John Heiter

Who have you been asking? I would think USPSA would tell you, our Section Coordinator is pretty good about responding, and I could have told you some of it. Nationals decides the slot policy each year based on the match capacity and national participation. Say they think they can run 400 shooters at the Production Nats (not counting staff, sponsors, and whatever other free slots are given out) and clubs have earned 40,000 activity credits nation wide. That would mean it would take 100 activity credits to earn one slot. I don't know the exact numbers, but given that the entire state earns between 2 and 8 slots to any given national match, I don't think your idea of forming your own section so you can "sling slots" is going to work out that well but good luck on making it rain. I been trying the contact privately via email thing for 3 years. Brick wall. I get called out on this thread, so I conduct any and all business openly in this thread. I'm all for open communication, visibility, and accountability. Not back room deals and back channel convos. About 3-4 years ago I offered for BPSA to sponsor a stage and asked how that worked. You said y'all was set on sponsors filled up. Next go round I asked about doing a stage sponsor or something, throw $500 at y'all, put up a BPSA banner, and get 2 slots ($280 value) that we could award at BPSA using some sort of points series or random draw. Thought that would be nice, get some of our guys in who usually don't have a chance. You said you'd send me a sponsor letter never got it. I followed up you gave some sob story about being busy with a wedding or some shit. Excuses are for losers and coffee is for closers. I figured maybe I lowballed it and the $220 net wasn't worth your time. The next year I offered a bigger net said we might could swing 1k get 4 slots that's a $440 net. I never heard back.$440 would've bought a lot of sausage. Some point in all that around 2-3 years back I sent you and SC a note saying I was exploring a big match can I get a copy of ya'll budget for the classic so I can wrap my head around what I'm getting into. You pretty much said no. Just this past December I sent you a message about swapping MS State Steel slots for MS classic slots of equal value to put on each other's prize tables. I thought that would be a cool thing to do for shooters in our state, and it's a zero sum cost proposition for both of us. I never heard back. All this is probably coming as a surprise to many reading, both at your club and mine, because I don't put people on blast or run tell the Internet every time I sonething don't go my way. I get called out on this thread and people talking shit so let's roll it all out and talk about all our business openly. #TrueColors I know a lot of your do boys up there were upset how the state steel match was run down here and cried like titty babies on the Internet about it, but haven't offered to lift a finger to improve it. I wasn't affiliated with it, just shot it, saw some things I'd like to improve, so instead of bitching on the Internet I rolled up my sleeves and been doing something about it. So you offered to trade slots in your match for slots in the MS Classic and no one got back to you on that? Slots of equal value? It's crazy how you keep reaching out to people and they keep ignoring you. I don't know you other than our communication in this thread and all I can say is that it can't be you so it MUST be them. You just keep up the good fight. We're all pulling for you now.

What a load of crap. We have sausage. We didn't have sausage last year Mr Hatchet. It was a crawfish boil. I distinctly remember seeing crawfish served. Mission accomplished. I'm guessing some of you guys probably complain around the office coffee pot because they're no weenies in you Foldgers? Oh well, I'm excited that there will be a 2nd Level II in MS next year.

