Pre Pan-American and 2018 Canadian National Gliding Competition

On Friday, 17 August 2018 08:48:16 UTC-6, Dan Daly wrote:
On Friday, August 17, 2018 at 12:31:19 AM UTC-4, Tim Taylor wrote:
Please don't have an opening and closing day. They are a waste of time and extend the contest for no reason. It just adds addtional cost and time for the participants.

According to the Sporting Code Annex A:
"1.2.3 The total period of the event shall not exceed 16 days including two days on which the Opening and the Closing Ceremonies are held. At least one non-flying rest day shall be given during the period. An official training period of three days immediately preceding the opening of the Championships shall be made available to all competitors. Major international soaring Events on the FAI Sporting Calendar should be separated by a minimum period of 4 days."

So, it's a requirement for an FAI/IGC Level One event.

Annex A is a guideline and the organizers can ask for waivers and/or override via local procedures. I am with Tim, 2 full days for poorly attended ceremonies is a waste of peoples time. These ceremonies can be achieved during the evening on the practice day(s) and on the last day of the contest.

Do local dignitaries and sponsors get anything out of these ceremonies? Not sure but other than layers of government telling themselves they contributed funds for the event the opening ceremony at the recent Poland WGC could have been accomplished the evening of a practice day.