MD Resources

[JFD]

The handwriting on the wall says that there's a high probability that if I don't take the MD position at our club that USPSA will die.  I'm kind of worried that with me as MD it will die anyway.

As a preemptive measure I'd like to learn as much as I can about this job before it actually happens.  I'd certainly have help from our current MD, but major burnout may have given him a jaded perspective, so I'm interested in any sources of information that may be available on the web.

I've found plenty of sites that have stages, plus I've downloaded all the classification stages, but still have to review the rule book again, this time from more than a simple shooters point of view.

I've been competing since 1999 in mainly informal IPSC/IDPA combo type matches, a little IDPA, and have been shooting USPSA for just this year.  If I get the job I can only hope that our few competitiors will hang around long enough for me to learn the ropes.

I have been wanting to get more involved, but I was hoping to wade around a bit before jumping into the middle of the pond.  

Any help would be appreciated.

[Nik Habicht]

My very inexperienced take on being MD is that it's largely about getting help to help you avoid burnout.  If you can recruit dependable volunteers to design and build one or two of your stages every month, and if you can recruit someone else to reliably and quickly score your match, then you will be golden.  If you have to do most of the work yourself, I see burnout.  Try to build a team if you can.

[Tom Mainus]

Congratulations on taking on the most thankless job there is in ipsc.  I took over the ipsc program at our club about a year ago.  Same situation, not very much experience, just jump in with both feet.  A couple of things I have learned in my year of on the job training.

1-  You can't please all the people all the time.  No matter what you do, someone is going to complain.  Get used to it.

2-  The other word for match director is babysitter.  No matter how well you have the walk throughs written up,  you may  think that is as clear as can be, someone will read it and come up with a completely different way of doing things.  It gets frustrating at times but if 10 people read it you will get 10 different results.

3-  be prepared for the unexpected.  You may have designed  the neatest stage with all these movers and activators, but when the third shooter out of 30 shoots the cable or some other prop and wrecks it, have a back up plan.

4-  try to get as much help as possible.  Our club requires work hours out of all the members.  Not necessarily just ipsc guys but the trap and everybody else.  We try to get a couple to show up every month to help set up and tear down, they get their work hours in, and we get to go home early.

5- Stats-  either find someone who is reliable or do it yourself.  The biggest complaint we used to get from shooters is why haven't our classifiers been posted yet.  The guy who does the stats was doing the results form the match but he would wait 2-3 months before he sent the classifiers in.  Nothing turns shooters away faster then not getting the results of the match and their classifiers on the web page.  Now I do the stats as well.  Try faxing them in to uspsa and giving them a credit card #, this works great for our club.

6-  Get a copy of EZScore, If not for stats it is great for doing scoresheets.

 Good luck in your new job, it will be a learning experience.  God bless you for stepping up to keep the sport alive, not many people are willing to take on the challenge.  It may be a thank-less job at times but i do it  for  pure love of the sport.

[Flexmoney]

Involvement = Commitment

I am sure we have all been to clubs were the stages were as basic as possible.  Usually the same small group of people were stuck with the chores of setting the match up and taking it down.  When the same small crew gets burnt...the stages get simple (shoot these four targets from box A...these 4 from box B...etc.)

Getting the shooters involved in stage design should help.  Have them submit designs, help them tweak them to make them legal and Murphy proof.  Then, come match day, they will be all about setting up their stage.  (And, you will be teaching them...should pay off in the long run.)

Involvement = Commitment

[JFD]

Thanks guys.

I'm nearly over my initial fear of taking over this task.

Remember that I'm new to USPSA, and action shooting in general, since I've only been doing it since 1999.  Lots of stupid questions will likely be forthcoming.

Actually there's a few perks on the personal level.  The local matches will continue, which is a definite benefit.  I can design stages that I like.  I will get to use the "mystery" practice bay that's off-limits to darn near everyone (hard to seriously practice on the regular range with other shooters).  I'm guessing I'll also step into the club IPSC Director position, which will give me a voice in club management.

Of course I'm already seeing what the big problem is going to be:  Stage design.

Tomorrow I'll be doing the initial set up for my very first stage.  The bay is long and narrow, normally being a standard run&gun with arrays of targets behind "walls" as you progress down the "hall".  Setting it up as a non run&gun stage would likely be unpopular since this bay is a good place for a stretch your legs kind of stage.  The other bays are a little too shallow for that.  This leaves me with few options.  I'm sticking with the standard format, but each array will be different.  No-shoots guarding the first array, the second will be 3 targets stacked on each other so 2 of them are head shots only, the next array will be unguarded targets, but spread out from near to far as much as possible, and the last array will feature hard cover.  Pretty simple stuff, but so far I haven't seen this kind of variety within a single stage.

This challenge came on short notice, so I don't know what the other stages will look like.  I just figured there will be no steel available, so I stuck with paper.  I love steel of all kinds, especially plates, so these will be incorporated ASAP.  I also want to use bowling pins and clay pigeons.

My feeling is that as a MD gets burned out, the urge to set up steel is greatly reduced.  I will certainly give our current MD credit for always having 5 enjoyable stages at every match.  It will be hard act to follow.  I am feeling the urge to forget I've ever heard the term "revolver neutral", and may replace it with "single stack neutral".

