[UK-CONTEST] Club Distance Rules

[Lee Volante]

My local club has a number of active members who are more than 35km
away from the club. Some of these have moved further away over time,
due to work or family reasons. Others have joined the club, despite
being at some distance from it, due to taking part in the club licence
training programmes. Some of these members do make regular visits for
club meetings and events, travelling more than 35km (as the crow
flies) to do so. Whilst my local club is barely 1km away, a few years
ago, I did make regular visits to another club which was over 35km
from home.

In many cases, there will be a radio club within 35km of most
amateurs. For many rural amateurs, this may not be the case, and for
both rural or urban dwellers, it may be more than 35km to the club
with which they are closely associated at present.

If a line needs to be drawn, of course it’s not going to be a perfect
split.  The intent was to “distinguish clubs that operate in a
traditional way, with members from the local area, from clubs which
are regional or more contest-oriented.”  From comments expressed so
far, it seems that there are several clubs which their members would
class as ‘local’ and ‘not contest-oriented’ but that have a number of
active members outside the 35km limit, and likewise there could easily
be some contest-centric clubs that are closely located.

For the clubs ‘who do this mostly for fun’ they would be more likely
not to exclude “Bill who moved away 5 years ago” and end up in the
‘national section’, whereas a more competitive group might say sorry
to Bill so they could have a great chance at winning the local club
section. How many clubs be making decisions based on the 5% or so of
their membership who live at distance? Both of the different tables
will likely end up with a mix of clubs of different sizes and
competitiveness, hinged around this
arbitrary-until-we’re-told-otherwise 35km figure.  Hence it’s
difficult to see how the distance rule will achieve the aims of
differentiating the types of clubs, given the potential volume of
exceptions. I can see the intent, but also the flaws, acknowledging
the difficulties of trying to please everyone.
More examples from other clubs please !?

73,

Lee G0MTN