NROI Podcast
Want to know more about the USPSA and SCSA Rules? Need to keep up on the rules changes? The NROI Podcast is the place to get the rules, from the source. Join us for discussions on the rules, history of the sport, and other topics.May contain infrequent use of mild profanity.
NROI Podcast
109. NROI Podcast October 2026 #1
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And we are back! In this episode, we hear from Troy about his travel to the Shotgun World Shoot in Greece and other assorted travels. Then we are joined by Director at Large Dan Click with his report on the recently completed US ISPC Nationals, and Germaine Adams, Assistant MD at the recently completed Factory Gun Nationals, and Eastern Colorado Section Coordinator for a wrap up of FGN.
We then delve into the problem of participants who chronically are DQ'd and what one section is doing about them. NROI gets a lot of questions about this problem through the course of a year so here is how one section has been doing it for a couple decades. The Eastern Colorado Section information can be found at https://www.ecouspsa.com/20200718-ECO%20USPSA%20Repeat%20DQ%20Policy-final.pdf
Note: Transcriptions done by AI or other means may not be entirely accurate. This podcast, and any transcription thereof, does not constitute an official NROI ruling. Questions should be sent to rules@uspsa.org.
Disclaimers And Welcome
SPEAKER_00Apple App Store and Google Play Store. All rights for this podcast are reserved. No portion of this podcast may be used or redistributed without written permission from the director of the National Range Officers Institute. Role discussions on this podcast do not constitute an official ruling. Discussions on this podcast are meant to inform and educate. The only official rulings are published as per the bylaw of the United States Practical Shooting Association. Questions about rules could be emailed to rules at USPSA.org. This is episode 109, recorded early October 2026. Well, hello everyone. Welcome back to the NRY podcast. I'm your host, Kevin Emmel, and joining me tonight, as usual, are Troy McMenus. Good evening, Troy. Good evening. Jody Heumann. Good evening, Jody.
SPEAKER_03Good evening.
SPEAKER_00And we've got two special guests tonight. Our director at large, Dan Click. Good evening, Dan.
SPEAKER_02Good evening, everybody.
SPEAKER_00And then we have the Eastern Colorado Section Coordinator and also the Assistant Match Director from the recently completed Race Gun Nationalist, Jermaine Adams. Good evening, Jermaine. So we've got quite the the slate of things to talk about tonight before we get going. Any announcements from anybody? Silence. I love it. All right. All right. Well, Troy's probably still a little jet-legged, but uh let's we we've kind of started a new segment that occurs fairly frequently called Travels with Troy or Troy's
Travels With Troy In Greece
SPEAKER_00Travels. So Troy, enlighten us about your trip to Greece and all the things that went on over there. And um I really enjoyed your post about the stages being named after um people and moments in history on uh of IpsyC. That was pretty cool. Um so yeah, let us let's hear about the shotgun world shoot.
SPEAKER_01All right. So I went to Greece uh just prior to the end of the pre-match, I guess. I don't we we really didn't have any uh number of competitors in the pre-match. I think one of our USPSA NROI folks that was there serving the match dropped the pre-match, but there was no delegation people in the in the pre-match. So I got there early enough to recuperate from the jet lag, which I didn't have much of. I I followed a little regimen from uh an app called Fly Kit, and it really helps with that, tells you when to sleep and what to do. Um but uh had a day to kind of look around and then attended the General Assembly with Leighton. Uh
IPSC Assembly Rule Changes
SPEAKER_01the biggest takeaway for me from the General Assembly was uh they adopted the IPSC multigun rules. So now IPSC is gonna do multi-gun.
SPEAKER_05Cool.
SPEAKER_01Um in the in the regions, of course, that can do it. Uh some of them can't, but many of them can. Uh so there was there was some silly talk, I think, about having the 30-30 world shoot here, a multi-gun world shoot here in the States. Uh Leighton was kind of talking about that. I don't know. I don't think we're quite ready to do that. I don't think a lot of people understand the demands that IPSC puts on the region for that sort of thing. But anyway, uh they adapted that role. They adopted all the uh IPSC rules committee, which I'm on, uh suggestions for rules. They did not adopt the Brazil's uh Brazil's suggestion that they go to 10 rounds and major for classic or single stack. So there were a lot of regions that were uh just adamantly opposed to that. The Canadian RD Sean Hansen uh couldn't attend, but he wrote a letter to everybody, and I think a lot of people took that to heart. And it was very well written, kind of explaining why that would be a bad thing to do. Uh so uh the Brazilians tend to suggest some things sometimes that nobody understands where they're coming from, but that doesn't mean they're wrong. They just have some different ideas. Uh the other thing that that came away out of there that sort of was a surprise for everybody was uh there will be no rifle whirl shoot in 2027. It's been postponed in 2028 at the request of the Mongolian region. Uh the reason was that there's a uh presidential election in 2027 and it's gonna curtail or restrict firearms in the country. Um whether that's the actual case or not, uh a lot of people had something to say about that. But in 2027, there will be no IPSC world shoot in any in any division or discipline. So that's gonna put quite a bit of them uh in 28, and it'll be interesting to see how that works out. So uh other than that, the GA went fine. Um they didn't uh they adapted a new region, uh, accepted the a new guy from Turkey, and then they also brought the Russian region back into good good standing. So that was kind of a controversial thing as well. But the uh Olympics has recognized Russia to be able to participate in the next upcoming Olympics. So I think that drove their decision for that. Anyway, that was a day, and then uh Sunday morning I I had the pleasure of helping my counterpart
World Shoot Incidents And DQs
SPEAKER_01from Canada, Jim Smith. Uh, he got got in an automobile accident. Wasn't his fault, but uh got to go meet him, pick up all his guns and gear off the side of the road and follow the Greek police in the town in Corinth and sit there for an hour and a half while he worked things out. So that was a good start to the to the day of the opening ceremony, but nobody was hurt. Uh Jim and his wife were there. Um uh some lady just uh pulled out and hit him. All the airbags went off, her airbags went off. She was driving a smart car, and it was not uh the smart car did not uh do very well in that accident because Jim was driving an out. He was barely moving, but still all the all the airbags went off. So everybody got whacked in the face, and uh ambulance came and took the lady away and brought her to the hospital where they checked her out. She was not injured at all. So uh it's kind of a no harm, no foul country. They didn't do anything about the wreck, they just said handle it on your own. And so Jim had run it through National. National, he called them, they came and picked the car up. The car was gone before I actually got there. And then they delivered a new one to him in about an hour.
SPEAKER_05So wow.
