Wow, I have never heard so much whining in my life. Let's put this in
perspective, people.
First, contest sponsors, log checkers, plaque sponsors are mostly volunteers
(or paid a stipend) who are giving up large chunks of time and resources to
perform the administrative duties of running a contest. Having been on the CQ
Committee, Judge at WRTC, and NCJ editor for 4 years, I can tell you that it
is an incredible amount of thankless work. The most the volunteers ever hear
is nothing, unless there is some kind of screwup.
Second, just because it is volunteer or working for near-minimum wage at the
League, that does not mean we cannot expect excellence from those doing the
work. We are not going to emote that outcome, however, by whining and lashing
out at those who do the work while we play armchair quarterback.
If you guys would spend half the time you do whining on drafting a uniform
set of contest guidelines, or volunteer to be log checkers, or actually pay
up to sponsor plaques and certificates, or contribute time and talent to the
NCJ web site, or form a rotating board of contest advisors, or draft new
resolutions to present to the ARRL BOD on contest rule changes, or do
ANYTHING positive, you would then have the right to bitch when there is a
faux pas.
The NCJ has established an internal contest committee to ensure uniformity in
the NCJ sponsored contests. This was done after well intentioned folks got a
lot of flack for taking some initiative. Frankly, if I were a silent
volunteer like K7GM, who has put hundreds of hours into checking Sprint logs,
I would have told all of you whiners to stuff it. Fortunately, Rick has the
class to suck it up and keep going.
If we want excellence in our contests, we have to model it and pay the price
for it with sweat equity.
Get a grip, folks.
Tom, K5RC
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