Recv’d replies from Dave Wharton and Al Mumford.
Dave believes there’s a road commissaire’s course the last weekend of May and I’ve mentioned to Al that I’m avail for volunteer help. Of course, with all of the traffic on this forum, hopefully we’ll get more people as commissaires.
Thanks everyone for the contact and to Troy for his original post. Guess that shows where I hang out when I’m online!!!
Certification for road / mountain is different, that is a road commie isn’t a mountain commie or vice versa unless they’ve done both courses.
No, there is no such thing as an uncertified assistant commissaire. I’m not sure of the road requirement, but in mountain each race requires a chief commissaire and an assistant commissaire, each certified and the chief typically has more experience. There is such thing as a course marshall, who is essentially a volunteer who are positioned on the course, but these are usually supplied by race directors and they won’t really satisfy the problem the roadies are having… but they are always appreciated, so if you’re interested you ought to contact the race director of any event you want!
At the last AGM I recommended that we not pursue another mountain commissaire course since they are an expensive venture and we’re well stocked with mountain commies. By the looks of things we’re likely due for a road commissiare course, but it is probably too late for this year.
The last I heard was that there is an effort underway to have a training session for road commissaires, but the only person who is qualified to teach the commissaires class is a super-busy person in Quebec who has been difficult to reach. I don’t know if they have heard back from her and if she’s going to have time to do a course anytime soon. If you’re interested in becoming a road commissaire, or know someone who is interested, PLEASE contact Dave Wharton:
davew (at) eastlink (dotty) ca
As Andrew said, there is no official commissaires assistant position, BUT it would be a huge help to have a few people at each race who are competent with race timing and figuring out the results. The commissaires have too much on their plate on race day and it would be a great benefit to have some good, trained help at the races. This would lighten the load on the commissaires and help with retention of these awesome volunteers!
If you’re interested in helping in this way, or know someone who might be able to help, please contact Al Mumford
since he is organising a few races again this year.
amumford_ca (at) yahoo (dotty) com
Al is the one who is going to Europe soon, not Eric. I don’t know if he has left yet. Eric is super busy with school right now and might not be checking his email much.