Serious question

Ok serious question:

What would it take to stop you marshalling - either totally or for certain events and marshalling clubs.

I would say if i didn't feel safe. Or if i couldn't afford it anymore.

I have just stopped Marshalling due to fellow marshals!

pitpopsie - sorry to hear that - having similar issues myself at the moment. Is it going to stop you marshalling completely, or just with that particular group?

flaggie - can you be more specific?

I am still very new to marshaling so I am still learning but my safety would come first, if I felt a particular club were not doing things right I would stop volunteering for them. So far everyone I have met have been very friendly and helpful, they have told me things about certain clubs and races but until I have experienced those problems for myself I will continue to marshal for them. I only hope I am this postive about marshaling at the end of the season. I hope whatever problems EvilPumpkin and Pitpopsie are having are able to be resolved without you having to give up something you love to do.

EP, what a question, it's one that, until last year, I'd never have thought about.

I have given up certain meetings because of the attitude that this series is better than any other, I work the pit lane and tend to meet the organising clubs, great people if a little blinkered, but then aren't we all !

Until last year I'd have thought that nothing or no body would make me give up, but that all changed during last summer. One reason would be relationship, if it ever came to a choice of time spent with people or at circuits then, more's the pity, marshalling would give. Last year a friend who basically took me under his wing during my first year in the sport, a mentor if you like (I've seen that phrase re appear recently). We shared a sense of humour and we the bane of our chief for comments during. Well, he had a car accident and was in an ICU for 2 weeksuntil he passed. He was fit, something in his head switched off, no warning. The level of fun we enjoyed left that day, and I realised that there is more to life than slogging to a different circuit each weekend. Also, someone i'd see every other week at meetings suffered a heart attack, again fit and with no warning. My loyalties to people and series is still there, but the willingness to do extra days has gone.

At this moment in time (never say never) I doubt that I'll give up completely, but there are other things now that take priority.

Well said Jason.

I agree; for me the last year has reminded me (and I'm sorry if this sounds twee..) that it's the people that matter. The politics of the sport (or business) get in the way too often and we seem to forget about the people.

On a more materialistic side, the cost and the amount of time are a problem. As is the increasing lack of respect for the roles that marshals and officials carry out.

i do marshalling becos i like it i dont think anything would put me off other ppl, accidents etc motor racing is dangerous--must be- says so on back of ticket. safetywise it is up to each person to take care. some ppl just cant handle stress maybe they do too much without breaks

Hi Piglet, welcome to the site.

J

jason - I'm really sorry to hear that hon :( *hugz*

Claire, thanks for your kind wishes - I'm not going to discuss the issues on this site for a number of reasons - not least of which is that my posts are being monitored by certain people and I simply can't deal with yet another mish mash of misreported **** being thrown back at me by people who haven't even read the post - presumably because they'd rather believe what they're told than actually check the facts - but that's another story.

I've been thinking about this a lot lately. We all know that marshals are becoming more and more difficult to get and I'm becoming more convinced that personal factors are having a greater effect on attrition than the usual assumed factors of poor treatment by circuits/organising clubs and lack of toilet facilities!

I was just wondering whether anyone had set ideas on what would (or indeed has) prevent(ed) them from marshalling.

Would anyone be interested in reading an article about these issues? I'm starting to get the urge to write one.

cheers sweetie *hugz back*

Simple point of the story was my priorities have changed, but some years ago I marshalled at a Brands BRSCC meeting and felt the rules stifling. Them in charge only wanted reports if they asked for them, a silly rule reason really but what with one or two other occurences at other meetings I decided not to work for that club again.

Their loss, not mine :p

Ep, definately would like to read an article.

EP - Just joined today when I saw your post. I've been marshalling for a few years now and at the moment as long as I've the time I'll keep doing it.

Every type of club has its politics and as long as you have been enjoying the marshalling just stay away from it!
I was close to quiting sometime ago and I decided that I wasn't going to allow somebody (in this case a group of people who had a small bit of power that went straight to their brains!)ruin what I enjoyed doing. Now I turn up do my thing and go home. I still talk to these people but when they start with the politics I switch off and walk away!!!

From a saftey point - I would be very concerned if the people I was marshalling with were not trained correctly but this is something us 'old guys' can help fix as it is up to us to correct somebody it they do something dangerous either for themseleves or others.

My main point is that if you feel strongly about not doing certain events or working with certain clubs then the enjoyment will be gone for you and you will go home
:censored: off!! So just do the events you want to do!!!

