Training Log Archive: vmeyerIn the 7 days ending Oct 15, 2012: |
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Monday Oct 15, 2012 #
Note
Housing
The beginning…the mundane…in addition to being Results/Download person, I offered to manage the PEEC housing, in one of my more stupid moments. My reasoning was that since I wasn’t the Registrar, Housing Coordinator would allow me to have my foot in the door with the Registrar. As Results/Download person, if the registration data is poor, then managing things race day can be problematic.
This actually went quite well. People seemed to make their own housing groupings, or I was able to group people together in a reasonable fashion. Of course, the two CSU lodges were the place to be, and they even had a sprint inside.
As I was making the housing assignments, I fretted about putting unknown people together, but I found this in an AP log: “I went back to the cabin very discouraged. I really felt like packing up and leaving. The guys in the cabin were very helpful…I had wondered what being in a cabin with 6 guys I had never met would be like, it was very up lifting since we all had a strong passion for Orienteering. They really helped me technically and mentally.”
So, I give me an A for Housing Coordinator. Also receiving an A+ is Janet Porter, who took over the distribution of the housing assignments and linens on Thursday and Friday. Thank you, Janet (and Sandy for arranging the takeover)! This was invaluable to me.
However, the people who thought it was OK to stay without paying? I give those people an F.
Registration and the Registrar
As I mentioned above, I like to keep an eye on the registration data so that it doesn’t come back and bite me in the butt on race day. Doug Sevon was the registrar, and it was his first A-meet as registrar. Little did he know about the demanding people he would have to deal with. Sorry about that, Doug, I can’t help myself. Oh, the participants, not me?!
My biggest concern was that we would end up with lots of different databases which would be out of sync. I think I was the only one who messed up when I skipped some lunch tickets for Thursday. Doug gets an A+.
Name Tags
Besides anything related to results and the radio controls, my personal desire was name tags. It wasn’t a DVOA priority, but I wanted them, so I made it happen. Major thanks to Amy Louden for helping me cut them out and laminate them on the Saturday before the event. I saw lots of people wearing them all weekend, which made me very happy. A+ to Amy for her assistance, A+ to me for the follow through when I didn’t really have the whole day to dedicate to making name tags and tickets, C for the somewhat amateurish execution.
BTW, I brought the laminating machine, paper, and a color printer, so I could make name tags on the fly. We didn’t get one for everyone, but it was close. Hah! I could be anything I wanted, and after my original name tag went missing, I changed to SI-Guru for the weekend, and then the other one turned up as well.
Tickets
As someone pointed out ahead of time – “Holy moley. It's just a ticket.” True statement, but I wanted something more substantial so that people couldn’t claim at the door that they had lost their ticket, since they are generally of the raffle ticket variety, and thus easily lost. That didn’t totally prevent the “I left my ticket at the hotel” excuse for the Friday night dinner, but I think the tickets were generally successful, well, except for the fact that they had to be cut off of the hook. Idea – A+, kindergarten design - B, ease of handing them in – F.
FYI, laminating the tickets (800) and name tags (700+) took ~11 hours on the Saturday before the event. Time I should have/could have used doing other stuff, but at the end of the day, I was pleased with the result.
Lunch Bags
So, the last time I was involved with housing and a bagged lunch, there weren’t enough bagged lunches for everyone when they went to pick them up. This time I was determined to have a lunch bag for everyone who signed up for housing, so I made labels for everyone (or almost everyone – sorry for screwing that up for those 10 people on Thursday). Amy put a label on the bags and I handed them in. Little did I know that a bigger bag was required since two sandwiches and the other stuff wouldn’t fit into the little brown bag that you get at the grocery store.
OK, the lunches turned out to be the same turkey sandwich each day, but the sides were different. And, the PEEC staff was super accommodating! When a father of a vegetarian mentioned that his daughter had been throwing her sandwiches out Friday and Saturday, the PEEC staff made an alternate lunch as I waited on Sunday morning. Perhaps PB&J and a cheese sandwich sucked, but it was vegetarian. A+ to the PEEC staff for being as flexible as possible.
