Well my observations ...
Alot of stress is on the hosts for these !! That stress is their personal commitment and devotion to give everybody the best experience possible . We need ways to reduce their stress !
They can't be in two places at once , Sometimes they need some flexibility to tend to unforseen circumstances.
Below comments are meant to reduce burden on hosts .. Someone to step in and coordinate efforts and take input from host .
Host has one person to deal with .. That person can sweat the details for there project.
Meal coordinator.
Doesn't have to be same person for each meal. Set time for meal, And keep it on schedule. They see to it Cooking/Food providers have what they need . Servers/Buffet set up is covered.
And Clean up is covered.
Ride corridinator.
Again not same person every time.
They keep eye on schedule Get a depart time , who's blocking . And works with a tail gunner. Help establish stop time length.
Work with host / ride leader for weather etc adjustments while out if needed . Host have final say .
They aren't the ride leader . And may not pick ride destiny, or food stops .
These roles aren't meant to take over direction . But someone Hosts or Particpants can get issues, questions answered or resolved .
Dry erase board ..
Has these things listed.
Meal/Ride time
Coordinator.
Ride leader
Ride general destination.
Ride lunch location
Any other stops.
Expected time spent at each stop.
Approx ride length.
Blockers, tail gunner.
Cook/kitchen person(s)
Buffet staff.
Meal/Kitchen clean up staff.
My $.02
PS
Keith done/does a great job of advanced meal planning.. he or someone needs to continue this .
While I agree with some of this let's not get over structured and time dependent.
We are out for a ride -- things may happen. These things can easily screw the schedule to all hell. We've seen this happen.
While I love the idea and experience of going down the road with 30+ big Dog plus those harley guys, when we are at that size we are tantamount to a parade going thru small towns -- hell the one year they thought we were part of the parade as one was set for a little later, we may need to break into 2 groups 10 or 15 minutes apart.
We can set Departure time, Destination, # of stops(locations if available)
Food stop -- planned arrival time (not 10:30 but maybe between 10:30 and 11:00
Distance total and between stops -- we have a group that rides distance and those that do not. The short distance riders need fair warning. The distance guys need to know we aren't bar hopping (not that we have in the past)
A map or a gps route would be KILLER. I will happily help with this -- this also helps if we all use the same gps app and settings ( I can suggest an app and settings that will work on iphone and android)
The meals we need planned and a target dinner time set but not in stone -- what if our cook is the guy that breaks down?
Communication -- we should all have everyoine's or near everyones name ond number in our phone. Make notes of who rides 2 up in each group so that the other group can be reached even when moving if possible.
More later.
