Help Needed - Orwell hosting Leinster CX Champs, Sunday Dec. 8th

Hi All,

Orwell are hosting the Leinster CycloCross Championships on December 8th in the GAP Glencullen.

We need some help from Club members to enable us to run the event.
The roles that need filling are 3 Course Marshals and a Carpark Director per hour.
We just ask one slot per person.

Last year, we had two new faces, help us out. It would be nice to have more new members helping this year.

Selling Points: There's a cafe onsite that sells nice Veggie Burgers, Paul will be blasting Mumble Rap tunes, you might get to pet a walker's dog (it's winter they'll be extra fluffy, you might also get bitten, but life is all about risk), you get to watch awesome bike racing.

If you're helping on the day. The GAP, doesn't have 3g/4g mobile coverage, so old-fashioned phone calling is the communication method.

Race Day Tasks
The Link has Edit access, so you can just add your name there, (please try not to do anything fancy with the sheet).

Link to sheet:
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Race Details: Leinster CycloCross Championships 2019 hosted by Scott Orwell Wheelers .


Course and Roles
I really want to use the off-camber section on the other side of the Dublin Mountain Way.
To do that we need three course marshals per race, and additional ones for Practice.
These are the yellow circles. The twin Marshals will need to operate a Stop-Go System. The third marshal will be managing the two way traffic half-way up the Dublin Mountain Way.

The Carpark Director is super important to direct the cars into the parking field, as this is requested by the Venue. Team Vans and Ambulance can go in the back Car Park.

If we can't get the Marshals for all races, we can not use the Off-Camber section, and get by with one course marshal. That will chop about 30-40 seconds off the lap time, which we don't want to happen.

Notes for Sign-On

• All riders, including Pre-Entered, need to sign a GAP Waiver. These will be provided by Lisa from the GAP. We'll need to pass these back the queue, as they take a minute to fill in. We'll need extra pens for this.
• The Women's race is the most time sensitive, have a separate Women's Table.
• For On-The-Day riders Leinster Title Eligibility, ask the rider if their club is in Leinster, if not, do they live in Leinster.
• The Categories that a Rider can race in as as follows: (M=Male, F=Female)
  U6M, U8M, U10M, U12M, U14M, U16M, Junior M, U23M, Elite M, M40, M50, M60
  U6F, U8F, U10F, U12F, U14F, U16F, Junior F, U23F, Elite F, Masters F

Hopefully we'll get the help we need, if not I'll change my duties on the day. I'm not letting my work up there go to waste. Get to watch all the good technical parts of the course and maybe learn a thing or two at the same time.

Moving this up to the top of the Recent Topics thread

Please help if you can!

Hi. I can be available; just let me know what you need. Niall Gannon.

Hi Neil, it's a case of putting your name beside a task during a timeframe in this SpeadSheet:

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What we're looking for is two people to help with Sign-On during the Women's race, as those who are doing it before and after, would like to race/watch their children race race.

Thanks Luke. I did that, hope it showing on the spreadsheet now.

We still have five key positions to fill.
They're one hour-ish slots each.
Please help if you can.

In order if importance they are:

1. Dublin Mountain Way Marshal Off-Camber 10:10 - 11:15
2. Car Park Director 12:00 - 13:20
3. Car Park Director 13:20 - 14:30
4. Dublin Mountain Way Marshal Upper 11:15 - 12:00
5. Dublin Mountain Way Marshal Pit Paths 11:15 - 12:00 (We can route the tape to not need this position)

There are people signed up for six and three hours stints. And people who have put in four to twelve hours of Venue Preparation.

It's super depressing to have to repeatedly ask for help, when I have a million other things to prepare.
Those of you with the attitude "I'll help if you're stuck", yes we are stuck now (and always have been).


Pick a Task Here:

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Cool, looks like we're more or less ready to rock tomorrow.
Thank to everyone who took a task, the key positions are filled, and we have plenty of tape maintainers.

We had hope to tape the course today, but it's too windy.

