Mt. Hood Cycling Classic
Folks before this turns into an ugly rant on OBRA please look closer as to what the point of the email. He was not calling officials, staff or anyone else monkeys. He was simply suggesting that the race organizers find a dedicated person whose main job is to sit next to the officials and as soon as each set of results are completed takes them and gets them posted ASAP on the web site, on walls, on twitter, or where ever else they need to be posted. This seems simple in nature to have done but when you are super strapped to find volunteers or are slammed to get the race on the road it a lot of times hard to find someone to fill that role. I have never operated on the premises that it was the officials job to post everything as they have their hands full all day. From the sounds of it Ernie and his crew did an outstanding job given the tough conditions that plagued the race. My hats off to all of you as I know how hard that can be even on a good weather day. Remember that a lot of people are interested on having results posted as quickly as possible because they are fans of the race. If they can not be there riding it they at least want to follow it. If people were not complaining about the lack of results then you should be very concerned because there is no interest.
Chad
Promoter
----- Original Message -----
From: Scott Jones
To: obra@list.obra.org ; worldsmaddestdog@gmail.com
Cc: OBRA Officials
Sent: Monday, June 22, 2009 9:31 AM
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Elkhorn Results?!?!
Seriously, did this person really mean this?
"And I for one will positively pitch in to a fund to buy the Elkhorn Classic a computer and a monkey to run it for the the difficult task of posting stuff to the Internet for 2010."
Ok then, since you think a monkey could do the job, why don't you come on out to a race then and try to place riders when the conditions are difficult, let alone when they are good. We have riders, even in great weather, place numbers on the wrong side, upside down, covered by vest or jacket, don't sign in, etc. and it makes our job as officials that much harder. Like Mike said, we try to produce results as quickly and accurately as possible, and then to hear criticism like this makes me not want to place anyone beyond the points.
Do you really need to know you finished 56th at PIR? Well, we place you because we think riders like that, people thank us for that, but if you are stating that we don't need to place you, I'd be more than happy to tell my Cheif Judge to only place those in the points from now on. I don't need to spend, nor do other officials, hours of our own time looking over the results to place people when there is no need for it and you aren't grateful for us doing it.
I will say that I'm hoping your comment was in a joking matter, I really do. I know that if you are serious though, that you are in the minority of the racers in OBRA land and that most racers enjoy seeing such nicely tabulted and lengthy results week in and week out.
Scott Jones
OBRA Official
On Mon, Jun 22, 2009 at 8:47 AM, Mike Murray wrote:
The "monkeys" running the multiple computers at Elkhorn, as well as at every other race in Oregon, could easily take offense to the statement below. The webmaster, officials and organizers might share in this offense. I do not think that offense was intended. People need to understand that producing and disseminating results is a non-trivial task. Add this to the other headaches of race organizing and it is a miracle that anyone puts on any races. Results at Oregon races are produced more rapidly and throughly than just about anywhere else but that doesn't keep people from asking for more. Rude comments about results errors and requests for changes in results that are weeks old are common.
Mike Murray
-----Original Message-----
From: "Re: Elkhorn Results?!?!" [worldsmaddestdog@gmail.com]
Date: 06/22/2009 02:09 AM
To: obra@list.obra.org
Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Elkhorn Results?!?!
I agree with Candi. It certainly is not under the officials' purview to disseminate results information to anybody but the promoter once they've finished the painstaking and tedious work of porecssing it.
And I for one will positively pitch in to a fund to buy the Elkhorn Classic a computer and a monkey to run it for the the difficult task of posting stuff to the Internet for 2010.
It's definitely a special race. The landscape is awesome. I'm guessing there are endless course scenarios in that area. And the community seems to be very into it and proud of their race. And I'm sure the local economy gets a little boost, too.
One very cool thing is that I saw my old friend Brian Olson watching the crit. His wife (the local animal "rescuer" out in Helvetia) gave me my dog 15 years ago. He owns a furniture store in downtown Baker City now.
Crazy little world.
_______________________________________________
OBRA mailing list
obra@list.obra.org
http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org
_______________________________________________
OBRA mailing list
obra@list.obra.org
http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
OBRA mailing list
obra@list.obra.org
http://list.obra.org/mailman/listinfo/obra
Unsubscribe: obra-unsubscribe@list.obra.org