Good advice orangenut and much appreciated. I'm not actually giving up marshalling in any case - I'm still doing bikes and karts and popping up to Kirkistown so my calendar is fairly full!

I'm always happy to go out on post with "old guys" - I find I can learn a lot more in 1 day then in a year's worth of training - not that the training isn't good - but there's no substitute for experience!

As an old hand yourself, would you have any feedback on what prevents you from marshalling?

interesting topic EPW, politics is definately the worst thing in any club, as o-nut says avoid it if you want to enjoy the day
nothing has made me want to stop marshaling (yet!) and hopefully nothing will
but over the years some of the things have made my days less than enjoyable are

1 - joining a 2nd racing club and senior officials in club no2 continually bad mouthing club no1 (and they always gave me **** posts, becoz I was in club no1 first?)

2 - being forced to spend the day with people who are 100% (a little bit of any particular trait is better than spending the day with silent sam)
a - eedjits, the been everywhere seen it done it mob, who of course don't stop talking about it - but are obviously ******s
b -the bad apple, it only needs one to spoil the bunch (eg observers for whom nothing is good enough/IO's with a rod stuck up their arse and are thus inflexible/lazy course marshals/blind flaggies) - did I miss anyone?
c - moaners, who constantly go on about how bad this club is, (and how x club is so much better at x circuit) the variety of cars, the quality of racing, the weather (too hot/cold/wet), how ****ty this track is etc etc (so why the hell did you volunteer for this meeting)
d - me (ie low manning levels), being alone is no fun (sob!)

3 - sarcastic chiefs at signing on (yes I know I'm always there 5 minutes before the end, but when I was a newbie and did'nt really know you, this was'nt nice)

4 - the Le Mans overall fiasco. The chief got us all size 5s, some of is only size 2, so we went back to swap them, then the trouble began...

but of course, for me the good days always outnumber the bad ones.

Well guys this problem occured a while ago in victoria. Basically it transpired that certain people wouldn't work with other people and so on. The flaggies all broke away and form there own team (the Victorian Flagmarshalling Team), the fires formed there own and so on. The training has improved. The standard of the officiating has improved but still there are the people who create the politics and ultimately spoil it for everyone. I have been a flaggie for just on 2 years and have seen it all. I just stay out of it and do my thing learn from as many people as possible and go home in my own car.

P.S if anyone in the U.K. can give me info on Spencer Flack it would be appreciated. I unfortunately witnessed his Death in February at Philip Island and would like to get a background on what sort of driver he was. You can reach me on the personal messaging. Sorry to put it here but i didn't what to start a thread.

Thanks

Hi EP sorry I didnt get back to you earlier! x
I have stopped marshalling completely, shame really as I enjoyed it, it was a job as well as a hobbie, my reason for leaving was due to a very pathetic group of men who obviously didnt like the fact a woman could do the job as well/better than them! I am not usually one to quit due to others but it went on over 3 years and enough was enough. x

All good points bodysnatcher - and it's interesting to note that the problems appear to be "universal" (in so far as you can call two country's worth of data universal!)

I have to admit I feel I am starting to turn into type c which is another reason I'm distancing myself from the club that is making me unhappy. I still have a lot of friends in that club and I don't want to turn into someone everyone avoids because I'm wandering around with an eeyore-esque cloud over me!

Ok so is it fair to say the following based on what we have so far:

1. Politics
Including discrimination (based on whatever - gender, who's friends with who, what colour hair you have...); bullying; harassment of a "difficult to pin down and you feel silly saying anything" nature; *****ing and backbiting
All of these either because it's directed AT you, or you are uncomfortable seeing it done to others - and possibly being dragged into it.
2. Personal commitments not respected enough - leading to issues similar to the above for those who don't show up for every single event - probably from the heirarchy in the club and its members. e.g. comments like "oh the little woman finally let you out then" or whatever
3. Not feeling safe with fellow marshals - either due to personality, past experience or other factors that make you go "hmmmm"
4. Poor treatment by your own marshalling club in terms of attitude towards your skills

Is that fair?

Well my chief always preaches the comment that if you don't work then you can't flag. So if work commitments prevent you from attending that fine. If you have to work around the house to keep the missus happy then that is fine. But i do agree with your comments Evilpumpkin and i sympathies. We have 134 members at last count in the VFT and you would probably see 50 of them regulary. As for the rest a variety of reasons prevents them from attending(hell even our own chief is prevented from coming occiasionally). But the underlying factor is we all are passionate and if we can't attend then that is fine we have enough people to cover it.

