The
CWG/LMR proposal for "national-level" meets, basically all the same meets
that are currently USHPA sanctioned except the Nationals:

1) Include Sport Class

2) Two pilot mentoring sessions

3) If a safety committee is used, at least one member may not be a participant
in the event. All committee members must be a USHPA rated pilot with a minimum
intermediate rating.

4) Meet director must hold a USHPA Meet Director Appointment

5) Meet director will allow up to two apprentices to assist and learn through
the USHPA Meet Director Apprenticeship Program. USHPA to pay up to $1000 in
expenses for apprentice meet director(s) to train during event.

6) Events with entry fees over $250 must submit a complete budget unless the
event is being held by a USHPA Chapter for the benefit of said Chapter.

You'll note that these are additional requirements placed on a
meet organizer. We currently do not have as many meet organizers as we would
like for these meets. Placing additional burdens on them will only make it less
likely that we will have enough or as many meet organizers as we would like.
Isn't our goal to have more competitions? How does placing these additional
requirements on meet organizers help us attain our goals?

I encourage all meet organizers to have a Sport Class. I think that it is a good
idea. But some meet organizers feel that it compromises safety for their tow
meets, others don't have the resources to accommodate it. James Tindle, Adam
Elchin, and David Glover have supported it. Jamie Shelden didn't find it
appropriate for the Flytec Race and Rally. Should we cut her meet out?

It's great to have pilot mentoring sessions, but this costs money. Is the USHPA
going to pay for mentors to come in and mentor the new pilots? Who is going to
do it? How are they going to do it when time is often very tight in these
competitions? Shouldn't this be done at Team Challenge type meets? Is the USHPA
trying to do this on the cheap, not allocating any money for this?

We have got along with three member safety committees for years now both in the
US and overseas. Why have to add another person? And where are you going to get
this person? They apparently can't be a pilot or someone involved with the meet.
Why is this necessary? Who is going to pay for this?

What's with the USHPA and meet director appointments? The USHPA doesn't have any
competition expertise, so why should they have any say over who is a meet
director? That is the meet organizer's job. I'll have much more to say about
this later. This is an extremely poor idea.

Meet director apprentices? Great. Are you paying the meet director to mentor
them? Whose expenses are we talking about here? Again is the USHPA trying to get
by on the cheap, by making the meet organizer pay for this?

Complete budget? Hey, I'd like to see where all the money goes also. How about
an audit? And who is going to pay for this additional burden? Is the meet
organizer just going to charge the competition pilots more in order to carry out
these functions. Somebody has to pay for this. And just why are Chapters exempt
from this, again?

The CWG and LMR proposals add unfunded mandates to the meet organizer, not
putting any money on the table. So just how does that encourage more meets? How
does that keep meets from costing more? Remember how much the World's costs
($700/pilot)? That's because CIVL keeps adding to the burden on the meet
organizers.

The USHPA has forgotten, or never realized, that there is supposed to be a
PARTNERSHIP between the Competition Committee and the meet organizers. The meets
just won't happen if the USHPA antagonizes the meet organizers. I'm going to
assume that over the years it has antagonized more than enough meet organizers
and that that is why there are fewer of them now.  I remember I used to
antagonize G.W. Meadows, a lot.

The competition pilots are most interested in having competitions. The USHPA is
putting up barriers to having as many competitions as we would like. Why would
we be supportive of the USHPA? Why wouldn't we want to support the meet
organizers? They are much more important to us than the Competition Committee.

The USHPA, it's like the government, only worse.