Rob Boudrie

The only downside of the 1050 is the lack of the lifetime warranty, but part breakeages tend to be few and far between. If you get one, you will not find yourself wishing you had bought a less expensive model a few years later.

The word of the RM is final on a scoring call. If the RO disagrees, don't argue - ask for a review by the RM, make you case, and accept whatever decision is rendered with class even if you disagree with it.

I noticed that I got the MOM logo exactly 6 years ago for helping Brian with the last server move. I hope this new system serves as long.

Fixed - thanks.

I'll add another, as I am familiar with how some of this looks from the other end. Never lose your sense of gratitude, and try to avoid this cycle: - Shooter picks up a sponsor. Life is good, shooter and sponsor are excited. - Shooter enjoys using the equipment, life remains good - Shooter sells some of the equipment donated by sponsor and tells sponsor he needs more to replace it (Yes - I have really seen this happen) - Shooter gets a very nice multi-thousand dollar gun on a sponsorship basis and immediately responds with "where is my spare?" (and never even considers that the spare might not also be a freebie) - Shooter loses sense of gratitude, and starts to think he is not getting enough from the sponsor. Shooter starts asking for more stuff than he needs (ie, will actually shoot or carry in his range bag as a spare), and begins to inquire about things like airfare/hotel reimbursement on what was originally intended as an equipment sponsorship. Both the shooter and sponsor are less than fully excited by the relationship at this point.

Many thanks for the update.

Great idea - thanks.

Fixed - Sphinx search engine was a separate port I had to do after moving the forums.

Problem found - Brian and I installed the "Sphinx" search engine on the server to speed up searching (and it do so wonderfully). The only problem is Sphinx lives outside the "account" for enos forum, so it was not automagically ported as part of the move. Problem fixed. I think

How about if a club simply announces that it will have unannounced chronographing from time 2 time?

Jack - welcome. Use the clubfinder on www.uspsa.org when you get back stateside - you will find loads of people eager to have you join up with their club and should have plenty of matches to shoot. In the meantime, stay safe.

Yup, Sept 7-9 - date is official. Registration form will be available once a few details are worked out. Expect a low fee match without a heavy emphasis on prizes and 9 or 10 stages.

Unfortulately, it will suck for members outside the US as it will be Harvard. I expect the second weekend in Sept, and am awaiting final confirmation from the Harvard president that I requested the proper dates. I contacted the bigger clubs, and all Presidents/SC's, and nobody else is both interested and capable of doing an 2012 Area Championship. The SIG Academy in NH is interested, but is just starting their USPSA program and is not yet at the point where they can field the necessary staff. Once again, we were ONE CLUB away from not having an Area Championship. A7 owes Harvard a debt of gratitude. If you want to thank then, volunteer to work the match.

BOS (Boston) is not a problem. Although you need a permit for damn near everything in the DPRM (high cap mags and ammo included), I've never had to deal with anything other than the standard TSA procedures. A uniquely NY (and possibly NJ) phenomena is summoning law enforcement for a "legality check", and then having to deal with an officer who understands neither subtle nuances of NY penal code 265.20(13) or FOPA 86.

Sponsorship money is icing on the cake. The way big name shooters tend to make a living is to leverage their wins and sponsorships into jobs or training. People like Max Michel, Rob Leatham, Jolie Golob, Randi Rogers, etc. are at the absolute peak of the sport - but they tend to have serious responsibilities as employees of the companies they work for, and do a heck of a lot more than just fly the company flag and win matches. Similarly, some other big names make their money using their reputation as the basis to sell their own products, or offer training services. But, when it comes to getting paid just for the shooting and flag flying, the money is short - and much of the support comes in the form of equipment. Grandmasterdom does have certain advantages - one of which is that it can be used as the introduction to the hard to penetrate world of gun sales/management/marketing, as it's uncommon to get such a position with a big player in the industry without some sort of credential (Veteran, retired LEO, famous shooter, etc.).

There is a difference between releasing the salaries of certain folks like the President, NROI head, and Executive Director (I will check to see what the current policy is) and releasing the individual payroll information on the various office employees (other than in aggregate in the financial report). Reporting on each individual's salary at the "troop level" in an office environment presents certain human resource management issues that are best avoided (most workplaces do not give every employee a list of what each of their co-workers is paid). In fact, although I could get access to those details as a board member, I don't generally see them as the entire "Staff budget" (excluding the Pres and NROI) show up as one line item in the annual budget we approve. I'll start by disclosing my USPSA salary: $0.00. They've doubled it each year I've been on the board. None taken whatsoever. Blunt talk and disagreement can make for good discussion, and is good for the organization.