SPEAKER_01Uh yeah, for national, right? Yeah. So it worked out, and then he he competed in the match. I think he did fairly well. There were a few guys from Canada there, but uh they didn't have a huge contingent. So a main match kicked off pretty pretty nice. We had a lot of people shooting. We had a uh delegation of about 83 people, which was pretty big. I think we had the biggest delegation there. Uh had several teams working together. We had several individual shooters shooting, obviously. Uh so first day was a little bit active. We had a couple of uh disqualifications on the first day that got overturned on digital evidence and on examination by the Range Master. Next couple days were kind of slack, and then after that, uh we had another disqualification that stuck, and that was for an accidental discharge while clearing a jam, and it struck the ground within three meters. So that was that was not good. Um, we had another one that was overturned on appeal. Uh nobody even notified me about that. It just sort of happened, and they got the Rage Master over and and he did it. And then we had another one, one of the lady team members uh broke the 180, struck her shotgun on a wall, and the muzzle broke the 180. So that was unfortunate. But out of the six possible disqualifications, three of them were overturned and three of them stuck. And the three that the three that were upheld were looking at video were were legit. I mean, there was not much that I could do to argue about that.
Slug Scoring And Tablet Errors
SPEAKER_01Um, I took care of a lot of scoring calls. They had a slug stage that required two hits per target. And if you're familiar with shotgun slugs, the wide punches a hole just like the slug does.
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_01So there was a lot of scoring issues. The the area CRO down there was uh was from Hungary, and he's a good area CRO. In fact, he was the mass director for the PCC World Shoot uh last last time in Czech. Uh he spent most of his time on that stage uh calling disputed slug versus wide hits. And so they had two slug stages. One of them only required one hit, which was great, right? I mean, you didn't have to worry about where the wide went, and it was pretty easy to tell. But when you're putting two on them at close range, then you got four holes on a target because the wide just followed. So that was sort of problematic. There were no backers on the targets, uh, which uh a lot of times will help keep the wide from going through all the way. Yep. So it makes it easier to score. But uh, I talked it over with the rangemaster. The rangemster was Mauro Lopez from the Philippines. Uh very fair guy, very good range master, knows this stuff. And he said, Yeah, we'll mess that up. We should have put backers on there. So he spent a little time on that stage as well because if they didn't agree with the area CRO, well then they could get the Rangemaster to come. Now he did appoint a deputy range master, and that was Mackie Pack from Austria. And Mackie's very fair, he's very thorough. Um, he's he shoots first and RM second, you know, he has that kind of attitude. So he understands where the competitors are coming from. And and everybody on the U.S. side really liked Mackey. I think I think he did a good job. He would explain things to you sort of added an item, but he wanted you to understand how he was making his call, etc. So I think that was very good. Uh, but other than that, uh we had a few procedural uh errors that were scoring problems, um, inadvertent uh failure to engage, penalties being issued, inadvertent no shoots. And I think it's the the ESS system is sort of similar to practice score in that you can inadvertently touch a button and it it adds it in. Now in practice score, if you're gonna assess a penalty, you have to hit the penalty button and pick it and add what it is. In ESS, there's just a whole list that comes down when you scroll down the tablet. And I think that got tapped on occasion. So we got a lot of those turned around. They had some issues with their falling plates that were uh obvious. They became more obvious as the match went on because the more lead shot that hit them, the the more dunked up they got. And so if they fell halfway down, that was range equipment failure. Uh it was it was sort of a no-brainer on the on the R.O.'s part to call it. It was obvious what happened. The problem was that in shotgun, especially in in USPSA shotgun, multi-gun, it says if the plate doesn't fall, you just got to shoot it again. But these were hinge plates, and because they stopped halfway down and they were calling it range equipment barrier. Some of our people shot them down, but you know, then we had to go back and and correct it. But all of that got taken care of. So they were very fair about that. Uh overall, the the staff was was really good, I thought. Uh, very personable staff members, uh, both IROA and uh different regions NROI people. We had two people from the United States that served as as range officers that are USPSA NROI, and one of them is IROA. Uh he moved here from Canada, and that's uh Valentin Dimidoff, and he's IROA certified. But uh Luke Elwood is the NROI guy that served on stage 19 as a range officer. And I watched him a time or two. I kind of like to give him some some crap every once in a while, but uh he did a pretty good job. The people on the stage that were IROA folks mentioned to me that they thought he did okay. So nice job, Luke, if you're listening. I'm you know glad to see you out there. So uh other than that, there were no other USPSA NROI or IROA folks there.
Medals, Delegations, And Takeaways
SPEAKER_01Uh everything went smooth. Of course, Saturday afternoon was really busy because everybody was pushing, trying to get finished, trying to do their best score. So I spent a little time walking up and down the range, but luckily it was set up in one long line. There were 30 stages and there were 15 on either side of this one road. So it wasn't too much of a hike to go from one end to the other. And we used team reach and and text and my phone. I'd like to develop some way to get to to be able to keep in touch with them a little bit better than that, but uh I don't know what it might be other than hauling a bunch of gear there and trying to keep track of radios or whatever. So uh, but it all worked out. Uh match match turned out pretty good. I understand we we took on quite a few medals. A lot of the teams podiumed, a lot of the individuals podium. I know Keith Garcia's senior team uh podiumed. I think they took gold. So that was good. They were they were struggling a little bit at first, he said, but uh they seemed to have brought it together. So all in all, good job on the part of the USA. Uh they weren't the only good shotgun shooters there, though. I mean, there were other people from other countries that were really good at it, and especially countries that that's all they can shoot, like Great Britain, right? So the Brits had a lot of good shotgun shooters there, the Finns had a lot of good shotgun shooters there. And uh it turned out it turned out all right. I saw a lot of people that I know, a lot of people that that uh came up and spoke to me. I gave away several of the just freaking stop it uh stickers to people that said, Oh, I listened to the podcast, so I had an opportunity to give them the give them the sticker. And uh they all they appreciated it. And then I gave a few to people that didn't listen to the podcast. I was like, Do you listen to our podcast? Oh no, what is it? So I tell them, what's it called? The NROI podcast. What's it called? The NROI podcast. There's no special name to it. And but I gave them a sticker and they, you know, I said that's the name on it right there. So uh hopefully we get some more listeners from across the world. So uh flight home was uneventful. Uh they tend to feed you and and hope you go to sleep and feed you some more and hope you go to sleep. So it was all well and good. And I got home about eight o'clock last night. So it was a good trip. Weather held pretty good. We got a little bit of rain, a lot of wind, but other than that, it didn't affect much. There were no flying birds or anything, so we didn't have to worry about that. And that's it. That's the Troy's Travels report.
SPEAKER_00All right, thanks, Troy. Um, hopefully you get to stay home now for a little while. Um I do. So yeah, may not have another episode of Troy's Travels and until next season. Um, so yeah, that's that's great. And uh I'm glad you got that opportunity. Um, let's see, Dan, you were involved in the um United States Ipsick Nationals.
