Rob Boudrie

One thing about the nationals that is different from any other stateside match - a team of range officers who function as a team dedicated to the match, who take pride in their skills at running the event "by the book". You won't get screwed out of a re-shoot you are entitled to under the rules because "we need to keep the match on schedule", nor will an RO let an offense like handling ammo in the safety area slip with an informal warning. Expect polite, "by the book" officiating. The manner of officiating, while not dramatically different from area championships, is one thing that makes the nationals worthy of that designation. If you run into one of these folks in a bar (which is unlikely given the early AM start they have each day) I suggest you buy the drinks if you are a competitor.

Ah, yes - the good old days. I remember getting a seating upgrade on an Airbus 320 and watching the landing at the Toronto airport while sitting in the third seat behind the pilots.

Your comment is accurate, however, I'd rate it a 1 or a 2. The bed was comfortable and the sheets clean, and I got a view overlooking a scenic alley piled up with unused pool furniture. I've stayed at several hotels that were WAY worse than this, and reserve a 0 for those hotels that truly deserve it. The Imperial Palace is grubbier. It's a case of "thou gettuth what thou payuth for" - and the Riviera was not only cheap, but waived the borderline fraudulent "resort fee" that is common at LV hotels. It's not a great hotel if you are coming on a trip to go hang around the hotel but it's just fine if you are just looking for a place to sleep at night. If you want a really nice non-strip place without a casino atmosphere, check out the Desert Rose Inn. In my opinion, it's better to have a cheap match hotel and have people who want 3-5 star accommodations look for an alternative than the other way around. Besides, if we put the match staff up in a higher end hotel, it would have a distinct impact on the match fee. As to the breakins - this is not the first time the Enosverse has reported what appear to be targeted vehicular breeches associated with a match and, as long as people continue to leave guns unattended in cars, it will probably not be the last. If you absolutely MUST leave guns in your car, I suggest you get a plastic coated steel cable, crimp a loop at both ends, and use this to secure your guns. By threading the cable through the mag well and ejection port, and then through a hole in your gun case, you can secure the guns to some permanently attached part of the car (even under and around the seat with the guns on the floor behind the driver's seat under an old blanket will do) thus assuring that anyone who breaks into your car has to either bring cutting tools or be able to pick your lock (unlikely as long as you don't use a junky lock with a warded mechanism). I also use this technique to secure my guns to my suitcase so pilfering my stuff becomes an "all or nothing" proposition and some baggage handler can't just walk off with my guns tucked inside his coat. Nevada also honors carry permits from a fair number of states, so for the handgun matches, many of you will be able to not only take your guns with you at future pistol matches, but pack a carry weapon as well (see http://nvrepository.state.nv.us/ccw_changes.shtml)

This doesn't qualify as "almost", since you would not have boarded with guns even if you filled out the form. The incident described in article involved a boarding at a Canadian airport, which uses different verification procedures than those at US airports. When checking guns at both ends of my nationals trip this year, the agent handed me the "on board carry" form when I requested a "checked firearms declaration form". I must have been looking federal that week or something. Since I'm not an idiot, I simply asked for the correct form. I got the impression from the agent that armed passengers are more common than persons checking guns at the Boston airport. If one is authorized to carry on board, you will have to produce one of two things: - Federal LE credentials (which are subjected to a verification procedure) - If a non-federal LE officer on official business (non-federal LE not on official business may not fly armed), you must produce a random character string one time password provided to your LE agency via the law enforcement teletype network (or whatever they call it now days) in response to an official request your agency submitted requesting clearance. This password will be verified by TSA before you board armed.

I put metal grips on 3 of my SVIs and was able to continue to use my existing magazines. One part that does change, however, is the trigger - the one for the metal grip is a few thousandths wider.

