[UK-CONTEST] Encouraging Contesting

[Bob G3PJT]

Hi

Thanks for bringing this up Richard - you should have been around at 
FHVN this weekend!

Anyway as far as the Commonwealth Contest is concerned it will not have 
gone unnoticed that the big increase
 in participation even with falling sunspots has come about through 10 + 
years of consistent publicity by a small group of enthusiasts.
The adjudicators, Les, Harold and others, have carefully written 
interesting write ups with the results, badgered entrants for pictures 
and stories,
and the organising team have all worked to think of new angles for 
trophies (Travellers )  and new ways of competing (teams etc).
In the end though this all comes down to some keen volunteers who will 
put the time in to spread the word and stick at it despite the doubters.
So if you want a contest to grow then get it adopted by a good group of 
contesters who will push it along and you will likely be rewarded with 
more contesting in general.
The way to increase contesting is to focus on a few successful events 
like IOTA , Commonwealth, AFS , Field Day (?) the Club Contests, that 
way you can pull in new entrants.

Never rely on organisations and paid staffers, they might have a 
different agenda!

73 Bob G3PJT