IPSC Nationals Stage Design Lessons
SPEAKER_00Um why don't you tell us about that?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, we uh just this past weekend, we started uh the prematch on Wednesday last week. Uh had uh very nice weather. The the folks at Greater Pittsburgh did uh did a great job of uh setting up excuse me, setting up uh 21 challenging Ipsyx stages. Uh a lot of interesting uh uh props and so forth that they had um manufactured kind of there on on site that uh a lot of folks probably haven't seen at a lot of our uh matches here in the US before. So um, you know, a lot of interesting things going on there. Uh weather wise, it was it was uh a really pleasant uh weekend. We had a little bit of rain on one day. Uh the waterproof targets held up uh just fine. Uh so that that worked out uh pretty well. Uh we had I think something uh around 550-ish shooters, uh which went pretty well. Uh uh Russell Fortney and Eric Evans were the range masters. Uh no, no real substantial issues at all with that. I think everybody had a really good time. I think one of the things that um, and I've talked a little bit with Troy about this, one of the things that was unique that a lot of folks had not seen is they utilized under Ipstick rules, they utilized white targets uh for shoot targets, and they utilized red uh targets, both cardboard and steel for no shoots. Um I thought when I first got there that would be really weird shooting white targets, but in fact you got used to it really, really fast because they were the only targets, you know, in a lot of the stages, the only targets available were white targets, and so um kind of transitioned from shooting tan targets to white targets pretty quickly. Um, every single stage had a had a mover on it. A lot of them had uh swinging plates uh covered with uh hardcover steel, which made them pretty challenging. You couldn't see the the targets except for you know a fraction of a second as they crossed over the top of the hardcover steel. So those were definitely some challenging targets and and kind of separated folks. Uh we've seen we saw a few people who did a little bit of a mag dump on you know a couple plates going by, um, which would have been just two alphas, but you know, they might have shot 20 rounds at it just to make sure they get it down. So um so that was uh definitely challenging for people. Um otherwise, I think I think the match went well. Uh they were the the stages and the the range was uh well prepared, had a lot of people out there, and I think everybody had a really good time.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I know uh I saw some post on Facebook from uh my former RM student Rameen. Um and he was said something about he was averaging like 23,000 steps a day on his stage.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, there was yeah, his stage was a was a jungle run. Yeah. Uh and it is it was I will tell you that my uh my heart monitor on my wrist got up to the highest of the entire match after running that. I did not need a defibrillator, but I will I thought I might have. Um, but it it was a it was a lot of fun. There's not very many ranges out there that you can truly do a real jungle run. It was probably um, I mean, I didn't walk it off exactly, but I would say having shot it was probably 50 to probably 50 to 60 yards long, uh, down through the woods, down a path in the woods with targets kind of on both sides as you traverse down uh through the wooded uh path. So um again, kind of a unique uh stage that most people hadn't shot. Um, but yeah, I'm sure Ramin and that crew got you know over 20,000 steps a day just going back and forth, borrowing the that stage. That's why we put the young guys on the on the on that kind of a stage.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I saw his crew picture and I went, yeah, no gray hair there. That's uh that's a that's a good decision. And it looked like they were using pool noodles for fault lines. Is that real really?
SPEAKER_02Or was that just that so that on the it wasn't they weren't pool noodles, they were um like it was like plumbing corrugated plumbing type.
SPEAKER_05Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_02Uh that they spiked onto uh onto the the path.
SPEAKER_05Okay. Yeah.
SPEAKER_02They were probably three or four inches up off the ground. They were bright green, so they they the contrast stood out really well. Um and they were very sturdy uh because they spiked them every so many feet. So, but that's what they were using for the uh going down that path.
SPEAKER_00Okay, because yeah, it it's probably the bright green color that made me think pool noodle.
SPEAKER_02Right, yeah. You know what I'm talking about though with the corrugated pipe. Yeah, absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I have quite a bit of that here on my property. So exactly. Um it's all buried, but I I have it. Um so yeah, that's I saw the pictures and I thought that's strange looking, but okay, you know, whatever. So well, great. And uh glad that that worked out. Um and uh yeah. All right.
Factory Gun Nationals Heat And Logistics
SPEAKER_02Um so then uh maybe also talk I can talk a little bit about uh factory gun. We just uh a few weeks ago. Um so a few things on factory gun. We were out in Utah again at uh the Southern Utah practical shooting uh uh range. We've been there for a couple years, and so uh it was it was very good. We had about 10 of us that showed up on uh or traveled on Labor Day and started set up on the 8th. Um uh on this call, me and me and Troy were out there helping set up. I will tell you that uh September in Utah can get very hot. So most days during the setup week, it was, I mean, I would say by noon, one o'clock. It was triple digits. And so we tried to get to the range pretty early to work in as cool a weather as possible, but it was definitely over triple digits by the time we were leaving the range in the early afternoon. The team did an amazing job setting up 18 great stages. Most of the stages were designed by Matt Hopkins and Scott Beebe. So if you guys are listening, thank you. You guys did a great job setting up the stages and the concepts. But overall, the team did an amazing job. Small group of people, it was mostly the same people that we had at RaceGone the month before, which I think was really helpful because I think Troy and I even talked about this. Most of the folks just went and did their jobs and didn't need a whole bunch of supervision and telling them what to do. It was a team that worked really well together on setup, and they just went and did it. So it worked out really well. We had uh just under 600 people uh at that match. I think one of the things that was I thought very good is that the stages were very challenging. However, we ended up with only uh I think Kevin, keep me honest here. I think we had six DQs for the whole match.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, okay. Yeah, we had two in the staff match and five in the main match, I believe.
SPEAKER_02But out of six hundred people, that's pretty darn good.