When you arrive, go to the Sign-On Desk to get a Yellow Vest (Gucci Autumn/Winter 2019 Collection). With your Gillet Jeaune, go to your position, not the Champs-Élysées.

When Taping the poles. Tape mid-way up the pole. This avoids tape getting caught in the handlebars and derailleur.

When Cleaning Up, we have 142 Stakes (19 of which are Orange) that we borrowed from EPIC MTB. These takes differ from Orwell stakes, in that they only have one sided foot-hitting-downy-thing. Please stack these separate from the Orwell stakes. Luke Potter (July posterboy on Ginger Calendar 2013) will take custody of these.
The EPIC Stakes, were mainly used for the Start/Finish Area and from the Gap Off-Camber area Downhill to the Pit.

Right, I'm dry and warm now. A huge well done have to go to Luke and Lorna for the weeks of work leading up to today's race. A lot of this work goes unseen but is essential for a successful event.
Thanks to everyone from the club and their families that helped out on Saturday and especially to those helping today. It was a testing day out there in that weather.
I've no idea of any results but well done to all for taking on a challenging course and conditions.
A big thank you to those helping with course work over the last few weeks and to the club and our sponsors for their continued support of our crazy little sport.

If I've forgotten anyone I apologise, I'm starting to fade now.

Thank you to every one helped out yesterday.
It was tough up there with the wind and showers brought on by the storm.
Everyone who put their name down showed up and delivered. That's awesome commitment.
These races are absolute chaos.

From a Logistics we corrected everything that plagued us last year. We generated a few new smaller items to correct for future.

Thank you to the Club Members that Sponsored the race; Sinead Kennedy, Aidan Hammond, Orla Hendron and Dave Tansey.

Rider Attendances at these races, particularly championship events, are unpredictable and the backing that we got, it allowed us to put on a safe event with Wind Resistant tape, well equipped Ambulance teams, Chip Timing, Portaloos, Croud control Barriers (aka Racers with Timing Chips post-race Escape preventers), Race Numbers, Commissaire and more.

In the Organisation, which was mixed with running the Leinster League of CycloCross series, I only had two meltdowns. One of them was at the breakfast queue at the Ballymount AppleGreen.

I really don't want to have to post this, but now for some gripes:

Something really needs to change with the Marshaling System, or lack there of, in this club.

It was the day before the event before we got the key positions "filled". If this was a non-championship event, it would've been cancellation grounds.
That cancellation call would've had to have been made on the Wednesday/Early Thursday, to allow prospective attendees to get a Pre-Entered spot on another CX race and sort their Logistics out.
Then the treasurer's day would've been ruined by having to process refunds.
Then that Event Type is off the table forever.
Then the questions will be asked of any and all club members, the question being "Biggest club in the country, where are your members?"

When setting up these events, I have to fill out a Risk Assessment form and put down a my name opposite the Event Organiser and Safety Officer positions.
This is quite a serious responsibility.
It's so worrying to not have people assigned to tasks, or to have people doing long stints.

Due to the skeleton crew we had:
* Parents who missed their children's race, and podiums.
* People with wet feet who had been there from 08:00 to 16:30, and during that time they had to pull a three hour marshaling stint.
* The event constantly falling slightly behind on the timetable, as the Podium and next race gridding were dependent on one person.
* Well, it fell behind on schedule because riders were still pinning on number 10 mins after their race should've started, likely because of how limited we were at sign-on.

How long before these committed, and over relied upon, members just call it quits?
It'll happen in all aspects of the club too. Yellow and White Sunday Spins groups, start learning how to put the route maps on your computers, those days are nigh.

Even if we cancelled the official Club Spin to cover an event, would anyone in a WhatsApp Group suggesting a unofficial spin with club members, speak up and say "Maybe we should help out a the event instead?"

We've taken on how many members through the recruitment drives over the last number of years? Where are ye?

The quotes that stuck with me from the AGM a few weeks ago when the Marshaling Debate was defeated were "they use the club as a service" and "They reply 'I just race in this jersey'".

Best of luck to all lay club members who ride the Randonée this year.
I'd much rather be seen on the Randonée Marshal's Ride the weekend beforehand.