On Sep 18, 8:02*pm, wrote:

- Show quoted text -

The competition committee currently struggles to get enough organizers
to run 6 nationals a year. Your suggestion
is to make this 12 . This is highly unlikely to be supported by
contest organizers.
2 15 meter "national champions"- one "east", one "west". which is the
true NATIONAL champion? Who gets the world team slot?
I see your thinking, while trying to address a real problem, as
flawed.
I would challange you to support your assertion that the RC is happy
about declining participation. This is simply not true. It is
however , very true that there are no simple answers to these issues.
The Club class has the potential to increase participation by creating
a "special home" for that group of ships. It remains to be seen
whether this will increase participation of simply divide the sports
class, have one more set of prizes, more work for organizers and
scorers.
Lest anyone think that I oppose this new possible class, I do not. I
must demonstrate that participation can be expected to increase or all
it really does is make a class where guys don't have to compete with
KS.
Please provide your input as part of your poll response. These are
used as supporting documentation for the annual Rules meeting.
Thanks
UH
SSA Competition Rules Subcommittee Chair.

Hank,

I am sorry you feel my thinking is “flawed”. Unfortunately that
attitude appears to be doing little to reverse the trend of lower
numbers at US contests.

The competition committee currently struggles to get enough organizers
to run 6 nationals a year. Your suggestion
is to make this 12 . This is highly unlikely to be supported by
contest organizers.

I find it hard to believe we would need to hold twelve contests rather
than six. Combined classes such as std/15m, 18m/open, sports (club)/
world would show that we would need six or less for the entire
country. Also the ability to run combined nationals/regionals like
Region 11 and Sports this year again reduce the load.

Changing from a 9 day contest (actually 10 days, but we have a
mandatory rest day) to a seven day (Sunday to Saturday) would reduce
the workload for contest organizer and managers considerably. Is
there reason to hold a 10 day contest other than because we always
have?

2 15 meter "national champions"- one "east", one "west". which is the
true NATIONAL champion? Who gets the world team slot?

Do we need a National Champion? We can't have both an East and West?
I am sure we can come up with some system for a fly off if you really
feel we need just one.

The national champion doesn’t get the team slot today. It is a
composite score that gets the spot based on several years and multiple
contests. We move to a points system similar to what we have already.
It could be based on best three finishes from the last three years, or
any other method we decide is reasonable. I think the idea of using
the score from more than one class should also be considered. Those
that are really in contention for the team are likely to fly in both
east and west contests anyway.

I see your thinking, while trying to address a real problem, as
flawed.

Sorry Hank, I’m just outside the box. But, I only design and optimize
systems for a living.

I would challange you to support your assertion that the RC is happy
about declining participation. This is simply not true. It is
however , very true that there are no simple answers to these issues.

As Albert Einstein is reported to have said: "The definition of
insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different
results." The failure to act can only be taken as the RC not
addressing the issue. Any good scientist knows that to learn you must
run experiments, try new things. You may fail but at least you tried.
As the famous teacher Ms. Frizzle once said “Take Chances, Make
Mistakes, and Get Messy!”.

Please provide your input as part of your poll response. These are
used as supporting documentation for the annual Rules meeting.
Thanks
UH
SSA Competition Rules Subcommittee Chair.

It was several days ago and hopefully other will as well. I encourage
you to be a little less judgmental in your position and more open to
dialog and trying new things.

Tim Taylor (TT)