Focus on Competition - 2011/02

February 2011 145
NEW RULE BOOK: The 2011-2012
AMA rule book—Competition
Regulations—was published (online) the
first of last month and incorporates many
changes.
I’m not sure of the past, since this is
Technically Speaking ...
Greg Hahn
Technical Director
[email protected]
Focus on Competition
the first complete rules cycle I’ve worked
through, but the original count of
proposals was somewhere north of 200,
and getting all of them voted on and
crossed and then voted on again, and
keeping everything straight, was quite a
challenge. Then getting all of the changes
incorporated into the rule book with the
correct content and intent was another
challenging feat.
We did find out that some changes that
have been made to the cycle timeline will
need to be changed again, because there is
insufficient time between stages for me to
make the necessary turnarounds.
Unfortunately there’s only one way to
know if a change will work: to put it
through trial by fire and hope for the best.
Soon after taking this position I called
a big meeting with the Contest Board
Chairs to get everyone who was involved
in the rule book process on the same page
and to make some changes to the system
that I felt would make things simpler and
more efficient.
First we eliminated the paper trail and
snail-mail system and put all of the
correspondence online, including the
proposal form. We lengthened the time
allotted for accepting proposals and then
streamlined and shortened the timeline for
the voting and cross process.
I felt that the previous timeline of a
year-and-a-half for the voting and cross
process was so long that it caused much
confusion. It took too long, and it was too
easy to forget what was being voted on.
We put more emphasis on the board
Chairmen being the leaders of their
respective groups, to help with voting
tabulation and to keep the members up to
date and more engaged in the process. I
think that this one aspect made the most
difference, because keeping the board
members involved made everyone aware
of exactly what was going on in the
process and led to a better overall
outcome.
It wasn’t, as they say in Top Gun, “a
walk in the park,” but the book did get
published on time and is hopefully as
accurate as possible.
Those of you who are consummate
competitors might want to take a look at
the new rule book, because there have been
quite a few modifications in language and
equipment. In addition, some classes have
been added and some have been sunset.
Enjoy! MA
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