SPEAKER_00And it's lower than it's lower than usual. That you know, we traditionally have run up to about six percent. Um, so that would tell us we would, you know, we'd be looking at 30 plus DQs um with 600 shooters, and we were nowhere close to that. So I I really easy stages. No, and I and I think that actually contributed to the low DQ count um because people took them seriously, and there were a lot of hard, hard shots, there were a lot of you know, tight angles, and you know, I yeah, and I I heard the competitors as they were walking, I'm just hanging out watching the people and then the my squad, people were very aware of the hard angles and the possibilities of 180s. Um, and I think I really think that the difficulty of the stages made people slow down and pay attention and really think. And I've got to say, those are those are some of the most challenging stages I've ever shot. And it was not a good match to be my first major back in two years. Um, so I I did I had a lot of fun, we'll put it that way. Um, I didn't DQ and I had a lot of fun, but um, so no, they were they were very good stages. I really enjoyed that match.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the um we had we had um we did have one person who who's kind of authorized me
Medical Response And Match Operations
SPEAKER_02to um to to talk about a little bit had a medical situation. Um I will tell you that the um it was not a shooting uh involved medical situation, but um his he was very lucky to be actually at the range where there was a lot of people who knew him and knew that his behavior had changed. Um and we were able to get him EMS help and get him uh off to the hospital to get some attention that he needed. I was in the hospital for two or three days afterwards, um, but he's recovered, he's back home now, he's he's safe and everything's good. Um, it it's one of those things that sometimes uh you're you're thankful for the people that are around you and that they can recognize when something's different. Um, you guys have heard me, you know, people talked about even in my medical situation a year and a half ago, is when things start to change with your body and you start to feel different and things you're behaving different. Um, people who are around you know that and they recognize that. And so uh I'm thankful that the his squad was able to recognize that, get him the medical attention that he needed, and off to the hospital. So um, other than that, um, I think we had a everything was pretty good. I will say, and I do want to hear from uh I'd love to hear from Kevin and Jody, but you know, I wanted to thank Jermaine. Jermaine was assistant match director, uh Alan Turner was my co-match director. So everybody kind of had specific tasks that we were taking care of. Um we worked together really well as a team. The one thing that I found very interesting uh was that at least as far as I know, and it this may have happened, but I'm just telling you my experience. I think this was the first time that we actually sold out the awards banquet. We actually had more people um attend the awards or or wanted to attend the awards banquet than we had seats for. So um that was great. It was great to have so many people that really wanted to come to the awards banquet and and you know hang out with their friends and have dinner and you know see and celebrate the success that our our fellow competitors had. So that was really cool from my perspective. It was neat to have that many people there. Um, I don't know, Kevin, Jody, from a from an RM perspective, anything else that that you saw that you wanted to share?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, from I mean, from my standpoint, um I was I had zone two, so I was seven through twelve plus chrono. And quite honestly, I spent most of my calls were from Chrono. Um I had one stage that had quite a few um quite a few calls, but you know, nothing drastic. I had zero DQs in my zone. Um and uh mostly um, like I said, mostly chrono stuff. Um it went worked really well. We had two assistant rangemasters working with us, um, and um they they both passed their oral board um at the match, and uh they have now joined the ranks of Rangemasters, and I really wish I could remember the names, but I just blacked on them so maybe Troy or or Dan, maybe you remember um Alan Terrell and Jason Brengelson. There we go. Um just had to get those 64-year-old neurons firing. Um, you know, I'm I didn't have any scotch tonight to start the podcast, so that that could be the problem. Um, but anyway, uh congratulations to Alan and Jason. Um, it was a lot of fun having both of them riding along. Um, and so I I kind of made them do most of the calls on Friday and on Sunday. On Saturday, I was flying solo, so I actually got to do got to do everything on Sunday. Um went really, really well. Um, and it was a hot match. It was dry down there. The humidity was hovering right around 12% for most of the match. Um, so sweat was not a thing, but people were losing water. We had one or two people have some difficulties with hydration and the heat. Um, other than that, I mean everybody just took it seriously and stayed hydrated. We did get a blast out to everybody to stay hydrated. Um, and they took us at our word. I know I don't know how many pallets of water we went through, but a lot.
SPEAKER_04Um a lot and ice, a lot of ice. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_02Four pallets of about four pallets. Yeah, about four pallets of water.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So and I have no idea how many bottles is on a pallet, but a lot. So yeah. And uh yeah, it was, you know, it was a the competitors were very uh complimentary of the stages. Um, heard a lot of people say that that was the most challenging nationals they'd ever shot, and the bet one of the best matches they'd ever shot. So um, you know, I think that's that's a key, and we, you know, it's a success, a success that we can build upon. Um, you know, it was interesting, these stages, especially being around the very round limited uh competitor shooting revolver with eight rounds. I had I really had to work to build my stage plan. And I think that distracted me enough that I missed a couple targets. So I set a personal record for failure to uh shoot at uh penalties in this match. Um and you know, I usually maybe get one in a match, and I think I had six in this match. Um, so you know it was it was challenging, it was very challenging. And um, my hats off to everybody that that did really well. Um, and then we had really strong crews on every stage. Um, and a lot of people were cutting teeth. Their first time as a CRO. We had instructors working with them on their squads as mentors to back them up, and um that seemed to work really well again. A number of our CROs were our were also instructors, um, and that, you know, so their their crews worked as one would expect, work really well. Um, I want to thank my uh other RMs, uh Tammy Waite from uh Montana and uh Danny Minter from Cal from California for at least a little bit longer, uh soon to be from another state. And uh yeah, working with those guys was a whole lot of fun. Um we really enjoyed it. Um and uh the Rangemaster app is a huge leap forward. Um, it's got some bugs that we need to stomp out, but um having that almost real-time data flow telling us how things were going meant that I spent a lot less time
RM App And Video Evidence Breakthroughs
SPEAKER_00timing RO's crews and seeing how they were running shooters and a lot more of my time watching how they were running the shooters, not paying as much attention to the time. Um, and I think that's that was very valuable. Um, you know, and uh, you know, having the video evidence, you know, uh uploaded and then right there available um to the tablets. We had um the new feature of being able to step through frame by frame and zoom in. Um we were actually able on one stage to see where a competitor shot the port, um, you know, the up the port um barrier boundary um with a round before he went back to that port later on in his run and engaged two paper targets. Well that hit on the port caused it was a full diameter hit, and that caused uh one of his hits to be taken away. Um and by going back through the video and watching it frame by frame and zoomed in, we could see when that strike actually occurred on the uh port frame, and uh that was able to be uh reversed. Um, you know, and everybody everybody won on that one. It it was a lot of work to figure that out, but it was possible. Um, and I think that was a huge leap forward um for the use of digital evidence at at a major.
SPEAKER_05Yeah, I think that one of the things that go ahead, go ahead.
SPEAKER_01No, I saw I I used that uh RM app during the during the pre-match part, and it was very useful. I like the new feature that you can QR code your your video and download it, and then it's very usable on the on the tablet. And interestingly enough, uh the RMs and area CROs that World Shoot uh under the ESS system have something very similar. They all walk around with an iPad. Uh the one thing that it can't do uh that that ours does is download that video the way that we do. So they're kind of stuck with using it on your phone, et cetera, but they have a timing thing with it because evidently there's been some some AI finagling with pictures of targets, et cetera, that people can't imagine that happening. Yeah, that people you know brought up and said, Well, this is my target, and it was scored wrong. But uh they somehow they proved that almost all of the suspicious ones they had were were adjusted by some sort of AI approval. So um but yeah, that's it's very useful for them, it's very useful for us. And you can imagine on the scale of a world shoot uh how much more that they have to look at and examine, but it was keeping up with stage times, etc. So very similar, very similar app functions, um except for the video stuff uh not being able to be uploaded like that. But I think that's probably kind of because I talked to a couple people and oh yeah, we need that. So uh maybe those day I'll get on that and and they'll get it built.
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Anyway, that's all I wanted to add.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and Jody, you were down uh serving in stats for I think this is your first time doing stats at a national, so how are things in stats?
