Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Discussions on race planning, preparations and how to run a "fair" and fun race.
RaceFan
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Re: Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Post by RaceFan »

Glengary, thanks for the backup!

Actually, my son is moving on to Boy Scouts so my time is up as PWD coordinator. I wouldn't let any of the sour-grapes types deter me. That's also a lesson, I want to pass on to the kids....continue on through adversity. Don't quit!

My advise to future coordinators everywhere: Be Prepared! Expect the unexpected! Don't quit! Keep on doing what you're doing!

I will do what I can to help the next person.
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Re: Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Post by dna1990 »

RF, no doubt it only take 'one' comment to taint a day of fun.

But curious, when you say large pack - how many in the pack, how many raced, and was it only 5-6 complaints/DQs?

Again, I agree with all you said and feel wholeheartedly with the situation. I am only asking to help apply to my own large pack. And how to set some expectations on participation and 'issues'.

The one thing we do is night-before checkin like many have stated. I think that does wonders for any last minute build issues.
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Re: Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Post by RaceFan »

If every webelo showed up the total would have been 122. I don't recall the actual number of racers. It was much less, of course.

Actually, there were no real complaints except for the inappropriate insinuation that we cheated. I'm probably being a bit thin-skinned but it ticks me off to hear stuff like that. That's like saying, "You snort cocaine, ha, ha,...just kidding" or "you cheat on your wife, ha, ha." Hilarious, huh?

Believe it or not, when I saw the car that was overweight, I examined it and saw that the wheels were crooked and wouldn't spin more than about 5 seconds when spun by hand. Since I knew that thing was barely going to make it down the track, I just let it in. Probably not the textbook thing to do but the guy was getting so loud it was going to be more trouble than it was worth. I think he'd been up all night. That car didn't do very well so it didn't matter. It was a judgement call.

Only the wooden dowel-wheeled car (can you believe that?) and the ones that wouldn't fit on the track were DQ'd. That makes only about 3 out of at least 60.

Nobody's disappointed with anything (that I know of) except me (and a small percentage of the kids who had the no-effort cars).

Actually, it was a success. I just can't believe the stuff I saw this year.
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Re: Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Post by pack529holycross »

RaceFan wrote:
Nitro Dan wrote:Sounds like the rules were stressed well enough... I'm curious, were there any workshops or clinics provided?

-Nitro Dan
No workshops have ever been provided in the history our pack that I am aware of. Some dens have done their own but our pack is unmanagably big. I was the coordinator and would have done one but I have no tools whatsoever. No drill press, no bandsaw...nothing. It would have been too much to do it at the pack level.

I would have liked to pre-register cars the night before but there was no way I could secure them overnight. I think we would have had only a few do that. Most pull all-nighters before the race and check-in at race day. I guess a future coordinator could require each car be turned in the pack meeting before the race but I know a bunch of people would show up with cars on race day anyway.

It wasn't about tools or lack of info. The ones who wanted to build the cars built them and won. The ones who only put forth a half-hearted effort hopefully learned their lesson (I doubt it). A lot of the worst cars were made by parents who have been in a few years and know better.

There's no solution to this...You can't change peoples' attitudes, only they can do that. I'm done with ever having to do this again anyway and really should simply get over it. Thanks for the listening!
I tend to respectfully disagree with the premise that the things you described are unavoidable. I would say that of all the instructions you can provide to parents, the most critical piece of information you can provide is a blow up picture of a BSA wheel and Axle. Much like the Uniform insignia guide, when you hand that paper to a parent, there is not much room for misinterpretation. I am not saying you did anything wrong or failed to do something right... just that I find it hard to believe that a wooden dowel wheel would have been contemplated if the parent had a spec sheet in their hands...
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Re: Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Post by RaceFan »

the most critical piece of information you can provide is a blow up picture of a BSA wheel and Axle....
Now that will be amusing! You're on! I will provide that to the person who inherits the job next year!

It's like that saying, "We wouldn't have brought it up if it hadn't been an issue in the past!"
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Re: Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Post by derbyspeed »

I agree a check-in before race day is a good thing. We provided time trials 2 days before and that kind of forced the issue to have your car done so you could be ahead of the game and see just how fast your car was as we had them run against a pace car that I threw together.

Wouldn't you know the pace car beat all but about 4 cars during the time trials (hardly any prep to the wheels). Anyway the time trials gave the scouts a chance to go home and make adjustments (some good, some bad!). But it was a major help in making sure cars were up to specs. And we didn't have any cars not make it down the track this year! :D

I do have to say, you can only do so much. And there's a point where parents/guardians have to make an effort to show up to get the information or at least inquire if they miss. We aren't baby sitters. we try to teach our scouts respect and I think it is very disrespectful when parents don't make the effort to show up when information or special events are provided and then complain. Not much time for that kind of attitude.

I had it pretty easy this year running the derby, as the cubmaster before me handed out no information. I figured out the best way to make sure it got to where it should go was to mail it to every scout's house. Even though I still emailed, put it on the website, and handed out during the seminar put on during a pack meeting.

RaceFan I feel your frustration - you definitely have a nice size pack, won't be able to please them all, but it sounds like you are an excellent volunteer for scouting and I think some tend to forget what volunteer stands for.
Mike Webb

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Re: Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Post by Bryan »

My worst derby experience was when one of the children showed up with and won with a car that his brother built years before. We did not find out until after the race when my son told that he had bragged about it. The next year he showed up with the same car and finished second. The cub master was informed but elected not to do anything.

The next year I took over the derby and made rule changes to prevent this.
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Re: Bizzare Parental Behavior - CAUTION - Very Negative!

Post by RaceFan »

Oh yeah, I know what you mean about previous cars. I did put that in the rules that they should be new cars.

I reiterated that we operate on the honor system & a trophy isn't worth anything unless you earned it honestly.

Absolutely, that one should be in the rules.

....& thanks guys for the kind words. Keep up the good work, learn from the experience, teach the boys that hard work can pay off.
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