paid managers???!

["Jeff Brickson" <brickson@delanet.com>]

<<<after they receive their huge salary from being a ride manager.>>>

Ha!  This is the saddest piece of endurance 'humor' for me yet.  Jeff and I
run a ride for our Tri-County Arabian Club, and we personally always end up
PAYING MORE to put it on than any of the riders pays to enter it!  The Club
pays for only the things that we get receipts for:  property and portapot
rentals, vet & judge fees, sanction fees, snack crackers, Gatorade, some of
the postage, and food supplies.  Jeff and I enjoy making the Ride happen, so
we personally donate some nice prizes, the entry forms and advertising,
edibles, and homemade chili and soups.  In addition, count the time, and
effort, expo tickets and gasoline going to places to beg for donations of
sponsorship, prizes or finding good deals for outright buying them.  Along
with other volunteers, we use hundreds of dollars worth of gasoline driving
around looking for good vet check, fly-by, and water places, and for driving
around picking up various Club members' donations of food and lent
equipment.  Our volunteer course designers put in solid full-time days
hiking the trails measuring them with a surveyor wheel and then again a
couple days to mark them, usually using up vacation days from work.

Our trail has been different for every ride for the past few years because
of property owner changes and base changes, or else it would be easier.  The
Rides pay for our Club's start-up of the next Ride and for our newsletter to
keep us going.  Hopefully when we find the best 50 miles of trail to use for
all Rides in the future, we'll have enough left over to budget some trail
improvements.

We've been learning quite a bit each time so that it's a bit easier each
Ride, but that still hasn't made our expenses much less or our efforts less
exhausting.  It takes several days for me to recover fully from putting on a
Ride.  Anyway, give us a break--maybe some do, but *these* managers DO NOT
MAKE money.  I see this happening with other local rides, too.  It is a
labor of love and sacrifice.  bb