SPEAKER_03I mean, it's been a while since I've done stats, and usually when I did it was a local match. Um, so you know, not much has changed with the process of doing stats. Um, but you know, it was um I found an even more boring job than RM. Um, but I do give credit to the stats guys. You need to have a good stats person to make sure everything is working smoothly and stuff. We had a few network hiccups, um, but we got those figured out first day of the staff match. Um there were still stages one and two in those far bays, down those were deep bays.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_03When it when it got hot, the equipment didn't like talking to those tablets, but we worked with it. Um, you know, the biggest thing was stacks the first day or the day before the match started, when all the other ROs were walking stages with the RMs, we were updating the OS, making sure the OS was updated on the tablets, the inter practice score was updated, you know, and we had AM and PM tablets. Um, so it's just a lot of tracking, you know. We're busy before the first shots happen, we're busy at lunch, we're busy at the end of the day. But, you know, other than tracking down tablets that aren't syncing properly or troubleshooting network issues, it's kind of boring in between. By the last day, we had all the kinks worked out, so we were just waiting for people to get done shooting. Um but it was uh it was interesting, I think it was good. I do want to do the stats endorsement next year. I gotta get the chrono one done this year. Um so it was fun. Yeah, I do I I would do it again if you need if they needed stats people, right?
SPEAKER_00But you know, they they say that uh a good match, a sign of a good match is a board rangemaster, and I think the corollary to that is a board stats person.
SPEAKER_03Oh, for sure. For sure.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, the only other thing I would like to just to say for you know anybody who's listening, the the Zion Tourism Board was a huge supporter of the match as we we came out there. I know a lot of folks came out either a few days before or stayed a few days after. Uh, if you have never been to that part of the country, it's absolutely beautiful. Uh the mountains and everything is just an incredible experience. So if you ever do get the opportunity to head out that way, you should definitely do it. But I just did want to give a special thank you to the Zion Tourism Board for supporting us and and the match.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely. That is some incredible geology there. Um, and uh it's uh if you're a photographer and you can be there at the right time of the day, it is absolutely amazing.
SPEAKER_02Well, it's it you you know it's amazing, Kevin, when you can take amazing pictures with your iPhone and the pictures are still incredible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, it's and I I actually took all my rear gear, real camera gear along, hoping to be able to get out there when the light was right, but it just didn't work out. So I I saw a little bit of it, but I was also uh kind of under a time crunch to get home. So um made just beat feet and got out of there. But uh yeah, and I'd kind of had enough of the heat.
SPEAKER_02Next year we've got some uh different locations that we're gonna be uh hosting our our nationals at. So it'll be exciting to hit some different ranges and um you know folks will have different experiences. So we look forward to seeing everybody next year at uh the various nationals that we're gonna host.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and hopefully the uh stage designs will carry the tradition that we that we saw. Um indeed. You know, that's that's uh I mean that's really you know, I think what people expect at a nationals match. They expect to be challenged at a level above what they're used to being challenged at. And you know, usually when you have you know really good stages at a higher level, that filters all the way back down to the area matches, the section matches, and eventually, you know, back to your local club matches um because they're trying to get themselves to think better, um, you know, it with more complex stages. And so I think it can't do anything but help the support.
SPEAKER_03I think we can appreciate that.
SPEAKER_02And go ahead, Jody.
SPEAKER_03Well, I think we did learn that when you're trying to choose that par time for the fixed time stage, yeah. Take the extra two seconds off.
SPEAKER_02Although I think only if if my recollection is correct, I still think only two people shot it clean um within the time and got all the points. So there still was some separation, but I agree with you. We probably could have um peeled back a little bit of time on it. Um but I think only two people only two people actually got it, all the points.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I did look and yeah, there wasn't a huge pileup, but you know, quite a few people did get all their shots off.
SPEAKER_00So yeah.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, though that's for sure.
SPEAKER_00I did not because I went, I'm going for maximum number of points in the time, and then you know, so I went to the locations where I had multiple targets that were wide open available to me, and I was happy with with how that went. I didn't even try and get all my shots off. So all right. All right. Well, anything else? Um Deraine, anything more comments from you about Factor Gun?
SPEAKER_04Um it was hot. Yeah, it was yeah, just trying to, you know, make sure everyone had enough water and supplies so that nobody had to run around and ask for extra stuff. That's what I was trying to do.
SPEAKER_00All right. And your your squad, your squad matrices worked well, so uh thank you.
SPEAKER_04I was worried about that because of the design of the the land of the the bays and the stagers that was quite the challenge.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there was only once or twice where people stalked me and go would go, Where where's stage this stage? It's at the other end, or it's up go up one, you know, or down one. Um, but yeah, it's people figured it out pretty quick. I think you know, a bay map helped everybody um you know get it get it figured out. And this you know, the each stage was very well the really good signage on each stage. Um that made it pretty easy. That helped a lot, yeah. Pretty easy to figure out where you were. Um so that that worked out really well. All right. Um
Building A Repeat DQ Remediation Policy
SPEAKER_00so let's move into this. Is this a topic that we actually get a fairly steady stream? It's not a tidal wave by any means, but every month or so we're getting somebody that's writing in to um rules at USPSA.org. Um and asking us, hey, we've got you know, a shooter in our club, in our section, in our region, um, that is pretty much every match they shoot, they're DQing, um, they're just unsafe. And you know, what what what rule do we use or what do we do about that? And um I know of two sections um that have a policy about how to handle that. They're kind of similar policies, but one of those sections is Jermaine's section in eastern Colorado. And um, she's done some research. It looks like that was started back in about 2012. Um, so Jermaine, why don't you describe what your policy is? And I think more importantly, it's we need to hear you the remediation um protocol that you guys have developed and how you handle that um uh for the shooters. And because I've I've taught a number of classes down in your end of the world, and you know, there have been people Those classes because they had to be there. Um, and as a result of this. So why don't you go ahead and and give us the highlights?
