[UK-CONTEST] Fwd: Contest Committee

[mm0bqi]

Nice one John, that is possibly not what some had hoped for or expected!
My involvement with the CC started when I was concerned about how some
contests were going and rather than sound off I decided to offer my
services to get involved.  Like John I knew no one on the CC and was well
quizzed by Justin the Chairman and was accepted as a member.
Since then I have adjudicated the 80m CCs CW and SSB and assisted with the
IOTA contest.  The time commitment can be severe during the busy periods
and works out about 150-200 hours per year.
I resigned from the Committee last week so there may well be a vacancy
coming up very shortly.  I hope to see all of those outspoken contributers
to the reflector queueing up at Ed's door to offer their services, good
luck to you!  I only hope we have established courtesy and respect back
into this forum before you have to deal with any contentious matters.  Let
me assure you that giving up most of your free time to adjudicate contests
that give other people a lot of pleasure and to take lots of flack for your
efforts is no fun at all.
However most of that is in the past for me and I might even get on for
tomorrow nights 80m CC (My first contest this year!)
I just want to place on record my admiration for the work done by the CC
under very difficult circumstances and my continued support for them.
Change is no doubt coming and we will hopefully all embrace these changes
as decisions are opened up to a much wider cross section of the contesting
community.
73 and yes, I will see you in a contest quite soon!
Jim,  MM0BQI / GM1J



---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: John Simkins g8iys <g8iys at btinternet.com>
Date: 18 April 2012 16:04
Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] HF CW Field Day / G0CKV
To: uk-contest at contesting.com


Rob has set the scene here and I hope others of the CC will follow his
lead.

About 7 years ago, I responded to an invitation in RadCom to apply for
membership of the (then) RSGB VHFCC. I think Don was the Chair at the
time. Roger MEH was about to leave, as I recall.

The requirements were: experience in contesting (check - 20 years: team
member and then manager of SRCC VHFNFD entry and for last 4 years of NE
Surrey CG), literacy and numeracy, (check, I have the proving papers),
computer literacy: word, spreadsheet etc, etc (check 20 years),
experience in committee working (check 25 years Radio Club and
Employment related), willingness to put in an in inordinate amount of
time (check - I retired, early, 15 years ago), commitment and an
assurance that I was and would never be in anyone's pocket (check - a
lifetime: 70 on the clock and still running).

When my application was accepted, I knew no-one on the (then) VHFCC.
There did not seem to have been a queue of applicants. I discovered
subsequently that I do know someone who is a member of my AFS Club -
SRCC, who had served on VHFCCC. This was useful since he was able to
reveal his compendium of the realities of contest life which had escaped
me hitherto. I have developed a number of close friendships within the
CC. We each remain our own people, nevertheless.

I have always been at pain, and I believe so are all the other members
of CC, to ensure that no preference is given to any contestant. Wherever
possible, the adjudicator is not an active participant in the contest
with which they are charged with adjudicating. For the first couple of
years I was allocated 70 MHz - a band upon which I was not active, nor
equipped. For the last 4 years, I have written the CC Summary and RadCom
Review of VHFNFD - based on the adjudication by others. That separation
cannot always run in all circumstances, but all members of the CC are
invited to question every tabulation of results and the raw data is
always available for scrutiny by any member of the CC. The last few
years have been somewhat troublesome to me personally, meaning that I
have not been able to give the dedication necessary to adjudicate any
contest. However, I am now ready to return to the full duties of
adjudication and rules development, I think that the framework for
development of an improved consultation process, is well founded.

As a final: I must say that I found a number of postings here to have
been cast in the most offensive and negative terms. This is unwelcome.
When one has got to bed at 2am, 10 days running, believing that a good
job has been done, only to be accused of incompetence and corruption,-
does just leave a feeling of "why am I giving my time to this?". I am
sure you will understand why.

73, John, G8IYS,

On 18/04/12 13:07, G4LMW wrote:
> As one of the more recent additions to the Contest Committee, I can
confirm
> Don's story.
>
> Don approached me direct after I had foolishly offered some improvements
> that could be made to the Club Championships adjudication method.
>
> At that time, I knew no-one on the CC (other than a fellow club member). I
> was not even a serious contester (and am still not!).
>
> Certainly wasn't as a result of some fictitious "old boys network" !
>
> Rob, G4LMW
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Don Field"<don.field at gmail.com>
> To: "Chris G3SJJ"<g3sjj at btinternet.com>
> Cc:<UK-Contest at contesting.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, April 18, 2012 12:10 PM
> Subject: Re: [UK-CONTEST] HF CW Field Day / G0CKV
>
>
>> As a PS to Chris's posting, while I was Contest Cttee chairman we did
>> indeed advertise in RadCom on more than one opccasion for certain
specific
>> roles which needed to be filled. Needless to say, the response was nil.
>> Which is why we had to resort to the tried and tested method of twisting
>> arms (referred to disparagingly by some as the "old boys network"). RSGB
>> certainly has a policy of advertising Committee Chair vacancies (which we
>> also did when I stepped aside, again to no avail).
>>
>> Don G3XTT
>>
>> On 18 April 2012 10:45, Chris G3SJJ<g3sjj at btinternet.com>  wrote:
>>
>>> Adrian, obviously there would need to be a vacancy created by someone
>>> leaving the Contest Committee. The are currently 17 members covering VHF
>>> and HF
>>> events. I guess if one of them resigned, the position would be
advertised
>>> in RadCom, and/or on this Reflector.
>>>
>>> In some ways you may be correct about "by invitation," in that if, say
>>> for
>>> example, Q G3WRR left, they may want to look for an experienced CW FD
>>> person to take over, or again if one of the VHF guys left the same could
>>> apply.
>>>
>>> Could I also suggest that sarcastic comments wouldn't particularly be
>>> helpful in getting positively noticed to work in the team!
>>>
>>> Chris G3SJJ  (Member of the former HFCC 1985-2000)
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
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>>
>>
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