Tear down: who is responsible for it and making it happen?

[kevin c]

Just yesterday my club's officers had this discussion. Same arguments went around; how some don't and won't ever help; how it really isn't kosher to refuse scores to paying shooters; that refusing USPSA members in good standing with the national organization the chance to compete at our venue might get us in trouble; how giving DQ's would be petty and get the club a bad rep, a whole lot worse than just being known as the messiest USPSA club in the area.

So we did just this: an announcement at today's match. We now expect, just like all the other clubs in the area, that folks who are able will stay until the end of the match and then spend the time (fifteen or so minutes) waiting for the final scores to be done in clearing the ranges. We tried to get the tools out onto the bays at the end, and had the carts available to put away the high value stuff.

It worked. It did take about eight or ten of us on my squad more than a half an hour to tear down a huge roofed shoot house on our bay that had been used in the previous weekend's major match, but the other bays were cleared in short order. I hope we can keep it up.

Edited August 5, 2013 by kevin c

[calvinc78]

Our club rule is if u don't help tear down then they will zero all ur stages

And what rule do you cite for that? Or have you had this local rule approved by NROI?

If we get a DNF for not putting everything away it is only right for people who don't stand in the sun running shooters or keeping score to get a DNF also... I feel like I got screwed over.

I agree totally Paul. Kills me when I'm sweating to death setting targets and pasting and others are just hanging out

[Mark R]

If it's a USPSA sanctioned match, you should not be getting DNF or DQ's regardless of whether you help or not. If I got a DQ for not helping, I wouldn't be going back to that club. If you are USPSA sanctioned, PLAY BY THE RULES. There is no rule of "No-helping=DQ"

Some people have to shoot-n-scoot. Yea it's noticeable when the same folks leave without helping, but you have to live with it. I've been a MD for about 6 years now and I see a lot of folks leave early, but a majority of them stay and help...and I'm grateful for the help. During the match safety brief, I remind them all that this is an all volunteer sport and if volunteers don't help tear down, then they may have to find another place to shoot because I won't continue to do it unless.

[Nik Habicht]

So we did just this: an announcement at today's match. We now expect, just like all the other clubs in the area, that folks who are able will stay until the end of the match and then spend the time (fifteen or so minutes) waiting for the final scores to be done in clearing the ranges.

We tried to get the tools out onto the bays at the end, and had the carts available to put away the high value stuff.

These two things are what you need to do at every match......

Asking, and then making it easy on the shooters by having someone there with a screw gun to take walls apart, and to provide direction on where to put stuff....

Shooters are usually willing, if they don't have to wait. Give 'em direction, and they'll usually put stuff where you need it put, as opposed to where they think it ought to go, based on some other club....

[Graham Smith]

We go to some pains to make tear down as easy as possible. I (the MD) always make sure that I'm done shooting well before any squad is done. I then go around and see how the squads are doing and get an idea as to when they will be finishing so I can have the cart there.

It's all about planning and having certain key people who will take care of certain things - like getting stuff back into the shed where it belongs. My main job is to make sure I get all the score sheets, times, Nooks, and power tools.

[EkuJustice]

Ya I don't see how not tearing down is a dq able offense as its not. If you want people to help tear down make it feasible to do so. For props hava a trailer available to load stuff on especially the heavier poppers Etc. for walls make them where they are easy to disassemble to put away. By that I mean use zip ties to hold the walls together as most men will have a knife on them to cut the zip ties and put the walls away. If you have them screwed together where you need tools to remove them and take them down the people are gonna pull the targets and leave the walls standing.

[Jukez]

The outdoor clubs around here say you breakdown the stage you finish on. The indoor clubs, just grab a few things as your leaving, we break the stuff down as we go to help speed things up .

[40S&W]

Where I shoot USPSA each squad is responsible for tear down of their last stage. Work very well and goes quite quickly. As far as I'm concerned, it's the least the shooters should do.