I can't and won't speak for Steve and the way he runs the Classic other than saying he does a fine job. What I will say is that I ran for twelve years prior to Steve taking over so I have some experience with the match and opinions based on that experience. The Mississippi Classic is NOT the Mississippi State/Sectional Championship. It has been the State/Section Championship for years now only because no other club in the state offers to host one. There are probably a number of reasons for that (it requires a large range, lots of props, tons of man hours, and are basically just a major pain in the ace) but if no one else is willing or able to put one on, don't get pissy because someone else does. If you or your club wants to host the Mississippi State/Section Championship and run it your own way, just let the Section Coordinator know. While I can't speak for everyone (like some of you seem comfortable doing), my guess would be that the guys at Magnolia would not even contest it. The MS Classic would still be a great match no matter what the state/sectional designation and most people probably wouldn't care. They'd be excited to have two big matches in MS that year instead of one. Some of you obviously feel entitled to shoot "your" state championship and think people from other states should not get in ahead of you. I get that to some extent, and I hope you do get in, but I would not want to limit the MS Classic to MS competitors. I can't speak to what has or hasn't been offered as far as support goes for the last couple years, but during the twelve years I ran the MS Classic and the two or three years I worked it before taking over, there were only two times when a MS Club offered to provide a stage, props, and workers for the match (edited to add that we have had volunteers come from other MS clubs to RO over the years and we really appreciate them so I'm not trying to discount their efforts). They were welcomed and accepted. We DID get support EVERY year from shooters from TN and LA. Without them, we would have really struggled to grow the match to where it is now. I have a long and proud history of working the Gator Classic and my main motivation for doing it was to return the favor for the guys that helped us so much every year. Speaking of the Gator, it's a fantastic match and one I love participating in. I did not work it this year for the first time in at least six years because of their change in registration, but that is NOT a criticism. Every year that I've attended their match, I've been amazed by the number of clubs that contribute to that match. It truly is a Louisiana Section produced match with every club in the section contributing props, RO's, resources, etc. It complicates tear down a bit as certain props have to be loaded on certain trailers so they can make it back to their home club but that illustrates my point. Because the Gator is a Louisiana match, put on by the clubs in the LA section, I think it's right that they give those members the first crack at getting in. Unfortunately, it cuts me out but I'm ok with that. I personally would not want to cut other states out of the MS Classic because those shooters are the ones who have made the match what it is. Other MD's may feel differently but that's my opinion. Finally, MOSHER, please understand that what it takes to be a "Team Magnolia Member" is a twenty dollar bill and a pulse. Actually, the pulse part isn't set in stone. It's open to anyone who shoots at Magnolia and is willing to pay a little extra up front so we can order props and consumables at the beginning of the year and they get discounted match fees going forward. It does NOT mean they are now privy to all the inside secrets of the match or that they are contractually obligated to not feed you a line of BS just to seem important. I don't blame you for not understanding that and believing there might be a scandal. Actually, I just saw the updated post where you're offering to try to host your own state match next year so that's perfect. I wish you all the best. I won't actually volunteer to come work it if you're running it because you've shown yourself here to be a little too immature to earn my respect and thus my time and effort, but I'll certainly endorse your application to host it. Good luck to you. John Heiter

It's in the mail!

At our club's USPSA matches, we ask that everyone help with setup the morning of the match and tear down immediately following the match. Setup starts at 7:00am so shooters driving in from out of town are forgiven if they can't make it in time for setup. If someone needs to leave before tear down, we ask that they let the MD know. If someone consistently doesn't help with either setup or tear down, the MD reminds them that it's a volunteer sport and it's not fair to those that do help for someone else to skip out on everything. If someone is unable to assist with the more physical setup or tear down activiites due to health reasons,they just need to let the MD know as there is always something that they can do to help out that is within their abilities. Other competition groups at our range have gone to a fee system. If you're there for setup you pay X, if not, you pay Y. It seems to be working but I'm not sure if it's a good long term solution. The morale of the workers seems to have gone up because they see the non-workers being penalized but I'm not sure if that will persist if they see that some of the non-workers are happy to just pay the additional fee and not have to work ever.

This thread may not be about the MS Classic but it is the only match that has been mentioned by name so far in this thread. I responded to the post that did mention the MS Classic specifically that said the match should add words saying "Must be present to win" and I pointed out that the match announcement for the match DID contain those words. I get that some may have overlooked that statement and I'm sorry about that, but the MS Classic has had the same prize table format and policy for years now and it was clearly stated in the match announcement. There are a few reasons why a match might employ a "must be present to win" policy. One of the biggest is that vendors pay big bucks to come setup for these matches. We all want them there because they give shooters the opportunity to pick up quality products at good prices without the hassle/cost of shipping. They also contribute cash and prizes for the prize tables and they pay for their own gas, lodging, and meals. They do all this in the hopes of getting enough sales to cover their costs and those hours between the last shot fired and the end of the awards/prizes are PRIME sales time for them. Having a policy that encourages shooters to bolt as soon as they unload and show clear is a good way to encourage your vendors not to come out and not to support the match next time. There are other reasons as well but that's a big one and may help understand the reason behind the policy. John