Thanks flaggie. I think the issue is more the attitude of some clubs to people that can't always make the days. If you have a Club that is simply glad to see you when you can make it, you'll be happy to try your best to do so. If you know that if you go to a meeting and will end up having to deal with snide comments about how they'd forgotten what you look like - usually in front of an audience - then where's the incentive.

Looks like your chief has the right attitude anyway which is great to hear :)

popsie, I've pm'd you with a response on that. I think it's safe to say that everyone in this forum would give you the utmost support. It's just a great shame that your marshalling club did not :(

Thanks mate, if you ever get to Melbourne drop me line and we'll bring you to a meet and show you what it is like to be in a good environment. In fact that goes to anyone on this thread.

Pitpopsie, just a bit curious, did you not think of switching discipline, so you didn/y have to face the people who mad your life hell?

EP, the other week I had a chief who was really not upto the job, the level of meeting was WAY over his head :eek: . And no matter what was said, would not see sense in what was being said, so I made a consious decision to walk when I felt compromised. I suppose this comes under point 3.

EP - Most of the time I don't do events is due to something personal/work happening or I just want to have a break after a number(6/7) of week-ends on the bank in a row. There are times especially if you get a run of bad days that you do find yourself saying bugger this but then a good day arrives and all the bad days are forgotten.

BS makes some really vaild points as these are the things that if new marshalls see they will walk away from marshalling for good. I've seen it happen and no matter how intereesting you make the day the damage will have been done.

Good to hear EP , that you have enough events to keep you at it!!

Hmmm some very interesting points raised so far. I think that family matters have to take precedence over marshalling for the majority of us.

I was at a meeting where two drivers lost their lives in the same day, that made me seriously consider giving up marshalling. But that was many years ago and here I am, still dragging the old bones out weekend after weekend, despite the constant moaning and groaning.

I suppose safety issues would be the last straw in my book now. If I wasn't happy with the safety at a certain venue then I would withdraw my services and retire to the spectator enclosure. Thankfully that's never happened and fingers crossed it never will.

As for Pitpopsie, I think you should try marshalling again, maybe for a different club, or maybe even a different circuit. Thses 'select' groups of people materialise at all sorts of circuits so why not give them a miss and use your talents elsewhere?

I'm gutted guys to think people who we thought were akin to ourself's could possibly force any of us give up well!!ah! thier not even worth mentionnig on the forum..Pitpopsie just you come to scotland and marshal there's a wee dram and a warm welcome awaiting..../ and a final thought(Who do ithink i am Jerry Springer, jezz no!!)marshals should'nt get involved in the politics of the sport that's not why we're there..GIVE IT UP FOR NO MAN..(Unless she's your wife and you really have to)..be safe..

Stevie that's easier said than done if you're being singled out for attention.

No-one wants to spend their valuable free time being made to feel bad.

I've always been an advocate of standing up to bullies and I do - but the stress factor is high and you always come to a point where you have to say "is this worth it?"

If the answer is no, then you need to walk away.

Originally posted by pitpopsie
Hi EP sorry I didnt get back to you earlier! x
I have stopped marshalling completely, shame really as I enjoyed it, it was a job as well as a hobbie, my reason for leaving was due to a very pathetic group of men who obviously didnt like the fact a woman could do the job as well/better than them! I am not usually one to quit due to others but it went on over 3 years and enough was enough. x

Firstly I should say that for whatever reason, it's a shame you've given up.

Secondly, I dislike a number of the people whom I race against (is that "against whom I race?") but I don't stop racing. Then I find that marshall's can bring personalities into their hobby. As an innocent(?) driver, I hope you can sort this out because we all need marshals. B'sides you sound like a reasonable person, (unless you're that woman at Cadwell who keeps shouting at me on the grid).;)

I'm in the same club as EP, we are friends and I feel that we are both suffering (in different ways) from the uncomfortable atmosphere in our club .

The politics really get to me & the feeling that everyone is trying to prove themselves to be the best marshal there (usually by putting other marshals down) irritates me. Everything get's criticised unjustly (and usually incorrectly) and I just don't want to have to defend myself anymore to people who don't know what they're talking about for doing something that I know to be right.
It just ain't fun no more.

Most of the marshals posts have been re-arranged so that the flaggers are alone and away from the incident marshals, so it just ain't sociable no more either.

All this political stuff has started to seep outside of the club so that drivers, circuit management, organisers etc have jumped on the bandwagon of criticising the marshals club too. I'm sick of defending myself and the other marshals. Sometimes it's impossible to defend the marshals club because so much is indefensible and maybe those criticising the club are correct in their judgement, so I put down my head and say nothing.

