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Re: [RC] Fw: [RC] DAL Election / Weight Divisions!! - Joe LongOn Fri, 29 Oct 2004 14:00:28 -0700, "Barbara McCrary" <bigcreekranch@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: That's a very good point, and one we addressed years ago on the BOD. At that time, we decided not to get too worked up about it, and if you're talking FAIR, it isn't. But as wiser minds have often said, "LIFE isn't fair." Yes, as endurance rides are a team competition -- horse/rider function as a team, and win or lose as a team -- it would be unfair IMO to not allow riders to contribute all they can to the team effort. My personal preference would be to drop weight divisions all together and go back to one national champion and one regional champion, based on accumulated points. It's become too complicated.... I wouldn't go that far, but I do believe we have too many weight divisions. Two would be enough, three at most, but four is just too many -- and results in far too many rides where there are only a few people competing in some of the divisions. I was on the Board when we expanded the number of divisions from three to four, and I predicted that result. IMO the expansion was driven by "awards proliferation," the desire to have more and more riders at each ride be "First Place" and have more "Champions." But like anything else, the more you have the less it means. There was a lot of pressure from some influential heavyweight riders as well, who wanted the weight limit for heavyweights raised -- but that wasn't practical without increasing the number of divisions, because the Heavyweight Division was already the smallest division at that time (in number of participants). So we went to four divisions, and the weight limit for Heavyweights went up. (There's an interesting story about a "setup" at that meeting. Prior to the debate on expanding the number of divisions, there was a presentation about "change" and the "irrational" reasons people resist change. Then, as soon as I began to speak out against increasing the number of weight divisions, there was a "stage whisper" of "See what we mean? Afraid of change!") Well, I'll propose a change: I'd like to see the Board consider at least reducing the number of weight divisions back to a more reasonable number. -- Joe Long jlong@xxxxxxxx http://www.rnbw.com =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Ridecamp is a service of Endurance Net, http://www.endurance.net. Information, Policy, Disclaimer: http://www.endurance.net/Ridecamp Subscribe/Unsubscribe http://www.endurance.net/ridecamp/logon.asp Ride Long and Ride Safe!! =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
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