I very much enjoyed the section on recruiting. Thank you also much for providing so much valuable information all day long!

@Liisa Reimann basically, my rule for only allowing festival steers that PanAm (the production company I use for my event) came out of a crash on the start line between two club crews. Luckily nobody was seriously injured. There is the additional issue with potentially having to make a claim with my insurance company, damage to the boats and equipment, and the hit to my race schedule. I'm paying for PanAm to be on site for a certain amount of time before their crew has to catch flights home, etc. So...it's mostly a health/safety issue first, protection of property, and then being able to keep to the event schedule more easily. In addition, I do not want my event to get a reputation of being unsafe or chaotic. I'm especially wary of inexperienced steers using my event as a racing training ground and causing the issues I described above. My insurance and reputation can't take that hit. This really points to the necessity of having steers get certification and continuing education. I'm quite impressed by what Australia has for steering requirements. The festival steers that I've had from PanAm have all been excellent and have many hours steering in a wide range of water/weather conditions. I'd like to see the US get a similar rules/training/certification process that Australia has. I'm so glad to see that you and Joann are making a start on that with your training program.

@Joann Fegley when I'm running a start line, I tell all the boats "don't be first, and don't be last" to the start line. Then, if I see someone holding back, I call them out: "boat 3, you're last....bring it up" and/or " boat 2, you're first....slow your boat". Most of the time, they all come in together....if someone is still hanging back and everyone else is ready, I'll just start the race (at community festivals) without them. Finish line has heard all my pre-start patter, so any protest will get the appropriate reaction from Chief. :-)