Setting Up A Timely Match

[standles]

All:

I have started to run a USPSA flavored match every month. I am trying to discern interest locally before going to the expense and effort to be an affiliated club.

My question to you fine folks is this.

How do you organize the stage setup portion and then the match reg/squadding on a local level?

Here are my current constraints.

Range is ~1.5 hours from my house.

There is some onsite storage but not much

Limited steel and barriers

Setup starts at 7am-7:30 am with shooting starting at 10am

It is usally only me and one or two others setting up.

I hesitate to setup the day before because of the extra trip as well as the possibility of stuff being blown/rained/vandalized overnight.

stages that are all paper and only require stands are easy enough. I would like to add some longer field courses but having to construct vision barriers out of safety fence or something the day of the match is pretty intensive.

We have tried with the safety fence, 2x4 in tire rims for posts(they will blow over), plastic sheeting with holes cut in it but weak point is the poles. We can auger holes for the posts but that adds to the labor.

Anyway... any tips and such you can drop my way would be appreciated.

Steven

[wide45]

It is usally only me and one or two others setting up.

I've been in that situation a few time. Not acceptable every month. I'd have to be getting paid a lot.

Get more people to help you.

Edited May 29, 2006 by wide45

[Vlad]

Build a couple of short 90degree angles of 2x4 (sort of a triangle) and screw them to the base of your uprights (think the base of the old fashioned x-mas tree stands). At the end of the little braces drill a hole wide enough to take a 10inch nail. That way you can take you uprights, put them where you want and then hammer the 10 nails through the braces and into the ground. That should keep them down. At the end of the day pull the nails, pack up the uprights, and you are done. Make sure you save the nails, they are not cheap

[rishii]

It is usally only me and one or two others setting up.

I've been in that situation a few time. Not acceptable every month. I'd have to be getting paid a lot.

Get more people to help you.

agreed. that gets old real fast.

you didn't mention how many bays or shooters you got.

at my club, we use 1 big bay, and usually have 10-15 shooter per match

we shoot 4-5 stage a match, but only set up 1-2 stages at a time, shoot those, tear down/reset, the next 1-2 stages. we rotate match directors monthly, partly to prevent burn out, and partly to have a different flavor match every month.

if I'm the match director for the month, the setup on the first 2 stages are simple. something a couple guys and myself can setup easily. once the rest of the gang arrives, everyone helps. during re-setting, they are ether helping with the stages or police brass. think of your role as more a foreman, than a laborer.

our range is windy, 15-25 mph wind is average, so we built our target stands to take 2x2 sticks for strength. for our vision barriers, we use 2x2, and use the targets stands for the bases. we have used plywood (too heavy, too much sail area), black dust fencing (light, too much sail area) white latice fencing (light, wind sort of goes thru it) shade cloth, light, too much sail area) and finally we started using plastic orange construction fencing, great stuff, light, wiind flows thru it. we made frames with 2x2, 8' long by 6' high, with the bottom of the frame having a 2x2 1' off the ground to secure the bottom of the fencing. zip tie the fencing to the frame.

[CRubio]

Steven,

First of all, thank you for volunteering to promote our game. It is a tiring job with long hours and lousy pay but every now and again, some comes up and says 'Thank You for puttin on a match and allowing my son/daughter to learn to play this game' and that kind of makes the effort seem worth while.

That being said, I agree with wide45 in that you will need to drum up some additional help or you will end up getting burned out and quitting. None of us want that.

We are pretty lucky at Cherokee Gun Club in that we normally have a pretty good crowd show up to help with set up and take down on our monthly matches. One of the things I did early on, and still do, is offer and incentive of $5 off the next match fee for any one who shows up for set and then sticks around to help put the match away. It is not much but every little bit helps.

Couple of things on the props:

We use the 4x8 sheets of insulation panels you can get a Home Depot for walls. They are lightweight, reusable and well worth the cost ($7-$9).