The beginning…the mundane…in addition to being Results/Download person, I offered to manage the PEEC housing, in one of my more stupid moments. My reasoning was that since I wasn’t the Registrar, Housing Coordinator would allow me to have my foot in the door with the Registrar. As Results/Download person, if the registration data is poor, then managing things race day can be problematic.
This actually went quite well. People seemed to make their own housing groupings, or I was able to group people together in a reasonable fashion. Of course, the two CSU lodges were the place to be, and they even had a sprint inside.
As I was making the housing assignments, I fretted about putting unknown people together, but I found this in an AP log: “I went back to the cabin very discouraged. I really felt like packing up and leaving. The guys in the cabin were very helpful…I had wondered what being in a cabin with 6 guys I had never met would be like, it was very up lifting since we all had a strong passion for Orienteering. They really helped me technically and mentally.”
So, I give me an A for Housing Coordinator. Also receiving an A+ is Janet Porter, who took over the distribution of the housing assignments and linens on Thursday and Friday. Thank you, Janet (and Sandy for arranging the takeover)! This was invaluable to me.
However, the people who thought it was OK to stay without paying? I give those people an F.
Registration and the Registrar
As I mentioned above, I like to keep an eye on the registration data so that it doesn’t come back and bite me in the butt on race day. Doug Sevon was the registrar, and it was his first A-meet as registrar. Little did he know about the demanding people he would have to deal with. Sorry about that, Doug, I can’t help myself. Oh, the participants, not me?!
My biggest concern was that we would end up with lots of different databases which would be out of sync. I think I was the only one who messed up when I skipped some lunch tickets for Thursday. Doug gets an A+.
Name Tags
Besides anything related to results and the radio controls, my personal desire was name tags. It wasn’t a DVOA priority, but I wanted them, so I made it happen. Major thanks to Amy Louden for helping me cut them out and laminate them on the Saturday before the event. I saw lots of people wearing them all weekend, which made me very happy. A+ to Amy for her assistance, A+ to me for the follow through when I didn’t really have the whole day to dedicate to making name tags and tickets, C for the somewhat amateurish execution.
BTW, I brought the laminating machine, paper, and a color printer, so I could make name tags on the fly. We didn’t get one for everyone, but it was close. Hah! I could be anything I wanted, and after my original name tag went missing, I changed to SI-Guru for the weekend, and then the other one turned up as well.
Tickets
As someone pointed out ahead of time – “Holy moley. It's just a ticket.” True statement, but I wanted something more substantial so that people couldn’t claim at the door that they had lost their ticket, since they are generally of the raffle ticket variety, and thus easily lost. That didn’t totally prevent the “I left my ticket at the hotel” excuse for the Friday night dinner, but I think the tickets were generally successful, well, except for the fact that they had to be cut off of the hook. Idea – A+, kindergarten design - B, ease of handing them in – F.
FYI, laminating the tickets (800) and name tags (700+) took ~11 hours on the Saturday before the event. Time I should have/could have used doing other stuff, but at the end of the day, I was pleased with the result.
Lunch Bags
So, the last time I was involved with housing and a bagged lunch, there weren’t enough bagged lunches for everyone when they went to pick them up. This time I was determined to have a lunch bag for everyone who signed up for housing, so I made labels for everyone (or almost everyone – sorry for screwing that up for those 10 people on Thursday). Amy put a label on the bags and I handed them in. Little did I know that a bigger bag was required since two sandwiches and the other stuff wouldn’t fit into the little brown bag that you get at the grocery store.
OK, the lunches turned out to be the same turkey sandwich each day, but the sides were different. And, the PEEC staff was super accommodating! When a father of a vegetarian mentioned that his daughter had been throwing her sandwiches out Friday and Saturday, the PEEC staff made an alternate lunch as I waited on Sunday morning. Perhaps PB&J and a cheese sandwich sucked, but it was vegetarian. A+ to the PEEC staff for being as flexible as possible.
Sunday Oct 14, 2012 #
Event: QOC Swanson Rd
Note