Another factor - the accounting firm is one with which USPSA has an ongoing relationship, so they are fair in their dealing with us, and the election is simply something they bill USPSA for based on the time spent. Unlike some of the election companies, there is no salesman who much get paid a commission to "close the deal", and no nonsense like "not being able to do the job unless USPSA signs a multi-year contract". That's not really the biggest issue - I could easily put such a system in place, but the membership would have to trust that I wasn't manipulating the results. Stalin described the problem nicely: "He who votes decides nothing; he who counts the votes decides everything." In order to maintain integrity of the process, we must run the election as if we don't trust ourselves. The members deserve an independent assurance that the ballots are not simply counted in the back room by persons with an interest in the outcome.

We have one club in A7 that limits attendance at local matches. The matches are held at a commercial range, and our deal allows us to use the range until noon thirty or so - and the waiting area is generally full of customers and members of the range waiting to use the facility when we finish. We also beat out another group looking for range time - when we asked to run matches, the manager told us he was listing to proposals from two orgs and was only able to give one dedicated weekend time to a competition group. We are grateful we were selected, and have stayed in operation at this club for 3 years and counting by honoring the time limit. We address the capacity issue with prepaid, slot limited, registration.

One possibility is to continue to use the current Access database, but add a TSV or CSV export so the transfer of data into EzWinScore will use a standard interface, rather than open an ODBC connection and stuff data into the tables directly. This will be easier (few people actually know how to do the ODBC hackery with the current utility), and force the data through a single supported interface that includes data validation. It would also mean that USPSA HQ would be using an officially supported method of importing registration data rather than a procedure that would be considered dis-recommended and unsupported if done by one of our clubs.

Already done. Self squadding is populated by uploading a transfer file from EzWinScorr that contains exactly what you say, and fives the option of mailing a notice to the user. Members can using their exisitng PIN/PW in addition to the unique match password.

Here is my long term vision: When a major match is listed in the calender, the Match Director may elect to allow "self-registration" If self-registration is enabled, the shooters may enter themselvse into the match and will show show up as "pending payment". The fact the person has signed up will show on the squadding page (under a separate "pending" section), but the will not be able to squad themselves, or be included int the match until.... The match registrar will receive payment via check, paypal, etc. The registrar then visits the admin page for the match and checks off the persons who have signed up but not paid. The day before the match, the squadding is locked, and an EzWinScore registration file of all paid shooters is generated and downloaded. The question is - would matches use this?

The price you are billed as a private pay patient is frequently a multiple (yes, a multiple) of the price accepted as "payment in full" when the same procedure is covered by insurance. Hospitals often offer a discount if you cough up the cash (and generally won't unless you raise the spectre of non-payment) and, even with the discount, they will generally be collecting more than they would from an insured patient.

The format will be very simple, and 75% of the project is data validation. Import is all or nothing - a single error (for example, specifying a division that does not exist; a major power factor production shooter; etc.) will result in a message describing the problem and a refusal to accept the import data. The file format will be very simple, and you will be able to supply data in CSV or TSV. It will be necessary to have a header line, and one line per competitor, with no gaps in competitor numbers. Import will also be "whole match only". Import will not support adding competitors. If competitors are already defined in a match, you will be prompted asking if you wish to replace competitors with those form the import file. Registration import will be disabled once a score is entered for the match. The format is going to be simple enough for a caveman to generate. The project is already underway and I won't be negotiating specific formats (translation: I won't rewrite the code so you app can use it without modification) but, if an inability to do something you should be able to do, or a bug, is found, it will be addressed. Just pay attention to the first and last items in the list on my original posting It will not load an Excell file,. but as I expect you know, Excell can save a file in CSV or TSV format. I prefer TSV since CSV necessitates that you be certain no data field contains a comma like "Brian Enos, KBE".

I've shifted from a Glock 23 to a S&W 640 as the most commonly carried gun over the years. The snubbie you have with you when you need it beats the Glock or 1911 you left at home because it was too big. Nothing beats the conceabilty of a nice pocket holster in a pair of jeans - an important consideration when carrying in a location where such activity is 100% legal, but being noticed with a gun is just asking for a hassle especially if you are visiting a town where surveillance cameras as as plentiful as touristas.

