RS Summer 2014 - post meet feedback from Volunteers

[jACEDesignsLtd]

Hi Volunteers, once again thank you for pretty much dedicating the entire meet to help run this event. All its success is attributed to the sum of each of your individual efforts. Everyone pitched in. I mean, everyone, pulled their weight for the community. I love it.

For the veterans, and new volunteers, to this meet, how was the experience for you? was it what you expected? did we prepare you for it? what have you learned that you didn't know before? Anything that you would do for next time? would you volunteer next time? why or why not? were the safety paddles helpful? reflector vests? cones?

Any feedback would help us to improve things for spring meet volunteer crew...

[kross9]

Cones dont work. more signs.

[tiger_handheld]

not a volunteer but some feed back.

Entering parking lot from #6 road, non-registered cars were directed to "back right corner" to find parking. Unfortunately, some red civic hatch and black supra decided to take up the final two spots leaving no ways for the cars behind to exit/back up. It created a bit of a cluster fuck.

Excuse the crude drawing - but the green square = supra + red civic

- like Kross said, more signs including "exit path" or "this way to exit" would be useful next time.
- would be nice if each row was labeled - think super market isle (tree branch inside a traffic cone with a piece of paper attached saying the isle number will suffice)
- exit traffic booth should look at both exit traffic flows

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[jACEDesignsLtd]

yes i agree more signs is needed. the Exit/enter sign were a good investment.

And tiger_handheld, i did not know that happened otherwise i would have asked them to move. next time you run into something like this, then let one of us know so we can intervene.

how about hearing from other traffic volunteers?

what were your experiences? good and bad?

[kross9]

Originally Posted by jACEDesignsLtd

yes i agree more signs is needed. the Exit/enter sign were a good investment.

And tiger_handheld, i did not know that happened otherwise i would have asked them to move. next time you run into something like this, then let one of us know so we can intervene.

how about hearing from other traffic volunteers?

what were your experiences? good and bad?

Other than what I said prior, it was a good experience!

[RacingMetro92]

I think that once the queue gets to a certain point, we need to just get cars in and parking. I know there was that long hold up, but that was the major backup of the day. If there's politics or whatever, fine, but it just needed to get sorted out quicker. It just so happened to fall when the bulk of cars started coming in which is unfortunate. The signage as mentioned above would have helped buckets.

[jACEDesignsLtd]

The "holding area" was actually intentionally implemented by me. I wanted drivers the chance to experience lining up side by side with a fellow enthusiast waiting to come in. I know it would bring a smile to my face waiting beside a supped up skyline on the left and a turbocharged civic on my right. Though I admit, there were some times when the wait did drag on for too long; there really wasn't enough space to be found by 10:30am and I am just 1 person running end to end in such a huge lot (imagine the workout and sunburn i got that day). As well, I wanted to have something visually pleasing for the parking too, which is why I asked of some cars to do "angled" parking, allowed some creative freedom for clubs to park themselves or be strategically placed together. This obviously took longer for them to park and hence the backlog of people in the "holding area".

As you volunteers can attest, the presented floor plan during the orientation at Blitzgear changed the moment we arrived early Sunday morning to Silvercity. From clubs not showing up as promised, to a big water puddle in a car clubs spot, to the Holiday Inn staff parking overnight in dedicated vendor spots pre-arranged by Blitzgear. However, despite these hiccups, I think the important thing to remember is what we do during times of crisis and how we respond to it. That's what defines Revscene.

Other comments? keep it coming, I don't mind being able to give insight to the traffic decisions that day. Suggestions for future meets are indeed helpful but realize that literally every RS meets are not the same as the previous ones. Many conditions are different e.g. venue, date, time, crowd, vendors, car clubs, weather, volunteers, managers, etc.

[Raid3n]

one thing i learned while we were setting up was that the holiday inn staff had no idea the event was happening. the manager had no clue.. was this a breakdown in communication on our side or theirs?

[jACEDesignsLtd]

Originally Posted by Raid3n

one thing i learned while we were setting up was that the holiday inn staff had no idea the event was happening. the manager had no clue.. was this a breakdown in communication on our side or theirs?

Hi Morgan, unfortunately I didn't talk to the Holiday Inn staff as I was busy setting up the traffic team in the early a.m. BG Execs had made the event arrangements so I don't know what was said. But I saw that BG had arrived shortly after our Traffic Team arrival to the Silvercity lot, saw the blocked vendor spots, then immediately went straight to the hotel manager to address the matter.

But, honestly, I was not completely surprised that Holiday Inn did not know about our event. I actually expected to see big semi trucks parked along the westside of the silvercity lot upon arriving Sunday morning. This is because, I had visited the lot the Sunday a week before and noticed that the truck drivers parked there overnight to sleep in. I had brought it up in the orientation meeting to be ready to respond to circumstances that we cannot foresee. There's no sense in crying over spilt milk. You simply do what you can with what you have.

If we were able to claim back the rows that Holiday Inn staff took up immediately, then great. But for me, my thoughts were: It's 7:15am, the cones and tents have not been set up, we need to huddle the volunteers, the first roll-in is at 8:00am ..what is the likelihood of multiple Holiday Inn staff (and guests, mind you) moving their cars at 7:30am to accommodate a car show they probably know nothing about?

No not likely we'll get those rows back soon.. so we should probably move forward with the notion that we have lost those spaces for now

others?

[Raid3n]

my suggestion then would be to BG to go to all the businesses in the area (not just the lot owner) the week leading up to the event to inform them about the event. presents a better image to the businesses in the area as they aren't surprised that there are 1000+ cars materializing out of nowhere lol.

nothing you could have done day-of, something that should have been coordinated by BG.

[Jas29]

I dont think the hotel parking messed us up to much really we just moved back two rows.

The holding area was a good idea but sometimes the wait was a little to long we need to figure out away where jace doesnt have to run back and forth.

Maybe number the rows and we could have jace tell us which row the cars need to go too than jace wouldnt have to run back to the cars and walk them to the parking spots.

[jACEDesignsLtd]

@raid3n - you know one of our volunteer's name is Raiden?

Anyhow, yes, ideally that would be a good idea to let businesses be aware of the event weeks before. We'll know for next time (if we have another meet at Silvercity, that is. As you know meet locations do change every year ). And of course, there will be an upside and downside to this. One downside I can see the surrounding businesses complaining that our event negatively affects their business and image: "Get those street racers outta here!!" e.g. blocked traffic, slow productivity, public use of their washrooms, garbage, noise pollution.

@jas - you're right, moving down a few rows is not a big deal to us (revscene). But it may have been a big deal for BG as agreements were made with silvercity and Vendors/car clubs. BG's Marketing Reputation is important in the industry and by moving down 2 rows.. it is a change in floor plan and a breach of the agreement they had with Silvercity and Vendors. Furthermore, the insurance for the lot was paid for the ENTIRE lot, so this included the 2 rows unused. My guess is that maybe BG did not want to be held responsible for injuries/accidents with the Holiday Inn guests and staff or perhaps, BG simply didn't think it for fair to pay for 2 extra rows we weren't able to use for the event.

As for running back and forth. Normally I don't need to walk around that much to get the job done.. but these RS meets are just getting bigger and bigger. I need a golf cart hahah. Also we do need to invest in more walkie talkies. I found those really, really helpful this meet.