Our brackets are made out of the 2x4 studs (not the regular 8 footers). It takes 2 studs for every bracket. We try to make use of every bit of wood so one stud we cut down to 6 feet, the left over section serves as a target stand base. Cut the other stud in haf. Use on section for the base of the L-bracket and the other to brace it. We have an ongoing picture show at our website that may give you some ideas as to how we use the props.

Hope this helps,

Carlos

[shred]

Get good at drawing accurate stage diagrams so you can hand the first four people that show up the diagram and point them to the props. Repeat for each additional stage.

[Flexmoney]

Setup starts at 7am-7:30 am with shooting starting at 10am

It is usally only me and one or two others setting up.

I hesitate to setup the day before because of the extra trip as well as the possibility of stuff being blown/rained/vandalized overnight.

I wouldn't suggest setting up the day before. It is near impossible to get help to show for two days in a row. And, you will soon tire of driving to the range twice in one weekend. What help does show for that, will be more likely to burn out.

What has worked for us, locally, is that we make it a point to ask for setup help. When somebody contacts us about when the match starts, we tell them "the gate opens at 8am for setup, the match starts when setup is complete".

When I started shooting matches, I figured the match director was getting paid big buck$ to set these matches up for me to shoot. I just didn't know that they were busting their butts for a handshake. Your shooters won't know you need help unless you ask them. They might even expect that they are getting in the way and that you'd rather do everything yourself.

And, the beauty is, the more shooters you ask, the easier things get. Not only do you have more people to spread the work load over, the people are also more committed to the outcome...because they are involved in the production.

It can turn into an upward spiral. We are at a point where we can setup great stages, because we get so much help. And, the brand new help from just a year or two ago...these guys/gals could now do it on their own.

And, this is an important aspect, I think...we look for help from the newbies, more than from the old regulars. You don't want to have to count on the old regulars...they can't always be there for every match.

[Flexmoney]

How do you organize the stage setup portion and then the match reg/squadding on a local level?

Registration can take quite a bit of time by itself.

You really need to run the registration separate from the setup. We have a sign in sheet (name, email address, division, power factor). When the shooter signs up and pays, we issue them a numbered score sheet...they fill that out as well, then they sign onto one of the squad sheets. The registration person should ensure that the squad sheets have a balanced number of shooters (you don't want 10 shooters on one squad and 6 on another, and sometimes that means you have to be the heavy and move people to a different squad).

[j2fast]

I don't really have any advice to offer but I can say that Flex and the rest of the folks at the Pickaway SC run the most efficient match I've seen. From setup, to registration, squadding, shooting the match and tearing down everything just clicks for them. At the match I shot earlier this year setup to teardown was right around 5 hours; I was on the road trekking home by about 1 or 1:30. If they weren't a 3 hour drive away from me I'd shoot their match every month.

[AzShooter]

I've noticed a lot of our local clubs pay their setup crews now. They get to the range an hour earlier than signup and go to work. People pay an extra two dollars that gets split between all the setup people.

When I was putting on matches and had little help setting up I would do two stages at a time and incorporate them into the next two stages so that they would require only a little bit of change. Adding a few targets or moving a few around works for the second two stages.

[George]

Design stages that are long on paper and short on steel and big heavy props. If anyone complains about wanting more steel and props, tell them to step up, or shut up.

Good stage diagrams are a must if you want to reduce hassle a lot. When you do get help, handing out a diagram and pointing to the supply and tool sheds usually works wonders.

I handle all the long gun and multigun matches at our club and we only do 3 a year because of the same factors (lotsa' work, few workers).

Try doing more classifiers, they reduce work due to simplicity. Anyone who complains about too many classifiers has got to be "bagging" ;-)

[Flexmoney]

Yikes. George's post scares me a little. I don't like to skimp on stage quality for lack of man-power. But, you just may need to do that as you get started.

[Jim, it was good to have you at the match. Since you are coming from around Weirton, I'll bet we could find somebody that you could car-pool with. ]

[George]

I am not saying a club should run like that for monthly stuff, but when there is no man-power, the time for extra work to please the folks who won't pitch in is not a good idea for the burn-out factor.

