AMA to Discourage Junior & Senior Contestants at NATS

[speedtimes]

Please take a look at your April Model Aviation Magazine on page 167.  The specific item is Motion III .  If I read this correctly it means that any Junior or Senior contestant at the Nationals will NOT receive a trophy for First, Second, or Third.  It is worded in the typical Politicians B.S. of a motion to Award a Trophy for 1st , 2nd, and 3rd Place finish.  The Motion was DEFEATED by your Executive Council at the January 26 Meeting.
This was all discussed at the fall Nationals meeting with everyone present being told that the only change would be in how the number of awards would be figured. Notice there is no mention of a replacement award of any kind.
Please take the time to let your District V.P. know if you like or DISLIKE this change.

speedtimes@chartermi.net
Dave Mark

[Paul Smith]

This simply a case of reaping the fruit of a bad seed planted long ago.

In the beginning, the cutoff ages for Junior and Senior were 16 and 21, targeted at the ages of getting a driver's licence and full legal maturity.   With those ages there were a substantial numbers of J&S entries in The Nats, and a lot of contestants paid an entry fee and did not get a trophy.

In a misguided rules change (motivated by the Contest Board Chairman's (successful) plan to get records in the names of his young sons),  the ages were slashed to only 14 and 18.

The immediate result was exactly what could be expected.  A narrowing of the windows with a drastic reduction in head count.

Furthermore, as equipment became more complex, expensive, and dangerous, MOST events got totally out of reach for Juniors, with the excpetion of piloting a model built and stated by an adult.

The Senior window was narrowed to only four years.  In my estimation many of the events are unsafe for this group, too

The current scenario at The Nats is for 1, 2, or maybe even 3 (wildest hope) Juniors or Seniors to put in a flight with an adult's model, thereby "winning" a sure trophy.

AMA would be correct in ending this farse.

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A good "fix" would be to change Junior to 18 and drop Senior, as in the FAI.  This might produce enough headcount to justify awards.

In addition, a limited menu of events that would be affordable, safe, and  feasible for the under-18 population.

[john e. holliday]

Here we go again with someone thinking the money is coming out of their pocket.  I've lost count of how many Jr's/Sr's I've seen grow up in this sport/hobby.  Mine was flying in events that didn't have the BOM and he could build when he had the time.  The powers to be be keep forgetting that get new people we need to have something to draw them.  I would like to see an adult showing up with a Jr/Sr to team up with in at least some of the racing events.  We tried our best to help a Jr get an official flight in carrier one year so he would have something to show for his efforts.  Last attempt was signal for low speed as soon as high speed was done.  But, I will never forget the look on my boys face when only 1st place was awarded to Jr/Sr that year.  It was his last NATS and has no hankering to go back.  Anyway I think every Jr/Sr that shows up at the NATS ought to get something to show for their efforts.  DOC Holliday

[Paul Smith]

I discussed this at length with Greg Hahn, the current AMA Technical Director.

Greg says the current policy is to award at least three places in all J, S and JS events, regardless of the number of entries.  They will go even lower if entries permit.

This is Greg's first year on the job and he is not a authority on what may or may not have been done in the past.

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ps:
I recall a more stingy policy at Lake Charles in 1975, but that was in a past millenium.  AMA's exodus from DC to America has had some positive effect on thinking.

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The way I see the motion on page 167 of the April MA was that Charlie tried to pass a motion solidifing the current practice with an EC "law".  The failure of the motion does not mean that current policy will change, only that it can change without EC action.

[Mike Spiess]

I'm a track director for a BMX race track and as such I can attest to the fact that kids love trophies even cheap ones. We generally have 25-30 races on race day and 20 of them are or ages 5-17 and  we have 1st thru 3rd trophies for these kids and the cost is not that great. At the nationals they may have many events to give trophies for but I don't think they deal with as many as we do over the race season. So trophy costs should really not be an issue. And medals on a ribbon are even cheaper. When I was a contest director I would try to have something to give to ever young entrant even if it was a certificate printed off a computer the kids still loved it.