The primary issue I am referring to when I made that particular comment is my fiduciary responsibility to the membership in regards to financial matters, legal risk, etc., rather than the rules or the shooting. Items like decisions regarding items that impact legal risk to the organization, whether to settle or litigate a suit, or actions that would hamper memberships in the long term by totally ignoring the "growth aspects" fall into that category. You are absolutely right with regards to issues like the trigger pull, and my vote reflected that. For example, when we had the "land issue" (that I inherited when I joined the board), there were people who felt USPSA should release all details of how we were handling it, including the lowest offer we would entertain in the sale (and thus destroy any chances of effectively negotiating with a buyer). No matter how many people asked, I would have voted to keep that information confidential. Ditto if a majority of the members demand we publish the payroll for each of the individuals at the HQ office, or publish the performance review history of every staff member. Part of the responsibility of any elected position is to do the job you are elected for and that means listening to the members but, if it was simple as serving as a proxy for individual member votes, we could save the expense by having membership-wide on-line meeting for all decisions.

Absolutely. Although there are times when it may be the responsibility of the board to go against the will of the majority for the long term good of the org, I did not personally feel this was one of those times. My thanks to the Enosverse, and to those who contacted me individually, for helping the board better serve the membership. rob I can only speak for the vote I cast. I based my original vote on the standard published 2 1/2 years ago, and the vote was consistent with that standard. But, the org exists to serve the members, and it became very apparent that the overwhelming consensus of the membership was against the trigger pull limit. Based on that, I had to think - "Is literal adherence to this standard going to help the organization more than annoying a huge number of members will hurt the organization?" and "Will a trigger pull limit really increase our membership growth?". If I had been able to answer either of those in the affirmative, I would have continued to vote in favor of the limit. Upon reflection, I couldn't. So, don't expect me to always follow the Enosverse, but any time there is this sort of outcry, it is the obligation of every board member to carefully consider what is being said. There is a subtle irony having a quote by George Soros inserted into this thread

Correct - so the discount off of full retail/new for a 1050 should, by reasonable logic, be greater than the discount off the other presses that will be fixed to "good as new" free of charge. Some of the key parts can be pricey - for example, if the shell plate is damaged (it can get nicked near the edges of the opening for the rounds), buying another will run about a C note, so you really have to be able to examine the press to spot any defects, whereas with a non-1050 Dillon, you're just risking the aggravation of sending it back to AZ for rework.

Shooting produces an overpressure wave (greater with comped guns that limited/production divisions). Perhaps Youngeyes can advise what period of time, if any, after surgery is recommended to avoid shooting because of this issue.

UPS allows you to ship non-operational parts (uppers, lowers) via standard service. If you are using a small enough shop that you can rely on them to mate them upon receipt, you can send two packages using a cheaper class of service.

I noticed the "failure to connect to database" message, however, the database and apache server seemed to be running. I just ran the utilities to repair and optimize the database tables, and things seem to be running well now. When you see a message "error connecting to the database", it is one issued by the server, not your web browser, so it's time to email brian. (support at brianenos dot com). If the system is up enough to give you an error message, chances are the email server is still working properly.

Did you meet Pistol while you were there? He's the little guy who sleeps in Brandon's office.

A small sample size can represent a larger population as a whole, however, the key is conducting the survey in a manner that avoid bias. "Self selection" bias is one way to seriously damage the validity of a poll, and why virtually every media poll you see conducted on line refers to itself as a "non-scientific" poll. For the poll to be accurate, the respondents would need to be randomly selected, not self selected, and not choosing to participate in the poll because the issue is of concern to them. Put simply, the challenge is not the size of the pool as much as the selection of the participants to assure statistical validity.

There are many "shall issue" states, plus that are loads of people in some of the "may issue" states that have CCW permits. I do not know anyone, and not filthy rich (or even modestly rich) and getting a CCW in MA was a very straightforward process. Unfortunately, there are indeed more than a couple of states that issue CCW permits in theory only unless you are an individual of considerable privilege, power and influence. I would personally rather see a state ban carry for everyone than create a system that privately grants CCW access to only "special" people - since those "special" people will only vote with us when treated like us. There was one point where MV told everyone to be quiet (I do not remember the exact words used - it may very well have been those quoted), as a couple of "side conversations" started to de-focus the meeting. He did not refuse to recognize any person who wished to be heard, and his comment was absolutely not an attempt to suppress any particular viewpoints.