[roc-chat] ROCStocks and ROCtober...the Core Issue
- From: Allen Farrington <allen.farrington@xxxxxx>
- To: Rocketry Organization of California <roc-chat@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 24 Jun 2012 23:06:12 -0700
There have been some good ideas and comments flowing on this topic, but I want
to provide one bit of clarifying information regarding what prompted the board
to consider these changes.
The core issue is the fact that staffing three large launches per year is
getting more and more difficult. We have a just a few folks that are
consistently helping at these launches and the board is beginning to believe
that the overload is in danger of compromising safety. For example, a ROCStock
requires nearly 40 people PER DAY to properly staff the launch with no shift
repeats. We're not getting anywhere close to that! That doesn't include all of
the ad hoc issues that have to dealt with.
One specific example is that while I think that having a separate LPR range is
something to consider, I believe that it is currently a non-starter simply
because currently we can't even staff a single LPR Pad Helper position. I don't
think that it is believable that we could staff another entire range. Perhaps a
true misfire alley would be the answer, but those types of launch systems tend
to break down under a heavy launch load.
I personally believe that despite all of the good reasons to launch as many
days as possible, compromising the safety of our launches is not an option. I
would like to see us scale back to a level that is actually supported by the
amount of volunteers stepping up to help. Some may say that in any club there
is always a small cadre of folks doing most of the volunteer work and I don't
dispute it, however, we have to scale our activities to match that level of
participation. To me that means fewer launch days and frankly, shorter launch
days.
Allen
ROC Director and Secretary
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