SPEAKER_04Sure. So um, so like like you said, I did some research, and the earliest documentation I have for it is from December of 2012. So we've had this in place for 14 years as a section. Um, we have a DQ policy that um we track, we have a we have a form that we all the sections of the clubs in the section can fill out where they submit all the DQs that happened at the matches, and it it keeps it in a spreadsheet, and we can check it to find out you know who's been the repeat offenders. And the policy it, like I said, has been in place for a long, long time, and it's basically gives people three strikes, right? So um, if you hit your first EQ, no big deal, they're you know, not gonna be penalized or whatever, and you have a calendar year from that first EQ to not violate two more times, and then you're clear, and your your record gets erased um at that point. If in that calendar year from the time you first EQ's, um, you hit three DQs, then you get to level one um suspension slash probation, where you then have to go to a safety class with our section safety coordinator, um, where he kind of goes over some of you know some basics and and watches how you run stages. He sets up a course of fire, he has his own range, so he can kind of set up whatever he needs to to kind of tailor it to the shooter to find out what it is that they're doing possibly wrong, or um what in their gun handling skills is is causing this repeat offense and offense that they're doing. Sometimes it's you know, they keep breaking 180, sometimes it's their A-D, which is probably one of the worst ones that could happen. But um, he watches them and he kind of gives them some tips and gives gives some training um advice, and um it's it's a good several hours that he spends with with the shooter. Um, at that point, then he sends a report back to me, the section coordinator, or whoever that happens to be. And then we we inform the section that this person is now on the level one probation. And they have um uh their probation is that they must complete 10 matches without DQing, or one full calendar year without DQ. If they're successful at that, then their slate is what clean and there's they're no longer on probation. So let's say they finish their their the whole probation status, and then like a year and a half later they DQ again. That doesn't count toward the three that they went through because they've they've cleared that one-year hurdle. If they haven't, if they do do key deq within that 10 match period, then they move on to the level two uh probation status where they go into a little bit more restrictive where we ask that they we we prevent them from shooting any matches in the section for three months. They must go through a more intensive safety class with our safety coordinator, and they must take the the next level one course that's available in the section, and if not um nearby sections. Um but we as a section, I try to make sure we have at least two RO classes a year. Um, so there's usually one that they can attend within that three-month period. Um, so that that's the requirement of the level two probation. And the safety course that they have to take is even more intensive. It's it's several more than the hour and a half or two hours that they spent the first time. It's more like a four and five hour day at the ring shoe with our safety officer, where he really kind of tries to nail down even more strictly um what it is that they're doing to cause them to be cute. Uh, also tries to, you know, kind of analyze them a little bit to find out where their head is, like if they're trying to, you know, run with the big boys, so to speak, and they're just going too fast and moving faster than their gun handling skills can handle, uh, or if there's something else going on. So after that point, then that person has to also then take the oral class and pass it. Um, and at that point, after all those pieces are in place, then they go on level two probation. It's again another 10 matches or a year. Should they clear that, then again, their slate is what clean, and it's you know, they're done. If, however, they DQ again in that 10 match time frame or one year time frame, then um we suspend them from this section. And at that point, um, I I notify USPSA after the first level one, and then if it becomes a level two, I definitely notify that we are suspending them from matches in the section. Um, and USPSA can choose to do the same or not, depending on you know what what they decide. But that is that would be a recommendation to the to the organization from our section, because at that point, this person would have demonstrated that they are chronically unsafe and that it would be a risk to pretty much everyone if they attended any more matches, whether it's in our section or you know, if they went to another section of like another state and shopped there. So it's it's putting them on notice that they they really didn't take the safety precautions and the safety remediation that we put them through seriously, and now they're at a point where they they can't do that. And and we've had a couple people in the past who actually have done this, and and I know that Kevin, you know one of one of the people I'm talking about, he was in your RO class a few years ago and DQ'd at the RL class.
SPEAKER_05Yeah.
SPEAKER_04And he was on level two probation.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, with with the same type of GQ that he was doing at all the matches he was going to.
SPEAKER_04Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Uh which is accidental discharge. So um right, you know, which is a great teaching moment for the class.
SPEAKER_04Um it was, but it was like for me, oh no.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was it was sad. And I mean, in in that case, uh, quite honestly, I know you and I talked about it. Um, and I a lot of times I know that these people were in the class, I don't necessarily know who they are. And um, at least not initially, it becomes sometimes pretty obvious. In this case, it was obvious, and then we talked, and quite honestly, this guy had no business driving a gun. Um he was older and his motor skills were not sufficient for driving a gun. Um, and there may have been some cognitive issues as well. Um, you know, and it it's sad, but we have to remember that we are in a sport playing with dangerous things. And um, you know, that's people could get hurt, people could have or worse, right? And um, that's it as much as it sucks to take away somebody's ability to compete, the other things would be worse.
SPEAKER_04So um the right thing about that gentleman in particular is because after a year, he did write to me and ask to be reinstated. And I was no, you are a safety risk, and now you're a year older.
SPEAKER_05So no, I doubt he got better.
SPEAKER_04No, and plus I had been hearing that he was DQing at all the other competitive disciplines, IDPA,
Level One And Level Two Probation
SPEAKER_04lock, I mean outlaw matches, he was de queuing everywhere. So I was like, definitely no, that's a hard, hard no.
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_04So but the other the other the other thing too about our our DQ policy is it's not just about shooters, it's also about clubs. So the we have a individual DQ policy, but also a club DQ policy. So that if the club has a historically high number of DQs happening at their range, at their club, at their matches, um, we need to analyze what's going on and possibly you know do some corrective action as to their their stage designs or their setups or whatever it is. And um, yeah, so there's there's also a key a part in place as part of our DQ policy that's not just about shooters, but also about flips. So yeah.
SPEAKER_00And uh Yeah, and I've I wanna I don't want to make it sound like everyone that I've ever seen come take an RO class because they had to has failed. Um, the majority have actually succeeded and and gone on, um at least as far as I know.
SPEAKER_04Um and I there's just that one guy, and everyone else is that to my knowledge in the past few years.
SPEAKER_00There was one before your time that got the permanent invite to stop participating, but um for similar reasons.
SPEAKER_04So yeah, I know who that is. I I have the history of that person. Yes. Um there there is there it's very rare because most people even even after the second DQ, um, they you know they they kind of clean up their act. If they hit the third DQ and we we put them through their level of probation, they really kind of take that seriously because they realize that it's not just me kind of goofing out around or or or being lax in my gun handling skills. It's it's serious. We're we're we're monitoring what you're doing and making sure that you're not a danger to us or to yourself um with your skills.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so well Jermaine, thank you. I appreciate it. I don't know if anybody has any um any questions uh for you about this. Uh go ahead.
SPEAKER_05I you've stunned them into silence, Germain.
SPEAKER_03I mean, it's it's there's a lot of clubs that have you know issues with people who are just unsafe. And you know, that's the sometimes they ask what they should do, and I'm kind of like, well, you need to set up some kind of a club policy about you know, chronic deqs and what happens. You know, they're like, Well, we want to borrow them from the matches. I'm like, well, if you do, just make sure you report it to USPSA, like the rule book says, right thing, right?
SPEAKER_04Yeah, a lot of times they're like, they don't want to do that, but then I'm like, well, you gotta the good thing about this TQ policy, and also kind of piggybacking on the USBSA rule, is that you can't, this is not arbitrary, right? You have to actually demonstrate this. It is proven there's no favoritism. It's not I don't like this guy, or he's a really hot head, or whatever. There is there is action that you have to demonstrate something on record, yeah, that we can point to. And then, you know, I I have documentation of of every single thing that not only people in the past, but also recently have done. And it's not because I didn't like them. In fact, some of them I like them a lot, but um it's it's proving that they're unsafe and there's historical record for it.
SPEAKER_03So yeah, and and that's the thing, it's the biggest thing is I tell a club that you have a policy, they're like, well, no, and I'm like, Well, there's step one. Yeah, exactly. Even it takes making the policy right, you know, then you know, with your board of your club or whatever. But you know, the thing is we do play with real firearms, and there could be potentially be fatal consequences. So safety is always our number one priority. And if someone is chronically unsafe, yeah, the best thing to do is just not have them at your matches, but make sure you have a policy so it doesn't look like you're targeting anyone or um and treat everyone equally under that policy.
