Club Class Nationals live on Facebook

[Sean Franke]

Wings & Wheels has been posting live on Facebook each daily pilots briefing. The next briefing is 10 am Central time today. Go to https://www.facebook.com/wingsandwheels.aviation/

Sean Franke

[Renny[_2_]]

On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 6:39:36 AM UTC-6, Sean Franke wrote:
> Wings & Wheels has been posting live on Facebook each daily pilots briefing. The next briefing is 10 am Central time today. Go to https://www.facebook.com/wingsandwheels.aviation/
>
> Sean Franke

Sean - Thanks for providing this live briefing on Facebook! I have been watching each day and the weather portion has also been beneficial for those of us up here at Moriarty! Thanks again - Renny

[Sean Fidler]

Thanks Sean! 👌👍🙏

[Sean Franke]

On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 8:47:24 AM UTC-6, Sean Fidler wrote:
> Thanks Sean! 👌👍🙏

Correction, Mountain time. One hour from now.

Sean

[[email protected]]

Plus a huge thanks to Mitch and Kimmine Hudson (and friends) for setting up a FaceBook page and posting pics and info on the contest!

https://www.facebook.com/search/str/2017+club+class+nationals+hobbs+nm/keywords_search

[[email protected]]

On Monday, June 26, 2017 at 12:04:37 PM UTC-4, wrote:
> Plus a huge thanks to Mitch and Kimmine Hudson (and friends) for setting up a FaceBook page and posting pics and info on the contest!
>
Yes, thx. As was the case in Cordele, they seem to have a lot of down time on their hands in which to post. :(

Chip Bearden
"JB"

[Sean Franke]

Going live again on Facebook in 10 minutes.

Sean Franke

[Sean Franke]

Day 6 pilots meeting going live on Facebook in 10 minutes.

Sean Franke

[John Cochrane[_3_]]

RIP ssa website? Thanks for posting these. Meanwhile zero... zero.. posted on the ssa website. I enjoy various volunteer Facebook and blog posts, but it was nice to have some sort of summary in the official channels. It looks like this was an interesting contest.

John Cochrane.

[Sean Fidler]

RIP? lol. This SSA website (and general communication and marketing strategy) has been fine dust for many years now.

Despite the consistent failure to stay even remotely current on the SSA website, a good deal of great content on the 2017 Club Class Nationals is readily available on (brace yourself) social media:

link: https://www.facebook.com/2017clubclass/
@2017clubclass

This Facebook "page" has been rather fun and entertaining when compared to the regular SSA daily reporting. The key to social media is that it is incredibly easy for users to add content. Not the case with a website.

The Glideport.aero tracking has been OK (despite crashing due to too many users). At least 2-3 pilots are running mobile tracking (2-minute updates on 1-second monitoring intervals). Unfortunately, the rest are using spot which is garbage and makes users want to leave in my opinion. Sadly, many have no tracker at all (FlatEarth, paranoid, etc.). Imagine if everyone at an SSA contest was using a mobile tracker app. The result would be awe-inspiring. With that, a live YouTube broadcast for each day would become highly entertaining and could be done from anywhere in the world. Maybe I will try this today for the fun of it to demonstrate.

There is SO MUCH more that could be done to share the sport of soaring and make it appear fun, inviting and accessible for existing contest pilots AND non-soaring pilots...you know...marketing.

The trend for Facebook event pages started with FAI SGP USA: https://www.facebook.com/FAISailplaneGrandPrixUSA/

This FAI SG USA event also has its own Instagram, Twitter, Flickr and several other social media channels. Before this, all FAI SGP content was slaved to the generic FAI SGP Facebook page. I broke the rules, and it paid off.. The FAI SGP USA page has 1800 followers from all over the world and gets about 100k visitors per month (far, far more during the event).

In Europe (FAI land) there are vastly superior websites and social media practices. www.soaringspot.com Etc., etc. The SSA (of course) stubbornly chooses to recreate its systems for all of this rather than save time and money by joining the FAI community and using all of its great websites and communication.

The SSA website has (obviously) been consistently behind the times and almost entirely ineffective, boring, impressively out of date and irrelevant. I use it for contest stuff because I have no other choice, but I cannot comprehend any use case or value for non-competition pilots. Perhaps I am wrong. Anyone?

