Two ROs, Scoring, & the Rules

[motosapiens]

12 hours ago, varminter22 said:

Thats funny!  

 

Following your logic, our older shooters should just stay home and quit shooting.  Yeah, right!

 

Me personally?  I was a certified RO for many years.  But it expired during my lengthy cancer treatment and recovery.  Yeah, I guess I should apologize for being part of the problem.  

don't take it so personally. It's not all about you.

 

Lots of older people are RO's, and MD's, heck, I'm almost 60 and I'm one of the young ones working national matches.

 

The point is lots of people complain about how bad their local match is, but they do NOTHING to actually solve any of those problems.

[Conner]

13 hours ago, motosapiens said:

I'm sure there are reasons for shooters to not become RO's, but I don't care about those reasons, and I'm not going to listen to their complaints either. If you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem.

This type of attitude is a cultural problem in USPSA. “If you aren’t match staff/RO/setup crew/whatever, we don’t care about your complaints, even if they’re legitimate.”

 

I show up early and stay late to volunteer at most my local matches, as well as being an RO (actually certified, not just running the timer). We should strive to put on the best match possible for all the competitors (including ourselves), regardless of whether they are ROs or not. If we are going to volunteer to do something and then do a bad job at it, we should just not volunteer at all. Saying “if you don’t like my way of doing it then do it yourself” to competitors is a disservice to the sport. 
 

The sport doesn’t exist for the ROs. The ROs exist for the sport. That’s not to say the ROs aren’t appreciated, they get thanked by almost everyone at every stage at a major match. 

[varminter22]

2 hours ago, Conner said:

This type of attitude is a cultural problem in USPSA. “If you aren’t match staff/RO/setup crew/whatever, we don’t care about your complaints, even if they’re legitimate.”

 

I show up early and stay late to volunteer at most my local matches, as well as being an RO (actually certified, not just running the timer). We should strive to put on the best match possible for all the competitors (including ourselves), regardless of whether they are ROs or not. If we are going to volunteer to do something and then do a bad job at it, we should just not volunteer at all. Saying “if you don’t like my way of doing it then do it yourself” to competitors is a disservice to the sport. 
 

The sport doesn’t exist for the ROs. The ROs exist for the sport. That’s not to say the ROs aren’t appreciated, they get thanked by almost everyone at every stage at a major match. 

Roger that!

 

[varminter22]

2 hours ago, motosapiens said:

don't take it so personally. It's not all about you.

 

Lots of older people are RO's, and MD's, heck, I'm almost 60 and I'm one of the young ones working national matches.

 

The point is lots of people complain about how bad their local match is, but they do NOTHING to actually solve any of those problems.

Oh, I don't.  

 

But many are missing the point of this whole thing.

 

Oh, and I didn't complain about my local match.  This was simply about the rules and safety too.

[motosapiens]

3 hours ago, Conner said:

This type of attitude is a cultural problem in USPSA. “If you aren’t match staff/RO/setup crew/whatever, we don’t care about your complaints, even if they’re legitimate.”

 

I show up early and stay late to volunteer at most my local matches, as well as being an RO (actually certified, not just running the timer). We should strive to put on the best match possible for all the competitors (including ourselves), regardless of whether they are ROs or not. If we are going to volunteer to do something and then do a bad job at it, we should just not volunteer at all. Saying “if you don’t like my way of doing it then do it yourself” to competitors is a disservice to the sport. 
 

The sport doesn’t exist for the ROs. The ROs exist for the sport. That’s not to say the ROs aren’t appreciated, they get thanked by almost everyone at every stage at a major match. 

 

The point is lots of people complain about how bad their local match is, but they do NOTHING to actually solve any of those problems.

[varminter22]

38 minutes ago, motosapiens said:

 

The point is lots of people complain about how bad their local match is, but they do NOTHING to actually solve any of those problems.

Good point.  But not the point of this thread!

[motosapiens]

3 minutes ago, varminter22 said:

Good point.  But not the point of this thread!

right. the point of this thread was to complain, and apparently do NOTHING to actually solve the problem, lol. At least that's how it came across to me...

[Conner]

1 hour ago, motosapiens said:

 

The point is lots of people complain about how bad their local match is, but they do NOTHING to actually solve any of those problems.

Bringing attention to problems is doing something. Match staff may not know better, or may just not be aware of the problems. If someone gives me a valid criticism of my ROing (or some other match staff duty I do or have done), it benefits the match for me to listen to them and not just say “fix the problem by doing the job yourself”. 
 

On the other side, as a competitor, if I bring a problem to the attention of match staff, and they just blow me off and have your attitude about it, that doesn’t make me decide to volunteer for the match. It just makes me not want to come back to that club. 
 

I get it, it’s not fun to volunteer and have people criticize you. I’ve been there. The culture is shifting in the wrong direction - when the org treats members like customers, it’s not surprising that they start acting that way (if I have a problem with a business I don’t offer to fix the problem for them, I’ll just take my money elsewhere). 
 

I think the ideal scenario is competitors nicely bringing up criticisms, and match staff listening. If the shortcoming at the match is related to being short staffed, a genuine explanation and request for the competitor to join the volunteer group is usually well received in my experience. 

[ima45dv8]

I don't object to criticism of an event that I had a hand in producing, except when the criticism is all that is offered. I've quietly pointed out problems at a number of events I've visited (LI's - LIII's), but it came with an offer to help correct the situation, when I could. I think that's all anyone wants. 

 

Anyone can point to a problem. The real value is in helping to correct it. 

[varminter22]

4 hours ago, Conner said:

Bringing attention to problems is doing something. Match staff may not know better, or may just not be aware of the problems. If someone gives me a valid criticism of my ROing (or some other match staff duty I do or have done), it benefits the match for me to listen to them and not just say “fix the problem by doing the job yourself”. 
 

On the other side, as a competitor, if I bring a problem to the attention of match staff, and they just blow me off and have your attitude about it, that doesn’t make me decide to volunteer for the match. It just makes me not want to come back to that club. 
 

I get it, it’s not fun to volunteer and have people criticize you. I’ve been there. The culture is shifting in the wrong direction - when the org treats members like customers, it’s not surprising that they start acting that way (if I have a problem with a business I don’t offer to fix the problem for them, I’ll just take my money elsewhere). 
 

I think the ideal scenario is competitors nicely bringing up criticisms, and match staff listening. If the shortcoming at the match is related to being short staffed, a genuine explanation and request for the competitor to join the volunteer group is usually well received in my experience. 

Exactly.  

 

I too have had my time in the barrel.  

 

This was posted NOT simply "to bitch", but to bring awareness.

 

And, by the way, I DID bring it to their attention and was told, "This is just a local (level 1) match."  

Edited June 23, 2021 by varminter22