SPEAKER_04So and I've also had that question as well, where somebody asked how we could have that kind of quote unquote power over banning people from USPSA. And it's I tell them that it's okay, safety first, right? And that's what this whole program is all about to make them safe, once again, so that we're not risking life and limb, property, anything like that. Um, it is all about safety, and that's what the program is designed to do. The recommendation, if they reach to that point where they've chronically demonstrated that they're unsafe, is a recommendation because we're trying to keep anyone else from having to do with a possible risk to injury or worse. And so even though we don't have the power as a section to ban them from all of USBSA, we know that by sending our recommendation to all of you that you're gonna take that under serious advisement because you don't want that risk as well, through any of the matches through the section or the the organization.
SPEAKER_01So right. It's interesting that you said that um that they asked about banning them from USPSA, because that's not what you're doing, you're you're keeping them from participating in matches until they can demonstrate that they can do it safely, which is your job as section coordinator or as match director for your club, club president, range officer, whatever, is protecting that club and the organization and ensuring the safety thing, right? I mean, right that's range officers' first job is safety all the time.
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_01And when you have somebody that's chronically unsafe, you have to do something about it. And it's not that you're calling them a bad person, you're just saying, look, I have to protect my interests, I have to protect my club and my and my competitors, etc. And if it gets bad enough, then it might turn out that they that they get barred from the SPSA. But the people that have done something just egregiously unsafe, like throwing their gun down range, well, they get they get barred from the organization, right? Because we don't need somebody like that. But people that have incidents, like for example, there was there was a uh a guy at the shotgun world shoots that was there to support his girlfriend. And she was experienced, she'd been shooting. Well, he wanted to try it, and he he they let him in, they let him pay his entry fee um at the match, which is almost unheard of for IPSC, right? Yeah, um, and he barred a shotgun and he and he went and shot. Well, he made a couple of three stages that he and he got disqualified. So uh there was nothing I could do about it. It was pretty pretty obvious what happened. And he was really upset about it. Uh, but mostly what he was upset about was he he thought that they'll never let me come back. And I was like, this is this is uh something that happens to a lot of people, right? It happened to two of our top competitors. He right he didn't know that. I mean, it hadn't happened yet, but it happened to two of our top competitors, and I told him it's you know, I've been disqualified, uh, a lot of people have been disqualified. As long as you don't have a consistent pattern of it, we don't particularly focus on it, right? Um, and I actually used your your method as an example. I said there are some places in the states that track it, right? And when it filters up, when you've been doing it enough and it gets to the USPSA upper level, uh, then yeah, we're gonna pay attention to it. But I said the occasional disqualification for this, that, or the other is, you know, expected. We run around with guns, we focus on the safety aspect, and if you do something unsafe, then you get disqualified, right? And he he got it, he understood it, but I think he was worried about it. I had to tell him, I said, look, you know, we're not gonna take your birthday away because you had one DQ in a world. So it's uh it's it's just one of those things. But it I tell people all the time when I when I've had to disqualify them or uphold a DQ, um it's it's something that happens to everybody that participates in this sport. And for those of you that are thinking, oh, it hasn't happened to me, I'm gonna tell you, I'm gonna tell you what. You've done something at some point that you didn't get caught for, right? Or you did it in practice, right? You did it in practice or something like that, but you did it. Everybody that handles a gun will do something like that at some point, right? And just because you've never been caught and you've never been uh disqualified at a match or whatever, doesn't mean that you haven't ever done anything on safe, right? So just yeah, stay humble about that because when you start bragging about it, I think that's when the when the safety gods say, Oh yeah, well, next time is your turn, but you know, I remember there's two types of shooters in USPSA: those who have deep faith and those who will.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Right.
Using Rules 6.4.4 And 6.4.5
SPEAKER_03And just so the rules we're talking about for so 644 and 645, it basically says you can bar individual from participating in a match at the MD's discretion if the person has been demonstrated an inability to safely complete a course fire or has demonstrated behavior which would would or may disrupt the match or would bring the distribute to the sport. And then it says if you bar someone, so six that's 644 and 645 says if you've used 644, you got to submit a report to USPSA within seven days of the occurrence. It doesn't mean that that person's instantly banned from USPSA. Kind of depends what they did, but um it just at least there's a paper trail. So if this person goes to another club and gets barred from that club for another thing, for the same thing, or right.
SPEAKER_04And I want to tell you that that I'm sorry, go ahead. Go ahead. I thought you were done. No, go ahead. Um, I was gonna say that that rule actually is is something I had uh to deal with last year, or some um there was a person who had a couple of matches kind of had a little bit of a touchy set-off situation, but he didn't do anything unsafe. He did not violate any, he wasn't accused, he didn't you know violate any secret news by the rule book, but they wanted to ban him from shooting matches. And I actually sat in that rule and said, if you do that, this is what you gotta do. You have to submit a report. Do you want to submit a report? Well, no. Okay, well, this is this is the rules. You you know, unless he does something unsafe, he just being a hothead is not not grounds for but barring some. We have a lot of people who have egos and you know, tempers and stuff. And I I remember one guy who would rage quit every time he just didn't have a great match. You can't bar them from you know the matches for that. So it's a good rule to have because it prevents people from just saying, I don't like you. You can't cheat my match.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, because a lot of times people are like, Well, we don't want them report them. I'm like, okay, but you don't you think this person's too unsafe to be at your match. Right? Do you want them going to other matches? You know? Um, and even then, it's like if you report this, there's not a list that goes out and says, hey, don't let this guy come to your matches. That that's only if they get they get suspended or removed from USBSA. Um this is just a hey HQ, this happened, we want it on your radar.
SPEAKER_04Kind of thing. And when we do that for our our um the DQ people in our section, um, it's a formal letter that I send to USBSA as part of the bylaws for our section. So that, you know, I I'm not citing a rule in the book, I'm actually citing the bylaws for our sections that have been established. Um so that it's a formal letter with the history of the um violations that the the person has has done in the past.
SPEAKER_03So this is a good PSA
Section Structure And Documentation
SPEAKER_03moment. Does is your club part of the section? Do you guys know your section bylaws?
SPEAKER_00Right. Do you know who your section coordinator is?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, do you know who your section coordinator is? Have you had a section coordinator election? You maybe do if you can't remember.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Is your section coordinator still alive?
