Selling it to the committee

[rdeis]

Most parents think that fewer words == simpler rules == fewer complaints

This is proveably not true, as anyone that's used the "rules in the box" and seen extended wheelbases show up at the race can attest.

Some people lean toward "if it's not specificly mentioned you can," while others lean toward "if it's not specificly mentioned you can't, " and therein lies a hurt-feelings disaster waiting to happen.

How do you explain this idea to the pack committee (who are not pineheads, are generally not lawyers, and most often don't extend this amount of thought to the implications of the rules development question)?

Similarly, a pack committee that's used to doing things a certain way will be resistant to race format changes, and you have to have buy-in from the pack leadership before trying something new. How do you convince them to risk a new concept?

[Cory]

How do you explain this idea to the pack committee (who are not pineheads, are generally not lawyers, and most often don't extend this amount of thought to the implications of the rules development question)?

Just as an experiment, I'd be tempted to give a short open-book test independently to each committee member. The "open-book" would be a simple set of rules. The questions would be to rule on the legality of various specific car building tactics, e.g., hub-coning, altering wheel-base, drilling axle holes, whatever.

If they find themselves giving different answers, then perhaps they'll start to realize that there is a problem.

If you find them giving the same answers to almost every question, then perhaps you don't have a problem.

Similarly, a pack committee that's used to doing things a certain way will be resistant to race format changes, and you have to have buy-in from the pack leadership before trying something new. How do you convince them to risk a new concept?

1. If there are key people on the committee who are approachable and will listen to reason, get them on your side ahead of time.

2. If you're trying to get away from DE or something like that, the Stearns buzzwords always had a big impact for me: Continuous Involvement, Maximum Participation. To me, these are among the "a priori" goals of Pack level PWD. Even the "not invented here" and "we've always done it this way" folks will find it difficult to disagree.

[rdeis]

If they find themselves giving different answers, then perhaps they'll start to realize that there is a problem.

If you find them giving the same answers to almost every question, then perhaps you don't have a problem.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I think my problem is most likely to be that they come up with generally similar answers that are all different from *mine* <grin>, but I'll definately take the time to work with various people individually before approaching the whole group.

One idea I had was presenting a set of potential goals for the event to them for modification and approval. Everything the race team does is then measured by *us* against the approved set of goals in the given priority, and if the committee is resistant to something the race team wants to do then we justify it to the committee by demonstrating how it will achieve the goals they gave us.