[UK-CONTEST] Club Distance Rules

[Peter Bowyer]

I think your point is spot-on, Lee - the new rule supposes a mapping
between clubs-which-work-like-clubs-and-not-contest-groups and the
geographical distribution of clubs and club members. A supposition with an
increasing list of exception cases.

Of course, a small amount of fallout due to edge cases could be considered
acceptable if the stated aims were demonstrably achieved. But I'm not sure
that will be the case.

Peter G4MJS
(who only ever operated in the CCs for one year, from a QTH half a mile
from a 'proper' club which I never went to, on behalf of DMUARS whose
nominal meeting point was around 70 miles away)
On Dec 28, 2011 1:11 PM, "Lee Volante" <g0mtn1 at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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
> _______________________________________________
> UK-Contest mailing list
> UK-Contest at contesting.com
> http://lists.contesting.com/mailman/listinfo/uk-contest
>