Service of Learning Assignment

Erykah Flynn

August 22rd, 2009

Mt. Hood Oregon

                For this assignment I volunteered to help run the Americas Next Pro-Model snowboarding competition.  The contest is an invite only of many of America’s best snowboarders in the world all competing for the title of “America’s Top Pro-Model”.  The event took place at Wendell’s Snowboard camp in there Terrain Park up at Timberline on Mt. Hood.  A friend of mine in the industry was able to get me the position and I was basically just helping anywhere they needed.  In the beginning I worked admin helping to get all of the athletes registered.  We had to make sure each one had a signed waiver, paid the registration fee, received a numbered bib and filled out their personal information sheet including their emergency contact.  After that I helped load up all of the scoring equipment up the chairlift and helped set it up for the judges.  I also helped set up the course, putting out some stakes and flags.  In the end I was able to help with adding up the scores, tallying points and dividing up prizes.  Finally at the end, I helped gather all of the paper work and equipment and load it down the hill to the parking lot.

It was really cool to see how these types of events work from the other side.  I have spent plenty of time on the competitor’s side where I never really stopped to think about all of the work that was being put into to the administration side of things.  I leaned that there is a huge responsibility involved with the admin side of things.  If they make any mistakes it could be detrimental to the entire event.  For example, if they did not have the waivers all signed and someone got injured, or if they didn’t have all of the right equipment needed it could result in a poorly put together event.  Overall, the administrators have a really important and necessary job.