Gary Stevens

The most important things are durable and consistent. How will it work in the rain, heat, cold, wind, etc. How will it work through multiple shooters who are not known for gentle prop usage. Many years ago I was running a nationals stage called Walt's Garage. Half way through the match the garage door motor blew up and cost us 4 hours downtime replacing it. The next day I had to run the scheduled shooters plus a half days shooters from the day before. Additionally the push button that activated the garage door had to be replaced every four squads. Gee whiz stages look good on paper but often turn into mega clusters. You don't need gee whiz to design a challenging stage.

WOW, this works really well. Let's change it.

IMO, a popper is simply a piece of steel that needs to be knocked down. Most popper issues are preventable. Having a squad stand around waiting on an RM to get there, RM calls can come in multiples, can severely screw up a match. Enough of them can cause a ripple effect that runs throughout the match. My my opinion based on 40 years of experience is set your poppers as light as you can get them to stand up. Keep an eye on them and correct problems before they arise. Trying to run a 125 shooters or more, a day through a match is difficult enough. Causing yourself unnecessary problems should be avoided.

You are 100 percent correct, good for you. I just try to help them out in case in the heat of the moment they overlooked something. Heat, cold, rain, etc. can cause us all to become imperfect humans at times.

During the walk thru I walk around any poppers and look at them. Is there an excessive lean in it, we all know how a popper looks when it is too far forward. Are the lock nuts backed out? Any thing else that looks strange. If I see something I point it out to the CRO. i was shooting Production in South Carolina once. While looking at the poppers I noticed one that was leaning way forward. It had settled in the sandy soil. I pointed it out to the CRO and requested a calibration. The RM was called, popper failed the calibration, they fixed it, and I then shot the course. Problem solved before it reared its ugly head.

Personally I think FTSA penalties in a multistring stage is something that should be eliminated.

Position power allows for those in that position to make decisions. Position power does not guarantee that those decisions will be correct.

If it couldn't be cleared, I've always escorted the shooter to their vehicle where it was safely secured. Problem solved.

I think equipment evolution takes some time to develop. I can't list all the equipment that once was considered a joke, now is in common use.

If you are finished unload and show clear. Call RM who will inspect the popper, without disturbing it, and check the calibration. If it falls scored as shot. If it fails to fall reshoot.

Enforce the rules but at the same time treat shooters the way you would like to be treated.

That's one reason I kept my Iron sights.

We try to employ the belt and suspenders model when it comes to safety. If you don't allow the gun to break the 180, but you have your finger on the trigger and AD then no blood. If you do allow the gun to break the 180, but you do not have your finger on the trigger, then no AD and no blood. It normally takes two or more violations of the basic safety rules to have a real problem. I think that no one has been hurt due to a 180 break is a testimony to our safety regiment.

Called supine. Tricky, but legal.

The President is the head of the United States Region. It is mandatory that he (she), or a designee, attend all IPSC conferences to vote and represent USPSA's interest. Nothing new here. Having the President attend Area Matches, and any other match, IMO, is a good thing. Allowing the membership to have face to face communication with the leader of an organization has to be a positive. As an Area Director I tried to attend as many matches as I could. While there I made contact, and listened to the concerns and ideas of as many members as I could. Your questions and concerns would be better served by directing them to your respective Area Directors. Posting on this or any other forum isn't likely to produce positive results.

Speaking from experience, creating and posting position documents has little effect. USPSA publishes position papers in Front Sight for candidates. How many actually read them? i was told numerous times either "I just voted for the person who was in office" or "I just voted for a name I recognized". It is rather disappointing all things considered.

I consider it open sourced

You can most often judge the quality of a stage by the number of words in the WSB. Quality goes down as the number of words go up.

A better WSB is all magazines on barrel or barrels. At start signal engage targets from within the shooting area.

This. This was how it was previously done using freestyle. Here is the problem, now you solve it.

Another example of freestyle, after the buzzer, being infringed upon, IMO.

When I was still teaching RO courses, I would encourage my students to call me if they started having problems. I would not tell them the answers, but through a series of back and forth I would facilate their finding the correct answer by themselves. Seemed to work well.

If you can stop an unsafe act make an attempt to stop it. If you can't stop it, the rulebook will tell you what to do. We don't play "got you games" by letting someone complete an unsafe act.

How many DRL's can dance on the head of an RO?

Yes I can. As I said before if they do nothing I'll repeat MR, perhaps they didn't hear me. However, at some point, after they assume the correct start position, I ask Are You Ready? This is the last chance for the shooter to stop the process. Absent a negative response the shooter has accepted all of the conditions as they exist at that moment. They accept the heat, the cold, the sunshine, the darkness, the rain, the good footing, the mud, and the condition their handgun is when the buzzer sounds. They own it lock, stock, and barrel.