I used to be proud to be a marshal. My proudest moments were:
- getting my first grade,
- the first time I was ever thanked by a driver,
- the first time I was given responsiblity on a post,
- being voted marshal of the year,
- the first time I heard a new marshal, who I introduced to marshalling, telling me that they had a great day and couldn't wait to marshal again.

These are the things that made me happiest in marshalling and now it's all turned to dross. Now I often feel like apologising to those people who I introduced to marshalling for involving them in such a horrible, politicaly charged atmosphere - in fact I did apologise to one last Sunday and that apology was both heartfelt and necessary.

I hope that someday I can be enthusiastic about marshalling for my current club again, and that I can again enjoy marshalling but until then I don't know if I can be bothered to attend any event. At this stage I feel miserable, under-fire and quite like distancing myself completely.

IMO Politics kills marshalling.

**sorry for the lenght of this post.

Well at the risk of sounding sick making, this needs to be said.

WW for me you will always be marshal of the year. You're always kind and helpful and willing to answer questions and you go out of your way to take care of new marshals.

Most of what I know about flagging, I learned from you and despite everything that's happened I have never once regretted making that phone call back on a rainy January night when I wanted to know when the Introductory training was. You don't need to apologise to anyone. If anything, you're owed an apology.

Save politics for the workplace.

When someone tries to get on your back, try to think of them "potty training with a dummy in their mouth". It always makes me smile!

LOL :p :p :p

Bit like the briefings I give on post...........when I remember......oops

:beer:

ah yes - post briefings. How fondly I remember those.

"Don't get dead"

I always enjoy it when they bring this up at training and get guys to give their IO's briefing - because I've been out on post with most of the guys they choose and they NEVER do it! ;)

The best briefing i've ever received was:
"You know what you are doing, There's nothing new to tell you, so stay safe and enjoy yourselves"

Originally posted by EvilPumpkin


"Don't get dead"



Emmmm........might try that. Seems easy to remember.

:cool:

Although sometimes they can be scary. My very first bike meet, I asked my IO about a briefing and she thought about it for a second and then said "the last time I gave a briefing, we had a fatality...."

EEP!

Very good opinions have been given as to the state of Marshalling these days.
I suppose we can look upon each club as a school.
Within the school, we have a structuring.
We have infants,primary,senior and lets call the next one up the ladder elders.

We then have the leaders.
The staff who dish out the rules and, the punishments.
Then we have the bosses.

The starting point for all marshals is the trainee or infant.
They are usually given the lesser tasks of the day sweeping picking up the bottles etc by the I/O or elders.
Depending on the comunicative skills of the elder,this can encourage or deter the infant from enjoying the day and wanting to come back, or fee ling insignificant with fellow infants primary or senior peers.

After year one of infancy, and you still have the will to marshal, plus ,lets not forget the signatures you received from the teachers or x teachers, so long as you were lucky enough to be entrusted with the task of helping out during an incident by the elders, you then move up the school ladder and become a course marshal or primary.

At this point in your carreer path you will have undoubtedly had the pleasure of marshalling with many other infants and primary pupils, but as yet not come up against many of the elders.
You will have formed opinions regarding the sexual direction of others and to the amount of skill and knowledge required to complete the duties you have been given by your elder.
Also don`t forget that opinions will have also been formed towards you,your teachers will have written in their minds various reports as to your capabilities.

As we move up the ladder to course we may be then tempted to visit other schools for meetings.We then experience new class mates and teachers. The playground is totally different to what you are used to, the sand pits are different for example.More opinions are formed, you may like the new school so much that you want to go there more and more.

After another year of getting wise to the school life, another ten crosses in the register up you move again to incident or senior.
AAAhhhhaa, you are looked upon by fellow seniors and lesser pupils as an old hand now, capable of twirling a flag if need be, knowing how to handle incidents in the playground.

Also upon morning registration with the bosses, you may if thought highly enough of, be given a good spot in the playgound.

We have`nt mentioned the elders for a while.
Well they have reached the point in their schooling where they can either choose to go on to higher education and enroll with the headmasters or stay as they are.

On a more serious note though, i have found that there are clicks at various circuits. I choose to either avoid these groups, or if i have to entertain them, i try and be myself and not get draged along.
I try and let my work do the talking .
If you have had the misfortune of problems arising from others, don`t let them get to you for what ever reason, have the pleasure of thinking they are the loosers the ones that have to be seen in their little groups to gain recognition, we all have come across them from time to time, the Mr Popular.....
Let them get on with it.