The core problem: Giving consideration (to this day and for far too long) to the idea that certain SSA members "don't do social media" or "don't want to do social media." That is the core problem. The SSAs decision making and focus are equivalent to being "digitally Amish."

http://www.lolwot.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/10-facts-you-never-knew-about-amish-people-6.jpg

The results of all this neglect and intentional resistance to modern communication options are no surprise. Perhaps the SSA should not have 60-70-year-olds running web strategy and execution. We need to consider recruiting (begging) our 20-30-year-olds to build and maintain our digital presence. The SSA GOB's need to loosen their grip, at least a little (baby steps). And if, after that, individual SSA members continue to refuse to modernize and use social media, oh well. We can leave the current SSA site as is (no content) and nothing will change for them…

[Sean Franke]

Final pilots meeting for the 2017 Club Class Nationals starts in 10 minutes. See it live.

Sean Franke

[John Cochrane[_3_]]

Lots of nice pictures and rah rah short comments on the Facebook page. They are nice. They don't take the place of a few John Good style paragraphs about what happened that day, covering weather, task, and a few stories from top and bottom. And "my story of the nationals" which is what volunteer Facebook posts provide is quite different than an organizer, CD, or ssa reporter's story of the contest.

As you say, there is lots that could be done with modern social media. But nothing that is being done with any medium.

This is an SSA sanctioned nationals, at the home of the SSA, with SSA staff on site. The SSA RC and website volunteers developed a nice reporting medium on the SSA website. The SSA rules say

13.1 Daily Reporting
13.1.1 The CD and the Scorer shall ensure that contest scores are reported at least daily to the SSA website. When possible, preliminary scores should be posted by 20:00, and updated as changes are made and when scores become Official.
13.1.2 A brief narrative describing each contest day is recommended for inclusion with submitted scores..

Let us at least use what we have.

John Cochrane BB

[Tom Kelley #711]

On Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 11:08:55 AM UTC-6, John Cochrane wrote:
> Lots of nice pictures and rah rah short comments on the Facebook page. They are nice. They don't take the place of a few John Good style paragraphs about what happened that day, covering weather, task, and a few stories from top and bottom. And "my story of the nationals" which is what volunteer Facebook posts provide is quite different than an organizer, CD, or ssa reporter's story of the contest.
>
> As you say, there is lots that could be done with modern social media. But nothing that is being done with any medium.
>
> This is an SSA sanctioned nationals, at the home of the SSA, with SSA staff on site. The SSA RC and website volunteers developed a nice reporting medium on the SSA website. The SSA rules say
>
> 13.1 Daily Reporting
> 13.1.1 The CD and the Scorer shall ensure that contest scores are reported at least daily to the SSA website. When possible, preliminary scores should be posted by 20:00, and updated as changes are made and when scores become Official.
> 13.1.2 A brief narrative describing each contest day is recommended for inclusion with submitted scores..
>
> Let us at least use what we have.
>
> John Cochrane BB

Some of this maybe my fault as I was asked to "help" report. The scorer is QT and he is doing remote scoring. The CD is new and it is a hard job for even a seasoned CD when mother nature is being difficult. After my land out on the first day of the regional I had to leave. I didn't withdraw until several days later.
I do agree posting a report on the SSA website is good, but it can be difficult when a contest has so few volunteer's. No one want's to do it, that is a fact!
My question is why those of you who want more reporting, do more reporting when your at a contest of your choosing? Lead by example. To all the entrant's and crew's, FB is available, personal blogs(YO is one) along with twitter and RAS too.
When I see the "views" on You Tube video's along with my blog "hits", my number's really don't match what is being claimed by some. Hmmmm....?
Today's "live" broadcast from the club class showed 174 views after it was over. The internet does allow a few "contest junkies" to allow their minds to think our sport is huge. Now really.....I mean...seriously...not even a 12 step program can help with that! Hell, "The Helium" doesn't even have a video for this!

USA Uvalde 18 Meter National's is the largest 18 Meter National in the history of contest soaring. Sean, John get you act together now and along with YO, myself and all the other's let's get this job done! Sean, email all the entrant's and demand they carry the IGC droid tracker. I mean $10 bucks and a $15 back up battery pack is all that's needed. John, you have written many articles, so reporting is no problem with you and along with Sean can make some great video's.
I am sure YO and myself will continue to blog. So let's lead by example and do this!
Great idea guys, Thank's big time!

Best. Tom #711.

