Has anyone noticed the number of Facebook posts asking for flag marshals lately?
This is a problem for us because the lack of volunteers will lead to either events being cancelled or you yourself as a competitor being asked to take up the slack.
In times of challenge though, it’s always worth stopping to notice the lesson to be learned, which in this case is – volunteers are really, really valuable.
And the take-away from there?
Be nice to them; never rude, and definitely never aggressive. Vollies are the glue that holds every MQ or MA event together, but at the moment, an alarming number of volunteers are stepping back from being involved in events, because of negative interactions with careless riders, both at the track and on the dreaded social media.
We’re all passionate and we all want the best outcomes for ourselves and the riders we care about, but if you care about the sport, always exercise professionalism and self-control, and treat volunteers with courtesy and kindness. Every single time.
We really need them.