The decision has been made to add a registration import feature to EzWinScore, and the code is currently under development. This will be released in a 4.X update to EzWinScore, and will be an officially supported feature. Now, on to some details: Do NOT call USPSA HQ to ask about this. They will not be able to help, and the code is being developed in Boudrie Labs and has not yet been delivered to central command. No, you can't have a pre-release. Until sufficient testing is done, the risk of a data import problem causing EzWinScore problems in other features is just too great. No, we don't have a specific timeline yet - but I certainly expect it by spring or earlier. The initial version will support handgun, but may not initially support three gun or multigun. Input will be the user's choice of CSV or TSV (Comma/Tab Separated Values) Import will not update the EzWinScore master names database Do NOT call USPSA HQ to ask about this.

I spoke to one company - Election Corporation of America on two occasions, separated by a couple of years. The firm represented the worst stereotype of the coin operated salesman. On the first occasion, the salesman held firm that they would only do a multi-year contract. I asked if he had enough confidence that he willing to quote one year with a renewal option, and the response was doublespeak for "we have a great product, but my commission is based on how big a contract I get signed". On the second occasion, a very polite salesman was giving me a lot of attention and follow up. I sent him details on the USPSA cost structure, and told him I was interested in presenting a proposal to the USPSA BOD, but any proposal that started with "it will cost you more but...." was dead on arrival, and that I would appreciate the courtesy of a response if this put us outside the price range ECA would charge. I never received a response - not even the courtesy of a one line "Sorry, not a match here" email. We have about 20K members. The closest I could get ECA to quote was "about $1 per member" (not "per voter - there are some expenses in the current election "per member" (mailing) and some "per voter" (tabulation).

It is an airline limit, not a TSA limit, however, the industry standard is "5kg or 11lbs, whichever is more" (yes, they really write things like that). The only airline I know of with a higher limit is Air Alaska which offer s a 50lb limit on domestic flights only. My guess is that TSA is aware of the airline limitation and was using that as the basis for the limit imposed upon you.

And I guess poppers replicate the children to you as well. Such nonsense was behind the world body's effort to ban mixing large and small poppers on the same stage.

Just tell him that if he doesn't keep Grey Poupon in his car, he's not someone who would have heard of the brand.

Title says it all. I asked the NRA for help on a case and was encouraged to hire private legal counsel at my own expense. Some time later, the Second Amendment Foundation heard about a trimvirate of which I am a co-founder, backed us, and we are now awaiting the decision in a case we filed in the Boston federal district court with direct financial assistance from the SAF. We have enough cases planned to keep us busy for years The SAF was amazing - that organization's ONLY issues with us were "tell us about your projects and your founders" and "what can we do to help". Fantastic, because you can't fund federal litigation with baked sales or by raffling an AR15 off at the local range.

It will be. USPSA HQ always waits until they have contacted EVERY candidate before making a public announcement.

The following motion was passed by the USPSA Board in an on-line meeting yesterday:

I saw a G23 crack like that. Glock was fantastic about replacing it.

This is a great idea, and having a name for it will help with the marketing of the concept.

If you are ordering an SVI trigger, be sure to specify if it is for the plastic grips or SVI metal grip. The trigger is a bit wider for the metal grip (both use the same inserts). You may need to fit the trigger by fitting it on the top and bottom if it's too tight. A #2 file, vice and basic hand skills should do here.

Stick up for you calls when they are right, but don't be afraid to correct yourself when you make a mistake. I never issue a DQ unless I know I am prepared to tell an arbitration committee that I am certain that the DQ offense did, in fact, occur. If you made the call because you could not look the shooter in the eye and say "I am certain you violated rule ...." you did well. If you are certain the offense occurred but were intimidated into backing down, it's another story. Sounds like the former to me.