The US Team selection process in future years

I am starting this post to get the topic off one individual's personality. The 2018 team has ben selected as outlined in the new process. Claims that the process was not carried out fairly have no basis in fact. The Team has very little time to prepare and needs to get to work.

Here is a summary of what I've seen. In years past the team was hand picked and had some success but feelings were hurt and people felt unfairly excluded. Then we went totally objective and haven't had much success. This last time some good folks put a lot of thought into a new process. The SSA approved a plan to switch to more of hybrid system where competitors were allowed some input. Now already we are back talking about unfairness and feelings being hurt.

In the same period of time the whole WGC game changed in many ways, going to team flying and now changing away from team flying in some classes, technology changes each year, etc. For example we showed up in Australia not knowing that texting pilots via satellite would now be allowed. We were not prepared for this at all and we again were at a disadvantage. Also the US soaring community has decreased in size to say the least. Many other factors....

I would suggest that adaptability and efficient use of resources are keys to success moving forward. Below is a link to an interesting interview with Bill Walsh, coach of the 49er's, about building an effective team in today's world of individualism. There are many good points in there some of which pertain to our situation. It addresses ego - good and bad, team work, recognizing the value the whole team not just the starting players.

https://hbr.org/1993/01/to-build-a-w...ach-bill-walsh

I would like to contrast the teams Coach Walsh is talking about to your average Joe's fantasy football team. If you put the best fantasy football team together for real and told them to go play ball they wouldn't do well at all. If you read the article you will see that his teams are definitely about the game going forward, the goal of winning, and not about rewarding past performance.

So do we return two steps to naming a coach to build a team totally at his/her discretion? Do we go back one step to relying on a strict numerical ranking? Do we support the current system (modified as necessary) with some rankings and yet some ability to make adjustments?

Whatever opinion you post, please be supportive of this year's team. We want them to do well, right? Please be kind to our volunteers. We only have so many people willing to take on this work.

XC