
trade of bike race promotion now. We need the new and young racers to
be visionaries like the previous race promoters and come up with some
new, exciting, ideas for challenging race courses!
Also on a side note, OBRA is always looking for new Officials. Always
see the same ones at the races? well because that's about it for
officials. What you can do is offer to learn or oversee their duties at
race and learn the rules. Contact OBRA for more info on testing and
certification, ob-@teleport.com
So for 2001 offer your help to a race organizer in some way, other than
just paying an entry fee. We will all benefit and the race organizers
will really appreciate all your help!
Thanks!
Jim Anderson