Are Classifiers mandatory

[tackdr1ver]

I have a quick question, tried searching to no avail.

My question is: Is it mandatory that a Level 1 match have a classifier at each match? I would think that not having one would discourage people from attending in most cases. Classifiers are a big part of the appeal to many.

[Ronnie j]

Clubs are required to submit I think 4 classifiers per year in order to maintain USPSA sanction .

[Nik Habicht]

No. Clubs are required to host 8 activities per year and to include classifiers in three of those activities each year to maintain "good standing" with USPSA.....

Clubs that for whatever reason are not offered reaffiliation paperwork, instead they must request it with an excuse -- and as long as the SC/AD are not pushing to disaffiliate that request is usually granted....

Mos club do one per match, occasionally something happens to prevent that.....

[tackdr1ver]

Thanks for the replies, great to know. Thank you!

[Flexmoney]

The intro to the Classification Book: http://www.uspsa.org/classifiers/Intro.pdf

[steel1212]

Most clubs, in my opinion, run classifiers as not everybody is maxed out. Most people use the classifier as a grade as to where they are. Its also a good way to keep the sandbaggers honest if they want to win they have to do good on the classifiers. Then again the hardcore baggers don't care they want to stay where they are

[Poppa Bear]

A lot depends on their shooting schedule. An area like Mesa where you have multiple clubs, the potential for any shooter to get classified is real easy even without having each club run a classifier at each monthly match. Being down in the southern climates I believe they shoot year round outdoors. I live up in ND. We have an indoor range so we can still shoot year round. Other clubs only have April through October to get in all their classifiers and activity because they only have access to an outdoor range.

We also have several practice matches every month. We try to run a classifier during several of these just to give people that cannot always make the monthly matches a chance to classify. We have run 40 classifiers since January 2010 and half of them were shot during our practice matches.

[MarkCO]

Nik has it right.

However, you can also run a "Special" which we just did of a "Super Classifier". 6 stages, all classifiers.

We set this one up on Friday and then do rolling squads from 8 to 12. Last squad is usually done about 1:30 or so. First gun is your "match placement", but we let people shoot additional divisions. I managed to shoot Production, Limited10 and Single Stack. I don't think we had anyone get 4 divisions shot, but it could be done the way we run the match. None of the GMs showed up, so it is kind of cool to have some match winners who otherwise would not win a match.

[Ron Ankeny]

The last thing most of our members need is another classifier. However, each month we try to balance long, medium, and short courses. As long as we are doing a short course or "speed shoot" it might as well be a classifier. Also, it is important to offer classifiers for new members and/or those who switch divisions.

We used to offer a "special" once per year. We haven't done so for several years. I recently sent out an e-mail survey and none of our regular shooters showed interest, but I did get a lot of interest from shooters from a new club to the north of us. Classifiers are an integral part of the sport.

Edited May 16, 2012 by Ron Ankeny