[Tom Kelley #711]

On Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 11:53:55 AM UTC-6, Tom Kelley #711 wrote:
> On Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 11:08:55 AM UTC-6, John Cochrane wrote:
> > Lots of nice pictures and rah rah short comments on the Facebook page. They are nice. They don't take the place of a few John Good style paragraphs about what happened that day, covering weather, task, and a few stories from top and bottom. And "my story of the nationals" which is what volunteer Facebook posts provide is quite different than an organizer, CD, or ssa reporter's story of the contest.
> >
> > As you say, there is lots that could be done with modern social media. But nothing that is being done with any medium.
> >
> > This is an SSA sanctioned nationals, at the home of the SSA, with SSA staff on site. The SSA RC and website volunteers developed a nice reporting medium on the SSA website. The SSA rules say
> >
> > 13.1 Daily Reporting
> > 13.1.1 The CD and the Scorer shall ensure that contest scores are reported at least daily to the SSA website. When possible, preliminary scores should be posted by 20:00, and updated as changes are made and when scores become Official.
> > 13.1.2 A brief narrative describing each contest day is recommended for inclusion with submitted scores..
> >
> > Let us at least use what we have.
> >
> > John Cochrane BB
>
> Some of this maybe my fault as I was asked to "help" report. The scorer is QT and he is doing remote scoring. The CD is new and it is a hard job for even a seasoned CD when mother nature is being difficult. After my land out on the first day of the regional I had to leave. I didn't withdraw until several days later.
> I do agree posting a report on the SSA website is good, but it can be difficult when a contest has so few volunteer's. No one want's to do it, that is a fact!
> My question is why those of you who want more reporting, do more reporting when your at a contest of your choosing? Lead by example. To all the entrant's and crew's, FB is available, personal blogs(YO is one) along with twitter and RAS too.
> When I see the "views" on You Tube video's along with my blog "hits", my number's really don't match what is being claimed by some. Hmmmm....?
> Today's "live" broadcast from the club class showed 174 views after it was over. The internet does allow a few "contest junkies" to allow their minds to think our sport is huge. Now really.....I mean...seriously...not even a 12 step program can help with that! Hell, "The Helium" doesn't even have a video for this!
>
> USA Uvalde 18 Meter National's is the largest 18 Meter National in the history of contest soaring. Sean, John get you act together now and along with YO, myself and all the other's let's get this job done! Sean, email all the entrant's and demand they carry the IGC droid tracker. I mean $10 bucks and a $15 back up battery pack is all that's needed. John, you have written many articles, so reporting is no problem with you and along with Sean can make some great video's.
> I am sure YO and myself will continue to blog. So let's lead by example and do this!
> Great idea guys, Thank's big time!
>
> Best. Tom #711.

At noon, today on Face Book, 212 views on the live today broadcast on the Club Class National's pilot's 10 am meeting. It's a public post and FB has 2 billion members.....hmmmmmm?

Best. Tom #711.

[[email protected]]

I have no complaints about race reporting, but this is the gold standard: http://www.redbullxalps.com/ probably not going to be equaled by volunteers, plus pilots would have to play dancing monkey for the cameras. Starts in two days, viewership traditionally has been in the hundreds of thousands.

[Sean Fidler]

I think 212 is a huge number considering the size of the potential SSA audience for a Club Class Nationals. The entire contest community with friends and family is only 2500. So you have a 10% share already without much strategy. The key is attracting new people outside of soaring and making it compelling enough to check it out (marketing 101).

Pilots meetings are boring by nature. Interviews, live tracking with commentary, short snippet updates, etc (short, consice, consumable, shareable content) would be better suited to develop and keep and audience interested.

A "strategy" is for every SSA content to have a social media manager dedicated. This is a more important role that the CD or CM IMO for the future or the sport. Until more agree little will improve.

Sean

[Tom Kelley #711]

On Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 12:37:28 PM UTC-6, Sean Fidler wrote:
> I think 212 is a huge number considering the size of the potential SSA audience for a Club Class Nationals. The entire contest community with friends and family is only 2500. So you have a 10% share already without much strategy. The key is attracting new people outside of soaring and making it compelling enough to check it out (marketing 101).
>
> Pilots meetings are boring by nature. Interviews, live tracking with commentary, short snippet updates, etc (short, consice, consumable, shareable content) would be better suited to develop and keep and audience interested..
>
> A "strategy" is for every SSA content to have a social media manager dedicated. This is a more important role that the CD or CM IMO for the future or the sport. Until more agree little will improve.
>
> Sean

You say 212 is huge when compared to 2500 or so in the contest community.
Ah...once again you have assumed something and since we really don't know who the viewer's are or how long they stayed, as they might of been 4 year old's surfing on FB, your marketing skills class seems to need refreshing.

