AX photos + instructor feedback

[Kim Crosser]

Different goals for different priorities:
1 The instructors would work first and train their student if needed to mitigate having to work 2 sessions. The instructors are not driving while students are working, but they are driving just before the students go out
2 The students are not driving but need to get out of instructors cars early in the second session to get ready to corner work
3 I prefer letting the student see the track first and then having a better idea of what the instructor is doing differently- no right or wrong
4 We have the driver groups working corners rather than the instructor groups (see #1) There has been a learning curve as they learn how to call in cones during timed runs, but not a long term issue in my mind

There are 2 instructor groups (RED & WHITE) , 2 student groups (GREEN & BLUE) and 2 driver groups (ORANGE & YELLOW)

Greg

I haven't been there for a while, but in practice, Orange was also an instructor group and Yellow is where the students for Orange instructors went. The pairings (Instructor/Student) were Red/Blue, White/Green, Orange/Yellow. It depends on how many students need instructors. If you can fit all the Instructor/Student pairs into the Red/Blue and White/Green groups, then both Orange and Yellow can be assigned to work timed run sessions. That may open a couple more patterns that I didn't factor due to us typically having some instructor/student pairings in Orange/Yellow.

2 The students are not driving but need to get out of instructors cars early in the second session to get ready to corner work

That one bothers me. Why do we want to short-change student seat time with an instructor?

I guess I am still trying to understand - what are the benefits of the new scheme?

[Greg Phillips]

Kim wrote:
"That one bothers me. Why do we want to short-change student seat time with an instructor?

I guess I am still trying to understand - what are the benefits of the new scheme?"

Many instructors will have the students out of their car to have a few laps without the added weight if they really want to maximize their practice time before timed runs so I don't think missing a couple of laps is a major issue.

Mission:
I was asked to try and set up a system to make instructors happier about instructing regularly.
One of the major disincentives was having to go out with a student to work corners and then having to go out again and work their corners in the heat of the day for timed runs.

Instructors also complained about always having to stay to the end. As the instructors were working corners during timed runs, they would see other drivers (usually not instructors) leaving early as they drove down the ring road.
I looked at what I would ideally have as MY corner work schedule
Benefits
1. Instructors work in the cool of the day
2. Minimize having to work 2 corner session by training the student first
3. Done earlier and have the option of leaving after timed runs if they desire

I was not looking to make a "FAIR" schedule for everyone, it was designed to my advantage as an instructor

Greg

[ttweed]

I was not looking to make a "FAIR" schedule for everyone, it was designed to my advantage as an instructor.

There are a lot of positive elements in that schedule, Greg, and I could even come to like it, as I said before, if there was some accommodation to prevent a new student from working corners twice. All it might take is a method to pair them up with an experienced corner worker in their session somehow (other than their instructor). We would need to identify the subset of new folks who are not comfortable working corners alone (possibly by an extra query on the pre-reg form?) and split them between the two student groups. Then the corner-working chair would need to either pair them up with other experienced workers in their run group, or have a pool of people like Ian who are willing to work two sessions they can pull in and assign to train them, or both, depending on the need at any particular event.

TT

[Greg Phillips]

I was not looking to make a "FAIR" schedule for everyone, it was designed to my advantage as an instructor.

There are a lot of positive elements in that schedule, Greg, and I could even come to like it, as I said before, if there was some accommodation to prevent a new student from working corners twice. All it might take is a method to pair them up with an experienced corner worker in their session somehow (other than their instructor). We would need to identify the subset of new folks who are not comfortable working corners alone (possibly by an extra query on the pre-reg form?) and split them between the two student groups. Then the corner-working chair would need to either pair them up with other experienced workers in their run group, or have a pool of people like Ian who are willing to work two sessions they can pull in and assign to train them, or both, depending on the need at any particular event.

TT

I agree that there are other options to improve the AX experience for students as well as instructors.
My mission was to help out the instructor corps, but the system is never perfect and we should try to have continuous quality improvement

Greg

[Petunia777]

Tom Tweed wrote: I am just curious--what color run group were you placed in? Did you work corners twice during the day, once with your instructor and once without? Did you feel like you had enough time to eat, hydrate, and rest/visit with other members between sessions of driving and corner working?

Sorry about being so tardy in responding. I was in the blue group. I worked the corners once later in the afternoon. I was to have worked with my instructor, but I know he was busy with other obligations when they called for the blue group to go out and work the corners, so I just joined another experienced corner worker and his newbie. I eventually moved away from them because cones kept getting knocked over between us and the next corner work, so I stayed down where the cones kept getting knocked over. However, I really had little to no training. I didn't have a walkie-talkie, and a few times I ran out to set the cones up, I was a little scared as the cars raced through. My instructor came out as soon as he could and made sure I was aware where he was stationed if I wanted to join him, but he didn't push me about it, I was already kind of settled in where I was working, and I was hot and tired and didn't feel like schlepping all the way over to where he was working.

I felt like I had plenty of time to eat, drink, hydrate, rest, etc. Except for the fact that I have foot problems, which makes it very difficult for me to stand and/or walk for long periods of time, and the unusual heat and humidity, I really didn't mind being a corner worker. If I could have brought my red camp chair out there and stood up as needed, I wouldn't have minded working corners at all. It helped that I found a little bit of shade, and hopefully it won't be that hot again anytime soon.