Josh Bailey - President

[Jake]

I like a lot of what you're saying, but...

Alumni involvement in this area needs to be significantly higher or reworked to be more accommodating to the MMers who show up and are not driving.

The "track day alumni" - me, DJ, Maeng, Justin, Casey, Rex, Julie, Gerald, Channing, Scotty, etc have done the following in the last several years, all with the intent of being both welcoming and involving of students at track weekends:

• Invited and encouraged students to come out
  
• Discussed at length the options for volunteering, Hyperdriving, or HPDEing
  
• Offered up rides in instructor cars and racecars
  
• Offered to help get rides with other non-MM instructor cars and racecars
  
• Planned post-racing cookouts where we provide the grill, food and beer
  
• Set up massive urns of coffee to help with the early mornings
  
• Coordinated free MM hotel rooms courtesy of NASA to encourage attendance
  
• Coordinated extra volunteer positions for bigger events such as Hyperfest
  
• Introduced students to non-MM "key" people at the track
  
• Invited students to join in typical post-racing festivities, i.e. VIR Tavern journeys
  
• Paid for libations at said Tavern

I'm kind of at a loss as to how much more I and others can do. At a certain point, student officers need to 1. step up, 2. show up, and 3. encourage others to come with them. I was talking to Taylor about this, officers have to be role models and always plan on one officer attending a track weekend, otherwise nobody will tag along. Officers need to talk to Laura Cobetto and figure out some volunteer/work that can be done to help keep students engaged and also allow a taste of the action (i.e. rides, flagging/observing at corner stations, etc).

I'm happy to be the liason between y'all and Laura, and between y'all and the non-MM track junkies that we all know and love, i.e. the Spec3 crowd, the GTS crowd, the other NASA officials, etc.

But don't try to tell me that alumni haven't been welcoming and accommodating, as I just don't know how much more I/we can do while also working and competing myself.