Should we buy CCS from CCE?

[motomadness]

I feel a ground swell of emotion and desire.

[Super Dave]

Buy CCS?  I'm sure it would take a lot.

Memeber org?  Well, as long as someone can be in charge to say yes or no to things.  As a democracy, sometimes the minority is the only one heard.  Remember the forms that were handed out a few years ago?  There were a handful of complaints from some amateurs that their practice was always first, so, the next season, the experts were first.  The only one's complaining were that amateurs (the only "voters" on the topic), so no expert wrote down that having their practice later was good.

Anyway, that's always been one of the "benefits" of being an expert:  later practice.  Eventually, experts and amateurs were put back into their traditional positions.

There is a new system being developed for CCS, Tiffiney tells me.  Might make things easier for us all, I don't know.

I guess now is the time to talk with Kevin and Tiff with new ideas.  It is much easier to work within the existing frame work and develop something.  I mean, the basics are correct:  we race, we get scored, there are various classes.  Hey, we never had on line points years ago and somehow we lived.  I've been racing with CCS since 1988, WERA in 1987.  Sure, there have been lots of changes.  The big contingencies above the manufactures contingencies was brought about by Bob Applegate and Roger Edmonson.  That's been a great help to us all.

[motomadness]

I guess it comes down to the fact that the members love to race and are eager to improve the organization.  Some of us have spoken very loudly that we want to help anyway we can, but our offerings are seemingly rejected.  Why is that?  We are trying to make things better for not just ourselves individually, but for the organization as a whole.

The business side: getting increase contingency, more venues, web sites, photographers, reporters, advertisers and making a business profitable to have some longevity is a humungus job for any team.  If someone is offering to assist with all of the work, and in some cases for free, why not figure out a way to accept their assistance.  I can understand that there are legal issue, but I think that is all they are - issues.  

Super Dave has been around a while.  I don't plan on going anywhere, just as many others don't.  I think there are a base of folks out there willing to stay on and follow through with any improvements.

This may be something we can put more effort into in the off season, but two things to keep in mind:
- these are not rules changes
- members need a voice to CCS/CCE and made aware of issues CCS/CCE are engaged in with respect to racing.

[Eddie#200]

We all need to realize since there currently are only two people assigned to run the show, it will take quite a bit of effort to make the decision to make a change while simultaneously doing the current work that's due.  It's not fun being behind the eight ball.  I think they are doing a good job for what they have.  Yes, it could be better.

Remember, this is a hobby for many racers.  Yes, it's a business for many of us too.  

Offers to help are great, but once the job is yours you will need to pony up the time and do the job right.  I understand where they are coming from not jumping on every offer.  Can CCS rely on you to be there every time they need you if you are just a volunteer?  They need to have a system that can work without hiring extra folks.

So being a systems guy too... I clearly see both views as being valid.  

Kevin, Tiff... we are making a serious offer to help, I would take a serious look at what we can do.  It wouldn't take that much of your time to use a phased approach.  I have a lot of computer gear I could donate as well.  There are folks that could easily automate the data input.  It would be kinda cool!

I've noticed that there is a great deal of talent in our midst.  ;D

[tshort]

Regarding having up-to-date points and results, I think what is needed is not more labor thrown at the problem, but more labor thrown at the system.

I'm sure there are some board-junkies around here who have the chops to code up a nice little routine that would suck raw transponder data out of the scoring computer at the races, and transform it into race results, in near realtime.  Seems to me like macros and a spreadsheet would get that done.

Then it's a matter of a second routine (maybe) that saves it all in the appropriate html format, and uploads it to the CCS site.  

And as a bonus, it ought to be downloadable to anyone that wants it.

And as an added bonus, the laptimes ought to be also downloadable to anyone that wants them.

This *ain't* brain surgery - someone at CCS just has to decide that it would be worth doing.  And then we need volunteers from here to devote the time and energy to getting it done.

I am not a coder, so I'm afraid I can't help.  I could project manage it, tho, and I'd be happy to do that.  

Tiffiney?  What do you say?  What roadblocks would we run into?

[SE#39]

Back in 1983 Roger Edmondson broke away from WERA and formed CCS.
The best years CCS has ever had were when Roger and Peggy "hands on" ran the show out of Asheville.
 
