You can find the background on the issue of choosing the US
National Team for the 2013 Worlds here:

http://ozreport.com/16.154#0

http://ozreport.com/16.161#1

http://ozreport.com/16.161#3

http://ozreport.com/16.165#0

http://ozreport.com/16.167#0

http://ozreport.com/16.168#3

http://ozreport.com/16.168#4

http://ozreport.com/16.192#0

If you waded through the material above you'll see that my argument was that the
rules were in error and the SCFR should count for choosing the US National team.
The Competition Committee members (and Paris Williams, at least partially)
originally made the argument that they should stick to the rules. Now if the
Competition Committee follows the inclination of their chairman they are about
to go back on the stick-to-the-rules argument and go with the convenient and
arbitrary choice, using the interim rankings prior to the SCFR.

Robin Hamilton has challenged the Competition Committee to make the decision
about who is on the team based actually on the rules. He has shown that he was
not correctly credited with points from the 2010 SCFR and has argued that the
rules mean that the 2010 competitions should be counted. If so he would be on
the US National team (in the fourth spot).

Criteria (from the rules) for selecting team members are as follows:

1. For international team competitions that begin between April
1st and September 30th, the ranking used shall be the annual race-to-goal
rankings as of January 1st in the year that the competition takes place, unless
specified otherwise by the CC.

2. For international team competitions that begin between October 1st and March
31st, the ranking for selecting the team shall be the annual race-to-goal
rankings adding in the results from sanctioned competitions that occur between
January 1st and 4 months prior to the start of the international team
competition.

Item 2 is clear in the context of item 1. Any confusion that
remains would pertain to the definition of "Pilot rankings" so if we look at
that section from the rules:

Pilot Ranking

The USHPA maintains a pilot ranking for each class of Race-to-Goal competition
based on objective measurement of a pilot's proven ability to compete against
other pilots of proven competitive ability. The purpose of these rankings is to:

· Select pilots for U.S. National teams that will fly in international
competitions such as the FAI World Championships.

· Determine the validity of the year’s Race-to-Goal competitions (see
Participant Validity section)

· Encourage U.S. hang glider and paraglider pilots to participate in
competitions and earn points through their participation.

Rankings are calculated once each year on January 1st, for classes 1 through 5
and each pilot will retain their ranking through the end of the year. A pilot's
ranking is based on his total points accumulated in his best four meets from the
two years immediately previous to the ranking year. No more than two meet
results may be considered from the first year in the two-year cycle. No more
than 2 foreign meets may be used in the 2-year cycle. All pilots who compete in
sanctioned meets will receive competition points, except invitational meets will
not count towards U.S. competition points.

Simplified: The World meet is in January 2013 so 2012 annual
rankings are used (meets from 2010 and 2011) adding in results from Jan 2012
through Aug 2012.

In a six person team and excluding the pilots that have declined their spot, the
five pilots that have already been notified would be the ones making up the
team. If Robin is added then the six person team is according to the rule as
written.

	Dustin Martin	595 (Rob2011)	587 (SCF2011)	586 (Kel2010)	587 (FRR2012)	2355
(1)	Kraig Coomber	660 (BSC2012)	588 (FRR2012)	515 (FRR2011)	506 (SCF2011)	2269
(2)	Zac Majors	582 (Rob2011)	572 (Spr2011)	560 (For2010)	547 (FRR2012)	2261
(3)	Paris Williams	598 (FRR2012)	580 (RKM2012)	539 (FRR2011)	445 (Rob2011)	2162
	Jeff O'Brien	660 (SCF2011)	556 (Kel2010)	382 (MCu2010)	560 (BSC2012)	2158
(4)	Robin Hamilton	502 (SCF2011)	532 (BSC2012)	546 (FRR2012)	512 (SCF2010)	2092
(5)	James Stinnet	506 (SCF2011)	459 (FRR2010)	449 (San2010)	583 (FRR2012)	1997
	Jeff Shapiro	542 (Kel2010)	520 (San2010)	471 (Rob2011)	458 (FRR2011)	1991
(6)	Mitchell Shipley	525 (SCF2011)	433 (Spr2011)	490 (For2012)	488 (BSC2012)	1936
	Larry Bunner	474 (FRR2011)	449 (San2010)	445 (Spr2011)	533 (BSC2012)	1901
	Josef Bostik	507 (FRR2011)	445 (SCF2011)	423 (FRR2010)	469 (BSC2012)	1844
	Glen Volk	492 (SCF2011)	477 (Spr2011)	439 (FRR2010)	433 (BSC2012)	1841
	Davis Straub	515 (Spr2011)	455 (Rob2011)	415 (FRR2011)	399 (SCF2011)	1784

The Competition Committee will meet by conference call today (Monday) to
determine who is on the team. At least three Competition Committee members are
committed to sticking with the actual rules. The rest, who knows?