SPEAKER_04Um, I was surprised because there we've had this this um setup, this structure ever since I started this sport. Um, we've had a section coordinator and we had a section uh council. Um, you know, and so we've had all these things in place, and I hear about other sections really not having that much structure, and I I'm a little shocked. Oh, yeah, I tell you it helps us.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I I taught an RO class and they were like, what's a section match? I'm like, aren't you guys private section? Well, I don't know. So, you know, this was Saturday. So Saturday night, it was on the East Coast. I texted, you know, one of the former area directors who I knew. I was like, hey, what club would what section would this club be in? And who's their section coordinator? So I could relay that to the class host and the club because they had no clue. That's crazy. Wow.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there are a number of independent clubs out there that are not part of a section. Oh yeah. And you know, a lot of times that's because they're geographically not close to a section. And you know, that's or at least traditionally weren't.
SPEAKER_03Um this club wasn't a section. No.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, but yeah, you run it and you run into that all the time.
SPEAKER_03It's you know, it's if if your club number is not IPS C and a number, so the independent clubs are IPSC and a number, but if your club are club your uh your your club number is N E and a number or C O and a number or whatever, that means you're part of a section. Yep.
SPEAKER_05Yep. So okay.
SPEAKER_00Well, um I'm sure that there'll be people wanting a copy of what you've done, Jermaine. Um let's see, should we just have you do a blog post and post it on the blog? I think that might be the most efficient way to get that out.
SPEAKER_04I can do that. I can just look tell you the website that we have that we maintain that has all of our bylaws on it. And it's ecoussa.com.
SPEAKER_05Okay.
unknownEC.
SPEAKER_04Yeah, eco. Yeah. Yeah. Put that in the the podcast.
SPEAKER_00I'll put it in in the show notes.
SPEAKER_04Yeah. Right. There's there's like section info that has all the bylaws on it. Okay.
SPEAKER_00All right. Well, I I appreciate you taking the time. Um I've kind of admired what your section does. And like I said, I know of one other section um up here in the Northwest that has a very similar um, very similar policy. Um, and I I admire sections that do that because they're helping keep the sport safe and providing that additional layer of accountability to the shooters. Um, this isn't the Wild West. This is we're serious about safety.
SPEAKER_04Right. And I invite for it as well.
SPEAKER_00All right. Um with that, um any other questions or comments for Jermaine or comments in general, announcements, anything else? Silence.
SPEAKER_01I have nothing.
SPEAKER_00Was that right?
SPEAKER_01I have nothing. We have I don't think we've added any new borrowed classes for 26, but we're well above what we did last year, so and quite a few on the books for 27. So I think that's a good thing.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we added one the other day, but I think that was in 20, I'm pretty sure that was in 27. So yeah, we're we were at 100 plus last I think we looked for the night for 26. Um, so it's been another good year.
SPEAKER_04Um I will be contacting you guys too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04We're I'm planning on two RO classes and a C class.
SPEAKER_05So look forward to those.
SPEAKER_04Get them on the calendar.
SPEAKER_05Yep.
SPEAKER_04I gotta find a place to do them first, and then yeah. You will be hearing from me.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's not do the CRO class in the springs in February again. Hey, we got lucky. We got lucky.
SPEAKER_04We did, we absolutely did, but yeah, it's it's not always like that. It's supposed to be El Nino this year, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, but she's down there where it's gonna the El Nino's gonna make it wet.
SPEAKER_04It's gonna yeah, it's gonna make it wet. Not dry like us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, they're gonna be wet down there. So um we got lucky that day then.
Training Classes, Funding, And Wrap Up
SPEAKER_00Well, with that, and I want to thank everybody for taking time to join us tonight. And uh with that, uh remember if you have questions, comments, whatever, rules at uspsa.org, and we'll get an email back to you as soon as we can. Um match season is definitely calming down, and we're more of us are around now, so we're turning answers around fairly rapidly. So um, and if you're looking to have an RO class, uh get on the webpage and get that, pick your dates and get those in. Um, and as always, you know, if if you don't wait until you know 100% for sure you can fill the class. If you think you can get, you know, just knowing what you know today, you can get 50, 60 percent, go ahead and throw it out there because you're gonna bring in people from that you don't know about, maybe. Um, it doesn't have to just come from your club. Um, you know, get the can't get it on the calendar, and you'd be surprised um how many people you might get for your class. Um it's been fairly rare of late that we have a class that has not made um because of lack of attendance. So uh used to happen quite a bit, but it hasn't happened much. I don't not sure it's happened at all this year.
SPEAKER_02Um can I can I just also add for for everybody, and I've announced said this on several of our board meetings, but uh your area directors and me as a director at large, we have budget available to assist in in um helping subsidize classes. So also not only what you just said in terms of scheduling, but also don't let budget be the inhibitor of you scheduling a class. So if you need um a little subsidy to help fund the class, talk to your area director because they do have some money available in their budget to do that.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's a good point. And um, you know, there's lots of information on the webpage about what it takes to to hold a class and what the you know the host uh club responsibilities are financially and otherwise. Um and if you have any questions, you can read when reach out to Terry Um at U T-E-R-R-I at USPSA.org. I think it's two Rs. Um, she can help explain everything to you. Um, she's our NRY coordinator and she's she's kind of the one that assigns uh makes sure that the classes go where they need and they get instructors, and she's the the magician behind the curtain uh pulling the handles to make it all happen. So um, yeah, but she can certainly help. Or if you know one of the instructors, we'll be happy to answer questions for you, or just hit us up at rules at uspasa.org and we'll all of us are instructors and we'll answer your questions as well. Um, it's not hard. Um, and it just takes a little bit of organizational skill and um a little bit of logistics, and it kind of just happens. So it works out, usually works out pretty well. And don't be afraid of having um level one seminars or level two list seminars for that matter on your club match weekend. Um, in fact, I'm doing a class in Marysville, Washington at Marysville uh Rod and Gun Club, and the uh range day is going to be in coordination with their monthly match. We're gonna throw the class on to a squad or two, uh, depending on how many students we get, and they will earn their RO credentials running real shooters at a real match. Uh, we've done that a couple times. Uh I've done that a couple times at various clubs. Um, and it ends up being a good experience usually for everybody. So um, you know, don't necessarily avoid your club weekends. Oh, we can't do that. So we're just gonna, you know, we're gonna need a couple squads uh hopefully next to each other, um, and uh we'll make it work. So, but if you're gonna do that, let the instructor know early on when they're assigned that that's your plan so that we can help you organize that. But it does work out quite well. Anyway, again, if you have questions, comments, whatever, rules at usporg. And again, thank you to uh Jermaine and Dan for joining us tonight and Jody and Troy as well. Good night, everybody.
SPEAKER_05Good night.
SPEAKER_00Good night.
SPEAKER_05Good night.
How To Find And Request Seminars
SPEAKER_00Are you looking to take your first range officer class? Maybe you're looking to upgrade to chief range officer or audit a seminar to brush up on your rules knowledge. The complete list of upcoming classes can be found by following the link to find nry seminars under the NRY tab at USPSA.org. No class is near you, your club can sponsor an NRY seminar. Follow the Request Seminar link under the NRY tab at USPSA.org.