You are the person that counts at the end of the day...
Remember that...

Good analagy Rick - although if we work on that basis:

What happens when you put the infants in charge of the playground with no supervision and let them run amok?

This in theory, should never happen, unless its after school and all the teachers have gone home.
Then its a matter for the MSA to deal with.

Have you experienced this at your playground then ?

Damn. Left it too late to edit that one. I did say I didn't want to get into the specifics of my own problem and I have berated others for making snide posts on other websites and now I find myself doing the same thing. It is a measure of my frustration with my own circumstances that I'm posting now without thinking. But that doesn't mean it's ok.

Whatever my own issues are, there are proper ways to express them and I don't think it's right for me to do it here.

Stephen/Marshal, when you get a chance if you can delete that post I would appreciate it. I shouldn't have made it as it draws away from the point of this thread which is supposed to be generalised and this isn't an appropriate forum for me to slag off any marshals' club or their members, regardless of who they are.

Apologies all.

Well EP have you ever thought of taking control and creating your own club? Get all your fellow flaggies/firies or whatever you do trackside and doing the thing we love without the hassles?

LOL - we have a saying here "start my own (insert club here) with blackjack and hookers" ;)

I really wouldn't consider that to be an option for any club these days based on the information I've been seeing. Certainly not in Ireland or the UK, bearing in mind that it is becoming increasingly hard to recruit and retain marshals for any club.

Starting a new club doesn't address the underlying issues unless you have a very, very clear definition of the problem and agreement from both parties that a separation is workable and will resolve the problem.

I'm not convinced that it would change anything. I believe you'd just end up with 2 smaller clubs, each treating the other with disrespect, and just lose more marshals who can't be bothered dealing with it.

I know from your posts that it worked for you guys - but that was some time ago and from what you've said it appears that there was a very clear dividing line between one club's duties and the other's - so I could see how that could work.

In the majority of cases, I would think that it's not that simple or easy to resolve though :(

Well EP if it is not possible how about changing the club from the inside. Tell me a bit on how the club works and i might be able to offer some suggestions. You can change the commitee (if it's run that way), Make an effort to give the right impression to new members to want them to stay. By the sounds of what you have posted here there is a underlying problem with the culture that the club has at the moment. But it is very hard to change cultures. So create your own. People will follow if they think it is going to be pleasurable. I'm not picking on anyone in particular, but it seems that some people just can't be pleased. We all want to enjoy our days and if it can't be acheived then people will walk away and won't come back. Has this happened to Pitpopsie. Also maybe it's the clubs that run the meets.

flaggie all very good points and many thanks for the offer of assistance.

I'm really not prepared to go into more detail on this board, but if you have no objections I can pm you with the details of what's been going on. I would definitely appreciated some objective input on this.

In fairness, the Clubs that run the meets, in general, are ok. There are 1 or 2 people where you kind of go "oh no not them" but hey - that's life! Again, there is a tie in to the rest of the situation which I really can't go into here.

EP please feel free to PM me and i'll see if i can help. We have a meet on the weekend and i'd like to ask your original question and see what is said. It might make some interesting reading from your end.

Hi flaggie - pm sent - thanks on both counts :)

Blimey there's a lot of good stuff here.

I love my marshalling, and cannot envisage anything that would make me give it up. I work with a regular "crew" at one circuit, who are outsanding, and everywhere else I fit in as and where I'm needed, not doing more than 8-10 days at any one circuit. Turn up, marshal, leave, easy way to avoid politics. I truely saddens me that people are leaving marshalling because of other marshals and officials. I hope you manage to find a way back to the naive pleasure I still enjoy.

Take care all


PS EP - have deleted the post as requested :)

Thanks WW,
Woman are usually good at making us men look like Twa*s, try that line of comunication next time you have a problem.

Nothing could make me stop at the moment. Far too many good days that outweigh the bad ones. That being said, a group of us did take action a few years ago and it seemed to work.

Without going into details, we were annoyed that a certain Hillclimb would not run it's meeting the same way that others did and in accordance with the training we received from the BMMC/MSA. What could we do??? We voted with our feet as we felt our safety was compromised. But the real impact came when about a dozen of us turned-up at the first meeting only to be seen the otherside of the fence as spectators!!! The club were short of marshals and there was about 3 posts worth of very experienced marshals standing a few feet away grinning!! To cut a long story short, within twelve months the system of operation was modified somewhat, (not perfect yet, but getting there), and the result is that we have all returned to a hill we love marshalling but feel safe now.

