Dragon Boat West

Fellow DBers,

The Alcan Racing Committee needs some assistance.  Each year we ask the people in the know, fellow DBers, to rank the teams for the upcoming Alcan Dragonboat Festival.  This year it is no different, we need your assistance.

WE ARE NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS :-)

a. What do you need to do?

You need to rank the teams in the various divisions in the order you believe they will finish.

b. Why do we need to do thiis?

We strive to make sure every team experiences the thrill of competing against like minded/ability type teams.  Typically, you do not want a highly competitive team racing against first year team for medals.  We want everyone to have a fair chance at earning a coveted Alcan DB medal.

c.  I have never done this, what are the steps?

- We will send you the list of teams and the division they are competing in at Alcan 2007.  The list will be in an Excel spreadsheet which you fill in.
- We will send you the results of various 2007 and 2006 festivals.
- We will send you the final ranking of the 2006 Alcan Festival (typically teams stay at or improve year after year, there are exceptions and this is why we need you).
- You will have between 5-6 days to return the list back to us.  We want the race grid to go out by June 10th so we need the results by June 8th.

d.  Is this difficult?

Based on comments from prior year committee members it is more difficult than they thought.  This is because there are a few hundred teams and it takes time, especially if you want to do a great job ranking them.  We do not expect everyone to rank every team but it is important in each division to rank, at least, the top 40-50 (your top 40-50).  The more the better.  Based on prior years this will take between 6 to 10 hours and depends on how many you want to rank and how much of the information we send you you use.

e.  What do you do with my rankings?

Initially you do not know the other rankers. We want to ensure impartiality of all the rankings. Your rankings will be combined with the other rankers and fed through a super computer that will slice and dice the various rankings and come up with a final set of rankings which will be used to seed the first set of races.  Rankers do not know the other rankers until after all the rankings have been received.

f.  If I don't sign up then what will happen?

The teams will still get ranked but for you and any of the other DBers who did not assist, you will not be able to complain about how the rankings are.  The rankings are based on people reviewing previous years and knowing what is happening this year and if there is no assistance/little assistance then they are what they are.

g.  Do I get anything for doing this?

We understand that in this day and age, time is worth something but we do not pay for this.  We volunteer and thus we expect others to volunteer to make the racing part of Alcan the best it can be.  We will attempt to secure an Alcan volunteer shirt but cannot guarantee this at this time.

h.  Okay I am hooked what do I do now?

Send use your particulars to [email protected].  Please include your name, how many years you have been paddling and if you only want to rank one or two divisions please tell us what division(s) you want to assist in and your email address to contact you at.

We need your application by Sunday June 3rd.  The information package will be sent to those accepted on Monday June 4th.

We thank you in advance and may the 2007 Alcan Festival be a terrific success.

ALcan Racing Committee