The general idea is if folks want something done a certain way, they oughta' volunteer to help make it that way.

When I was hugely active in my clubs bi-weekly matches many moons a go, it always boiled down to a few doing the work for the enjoyment of the many. When requests for changes that required more work by the few were made by the many at our regular meetings, they were always tabled unless the suggestor was willing to become a worker to help implement.

If you are not careful, you can always wind up doing more and more and more work. The next thing you know you aren't there for the shooting anymore and burnout is heading your way. The suggestions I made are to prevent this from happening when you are stuck with a lousy situation like Standles described.

I don't mind doing a lot of work for a match as long as I have 3-4 months between the efforts. Every 2-4 weeks is a ridiculous long haul expectation if you are understaffed and have to put on a really big shebang every single time.

[wide45]

Reducing the quality of the match can really bite you in the backside.

The number of competitors will drop, including some workers. It is a downward spiral.

[standles]

Thanks alot for all of your ideas and suggestions.

One of my issues is there was a USPSA club at this range a while back. "Northwest Florida Practical Shooters". From what I can ascertain the organizer had some of the same issues I am seeing. Add to that the range requires any club to carry its own insurance as well as the MD taking the liability. (I get a pass until I become official)

I had a core of 4 others that before we even started jumped on the bandwagon and pledged to help. Well that is now down to two and sometimes they "have other things to do".

I have only held 4 matches and can see where this can getout of hand real quick. The first three were 5 stage 100-120 round matches. The last one was 4 stage and 60 rounds.

The area to work in is one bay ~80 yds wide and 110 yds long. Both USPSA, IDPA and SASS would like at least 5 individual bays 50yds deep. It is a longshot since the range does not own the land and the county really would like to see us gone.

The range primarily is made up of plinkers and folks that sight their deer rifles in once a year. Nothing wrong with that but hard to convince them to shoot for competition. I had one guy call me to complain about the 120 round count match because he shot .45 and would have to buy 3 boxes of ammo to shoot just one match. I offered to spot him the rounds for his first trip but he was a no show. Another wanted more steel in the matches. He caught me at a low spot and I told him that was a great idea. Showed him where we kept the steel and told him I would be out there next match to help him setup his stages. He complained that it was not enough to worry with. I told him buy some and donate it to the club like I did for targets/pasters/timers/tgt stands/ etc. etc.

I appreciate the conversation as it in itself is encouraging to know others face these same issues.

So Far I have decided to do the following.

Advertise more to the club (Setting up a website for the club)

Get some folks from the close by established clubs to shoot (See Above)

Assign one person to do nothing but registration and squadding while setup goes on.

I like the idea of 2 stages then incorporating them into a larger array.

I also like opens at 8 and shooting starts when stages are setup.

Rotate the Match Director on a regular basis.

Thanks for all your help and encouragement.

Steven

Edited May 30, 2006 by standles

[standles]

If you have any more suggestinos let me know.

Steven

[Chris Keen]

You gotta have good help.

If you're doing it all yourself ..... that can lead to burnout city.

But along with good help ... good leadership is a must also. Too many chiefs, or not enough chiefs will ruin a good match. D-E-L-E-G-A-T-E

[ima45dv8]

Get that thing up and running as a club as quickly as possible. Like, tomorrow. Then sell memberships to your USPSA club. Annual dues could be something on the order of $35-40 per year, which includes a polo shirt with the club logo. Do the shirt order each year at renewal time and you can even have the members names sewn on.

If you're renting the range time, just make sure people know they're not buying a range membership -- it a chance for them to belong to their very own USPSA club!

Why do this? To promote a sense of ownership. That gets people feeling personally connected to the end-product, and that makes it easier to get volunteers. Once you have some members on board, you can have a club meeting and propose the idea of a schedule for match setup. A simple calendar could be used to assign volunteers either on a rotating basis (Joe Shooter will help in January, April, July and October), or in blocks (Joe Shooter will help January through April and have the rest of the year "off", if he chooses).