Whilst I know this approach wouldn't work at all venues it does show that we marshals do have the power to effect change.

But to finish, if any of you circuit marshals ever fancy recharging your batteries by being appreciated by organizing clubs and by drivers, come to a hillclimb meeting. It may not be your prefered discipline but talk about respect!!! You never know till you try.

If you want a feel for it, check out http://www.top12runoff.co.uk

Originally posted by Marshal
....I work with a regular "crew" at one circuit, who are outsanding, and everywhere else I fit in....

and how easily do new crew fit into this cozy picture?

I remember a few days where a regular crew were less than welcoming to an outsider.....

I've known it to happen. It's hard to strike a balance when you do have a crew that are used to being out together. I have to say I've been lucky in that respect, because I've always got marshals that are more than willing to bring you up to date on "in jokes" and tell you their war stories so you get assimilated pretty quickly. :)

arrrgh - and the moral of this story is don't press the quote button when you really want the edit button.

I need more coffee! ;)

EP have sent you a few suggestions about what you pm'ed me about. Sounds like your having some sleepless nights.

LOL - thanks for that flaggie - no I don't let it keep me awake nights - that would be giving it way to much power over me. I need more coffee simply because I'm not a morning person and I don't function well without at least 2 cups of coffee circulating ;)

Originally posted by Bodysnatcher

and how easily do new crew fit into this cozy picture?

I remember a few days where a regular crew were less than welcoming to an outsider.....

Its a good point. I generally don't believe in working with a set group, for that reason, but if you end up with a good crowd, you do end up becoming much closer.

I agree it important to encourage anyone new or "different" and try to do so.

May a new comer to this august body put a point of view?? This question of 'amateurs' providing their services free to enable others to enjoy themselves always intrigues me.

I want to have a pleasant day out amongst friends that I know, trust and like. I still do , almost invariably and when I don't, I shall stop ( and probably regret it immediately).

We welcome new marshals ..some like our atmosphere and ask to work with us in the future. Others you have nothing in common with at all and they will move on until they feel comfortable with another .

I just toss these thoughts into the general discussion as I dip my proverbial toe into these waters.

BURN THE HERETIC!!!! Oh wait - he's a marshal, he's fireproof... ;)

Just kidding Martin - all very good points and well made :)

Welcome to the forum Martin and some good points made there. I think the gist of the previous conversation was a little along the lines that it is possible to get 'elitist' groups when you find the same marshals working together time after time. It started to happen at Brands Hatch a few years ago and the problem is that other marshals who want to work on a particular post are prohibited from doing so by the 'regulars' as it were. My personal opinion is that a mix somewhere between the two extremes is a good thing. If you have a particular friend you wish to marshal with, then I think it should be accomodated where possible, but to have a whole team regularly doing one post to the exclusion of all others is detrimental to the team spirit that we try to encourage. In the end it comes down to how the Chief Marshal wants to handle the situation, each will do it a different way from another.

Once again a warm welcome to ten-tenths and I hope you will become a regular contributer to the marshals forum.

Stephen.

hey EP, i spoke to a fellow marshall the other night and he said that track safety like bad positioning of points, unsafe track, unsafe cars. would be the only reason.


P.S. did you check out the website.

Hi flaggie - didn't get a chance yet but I will :)

Stephen, I think we had it just about right on Post Five, a regular core of marshals and a handful of people who were new or had never done the post before.

I learnt a lot and also made a some very good friends on that post and that's why it's so close to my heart.

I do miss the old days sometimes but when I think of everyone involved it's good to see that they are all still marshalling and have gone onto become some of the best in the business.

I mean, even the 'old I/O' made Observer in the end :D

Yours, swinging the lamp,

I think you are right Keith, most of the 'crowd' have gone on to bigger and better things!

On the same post ..not good for crew , club or morale of new marshals. Nucleus of friends who trust each other in emergencies and share the same generic sense of humour ( and the ridiculous!) is good.

But new posts and new challenges at each meeting stops complacency. And by all means add newcomers to the mix regularly..as I say, some will stick and others will drift off to other crews with whom they feel more at ease. We must make sure they keep returning ; we can ill afford to lose new and keen marshals.

PS thanks for the words of encouragement

PPS Just how do I add icons...there is such a variety that are crying out for insertion....

Scroll down and click on the blue word 'smilies' at the bottom left of the page ok?

We'll have to catch up on Monday Stephen and chew the cud :beer:

See you in the Kentagon for breakfast Keith?

