Thank-You for your response. I certainly see it from your individual perspective.

My experience with all types of competition has been fairly similar. I've competed in MANY different sports/activities over the years, basketball, volleyball, softball, bicycle racing, flying, and through my kids, bowling (they were much more successful at bowling than I ever was at any of the activities I competed in! LOL). Here is what I have learned about competing. In any given activity, there are basically three types of participants; casual, capable and competitive. The casual participants play for pure recreation, they could care less who wins, who loses, how good their equipment is, etc. This "competitor" has many other activities that they participate in, with no real preference for one or the other. Next there are those that are pretty capable and take the activity more seriously, they purchase specific, performance related equipment and spend more of their time practicing and honing their skills in order to improve and compete at a higher level, i.e they are committed to winning. They mig ht have one or two other activities that they also participate in. Finally, there are the "born to compete" folks who are passionate about their activity and it is usually the ONLY activity they actively participate in. They buy the BEST equipment, and their life is consumed by said activity. These folks are usually on the podium and willing to go to any lengths to be, "the best".

Herein lies the rub. These three "classes" of competitors all have uniquely different needs from their governing body and how their events should be run, yet they all compete in the same arena. It is virtually impossible to please them all (go figure!). In my experience, it best serves the particular sport/hobby to let the highest-level competitors actively work together to form the rules, regulations and formats of the higher-level competitions because they DO (generally) have the most knowledge and the most skin in the game ad are likely to be the ones who take it the most seriously. By doing this, there will ALWAYS be a certain group of folks that will cry "foul" and that it is "not fair" and it almost certainly creates discourse for the entire discipline in which they compete. This has built walls in many, if not most (all) of the organizations that I have been involved with at one time or another. It is the higher levels of all competitions where innovations (that we all get to enjoy eventually) are born, and where $$ are at stake. This is where sponsorships and professionals are born. This drives the manufacturers to be able to better their products, market them to us mere mortals, and make their profits. Like it or not, "fair" or not, it is just the way the world turns.

I guess what I am trying to say, is that just because one WANTS to compete at a national level, it doesn't mean they SHOULD. I believe our hobby has (and hopefully will continue to) provided many opportunities for us mere mortals to have fun competing at a more local level with a reasonable amount of travel and expense that is commensurate to our skill levels and investment of time and $$. My Dad taught me that the world is not necessarily "fair", and I have seen instances where someone had the natural ability to compete at the highest levels, but they just didn't have the resources (financial or otherwise) to be able to . Unfortunate for sure, but the world just isn't fair sometimes. One thing I have learned for sure, you can't please all of the people all of the time! I see more people these days that are absolutely intolerant to that concept and continue to fight for what suits them to the bitter end rather than join the collective fight for what serves the most people, most of the time and maybe suffer a little bit of personal sacrifice.

Astro