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No district race for us this year

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 9:36 am
by pgosselin
Has something like this ever happened to you?

This is my son's last year in Pinewood Derby. He won the Pack's Pinewood Derby back in February and was looking forward to racing in the district Pinewood Derby this weekend. We didn't think we would win, but we thought we might finish in the money.

When I went to double check the check-in times for tomorrow morning, my blood ran cold. I discovered the District moved up the race and held it last weekend. In other words, we missed it.

Because my son crossed over to the Troop in February, we dropped off the Pack's email list and were never informed of the change of date or venue. I'm told that there were emails reminders sent out by the district, but we never received any of those either.

Needless to say, we're very disappointed. And it seems like an anticlimatic way to finish up his official Cub Scouting Pinewood career.

The good news is that it fell on the same weekend as the District Camporee. Given the choice, I think Jon would have chosen the Camporee over the Pinewood Derby. He certainly had fun last weekend. But still, we were never given the choice. We could have sent my wife with the car to race by proxy had we known.

I'm not mad. Just disappointed.

Fortunately, Jon will get one more chance to race. Both he and I have cars entered in the Mid-America Pinewood Derby next week. So that will have to make due. Here's hoping that kharma comes back around and he'll do extra well there.

Paul

Re: No district race for us this year

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 12:33 pm
by resullivan
Unfortunate to say the least. As you said, at least you still have Mid-America.

Re: No district race for us this year

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 1:55 pm
by birddog
I'm the PWD chairman for our pack and I coordinated our pack's attendence at the district race this year. I had 6 families to deal with (3 families entering in the racing division and 3 families entering in the design division).

We had 2 scout families who had crossed over, but I still included them in my emails and ensured everyone knew what was going on. I even brought 2 cars with me for families who could not attend.

I would hope that when my son crosses over, somebody looks out for us if we are lucky enough to qualify for district again and the race date changes.

The good news is you still have Mid-America!

birddog

Re: No district race for us this year

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 3:15 pm
by FatSebastian
pgosselin wrote:Has something like this ever happened to you?
Not us personally, but I seem to recall someone else on DT complaining that they missed a district or council race because the date was changed out from under them. I haven't found the post yet though. Too bad - good luck at Mid-America!

Re: No district race for us this year

Posted: Fri Apr 26, 2013 7:12 pm
by pgosselin
Thanks, guys.

When I was Pack Committee Chair at our Pack in Louisville, this would never have happened to one of my families. I agree the communication could have been way better.

What makes it even worse is my son was the Pack Champ for the very Pack that runs the district race here every year. You would have thought they would have wanted their best car to be represented at the very event they host.

Just add it to a multitude of things that have been sub par in the running of their Pinewood events here. If my son still had another year to go, I'd be trying to take over that committee and right the ship. But like my son, I'm ready to move on to the Troop, too.

I spearheaded many Pinewood Derbies when I lived in Louisville and this would never have happened to the families in my Pack. I always made sure to remind them at the Pack Pinewood Derby, a week ahead of District and then the day before so we would be well represented. We also had alternates designated in case one of the Den winners couldn't attend.

Normally, I would have just stayed quiet about this, but I thought maybe the topic would be good for discussion. Perhaps it will help any race supervisors who visit to make sure this never happens to the Cub Scouts in their districts.

Paul

Re: No district race for us this year

Posted: Sat Apr 27, 2013 11:44 pm
by Noskills
Paul,
This kind of happened to me too. Our district poorly advertises and promotes the district event. I e-mailed 3 people and finally found the person in charge. He told me there would be no race as no pack would host. So we did not make a car (district rules are different than pack rules). About a week before, I found out the race was on. We were going out of town anyway so could not even rush a car out. Luckily the track rental guys who runs our PWD is hosting a regional race not affiliated with BSA which we are going to. My son's car was the fastest on the track this season so we hope to do well.
Seth