Or Hailwoods, depends where signing on is ???

OK

Originally posted by EvilPumpkin
I'm not going to discuss the issues on this site for a number of reasons - not least of which is that my posts are being monitored by certain people and I simply can't deal with yet another mish mash of misreported **** being thrown back at me by people who haven't even read the post - presumably because they'd rather believe what they're told than actually check the facts - but that's another story.


And a big hi there and hello goes out to Mr. EG for totally vindicating me on this by doing precisely what I've outlined above.

Well done.

EPW, I guess you used to be paranoid but now they're just out to get you! ;0)

Seriously though, don't let the b******s grind you down, just smile sweetly and ignore them. Do what I did, move disciplines! Go join the donut eaters! :0)

Keep your chin up!

LOL - I'm not paranoid - I know you all think I am.... ;)

I'm not ground down, just really tired of people's behaviour - particularly when it's getting so predictable, I can make a statement like the one above and be proved absolutely correct within a few days of making it. You always hope that someone will surprise you and prove you wrong.

I don't really think I'm donut material - (too much dough, not enuff nut!:) ), but I'm still pumpkining away at other events so I'll just have to strike cars at the regular circuit off the list. I was always going to be missing quite a lot of the car events this year as I'm moving buildings with work over the next couple of months and there's quite a lot of weekend work required.

I shall stick with me bikes and me karts and cars at other circuits and simply chalk this one up to experience.

I would like to take this opportunity to say the marshal mantra:

We, the willing
Led by the unknowing
Are doing the impossible
For the ungrateful
We have done so much
With so little
For so long
We are now qualified to do anything
With nothing
For next to nothing

:)

Hi EP love the mantra somes up our life trackside doesn't it. Anyway i threw your question around to a few of our members on the weekend and they all said that safety would come first. They did add however, that if the politics ever got in the way they would seek another position with another team.

P.S. Maybe you could change the last line to For NOTHING.

LOL - it is pretty cool - it's actually an old one that my Dad used to have on his office wall when he was in the Civil Service - but it does seem to fit nicely doesn't it! :)

EP have you heard anything on your about the 24hr race planned at bathurst for late November involving GTP and production cars.

Oh I took a look round the site as well - it's great - gives you all the info you need in an easy to use manner :)

I have to ask though - what poor unfortunate is modelling the "emergency rain gear" ;)

the poor unfortunate modelling the rain gear is someone from parts unknown. but that isn't our rain gear because ours cosists of pants and jacket. In white i might add. The stuff you saw is the EMERGENCY stuff incase someones wife or girlfriend forgets to pack there gear. As you know behind every good marshall is there partner.

if u ever get sick of standing at point u can become a Towie Turd lol

Hi Martin, Nice to see you here :) Your points are well made, but it does concern me, that as I've "stuck" I must have a similar sense of humour. Ye gods :rolleyes: :p

Further to my last post I must tell you all that I've had a wee change of heart.

Last Sunday I was posted at a great post. Loads of very exciting racing with full grids in all classes. I was kept extremely busy. I was surrounded by people with a good sense of humour and there was minimal (if any) BS on the radio. All drivers that I came into contact with (and there were a few between retirements and good old "offs") were good humoured and pleasant to chat with - and they all thanked me for coming to their assistance. No rain, just loads of sunshine and generally nice weather. Even the ambulance that was parked up beside my post had the stereo on playing all my favourite songs. Oh - What A Perfect Day! :cool:

Now I remember why I love marshalling - I'm definitely gonna be there for the next event :)

Teri, who was EG?

Good for you WW. Nice to know it's worked out for you :)

Thanks EP - hopefully the good days will outweigh the bad and then we can get back to what marshalling is all about - FUN!!
(in a safe way of course)

Not an option here I'm afraid - but I am genuinely pleased it's worked out for you hon.

SEE WW , Keep on with it.....

Greetings all, an outsiders point of view. Was looking through this the other night (when 10/10ths wasn't buggered up) and it made me think of the expression of "there are people who like you for the right reasons, and those who like you for the wrong reasons; just as there are some who don't like you for the wrong reasons and those who don't like you for the right reasons." (or something like that) and in the end, it's the first and last ones that we should be concerned about, and the others can think what they want and behave how they like, but if you know that it's their problem, well, its their problem.

