NSCA Discussion Thread

[Kratos]

Ok so i feel we need a thread for the sole discussion about what our club will be doing the following year and this winter series and all other club matters for that matter. ill post up some of my thoughts

ok i feel that instead of having the winner of our series go to next years nationals that we need to have them go to that years nationals. i say we need to have 2 different series. lets say we do something a little like kc where our first 6 comps winner would go to that years nationals. the remaining comps could be a different series that way people can still come and compete in a series and not just be a gtg style if that makes any sense. secondly i like the 5 minute 40 point point out, i believe that we have many "seasoned people" in the club and we dont require the 60 point point out. i believe we need either a panel that consists of 5 people that way there is always a tie breaker or one person that decides the club decisions. we need to know the comp locations at the beginning of the season and not decide a few days before we have the comp. when we do comps i also think that we need to make it go faster. i say we have like 2 courses open and the judges split the sheets of competitiors, shuffle them and whoever is first goes first.i also think you should only have a set amount of time when your name is called to get on course. i believe we all are normally ready to go when we hit the comp. if your not ready for some reason like your charging your batterys or fixing your truck then take your sheet from the judge. i think finals needs to be a random order also that way nobody could say that they got screwed over by not going first or last or whateve the complaint may be. i also dont think we should charge to comp. i have no problem buying copies or timers or anything that we need and im sure other people wouldnt mind helping either. we only have one place in which we can purchase rocks for (hobbytown) and if we want shirts then i say we find someone to make them and everyone who wants one can purchase them. i hope we can get all the issues worked out within our club since it seeems like our membership has declined as has alot of our attitudes toward each other. we all love this hobby and need to work together to bring our club back up and get over our own differences. please everyone post up so we can get our club issues ironed out.
thanks
chris

[relic68]

You have very valid points Chris....we need to get over the problems and move on to make the club better. I have only been with you guys for a couple years but I have seen the friction in the club first hand. It has turned me off a bit on wanting to be any more than a competitor. If we can make this club like I have heard it was in years past then we need to "get over it" as its said. Having a list of places and dates up front would make it a lot easier for me to get to all the comps. I have pull within the company I work for to get time off....( my wife makes the schedule ), so with that said I dont see why I couldnt make them all. I really enjoy the company when I comp with you guys. I have learned a lot in the past year, and would love to be able to pass that along to new people who want to try this great hobby. So long story short, lets get this ball rollin!

[kwkride]

Good idea on posting this up Chris.

I agree with a lot of your points. We do need to keep things moving better during the comps. This means that we need to have a minimum of 2 courses going at any time and people need to keep the lines going.

I also like the idea of rearranging the comp series so that you attend Nationals in the same year that you win the series. The problem with that is that we have a winner from last year that has earned an invite to Nationals for this year. Unless he is willing to give that up, we would have to skip a year before this change could take effect.

We need to look back and see when the names need to turned in for our invite. This would give us a deadline for the series would have to be over.

To do this, the series would have to be shorter. We have been running 10 comps in our summer series with 2 drops. I think that we would have to shorten it to something like 6 comps with 1 drop in order to fit it in before the Nationals entries are set.

The other option would be to have part of our indoor Winter comps combine with some the early summer comps. We just have to remember that when our series, there can be no more than 50% of the comps at the same geographic location.

Like Chris suggested, then we could run another series that does not include an invite to Nationals. It would still count for points and have winners named at the end. So it would still be fun and have bragging rights.

I don't have a problem with going back to a 40 point limit on courses. I don't know that we need to set a strict 5 minute limit. We have seen some courses that none of us could finish in 5 minutes. I'm thinking that it should still depend on the course but is that is just my opinion. Most of us are doing this for fun, and it's more fun if you finish courses.

I don't know what has brought on bad attitudes. Unfortunately I missed most of the comps this summer because of work and some family issues. Hopefully we can just get back to having fun playing with our toy trucks.

[major94]

Im glad to see this. Now we need to get peoples ideas on here so we can work it all out.

I feel the 5 person council is an excellent idea. Heather said she would post scores at the end of the day, but she cant be there to get people signed in. I know Chris said he would help i think with course setting. I think Jim said he would help. we need some more people to step up to get these comps going at the start of the day. So if you think this is you, please say you wouldnt mind helping.

