The
CWG/LMR proposal for the Nationals and "national-level" competitions
requires that:

Sanction applications must be submitted to the Competition
Committee Chair two weeks prior to the Fall or Spring Board of Directors
meeting. Applications for the US National Championships will be reviewed at Fall
Meetings. All other B or C applications may be submitted at the Fall or Spring
Meeting, however the applications must be submitted at least six months prior to
the event. Late applications may still be considered by the competition
committee, with Executive Committee approval, up to twelve weeks prior to the event
for an additional fee of $500.

Wow, yet again another additional burden on meet organizers. But,
hey don't we want the meet organizers to be organized? Well, sure, but what
about the real messy world?

For example, Mike Haley, current USHPA Competition Committee Chairman. In 2007
he didn't come to the fall USHPA BOD meeting with a proposal of the national
hang gliding championships. In fact, no one did. So does that mean we were not
going to have one?

David Glover and I persuaded Mike (after a lot of talking) to put on a hang
gliding meet at Lakeview (it didn't turn out to be there) and we encouraged him
to have the Nationals (well that didn't work out either). So we are unhappy that
Mike put on a meet, and don't want it to happen? I'm sure that he wouldn't have
done so if he had to pay an additional fee.

What about the meets in 2009? Wasn't David Glover's bid for the Nationals turned
down? Did that mean that the USHPA didn't want him to run a meet. Wasn't his bid
approved much later as a co-Nationals? What about the Flytec Race and Rally and
the Rob Kells Memorial, weren't those proposals not ready for the fall BOD/CC
meeting? And then there is the Santa Cruz Flats Race. There was a logistics
nightmare getting the runways paved using the money from the pilots' entry fees.

All of these meets were not ready to be approved by the fall USHPA BOD meeting,
but these were all meets that we wanted to have happen. You want to cut them
out, because of conflicts between the meet organizers and the Competition
Committee Chairman? You want to cut them out because the meet organizers don't
like paying these big upfront fees and bonds?

And now you want to add a burden of a $500 fee for getting your bid in late and
you want to require that the bid come in six months in advance? And how does
this mesh with the goal of having more competitions exactly?

Isn't the rule, if you want less of something, tax it more? Isn't that what the
CWG/LMR proposal is signaling?

I say that there is a much better way to do this, the way I (working with Liz
Sharp) used to do it. That is work closely with the meet organizers in advance of
the fall BOD meeting and help them get their sanction application paper work in
in time. Also, I suggest greatly reducing the paper work required for the
sanction application putting most of it on line. I have already created a form
to do some of that and have sent in a detailed proposal for other changes to
help this process.

How about a few less sticks and a lot more carrots?