On a social media manager being more important than the CD or CM....stop blowing smoke up my ass.......I coughed so hard I see smoke rings! "The Helium" blew up!

Your video's of the SGP Orlando are well done, they are, only one problem.......few viewer's.

The "hits" do not support your premise. Your "love and obsession" of the sport, as mine, along with a few other's, support's your view's. We need to stay in the present, with facts, as many has learned (including yourself) that "Hope is not a sound strategy".....results in errr...land outs.

Best. Tom #711.

[Duster[_2_]]

On Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 2:11:33 PM UTC-5, Tom Kelley #711 wrote:
> On Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 12:37:28 PM UTC-6, Sean Fidler wrote:
> > I think 212 is a huge number considering the size of the potential SSA audience for a Club Class Nationals. The entire contest community with friends and family is only 2500. So you have a 10% share already without much strategy. The key is attracting new people outside of soaring and making it compelling enough to check it out (marketing 101).
> >
> > Pilots meetings are boring by nature. Interviews, live tracking with commentary, short snippet updates, etc (short, consice, consumable, shareable content) would be better suited to develop and keep and audience interested.
> >
> > A "strategy" is for every SSA content to have a social media manager dedicated. This is a more important role that the CD or CM IMO for the future or the sport. Until more agree little will improve.
> >
> > Sean
>
> You say 212 is huge when compared to 2500 or so in the contest community.
> Ah...once again you have assumed something and since we really don't know who the viewer's are or how long they stayed, as they might of been 4 year old's surfing on FB, your marketing skills class seems to need refreshing.
>
> On a social media manager being more important than the CD or CM....stop blowing smoke up my ass.......I coughed so hard I see smoke rings! "The Helium" blew up! >
> Best. Tom #711.

You pulled Sean's comment out of context; This [dissemination of contest info] is a more important role [than] the CD or CM IMO for the future [of] the sport." Please be civil, you're scaring some of us "4 year olds" away.

[[email protected]]

On Thursday, June 29, 2017 at 1:08:55 PM UTC-4, John Cochrane wrote:
> Lots of nice pictures and rah rah short comments on the Facebook page. They are nice. They don't take the place of a few John Good style paragraphs about what happened that day, covering weather, task, and a few stories from top and bottom. And "my story of the nationals" which is what volunteer Facebook posts provide is quite different than an organizer, CD, or ssa reporter's story of the contest.
>
> As you say, there is lots that could be done with modern social media. But nothing that is being done with any medium.
>
> This is an SSA sanctioned nationals, at the home of the SSA, with SSA staff on site. The SSA RC and website volunteers developed a nice reporting medium on the SSA website. The SSA rules say
>
> 13.1 Daily Reporting
> 13.1.1 The CD and the Scorer shall ensure that contest scores are reported at least daily to the SSA website. When possible, preliminary scores should be posted by 20:00, and updated as changes are made and when scores become Official.
> 13.1.2 A brief narrative describing each contest day is recommended for inclusion with submitted scores..
>
> Let us at least use what we have.
>
> John Cochrane BB

I agree with my friend John. That said, if contest organizers want to use alternate means from the classic reporting, so be it. What is frustrating for some of us is that we don't know the alternative stuff is available.
I'd like to see links to these options put in the reports area so we can find them when we look at scores.
At least tell us where the good stuff is.
FWIW
UH

[Charlie M. (UH & 002 owner/pilot)]

[wish this site was more like a forum......hard to do multiple quotes, or maybe just my iPad....]

Agreed, and my comment in another thread here recently. I am not against various "social media", I am against some that say, "the info is out there, go read it!".
But where?
My comment was, if there is alternative info sources, link it to the contest page on SSA, don't assume others will magically know where to look.

Additionally, some that post to other sources don't do "check boxes" that allow anyone to view it. I do not/likely will not have a registered presence on a number of "social media" sites.
Period.
So, if I have to login to see posted info, them I will skip it.

To 711, I have no issues with your reporting, it is good and definitely better than nothing.
I applaud anyone at a contest that posts pretty much anything. Some are great, some are lower, but it's still info someone took the time to post.

And Sean, yes, you have done some good things for the sport in NA, you did well in the worlds. But I have to say, I get rather tired of you slamming everyone that does not do it your way or to your satisfaction.
Tiring.

[JS]

Interestingly, glideport.aero is experiencing the same sort of overload now (towards the end of the last task at Hobbs) as it did for Cordele.
Can't have anything to do with depth of convection.
We must enjoy ant races.
Jim