How to Motivate Volunteers - was Tevis - Slower riders

["Patricia E. Peters" <patpeters1@juno.com>]

Whitney,

Thank you so much for this commentary.  I have been on the receiving end
of angry criticism as a volunteer, and know from experience how
destructive it can be.  

As you may know, the third annual Norco Riverdance is coming up on
9/2/00, and is run in a highly populated area.  As Trail Master, I am
responsible for ensuring that the trail is marked well enough to keep all
competitors on course at any speed.  The first year, I had guessed that
there would be some vandalism of markers, and planned several
compensatory measures, including night patrols and outriders advancing
the front-runners by 20 minutes in various areas.  

But the vandals were smarter than I that first year, and although we
scrambled all day to replace markers, by the time the front-runners hit
leg 4 in the afternoon, the vandals had gotten ahead of us.  (They had
actually MOVED markers.)  End result, several of the front-runners were
thrown so badly off-course that they wound up having to accept completion
points only.  

Well, a couple of the riders came and told me off, but most were pretty
gracious.  I sought out some of those front-runners in camp, apologized,
and asked them to please give us another chance next year.  Then, I went
back to my rig, put my head down and cried like a baby.  What a terrible,
terrible feeling!   I considered giving up, but didn't.

The following year (1999) we had 60 Norco cowboys in the saddle from 4 am
until late afternoon patrolling the course, replacing ribbons, and acting
as live trail markers.  It really paid off.  Talk about a fast race!  

The BEST PART, is this...  All the cowboys could talk about for weeks and
weeks after the race was HOW VERY NICE AND POLITE AND GRACIOUS the
competitors were.  **Everyone that went by thanked us and told us what a
great job we were doing.  They were calling us the Riverdance
Wranglers**.  

This year, there is a waiting list to be a Riverdance Wrangler.  AND THAT
IS THE POWER OF POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT.  We understand this so well about
our horses;  why not with each other?

IMHO, using negative criticism to get people to do their jobs better is
like using a sledgehammer to fix a faulty heart monitor.  



On Wed, 26 Jul 2000 14:40:52 -0600 "Whitney Bass" <bass@bigsky.net>
writes:
> 
> >The reason I'm telling you this is because I feel qualified to
> complain.  It takes a lot of hard work to do these feats and use the
same 
> horse year after year and still have wonderful horses.>     
> > Tammy Robinson
> > Trail-Rite Ranch & Products
> > 661/513-9269
> 

>(snips)
> Sorry I'm so late getting in on this discussion, but I have something
to say about you "feeling qualified to complain". . >Give me a break. I
do  feel for you...

>  Even so, there's no need to carry on about it ...  I  remember
> quite a few years ago  at the final ride in the championship series 
> (when AERC had that system), there was a situation that caused people
to 
> not only lose their placing, but also to lose the National
Championship... the trail markers had 
> been taken down at around 40-50 miles and the whole ride ended up
wandering 
> around in the Nevada desert.... they called the ride off at that vet
check 
> and just gave completion points...  

>Because of the completion points only, I  lost the Junior National
Championship -- did I complain (Yes, but only to 
> friends!), or file a protest?  NO.  Another rider lost the Championship
also...(Becky Hart, I believe)

> Whitney