[CQ-Contest] Event Consolidation

[Mark Beckwith]

Hello everyone.  The recent discussions and belly-aching about Easter and
also that European RTTY contest butting heads with the Sprint got me to
thinking.

As unpleasant as the thought might seem, I predict contest consolidation is
in our future in some form or another.  I would like to throw out the
question "what are the pros and cons of combining/eliminating certain
events?"  I think we'll be better off down the road if we have kicked it
around much like we used to kick around the idea of using computers to log
with.

As a hypothetical for-instance, imagine getting all the sponsors of state
QSO parties to agree to hold their annual QSO parties during the exact same
period (and of course standardizing the exchanges).  I can think of good
reasons to do this:

1.  less clutter in the calendar

2. tons of activity

I can also imagine a lot of sacred cows being turned to hamburger.  But
let's say it could be pulled off in grand fashion?  That would be one heck
of an event.  Could it be positive?

What is the downside?

Was this discussed already at a time when I was not paying attention?

Mark, N5OT