Not enough Officials!

[Homer]

I just want to pick up on this point:

I believe that a controller should ensure that the controls are in the correct place as late as practical

I think this is important.

Whenever I've controlled I've always visited all the controls on the morning myself. The one exception was a Long-O where I enlisted a trusted friend to help.
This was an issue at the 2005 JK in North Yorks (Keldy) where a control was removed overnight and the first few competitors were affected. It was later replaced. A morning check would have prevented any problem.

As I get older there will (soon probably) come a time where I can't get round all the controls myself before the first start. When this time comes I will enlist sufficient help to ensure that everything is checked on the morning. Bart, are you listening?

[NeilC]

I just want to pick up on this point:

I believe that a controller should ensure that the controls are in the correct place as late as practical

I think this is important.

But why does it have to be the controller? It is certainly prudent to check all the controls as late as possible but that should be a job for the planner's team - unless you are saying that you don't trust the planner to do this.

[mharky]

But why does it have to be the controller? It is certainly prudent to check all the controls as late as possible but that should be a job for the planner's team - unless you are saying that you don't trust the planner to do this.

Obviously you don't trust the planner to do this. Have you ever been to an event with a control in the wrong place? I have. Which makes me to think that you can't always trust control hangers, planners and controllers...

[graeme]

If you trusted the planner you wouldn't bother with a controller.

But I do think that if you checked it was in the right place the day before, sending someone else to check it's still there is reasonable. Certainly much, much better than accepting you can't do it all yourself and doing nothing. ( I expect this is what NeilC meant)

[Roger]

As I get older there will (soon probably) come a time where I can't get round all the controls myself before the first start. When this time comes I will enlist sufficient help to ensure that everything is checked on the morning.

Timely! I'm controlling a Level B event this weekend. I'm presently injured and can't run -- even at a jog. I would trust the planner to get the controls (or at least 'a control' ) in all the right places. But in a forest with deer and tidy-minded walkers, tapes don't always stay where they're put so that trust doesn't extend to the team of control-hangers, who haven't been round all the sites and discussed them at length. So I've done exactly as Homer has suggested and recruited a trusted friend to do half of the leg-work.

The responsibility is still mine though, so I can't afford to delegate lightly. No pressure, Jon.

[madmike]

No pressure indeed Roger! Jon you had better make sure it's woth the dash back from Edinburgh

[PeterRiches]

Personally I do not want paying for my fun, yes I do regard controlling that way, it is a very satisfying way of contributing.

As SeanC suggests, make the list simpler, get rid of the organising requirement and just maybe we get a few more Grade 2, I can name 2 from our club now!

As to getting round, age has little to do with it, I never could get round all on the morning. If it is not possible to check the bulk on the previous day I will "ask a friend", indeed those that know me, expect a joint effort, because I normally both plan and control in a pair.

[NeilC]

Some interesting comments on here. Clearly controllers feel that they are responsible for ensuring that the controls are all in the right place on the morning of the event (even if they were OK the day before).

Should they not also be responsible for ensuring that the walk to the start is clearly taped, or that the start clock is synchronised with the results software, or that the start procedures are robust enough to get people off at the right time when a timed start is used (I've come across many examples of start teams struggling to cope with this) etc etc? All these organisational matters can affect fairness, but unless you have direct experience yourself you may not appreciate what is involved in getting these things right - and they are not always trivial. Do you trust the organiser more than the planner?

[Homer]

Do you trust the organiser more than the planner?

No. But it's imposible for the controller to check everything on the morning of the event, so I go for what I see as the most important issues. In my opinion that is that all the controls are present, with the correct code and in the correct place.

[70plus]

It is usually 'impossible' for an unassisted controller to check everything he might wish to before the event gets under way, unless (maybe, depending on geography) he gets up very early for a summer event (I don't agree with checking in the dark for a day event). I make sure that I check all I can, before visiting the start in plenty of time, then fitting in any more checks before seeing the early finishers in. When it seems clear that things are running smoothly, one can eavesdrop on post-mortems and assess winning times. Hopefully.

[SeanC]

As SeanC suggests, make the list simpler, get rid of the organising requirement and just maybe we get a few more Grade 2, I can name 2 from our club now!

Just to clarify I didn't suggest we should necessarily get rid of the organising requirement, but that the decision on how much and at what level organising or planning an individual needs to do to become a controller should be devolved to the relevant controller co-ordinator/assessor, who can use his/her judgement rather than a rigid set of criteria. This is probably what you mean Peter?

Edit: Which is what seems to happen in practice, so all that needs to happen is that someone updates the "how to become a controller" rules and that will encourage more people to become controllers (or at least put less people off).

[Roger]

Some interesting comments on here. Clearly controllers feel that they are responsible for ensuring that the controls are all in the right place on the morning of the event (even if they were OK the day before).

Should they not also be responsible for ensuring that the walk to the start is clearly taped, or that the start clock is synchronised with the results software, or that the start procedures are robust enough to get people off at the right time when a timed start is used (I've come across many examples of start teams struggling to cope with this) etc etc? All these organisational matters can affect fairness, but unless you have direct experience yourself you may not appreciate what is involved in getting these things right - and they are not always trivial. Do you trust the organiser more than the planner?

The issue is risk! Not (probably) safety, but risk to the race. If something goes wrong outside the forest it's usually not race-critical. "The taping was rubbish and you all got lost on the way to the start? OK, we'll adjust your start times." There are also more people who can spot that something's wrong, and more people who can fix it. You can't adjust so easily for problems that happen in the forest, and moreover the controller is the only person who's likely to be able to spot and correct a mistake. So as controller I focus my efforts on the things that are going to make the most difference: risk-based inspection.

[NeilC]

For every decent-sized event that I've controlled in the last 10 years the vast majority of the control stakes have been put out on the day before the event. I will check them then (even though they make not have boxes present). Having done that I consider the risk that something will go wrong overnight, that won't be spotted by the planning team, low. I will have told the planner that no member of their team should ever move a control after I've checked it. If any high risk controls are left to the day before putting out then I will check those on the morning.

Are controllers like Roger and Homer checking controls both on the day before and on the morning of the event? Or just on the morning of the event?

[Homer]

Are controllers like Roger and Homer checking controls both on the day before and on the morning of the event? Or just on the morning of the event?

I would only check on the morning of the event. Obviously all sites have been checked and agreed prior to the weekend as well.
You just never know what might happen overnight, as was shown at JK 2005. Keldy is pretty remote yet still a control went missing.

[NeilC]

You just never know what might happen overnight, as was shown at JK 2005. Keldy is pretty remote yet still a control went missing.

Agreed but if the controller had checked that all controls had been in the right place the day before then I don't believe that

the controller is the only person who's likely to be able to spot and correct a mistake

I would trust the planning team to spot if a control had gone missing overnight.