DefinitelyDressage.com

is this a thankless job? Is it hard? Tell me if you would do it knowing what you know now.

Thanks

Friends and I put on schooling shows for years. Get lots of volunteers and make sure you have a specific job and specific times. I loved it! And treat your volunteers like gold - they're worth it.

I enjoyed it when I did it. (Schooling shows. Not "real" ones.) Show manager is a whole lot easier than Technical Delegate. Everybody thinks the rules don't apply to them...

Volunteer to help with a local schooling show to get a taste. Ask a local recognized show if you can "shadow" the office.

I am not sure volunteering is what they had in mind. I think I am going to be shown how to do it and tossed off into the deep end.

I have managed several recognized shows and a ton of schooling shows. It’s one of those learn as you go things (and my first one was a recognized, back before there was any kind of scheduling software, holy cow, it was a ton of work to do a two arena schedule, and pretty stressful!!). I did enjoy it, but you have to have good volunteers, and a bunch of people who know what they are doing if it is your first time. Once you get the hang of it, it’s not too bad, but still - a ton of work! Volunteers are everything, and if you are only a small GMO, there are usually just a handful of people who do most of the work most of the time. (Ok, maybe that’s the case with even large GMOs, I don’t know) Eventually, I got kind of burned out.