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Re: Ahhhhhhhh Lance, Diplomatic as usual....
Posted By: Jason Burnell In Response To: Re: New USAPL Website: Thank you! (Lance Slaughter)
Date: Wednesday, 28 May 2008, at 11:17 a.m.
...but since you're on the EC, I guess you have to be. Me, on the other hand, I've always been the designated #####.... and I suppose I'll have to help out again.
People, what Lance describes as the "burden falling on Mike" is true but that isn't the whole story. That "lifters just want to lift at meets closeby" is also part of the truth...
Here's the other part - USAPL is VOLUNTEER driven and there are no volunteers. Well, very few. People always ask, "when is the next meet." From now on, my answer will be "when you get off your ass and put it on."
In 1999, Manny Villareal, resigned as State Chair, largely because he was tired of doing ALL the work and putting on ALL the meets in Northern California. He knew there was a handful of people that he could count on to referee and help out at meets but other than that he was on his own. Finally, he got burned out and resigned.
Prior to that, Mike Koufos and Kristy Kling put on a series of excellent meets at Napa Valley College until they too got burned out.
I realized that there wouldn't be any USAPL...well ADFPA back then, meets if someone didn't step up. I decided to do a "couple" of meets in 2000. I've told this part before but I'm not sure if I've publicly mentioned the next part - I also spoke with several veteran lifters about putting on meets in their areas and if we all pitched in a little bit, it would be great. Everyone I spoke with agreed - result: I put on about 20 meets and nobody that I spoke to followed through.
I know that there is a core group I can count on to help out Betty Lee, Aaron Pete, Lance, Mike W., training partners Mando, Boingy, G Buff, Manu Pooiatopamunnneeeuuu and of course Big Ed, Dave #####merow, Major Denison, Joe Randazzo, Crazy Rob, Van Bockin, and a few others but it's the same group over and over and after a while, you get tired of bugging your friends and family to spend their weekends working at meets because of your obsession.
That's one reason I "retired." I wanted to take some time off to just be a lifter myself. A couple of years I had to go to Oregon to qualify for Nationals because I was putting on the only meets locally. By the way, Mooney used to put on some good meets there but I think he's pretty much burned out too. Not a lot of USAPL meets there either.
So, if you're reading this and you've never (or rarely) volunteered to spot and load or help out at a meet or taken the referees test, you're the problem. If you've ever #####ed about there being no meets in your area or complained about an award, a submaster division, having to drive to a meet more than 15 minutes, not having enough National refs to set your precious master 15 bench only American record or anything else, YOU are the reason there are no meets in your area.
Don't get me wrong, I'm not blaming anyone for a meet director making the choice to put on meets but everyone needs to understand that putting on a meet can be a royal pain in the butt and that without support and even WITH support, a normal person is going to say "screw this, I'll just go back to lifting."
That is why you'll find former meet directors willing to lift, referee or spot and load, or do whatever at a meet 500 miles away just so they don't have to do everything.
Is it all bad? Nope. To be honest, I've had fun putting on the State Meet and especially the NorCal Winter Classic but in the future, I'd most likely limit myself to putting on one meet a year and helping at a couple more so I can lift.
So, if you're wondering when the next meet is - contact me, Lance or Mike when you want to put it on. I can guarantee that a group of former meet directors will come out of the woodwork to help out with equipment, laptops and referees.
One meet a year, that's all we ask.
*Note: This message was not approved nor endorsed by USAPL, Lance Slaughter, Mike Womelsdorf or anyone else and there is a good chance they'll all tell me to shut up... but they know I'm right.
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