Boy, I'm tired, should be off to bed, and sorry if that didn't make any sense. Just something that someone told me when I was 20 or so, and it helped with dealing with things.

nighty night you orange clad gravel rakers who have to get up very soon for work, whilst I am about to crawl into a warm bed :)

Hey BFC that'll be enough out of you Scary Uncle. Everybody knows flaggies have more fun trackside. We get to watch all the action and when the proverbial hits the fan we get to wave our flags and watch you wallys clean up.

yeah but we're dry sitting in truck when it rains and we still have fun anyway and we get the perks too (want to buy a cap lol) anyway its all fun no matter who does what we all there to do a job

not if you want to train weasels. There isn't even a grade for that..... ;)

Good response EP BFC is a former flaggie who joined the dark side. But that is a typical response from towy turds.

About a dozen of us ( all levels of marshalling and all ages) are travelling from the balmy south coast to Louth in deepest Lincolnshire next weekend. There is a 2 day meeting run by 750 motor club.

We are travelling this distance and paying for bed, breakfast and evening meal ( with drinkies) because we are appreciated by this club and we enjoy the racing.

We shall all be greeted by name ( our own usually) and told to look after a small number of adjacent posts. We shall organize ourselves and have a damned fine day with plenty of cars, friendly approachable drivers in a brilliant setting made for close racing. There are no gravel traps, no debris fencing, no egos , no pomposity in the paddock or race control....just 60 or so enthusiasts giving up their time to enhance a club racers day.

I might win a crumpled £5 note...but it will be delivered personally by chilf marshall or incident officer with a smile and a 'thanks for coming!'.

Thats what keeps me on the bank at Cadwell and also closer to home at Combe and Thruxton.

Here here...

Spot on. See you at sign on at Cadwell next weekend.

Won't be there. am up the road at Blyton for the rallycross

If BFC's anything like the Winton Telly Tubbies, he's probably got a supply of ummmm certain magazines in his truck too. :censored:;)

But seriously, about all that would make me give up is the safety element. Let's face it, we have the best seats in the house when it comes to the racing, and better access to drivers and cars than the punters do.

and flaggie1 is a notorious crash magnet. If anything's going to go awry, he's USUALLY within a point of it, when he's not running from incoming Porches, Honda CRX's or Datsun 260Z's. To say nothing of a ringside seat for Bargs' PI rollover, and the infamous 12 car HQ contretemps at PI. And yes, I've flagged with him, and lo and behold, we get a 4 car track blocker... where's those double yellows!!!!

The trick is to make sure no-one ever says anything to him like "nothing ever happens at <enter location here>"

It's just asking for it! ;)

That's my favourite trick when things get boring. "Gosh, hasn't it been a quiet day? At this rate we will get an early night" Always good for a three car pile up within the next few minutes :)

LOL - well you heard the story from Kirkistown about "nothing ever happens at Debtors" right? ;) - and that was a FIVE car pile up!

Also to be avoided: "what a nice day - no rain clouds"
........!

And "at least we will get a lunch break today"

oh yeah that's fairly well up there too.

how about "we haven't had a red flag all day".... ;)

good on u flaggie (or is that flaggie with a silent L ) next time we got our Farmer Weekly mags u wont get a look lol

Well thanks flaggie for the glowing vote of confidence. Lets just hope we don't work together anywhere between turns 12 and pit entry at sandown at the weekend because if anyone decides to get up close with any of the renos occuring there. All you will here from me is INCOMING and the flames of my heels. I'd give my blue flag for a quite weekend for a change. All though the track blocker was good to see last time. although flaggie failed to mention the Formula vees at PI, the v8 supercar at PI the porsche at PI, the sports sedans at sandown, and not to mention the unfortunate fatal at PI in feb. So yes i am a crash magnet but eveybody has fun. That reminds me where are my cadbury favourites.

as long as u keep getting me jobs at sandown i'll be happy
see u bright and early in morn

I read with interest and concern, many of the points raised I have seen, and voted with my feet. Safety is the paramont issue, and if anyone on my post feels unsafe I hope they have enough trust in my leadership to say so. I also hope if anyone finds my way of running a post uncomfortable in any way they would broach it with me and not just let it fester.
I have the advantage over many of you that I can spend 3 months a year in North America. It is noticable the different attitudes there from both club and professional drivers and teams to all grades of marshals, which make it a pleasure to work. The corner worker comadre is also much greater than over here, perhaps because they have no more licenced marshals than we do in the UK, but have to cover vastly greater distances and circuits.
Popsie you migght be interested to know that nearly 50% of American marshals are women, and there are more female obsevers than men at many meetings.
PS the US GP is the only one I work now, as I have found all the rest just too much hassel.