The AMA was going to quit publishing the contest section in the magazine....cooler heads prevailed however.
A big problem is that CD's, many of whom have run the same contest on the same weekend for decades, do not sanction them until the last minute....meaning that they do not appear in Model Aviation.
Howard can attest that it is like herding cats to try to publish a calendar.....
Have fun!
There is a method to get CDs of traditional contests, or any contest/event where date is important, to get off center and apply for a sanction prior to or at the 6-month desired date.
The rule is that a sanction cannot be issued prior to 1 year before the date. Traditional event sanctions must be applied for between 1 year and 6 months prior to the date
if traditional date preference is to be maintained.
If the traditional-date CD fails to exercise the traditional date option in the first six months then another CD can take the date away and use for another like-event. That usually wakes up the sponsoring Club, group, etc. to the regular CD being a tad lazy to protect the event.
One flaw is that for AMA to honor a sanction application the applying CD must have his/her AMA dues paid for the applicable event year. That can be rectified if the CD is a 2 year member or a Life member. For 2011, early last fall I applied for four Club sanctions simply to get the dates established. Two I will CD, and two will be CDed by other CDs, the change to take place soon. One protects a traditional large IMAC AA event in Sep. One is for a new Big Bird, but the date is established. Two are not of Traditional status as one is a Class A and one is a Class C, yet dates are saved.
EDITED to add; If sanctions are applied for early as possible, then the info will be on AMA's listing, meaning in the MA magazine prior to the event and available for search on the listing. This gives potential contestants more time to plan on attending. IMO a win-win action.
Early on in my military years, I found that rules can be used for one's advantage if one
KNOWS the rules. Same for my 28 years as an airline pilot, both FAA and company. It does make life easier.