[Jaxshooter]

An hour and a half is a long ride. When I was involved in match setup several years ago, we would design the stages and a few ( usually me and 1) other would meet at the club on Friday late in the afternoon and pull the props, target stands, steel etc and put them in the appropriate bay along with a copy of the stage diagram. Then when people showed up Saturday morning everything was in the bay and they could start putting it together. If you have people sitting around waiting for the match to start ask them to give you a hand or to design and setup a stage at the next match. As far as tear down appoint one person on each squad to see that thier last stage of the day is torn down and PUT UP!!

[Steve Anderson]

Thanks for the kind words on the circleville match...we have an out-freakin-standing buch of folks who get there at 8 and ask, "what can I do?"

It's created a nice little culture of help where so many are helping that those who don't almost look lazy. And there are very few that don't help!!!

I always thank those that help and remind them that THEY are the reason we have good stages.

SA

[Nik Habicht]

For squadding: we put out clipboards with scoresheets. Shooters fill them out, bring them to the registration trailer and turn in their sheets and fees. We squad the match on a large table. When a group of folks want to shoot together, we write a letter of the alphabet on each of the groups scoresheets. That way, when we need to move a couple of shooters off of one squad, and onto another, we either pull singles or the "E" pair or the "F" trio, as needed.....

Basically, I can walk into registration late, after finishing set-up, and make some minor adjustments to the work my registration guys have been doing, to fine-tune the squads without upsetting anyone's applecart......

we have an out-freakin-standing buch of folks who get there at 8 and ask, "what can I do?"

It's created a nice little culture of help where so many are helping that those who don't almost look lazy. And there are very few that don't help!!!

I always thank those that help and remind them that THEY are the reason we have good stages.

SA

I'm blessed with that as well, and grateful, but it's also the area where I need to do some more work. Thanks for the reminder.....

[Sestock]

We run 80-100+ guns every month and do not squad. If you have enough ro's to staff the stages then you do not need to squad. we typically have 10-15 people on staff for the match, we even had floatter Ro's last month.

Typical Monthly Match

Stages designed weeks ahead of the match

Friday - a few of us pull all of the walls, steel, target stands, sticks and whatever props necessary. If we have time we will begin setting up the stages.

Saturday - finish setting up the match, usually by lunch sometimes earlier. have lunch and the staff shoots the match to look for any bugs in the stages and to free up help for sunday.

Sunday - show up and check the stages replace targets if necessary. We start shooting at 9:00. Any staff that wants to shoot the match has a free pass to jump to the head of the line on any of the stages. Most of the time the staff is done shooting the match in about 45 minutes. We try to have 2 ro's on the stages and cycle people off the stages to have lunch. After lunch we tend to marshall the shooters remaining to certain stages. We usually are tearing down stages as soon as the last shooters finish the stage. Typically we are torn down and put away by 3-3:30 PM.

The trick is to recruit help, treat them good and not burn out the staff.

[Flexmoney]

The trick is to recruit help, treat them good and not burn out the staff.

That is key. The clubs that burn out seem to be those that don't ask/expect help. They have the same old crew doing it all. And, that can only last so long.

[John K]

I hear where you are coming from. I am involved with setup/ SO/ tear down of the monthly IDPA match. I started doing it because they needed the help. We have had some success with getting some of the newer shooters to show up and help out. Some shooters want to show up, load up, shoot and scoot. They paid their $15.00, they do not feel obligated to tape, or stay and help with the tear down.

I was real new to IDPA and comp shooting when I began helping with the setup and some SO duties. I now create stages and look forward to both the match and the setup. i can guarantee this, if you get involved with the setup and admin of the match, your shooting will get better. This is definitely true for new shooters. I have told several new shooters just that and they have had the same results.

At a local range they have a rule during the steel match that if you SO 7 or more shooters at a stage you can cut to the front of the line at the next stage you shoot. Good rule.

Shooting the match should be sold to the competitors as follows:

Either show up early and help set up, or stay late and help with the tear down. Everyone is expected to tape. Anyone can be tapped by an RO to aide in running a stage for a short period of time.

Sorry if I rambled

John

Edited August 17, 2006 by John K