Leading the Sandblast Rally forum-posts-for-volunteers: spalind

[JTYooper]

Of course, most of SS is just talk with little action.

I think most here do their part (big or small) to help promote Rally, in whatever way they can, be it word of mouth, FB/forum posting, etc. I know a few of the LSPR organizers & workers, and while they seldom post here, they devote HUGE amounts of time (and their own money) on that rally. I'm sure it's the same with S*D, Magnum Opus, 100AW, Ojibwe, Rally America, NASA, RNY, CARS, etc. Just becuz they're not posting about it, doesn't mean it's not happening...

[GageGregory]

+ 1 , greenville sc craigslist . Eric im taking that 2nd place from you!!!!

[GageGregory]

Poster bombing UT campus tomorrow !!!

[GageGregory]

boom tied for 2nd .... racingjunk.com

[EricW]

I think most here do their part (big or small) to help promote Rally, in whatever way they can, be it word of mouth, FB/forum posting, etc. I know a few of the LSPR organizers & workers, and while they seldom post here, they devote HUGE amounts of time (and their own money) on that rally. I'm sure it's the same with S*D, Magnum Opus, 100AW, Ojibwe, Rally America, NASA, RNY, CARS, etc. Just becuz they're not posting about it, doesn't mean it's not happening...

No offense John, but it's not about the organizers and volunteers who are already spending huge amounts of time and often funds making things happen. It's about the rest of us. The competitors.

As mentioned in the Tennessee thread, people keep falling back on 'oh, the organizers are working hard to make it happen'. A few people chimed in that 'organizers should do more'. Malarkey. Current and past competitors need to do more to keep things going. Our organizers and volunteers are overtaxed, under-appreciated where (the perception exists) that the rest of us are just riding on their backs. And, as the data indicates, the competitors are woefully behind the curve in helping make things happen. We (generally) are an extremely selfish lot.

This little "program" is just a ridiculously simple effort to get competitors to do more to promote the sport and get more volunteers in. This target of this effort is not the folks on SS - it's for everyone else who isn't in-the-know. This is critical, as the data indicates that nearly every rally requires 40-45% new volunteers each time to execute; said in other words, the VAST majority of people volunteer exactly once.

The least the competitors can do is share their (hopeful) enthusiasm and excitement to recruit people so that the same competitor can go play in the woods. No more, no less.



How many more people do you think would be out in the woods if KB, diggins, Antoine, or any other rally-driver-du-jour would make personal appeals on many websites asking for volunteers? 'Oh, they don't have enough time to do that!' may be a response. Well, if you're competing at the hairy edge, I'm sure you can whip up something and have a minion post it up under your name. The rest of us? Well, a good chunk of us are sitting on here, reading this exact thread... so clearly the rest if us (Occupy Dirt Roads! We are the 98%!) have time to kindly request that people come help us out.

[JTYooper]

The least the competitors can do is share their (hopeful) enthusiasm and excitement to recruit people so that the same competitor can go play in the woods. No more, no less.

Point taken about the competitors. And honestly, if I would have thought thru my post better (as you have done), I could have added competitors to my list, since the few I personally know do quite a bit of promotion, recruitment, general "Rally is Awesome" speeches, etc.

[GageGregory]

[RallyTaco]

Love him or hate him guys, his *actions* speak louder than words.

Of course, most of SS is just talk with little action.

Yes, "You're wrong, you're wrong, you don't know what you are talking about, suck on a .45" *post some links* "please come to my new rally that I think I need a group N car before I can even scout the roads" is really the perfect blend of words and action. LOL

I hope 13 links was worth associating NASA with Spalind. No sarcasm intended because I hope Sand Blast get's the help it needs but I wonder whether there was a net gain here in doing so.

[Whizbang]

so how does this work. Just put up an ad on a forum? Im on like. 50.

[EricW]

so how does this work. Just put up an ad on a forum? Im on like. 50.

But if a serious question, here's how we're organizing it in NASA: [from a snippet of an email sent to registered racers for Sandblast]

You can see forums that we haven't already posted on here (once you log in to your NRS account):
http://www.nasarallysport.com/nrsdb/...missing&ID=405

Choose at least two forums and post on them asking for volunteers. Once you make your post, add the link to the big list by including it here:
http://www.nasarallysport.com/nrsdb/...ink.php?ID=405

Here is what you can put in your post:
Include the date/location in the thread title.
Include the date/location in the post, too!
Include a link to the event web site in the post.
Include the NRS logo in the post: http://www.nasarallysport.com/graphi...Banner-800.png
Include a link to general volunteering info in your post: http://www.nasarallysport.com/main/volunteering
You can use this logo too: http://sandblastrally.linaracing.com...go-400x165.gif
Tell them how they'll get to meet and party with the racers.
Tell them how it's a fun woodsy adventure where they get close to the action.
Use lots of smiley faces and exclamation points.

Or, look at the many forum posts from previous events to get an idea of what to say. You can cut and paste across forums, often the readership does not overlap.

Please take 20 minutes to make these forum posts and follow up with them! Recruiting volunteers is a critical task, and 20 minutes by 76 people is like TWENTY FIVE HOURS for one person.

The goal is to have somewhat of a uniform message across a wide spectrum of common-interest forums. Hell, my wife even tells me that her knitting site, Ravelry.com has a rally subform. (Although, they are extremely biased to WRC only - all US events that she posts about get deleted. Those knitters rule their forums with an iron knitting needle!) This concerted effort is to also avoid common pitfalls (not enough information provided in the post, not saying anything about volunteers, etc). Every time a new unique forum is posted on, we archive it so we can remember to hit it next time. The coordination between posting entities is key and the system makes is so much easier. Plus, if you log into your NASA account, you will see that each forum has a hyperlink so you can easily find someone else's post, give it a visit and drop a line as another competitor and further share your excitement.

Sounds campy, but this really works!

Spread the word. Make a NASA account and post up! All help is appreciated.. if serious. If trolling, well... I guess you got me