We need another Roger Edmondson.

[slclark65]

I guess you guys didn't read my post under "updates".  There are more than just 2 people that work with the CCS series in the Fort Worth office.  You have Angie that does the charges, Nicole that does the entries, Linda that does refunds and other things in the office.  Maybe if you guys pay attention alittle more when you call into the office and ask for the right people, things might get done.  

I am sure I will get blasted by a few that will read this.  But It is about time the truth is out.  I'll probably be banned from this sight soon if I let anymore truths out to the people that read this board.

[motomadness]

I never put a lot of belief in that idea that there were only two people running the show.  It still doesn't take away from the fact that something needs to be done, and poeple are volunteering their sweat to make a difference.

[SliderPhoto]

I guess you guys didn't read my post under "updates".  There are more than just 2 people that work with the CCS series in the Fort Worth office.  You have Angie that does the charges, Nicole that does the entries, Linda that does refunds and other things in the office.  Maybe if you guys pay attention alittle more when you call into the office and ask for the right people, things might get done.  

I am sure I will get blasted by a few that will read this.  But It is about time the truth is out.  I'll probably be banned from this sight soon if I let anymore truths out to the people that read this board.

I'm sorry Stacy, from my point of view, you weren't any better. I called you numerous times, not one call returned.

[slclark65]

Well you know that is your opinion and you know waht they say about opinions.  I never said that I did do a great job.  I stated that the same shit happened when I was there and that was over a year ago.  So I guess my point is that it wasn't fixed then and it sure as hell ain't fixed.

[slclark65]

Oh by the way, did you try to call anyone else and get a better response, other than Kevin?  

[CCS]

Thanks for all the offers of help, we wish we could use them. Unfortunately either through business practices/policies of CCE or the practicality of shipping the required data back and forth, to involve you in these areas where the company would allow you to help would require as much time to assemble what you need as it takes for us to actually do it.

The production of results is done by the Wednesday following each event, points are updated by Thursday, then the html's are sent to the internet department for posting. This is where we get hung up sometimes. Depending on what their work load is, they can be posted within hours, or sometimes days. They have more than just CCS to look after and CCE's policy doesn't allow a non-CCE person to post content on their sites. So even if we sent the results to you to process, they would still have to go through the CCE Internet department. They are doing a better job than previous years, and for that I am grateful.

We are developing a new program that will intergrate the electronic scoring and the complete Race Series Management System into one program that will be capable of genterating individual laptimes/race results/career information for access through our website, but as those who are programmers know, it takes time. Steve has been working on it for 3 years and it is finally close enough to actually test, but it is at least 6 months away from it's debut in our series. This program is the most complete ever designed for any racing series, and when it is unveiled I'm sure you will all agree that it was worth the effort.

The last word I was given on the sale of CCS was that CCE was not interested in selling CCS at this time. That was directly from the highest source I have access to in this company.

We do value and cater to our customers, every season we send out surveys and ask for rider input on lots of subjects ranging from purses to race length to new classes. What we do not do, is make decisions that benefit only one small segment of our ridership. We must balance the requests of a vocal few against the best interest of the whole group, that is why we have a rules committee, and a competition committee made up of the 12 Race Directors and Referees, to keep the interests of all ten regions in mind when changes are proposed. (Some business decision are mandated to us and we do the best that we can with what we have to work with.)

Stacey was right, we have others in this office helping us, but they do the same tasks for us that they have been doing for the last four years (except for Nicole stepping up and actually doing the data entry for us now), they also do these same tasks for Arenacross/Freestyle/Dirt Track so they are only able to devote a portion of their time and efforts to CCS. We appreciate all the help we can get, and it is this help that has enabled the 2 full time CCS people in Fort Worth to get anything done at all. Kenny in Aurora is the only other full-time road race person, and he has to also look after marketing/promotion/media for XSBA and Formula USA too, so he has his hands full. Starting out last year we had 6  full time people helping us with just road race plus the office staff that helped, so we are a little understaffed right now and with the slowing economy, we aren't likely to see any change in that number.

Thanks to all of you who offered your help, thanks to all of you who have helped us when we could take it, and especially thanks to all of the licensed racers for their patience and support.