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Twenty years ago, in 1984, a very small group of individuals including Tom White, the President of TWSCO, a linework materials vendor, Dale Warman, a supervisor for Kansas City Power and Light, and Charlie Young, a supervisor for Southwest Line Construction organized the first ever National Lineman's rodeo. The primary purposes of the event then as now was to help maintain a focus on safety and safe work practices, to provide a forum for the public to better understand and recognize the technical craft skills the linemen have, and to provide an opportunity for the professionals craftspeople in the linework trade to receive recognition for their skills. One other purpose has always been for the participants to have fun while sharing work knowledge with others in their trade from different companies and different parts of the country. The first event was held in Manhattan, Kansas at the Manhattan Vocational Technical School and had twelve journeyman teams competing. It grew a little the next year in terms of number of participants and by the third year had gotten too large for the training grounds at Manhattan. Starting in 1986 and for the next 5 years the rodeo was held at the Sub One Training Grounds of KCPL. During this period in the Rodeo's history a number of changes occurred. The most notable one was the overall size and scope of the rodeo grew from the initial 36 competitors the first year to 235 competitors at the 7th annual rodeo. This nearly 600% increase in participation in it's first 7 years confirmed to the organizers and the vendor sponsors that such an event was indeed needed and wanted by both the linemen and the general public. As the number of participants increased so did the size of audience that came to watch the competition. Other changes of note that occurred during this period in the rodeo history included the increase in the number of companies represented from four in 1984 to over 50 in 1990. Also, the number and type of events that were included in the competition increased during that period. Another significant change was the addition of 20 apprentice competitors at the 4th annual event in 1987. The number of competing lineman and apprentices has continued to increase every year to date with 783 journeymen and 261 apprentices representing 115 different companies from nearly every state and several foreign countries competing in last year's 19th annual rodeo. The opening of the Rodeo to international competition occurred at the 10th annual event in 1993. That year saw the first participation from teams outside the US including teams from Canada and England. Since that time, competitors have entered from other countries as well including the Philippines, Jamaica, and Ireland. Companies from still other countries like Germany, France, Russia, and South Africa have sent teams or representatives to investigate their possible future participation as well. This broadening of the competition, along with the increasing number of participants, made the scoring of the rodeo more and more complex. In 1987, at the 5th Rodeo, a computer based scoring program was written by the Testing Coordinator from KCPL specifically for Rodeo scoring and used for the first time. Compared to the sophisticated scoring program currently being used to help manage the huge scoring task, that program was simple but computers really helped to improve reliability and timeliness and continued upgrades to that technology are expected to improve that function further. Rather than the dozen or more trained, qualified volunteers that now handle the scoring function, there were only two people responsible for all scoring for the first 8-9 years. Speaking of volunteers, the Rodeo's dependence on the good will and hard work of its volunteers has not changed throughout its history. There would not be a Rodeo without the huge force of volunteers that work primarily the day before and the day of the Rodeo. These people, for the most part, have volunteered year after year in the same jobs and put in countless hours in all kinds of weather to make it all really happen. The several hundred volunteers who handle everything from helping move team's tools and equipment to directing traffic to scoring to helping with registration to operating equipment and a hundred other significant functions are the key to the success of the rodeo and in a large measure responsible for the seemingly seamless experience our out of town contestants and their guests have at the Rodeo. Controlling traffic and getting hundreds and hundreds of cars parked within a very narrow time frame usually in the dark or registering nearly 1000 individual competitors in just a few hours is just something they are used to doing. They are so good at it is easy to take what they do for granted. There are two groups of key volunteers as well that provide for the Rodeo what the Association could never afford to pay for. One key group is the judges. These are the experienced linemen and line supervisors who actually perform the role of judging the events. They put in a very long Rodeo day for certain, but in addition to their actual judging time, they voluntarily attend meetings during the week ahead of the Rodeo. In these meetings every effort is made to help each judge understand exactly what their role is and what they should be expecting of each participant for the specific event they are judging. This setting of the expectations with each judge along with the judging structure of judges, master judges, and chief judges who each have years of judging experience are all intended to provide reliable and consistent judging for the participants. Next Page | ||
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