Ari Rankum
NAFO Karting Champion, 2012
Good point. I get the feeling that TC's approach will be to accomodate the crowd. If there are more than 24 students (2 classes worth), they will become creative, in an uncommon way, and try to accommodate everyone. Until there are 24, there will be little interest on their part to provide classes. Contrapositively, if there are more than 24, they will bring as many instructors as it takes to make things happen. In other words, we're in an "in for a penny, in for a pound" mode. Or, in pop culture terms, once we are past 24 students, if we want a firehose, we can get a firehose.My concern is with 200-300 WFO attendees ,class is likely to max out a couple of times at 24 per session when it actually comes down to it.
If a pre-WFO early class day ends up being scheduled, hopefully the WFO hotel group rate could be extended to cover it.
As far as a "pre" TC class goes, I have some biases that I'd be willing to let go with good counter arguments. So, here goes. I tend to think that those who don't want to "waste" WFO-6 days in a class can solve their own problems by arriving early or staying late. That's what I did at WFO-5. That said, if there are at least 12 students who are interested in a "day before" or "day after" class from TC, I doubt (though I haven't checked) it would matter to TC at all. Therefore, as I continue to talk to TC, I'll suggest that they solicit "day before" and "day after" class registration in their offering to WFO-6. Market forces will decide. If there are at least 12 students for a "day before" and/or 12 students for a "day after" class, I predict they will provide the class. All negotiations with TC will be full-disclosure - i.e. I'll let everyone at FJRForum know what the issues are. I intend, and will succeed, to play fair broker.
My challenge, in setting this up, is to know precisely what people want, and how what is being offered differs from their desires. I really think the more I know going in, the better off everyone will be. So I thank you for your concerns. I can help TC to staff appropriately, knowing what the issues are. It seems as though TC expects to be able to accommodate everyone with 2 instructors during WFO-6. If, through their registration process, they determine there are many more than 24 students' worth of interest, I'm sure they will adjust accordingly. In other words, substantial turnout is not bad for the FJR community, nor for TC, as long as folks know what to plan for. Accurate gut checks from everyone involved should help things work out well.
Once again, please feel free to speak your mind on this. I have no emotional investment in this plan; so I'm happy to hear criticisms. Please, as you respond to this thread, attempt to accurately gauge what you will do when it comes time to register.
As for extending the group rate to days before or after at the hotel, I can offer that I did that with no problem at WFO-5. I used the argument that I already had a package plan, and, clearly, adding more days to that plan should only reduce my rate. That argument was successful for adding 2 nights to the start of WFO-5 and one night to the end at WFO-5 at the WFO-5 rate. I considered this as a victory, as otherwise those nights would have cost me more than twice the WF0-5 rate arranged by the WFO-5 staff. Clearly, it would be preferred to work the variability of arrival and departure times into the contract at the hotel for WFO-6. I'll take that as an action.
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