I like the drawing for your spot, and think that would work well.

Smokinjoe and I were talking about a schedule 2 weeks ago, but it will not work out for the first date. But here is the dates we had picked out.
Nov. 19
Dec. 3
Jan.14
Feb. 4
Feb. 25
Mar10
Mar. 24
Apr14
Apr. 28
May12
June9
June23
July15
July28
Aug11
Aug19
Sept 8
Oct 13
Nov 10
Dec8

i hope this helps

[Psychomonkey RC]

Originally Posted by major94

Nov. 19
Dec. 3
Jan.14
Feb. 4
Feb. 25
Mar10
Mar. 24
Apr14
Apr. 28
May12 MIDWEST CHALLENGE
June9
June23
July15 RED ROCKS
July28
Aug11
Aug19
The season ends here? Not sure when we need to get the invites in.
Sept 8 NATIONALS
Oct 13 CRAWL-A-PALOZA
Nov 10
Dec 8

i hope this helps

Thanks James,
I am OK with these dates. I added in the date for the closer national qualifiers in red. These date should not be for qualifing points for nationals. I talked to Fishmaxx at Red Rocks and he said we should not have a comp on a qualifing event date. The other season may be fine.

I'm always down for what ever needs to be done on comp day. I think we do need more people to judge. That way it is not the same people judging all the time.

I do think we need to go to the five minute rule. It will also help with getting through the day. We as course builders need to change the way we set courses, so they are doable in five minutes. This also means that we need more people to learn the set courses. I was talking to Patrick (666) in OK, he said there should be at least two ways through a gate. One clean and one that takes a gate penality.

I like the drawing for position to run. Although being the late guys I do not know how that will affect us. When we show up we all always ready to run though. Drawing for finals order is also a good idea.

Season points for a national invite is a tough call. I think this point should be talked about when everyone is together at a comp.

I think the club should still have dues and charge at comps. this is what we can use for panel construction and new rock for Hobbytown. It is way cheaper to become a member than pay for each individual comp. We do not charge for the winter comps because Hobbytown charges us to rent the corner we use.

The only complaint I have with adding the winter dates in is that the weather can play a factor to the out of town guys. Local guys might think it is not too bad to go across town, but we need to get there and get home later in the day. If we add this can we use the first few and later dates when the weather might be better. I know that we have no control over the weather and it can be bad early or late in the year. Just my opinion.


As always thanks for your work James.

Psycho

[kwkride]

Just for information, this year, Fishmaxx was asking for names of series the first week of July. I'm guessing that means that we could have our series end in June and still get the name turned in if we decide to make this change.

[Kratos]

Chad i completely forgot about thee upkeep on panels and stuff. i agree on keeping the dues. anyone else have any input on anything we have discussed? please everyone we need to get this thing going and get back to the rocks

[benchemist]

On the topic of panel upkeep:
We need to spend some time working on the inside panels. The newest ones have developed quite a few cracks that should probably be patched before we start running on them actively again.

We will probably also want to bring some of the outside rock back inside to aid in course setup for those times when we can't run outside this winter.

Along the lines of course setups:
For the most part we tend to run 2 or 3 courses and then a finals course. I'm of the opinion that when possible, we should have an easy, medium and hard course for each comp. This way we are being friendly to those whom we are trying to get into the hobby and provide an increasing challenge for those who are more experienced.
From personal experience, it can be very frustrating when you can't even complete the first couple of gates on any of the courses because they were designed to be extremely difficult for the most experienced members.

Being able to finish at least one course at a comp should help us keep the younger members interested.

[major94]

Interesting idea Ben.

I like the easier course fro number one. Because the good guys are going to finish weather its hard or easy. I like the idea. It would be interesting to see if this works.

And on course two do like the first 5 gates semi easy and then the last 5 like pro difficult and then course 3 full on hard.



I feel that panels inside that Rich are real nice. But the other ones are kinda old. Is it possible like Ben said to bring rock insid. But go one farther and take the old panels down and stack the rocks on that table and raised up thing on top. It would make it so it was more like the outside, but inside.



