I've been reading many of the posts that have proliferated since the AGM last week. Seems that we have succeeded in waking up a lot of people! I want to comment on one particular issue which I think is getting a little lost in all this micro-management lately: FUN.

Allow me to paste in a comment that was made on the slalom forum a few days ago... "You are trying to take the fun out of this like the fun was taken out of vintage racing." What does this mean exactly?

I'll get back to vintage racing in a minute, but allow me to talk a little about organizations and the people who run them. In any organization, be it a political party, a religious group, or a car club, there will always be a small percentage who are "fanatical", a small percentage who are "contrarians" and a big percentage in the middle who are generally apathetic and really only want to enjoy themselves for relatively little personal sacrifice in time or money. A problem arises, particularly in an organization in a state of decline when the "fanatical" group, as they are want to do, end up in the positions of power. When that happens, the decisions that are made and the initiatives taken tend to favor the few, rather than the many. The members become disillusioned and a feeling of disenfranchisement settles in, usually a prelude to the disintegration.

What does all this have to do with JCNA? Well, Judy Ferring made a good point the other day: "start with a review and agreement about why this organization exists in the first place." Do we exist to serve the interests of those among us who are ultra-competitive? Those for whom 99.999 as a concours score is "not good enough"; those who seek to shave 1/1,000th off a slalom time and secure a national title; those who adopt a "win at all costs" attitude? I heard an interesting comment the other day concerning slalom: "Competition must have a winner or it's just a ride in the parking lot. If those that want to drive around a parking lot and not scuff a tire but get an award, let them do it in the Wall Mart lot and Ronald MacDonald can give out coupons for free fries." Well, in my opinion, the JCNA slalom program DOES exist to satisfy the need for regular everyday members with regular everyday cars to come out to a parking lot and have some FUN, without necessarily scuffing a tire. Do we need to have a "winner", sure we do. But let's remember who it is we are organizing these events for: the average JCNA member, not the ultra-competitive guy or girl. If we want to grow these types of activities, the local clubs and JCNA, we should not lose sight of that. There exists a whole plethora of upper echelon racing, slalom, Solo 1 & 2 and gymkhana organizations that can satisfy the needs of those for whom parking lot fun is no longer satisfactory.

What happened to vintage racing? Well, let's use the example of an XK120. Vintage racing is supposed to be about "vintage", not necessarily about "racing". The general idea is, if you were able to climb into time machine and go back to 1954, then grab an XK120 that was club racing at that point in time and bring it back with you to 2003, then you would be inclined to enter that car in a vintage race today and have some fun with it. The problem? If you really could do that, you would find that the "vintage" XK120's running in many of the "vintage" series today would blow right by your car like an F1 car blows by a Lada. Today's version of a "vintage" XK120 has gigantic disc brakes, rack and pinion steering, tube shocks, rear axle location, adjustable suspension, a 300hp engine, a roll cage/tube frame etc. etc. etc. and they cost six figures. Who do you think the trophies go to? When that happens the little guy with the "time machine" car packs up and goes home. Sound familiar, the time machine analogy and all? It should, because the same analogy has been used to describe the decline in our concours program over the last couple of decades. Should we draw a lesson from that as we expand our slalom and rally programs?

There is nothing wrong with competition. In fact, it should be encouraged. But let's not, as an organization, forget who we are supposed to be serving. Give the membership multiple opportunities to have FUN with their cars, that is priority number one. Please do not create another program whose agenda serves to divide members rather than bring them together.

Respectfully,

Daniel Thompson
JCNA NE regional director

Submitted by jrwalker@ev1.net on Tue, 04/01/2003 - 16:11

I agree with Pascal. One does not need to slave over details, trying to achieve a 100, or 10, point score to have fun at concours. Sure it is nice to take home an award for your hard work, but it is not essential to haveing a good time.

Same with a rally. The last for-fun rally we went on we were so late getting in the club was considering sending out search parties. We had fun though, we got to see parts of the country other participants didn't. :-)

Regards, John

Submitted by marks@jcca.us on Tue, 04/01/2003 - 00:11

I agree with Daniel on one point, something that I'd like to see considered for the next AGM. I really think that we have taken the fun out of the Concours, as he indicated, by making it wildly over-complicated. I judge because I think I know enough about the cars that I should contribute, but not because it's fun. For me it's about as tedious a chore as there can be. If there's anything worse than tedium, it's tedium with a time constraint.