I disagree with USPSA needing to set any "guidelines" on something like a prize table policy. It should be up to each match to decide. Given the number of issues involved with getting prizes (especially firearms) to winners who don't/can't stick around to pick them up at the match, I think those folks probably should accept some level of personal responsibility for finding out what the policy is for each match if they know they will need to leave early. As far as this year's MS Classic, I can certainly understand there being some hard feelings. There were quite a few people who forfeited their prizes because they chose to leave early, including a couple people who had their names drawn to win guns from the prize table that were not there so the guns went to other shooters. I don't think there should be too many hard feelings though because the Match Director DID clearly state that shooters must be present to win when he put out the announcement about the match. Check the first post in this thread: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=164483 John

Match Website: http://icore.teammagnolia.com/ Match Application Attached: SouthernRegionalEntry_2012.pdf

Yep, that was my fault. I had too much sun and not enough fun today. I'm not dead yet though so I'll be out early in the morning to get everyone set up. John

Don't make me block you from this site too.

Byram has typically been a faily low crime area but as you guys have said it can happen anywhere. As Steve said, the match started hiring out private security (off duty deputies in marked patrol cars) to patrol our hotel parking lots about three years ago and so far we have not had any issues. It's a few hundred bucks but I think it's money well spent and we plan to do that again this year. As for the rest of it, I saw my crawfish guy today at lunch while I was out running some errands and he's got everything lined up for us. All of the plaques showed up at my house yesterday (thank you Manny Bragg if you're reading this) and all of the score sheets and booklets are at the printers. I'll pick up the shirts on Thursday and I have a cooler full of frosty work night fuel in the back of my truck to kick things off tonight. Did I mention Steve has over $20,000 on the prize table so far and he's still collecting? The only thing I'm not excited about is that once again B Class Limited is by far the biggest class which means once again I'm not getting a trophy. Oh well, I'll just plan on winning other things.

Stages are now up. Let the fun begin! http://www.teammagnolia.com/classic/2012/

I hear you guys, I'm not a super huge fan of the early start times either but, with so much interest in the match this year, we had to add an additional block of time just so we could squeeze a few more folks into the match. Anyone want to volunteer some dozer time because we could REALLY use some more bays. Also, based on this thread I'd just like to remind everyone that MS is a CONCEALED carry state. I don't care what you're packing to the crawfish boil but it better stay CONCEALED. We're a family friendly kind of operation so, if we need to declare keg stands at the crawfish boil a forbidden action in the stage description, I'll have a word w/ the Range Master and get it done.

I'm sitting in one as I type this and I have to say that one of the best things about this sport are the Level I RO classes. Great instructors volunteering their time to educate members in a fun and interesting way. This is maybe my fourth or fifth time to sit in on one of these and every time I've learned something new and been really impressed with the quality of the instruction.

Just a word of caution from someone not even remotely associated with this match other than I shot it and enjoyed it... I would ask that you please be careful throwing out comments that might serve to damage the reputation of a match (any match). Suggesting someone gained advantage by shooting stages early or that a COF was changed from day 1 to day 2 is a big deal. A lot of people just worked their butts off for months to put on a big match for no pay and very little recognition. I'm not saying you can't raise legitimate concerns but, given the work they put in to build their match and it's reputation, I think the appropriate thing to do if you have questions about something would be to contact the Match Director or the Range Master to give them an opportunity to respond first before posting it on a forum. As to the practice, I've had to deal with people trying to duplicate our published stages before and all the complaints from people thinking someone got an advantage by doing so. It was enough of a PITA that I now wait till the last minute to publish stages. My personal opinion is that stages never hit the ground just like the diagram so the only advantage anyone really gains from trying to practice a stage is the trigger time itself. Other than that, it was a fun match with good stages and some really class RO's. I had a great time with a great squad and I hope Mark gives me a heads up next year so I can get my match app in early. John