I've got all the classification courses printed out, along with all of the stages on the Jeff Maass site.  I'd appreciate any other sites that you may know of, as well as any Word based templates beyond the ones from the USPSA or JM site (I can't remember where I got them).  I'll certainly have access to everything our current MD has, but I'd rather have resources of my own.  Unfortunately this is one of the areas where my lack of experience will really hurt me, relying on the internet almost completely.

I want to set up rifle and shot gun stages as well, but need to poll the other shooters to see if this is something they want to do.

We'll also need more shooters than we currently have.  I want to set up stages that will attract more IDPA shooters who feel like living on the wild side.  

It would also suit me to just not crash and burn.  

I know all about not turning in classifier scores.  I'd be classified already if 3 months worth of scores had actually been turned in instead of lost or thrown away.  Faxing with the CC# sounds like a plan.  We have EZScore, so I just need to get it loaded on my home PC.

Our guys are pretty cool about not freaking over instantly available scores.  Most times they are happy enough to get them e-mailed the following week.  Our current stat guy spends the entire match running around trying to get his stages shot and the scores collected, and generally has no fun at all.  I'm not about to do that as not having fun makes it a pointless endeavor.  I'll grab the scores after the match and run them through our ancient club PC when the match is over.  That's going to have to be good enough.

I have a feeling that help will be scarce.  It appears that the only guys who regularly do such things are burned out.  The current MD will help to some degree (probably a lot), but our poor stat guy deserves a break and I wouldn't allow him to help for at least a year even if he begs (like that would happen).  The man needs to have some fun for a change.  I feel like that if I do my part, then help will be forthcoming from the newer shooters who may relate to me better than a Master class MD who takes on a near holy man status to us new guys on match day.

I did manage to recruit a new shooter today.  He watched yesterday's IDPA match and thought they were a bunch of unskilled newbies until I explained to him that they were required to reload that way...

[Bill]

One more thing; Read the rule book front to back. Learn everything in there. Then make sure ALL the stages follow the rules. Take an RO class as soon as you can. Maybe schedule one for your club to get new people involved.

If you build "Good" stages they will come. Shooters don't come back for crappy stages that don't follow the rules.

Bill Nesbitt

[Flexmoney]

Triple DITTO on what BILL just said.

[JFD]

Plans to get me in an RO class are in the works.  I'll continue rereading the rule book until I know it by heart.

In the meantime I'll start ROing a squad starting this Sunday, with our MD as score keeper and RO watcher.  I've done this a time or two in the past in informal matches, so it's not totally unknown territory.

The MD is now going to stay on for 6 months to help me out.  Due to the amount of work he's been putting in, I want to take over every task as soon as I know how.  

I'll also be taking over the scoring from our haggard score keeper.  Our current group of shooters don't have a problem with waiting a day or so to get e-mail match results, so that's the way we'll go.  I'm no about to run around trying to get my shooting in while gathering scores and tabulating results during a match.

I'll save my clay pigeons for the rifle & shotgun stages I hope to include in the future.

I think I've got enough stages downloaded now.  I'm also set up for, and have been designing/modifying stages using Powerpoint.

If I can keep Flexmoney reviewing my semi-original stage designs, then I might keep folks on the local level fooled into thinking I know what I'm doing.

In the end, I'm doing all this for selfish reasons.  If I want to continue shooting USPSA at a club 5 minutes from my house, then I have to be MD.  If it takes a lot of work, having to put up with club politics, and a minor feud with our IDPA folks, then so be it.

[Shipster]

JFD:

Good luck on this new adventure, BUT!! draft as much help as you can, as soon as you can.  After being the Lone Ranger a while that 5 minute drive isn't going to mean much to you if you don't.  Again good luck and have fun....While it still is.

[JFD]

I'm pretty sure that our current MD and scorekeeper will continue to help to some degree.  Their main problem appears to be they're more tired of being "in charge" than anything else, and want the option of staying home on match day here and there.

I'm guessing that ROing at every match is going to be my worse problem.  There will be enough ROs so that this really doesn't have to happen, so after a few matches maybe I can take a break from ROing.

I have a week to get 4 out of the 5 stages set up.  right now they've been setting up the classifier stage on match day since it's set up at the rifle berm.  I'm going to try and set this up in advance as well, using little wire flags, paint on the dirt, or something else that may at least partially survive the traffic on the rifle range for a few days.  Measuring everything in advance will save time on match day.

If I don't get any help, then swingers, poppers, and any other steel besides plates will be few and far between.

I'll be going to the club BOD meeting week after next and will get to see what kind of politics I'm going to have to deal with.  The stuff I already know about is already going to be a pain.  Our current MD/club USPSA director seems awfully anxious to get me to take over that position immediately.  Hmmmm.....

I know I'm stuck in a position where IDPA generates at least 4 times the income USPSA does.  This puts USPSA in 2nd place out of 4 money making matches (excluding the shotgun events), which means this is the first year someone else has been in a position to screw around with us.  

I noticed today while practicing that neither USPSA or IDPA has thought to at least put a poster up at our pistol or rifle ranges.  I'm going to try and design a poster targeting new shooters and focusing on Production and Limited 10.

I do know enough about the USPSA finances to realize that while we don't have that many shooters, we're doing OK.  I could even buy a popper every once in a while.