Perhaps I'm alone in this, but I don't think so. We always manage to pull together a full compliment of judges, but it's not without some effort.

I created a simplified scoresheet and a group of JCRC members and interested parties discussed it briefly in e-mails. It was suggested that we hold off since Dick and the rest of us had put so much time into the rewrite of Chapter 3, we didn't want to overwhelm the AGM.

I believe this scoresheet will make judging faster, less tedious, and a lot more fun. I'd be happy to forward the scoresheet along with instructions to anyone who wants to give it a trial run. If there's a lot of interest, I'd even be willing to get it ready for trials at the CC.

Mark Stephenson
Jaguar Club of Central Arizona

P.S. Speaking of fun and the Challenge Championship, things are coming together. Dennis and I had a meeting today with the printer and the program is going to be outstanding -- Pebble Beach / Amelia Island quality. Check the JCNA website for everything we have planned. I can guarantee that if you thought the 2001 CC was good, with the amount of time and effort we have put into this one, it will blow you away. Because of the one-price-for everything model, we are going to have the biggest (maybe) JCNA Rally ever. I wouldn't be surprised if we have over 50 competitors and another 50 driving the route. Between the Intro to Slalom Course and the fact that you've already paid for it, there are going to be a lot of first-time slalomers.

I am quite certain that if you don't figure out how to get out here, even if you don't bring a car, when you hear about it later, you'll be kicking yourself.

MS

Submitted by NE52-32043 on Mon, 03/31/2003 - 13:51

Daniel,

I think you make a good point here, in part. However, on the other hand, I believe Art does also. Here's how I see it:

Yes, we should keep these events FUN. Fun is the name of the game, in my opinion. To keep it fun, we should keep the competition like against like. And the rules related to determining what is "like" should be simple and straightforward, so that they can be understood by everyone without the need for complex interpretations or disputes.

I can't speak for rallying, but with slalom, most people who come out to compete don't have cars with lots of modifications. Most competitors have fairly stock cars. For their sake, stock classifications should be just that -- stock cars or as close thereto as possible. No one should have to go out and spend tons of money upgrading or modifying their car to be able to compete.

However, there is a significant number of members who are amatuer race enthusiasts, who have spent time effort and money upgrading their cars and improving performance. We need to accommodate them as well. I was glad to see the creation of a Street Prepared class to bridge the gap between stock cars and full-out modified. Since it is new, I suspect it will take a year or two to work out the kinks. But I think it is a move in the right direction.

I'm a big believer in the KISS principle ("keep it simple, stupid). Hopefully, we can do that with the slalom rules to implement the Street prepared classes and differentiate them from both stock and modified. It is unfortunate that one of our strong national competitors in this program is so upset with the merger of the two modified classes. Certainly, if we find over the course of this year that separate classes for light and heavyweight continue to be warranted, we can always reinstitute them next year. It will be interesting to see who comes out on top, Art or Gary, this year. I only wish I could be at the JCC this year to see them go head to head.

So yes, Daniel, let's keep the fun in our events, keep them simple, and keep them fair. But let's not forget that there are many people out there who take this form of competition seriously and assure them a level playing field so that the true measure of their performance is the clock, not the rules or the subjective actions of a committee.

Steve Weinstein, JTC-NJ
'72 E-type 2+2
'89 XJS Coupe

Submitted by dthompson@gbc.ca on Mon, 03/31/2003 - 13:23

You, Monsieur Gademer, are the exception, not the rule....

My point is..... I want to make sure I don't have a point in 3 or 5 years. At the AGM we spent quite a bit of time talking about "tire ratings", "street prepared", "modified", "electronic timing", "points systems as per SCCA" etc. etc. etc. This is all fine, if your desire is to win national trophies and shave thousandths, but it should not be the primary focus of JCNA, of AGM's or of any individual committee. Where was the talk about encouraging participation? Where were the initiatives to get local clubs to try hosting a slalom? Where was the the overriding message of "FUN" in slalom, or any other JCNA activity?

Here's an example: we have a "JCNA Slalom Promotional Video" in our library. Why isn't the committee focusing on showing that video at local monthly club meetings, thereby maximizing the exposure or the slalom program and encouraging new clubs to try it? Maybe a slalom committee member needs to get in their car and pay a visit to other clubs in his/her region and show the video and explain the program (good job for regional directors too). That's where the future of JCNA lies, not in the creation of yet another 300 page rulebook. The emphasis has to be on promotion, participation, enthusiasm, K.I.S.S, and FUN.

Daniel