I personally would like to see more members back in the club I dont think it is a money issue, but do we really need to charge $20? We no longer do anything with the money. Last year we raised enough money on our own to have Rich match it. And the club money sat. We then made money off of the CSC and nothing happened with that money. We bought copies of score sheets, clipboards, and timers. We really dont need anything to opperate. We have enough balls and chalk. I am wondering what you guys think the money should go to? Should we buy more rock for outside, Different style rock? have a water feature? Lets hear some thoughts.

[kwkride]

I would like to see some of the money go for more rock outside. Probably some different types of rock also. This is especially important if we are going to host the Central States Challenge again (I assume that we are)

Another suggestion that someone made was to buy a club ez-up.
I don't remember who suggested it, but I thought I would throw it out there.

[benchemist]

Another suggestion for club funds: Relevant for the 2012 season/s. We could do a few random participation prizes at the end of the year similar to what Alex does with the off road racing series. If you participated in X number of comps, then your name goes into the hat for some crawler related items. Set of foams, set of tires, that type of thing.
Possibly have a set of hats made up for 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the series. Something usable vs yet another trophy to just take up space.

An EZ-up, a folding table and a couple of folding chairs for the outdoor club events would be a nice thing too. Only downside is that we would need to store them somewhere and someone would need to remember to bring them to the comps.

If we want to decrease the dues, then maybe make it $10 a person or $20 a family.
Another Alternative would be to slightly increase the dues, but have club shirts or club hats.

[DeweyCJ5]

an ez up with a table and chairs for tech and sign would be nice...maybe a banner with the club logo on it to hang from the ez up would also get a few more people to ask questions like when the comps are at Tredwood or Lincoln. i think the $20 in dues is just right. new shirts would be cool but i dont think they should come out of club dues. i think a few club cookouts would be cool... we could make any "TEAM" driver do all the cooking

[kwkride]

Originally Posted by benchemist

Another suggestion for club funds: Relevant for the 2012 season/s. We could do a few random participation prizes at the end of the year similar to what Alex does with the off road racing series. If you participated in X number of comps, then your name goes into the hat for some crawler related items. Set of foams, set of tires, that type of thing.
Possibly have a set of hats made up for 1st, 2nd, 3rd in the series. Something usable vs yet another trophy to just take up space.

This sounds like a fun idea Ben, although I actually do like trophies and plaques.

The banner is an excellent idea Dewey. This would really help promote the club, especially when we are comping away from the 'Plex.

It is great to have t-shirts for the club, but we found out during the first couple of years that they are too expensive for the club to be providing them. If someone was willing to have some made, I am sure that they would sell.

[major94]

Originally Posted by kwkride

This sounds like a fun idea Ben, although I actually do like trophies and plaques.

The banner is an excellent idea Dewey. This would really help promote the club, especially when we are comping away from the 'Plex.

It is great to have t-shirts for the club, but we found out during the first couple of years that they are too expensive for the club to be providing them. If someone was willing to have some made, I am sure that they would sell.

I had all of the intentions to get shirts made, I even had the logo set up. I just forgot about it and lost interest in even trying. It was just one of those years for me. Lots of death and in turn family events. So I kind of lost the t shirt thing.

I think doing the giveaways at the end of the year is a great idea. I dont think an ezup is a good idea. It is only going to be more responsibility on someone to make sure it doesn't get damaged, stolen and to make sure it gets brought to the comps.

[ax10]

Been out of touch with comps and everyone due to work. I'm fine with $20 dues. I'd prefer hats and maybe a small decal

[Kratos]

not sure if im the only one but we dont have an official date yet so im not sure if we should have the comp this saturday or not. what is everyones thoughts?

[major94]

Well no one has taken my spot yet, so I think that we need to move it back. And it is kinda last minute.

[Kratos]

Originally Posted by major94

Well no one has taken my spot yet, so I think that we need to move it back. And it is kinda last minute.

yea it is. i agree we need to move it back to maybe December 3rd? or December 10th?

[benchemist]

Maybe have a Test and Tune day instead of a formal Comp.

We could set up some courses to try our rigs on before they start to count for something.

Could also use it as training on how to judge and/or design courses.

[major94]

Originally Posted by benchemist

Maybe have a Test and Tune day instead of a formal Comp.

We could set up some courses to try our rigs on before they start to count for something.

Could also use it as training on how to judge and/or design courses.

If you want to do that ben, set it up, I dont want in it. You can pick the balls and chalk if you need them from me.

Start a new thread and see who all will show up. Good luck