Redrawing district boundaries

[MarkDennis]

This was brought up in another thread and is something I have thought would greatly help IMAC over the last few years. What would it take to redraw the regional boundary lines to adopt something with smaller "districts" like the pattern guys use?

Grouping the states into smaller districts would allow for more contests to be attended in ones own district as well as nearby districts. This would also keep what are now the regional championships easier to attend for anyone in that district or region.

This would also allow states with winter weather to not have to compete with states that are able to fly year round. I'll use the southwest as an example where there is a contest in Hemet, CA in a week. While pilots from California, Arizona and Nevada who have the ability to fly year round will most likely attend this contest, many from Utah, New Mexico and Colorado will not be able to attend either due to lack of available practice time due to weather or due to the 1000 mile plus drive to get to the contest. In many cases the pilots who are able to attend the contests in the early part of the year will have a large points advantage and an even larger practice advantage over those in the other states.

Please take these comments lightly as they are meant to bring on a positive discussion about the future of IMAC, something that we all agree needs every members constant help to keep moving forward. Please let post your thoughts for or against this idea here.

 

[Capt.Roll]

Good subject for discussion Mark, I'll have some additional comments when I have time to write some things out.

I like the current regions as they stand but smaller districts may have some value. I guess the bottom line is would IMAC pilot count and event participation increase and would more clubs; maybe as the result of a new influx of pilots, be able/willing to host an event.

While discussing smaller districts, which should decrease travel time/expense, would one day versus two day evens become more feasible? A one or two hour drive to a single day event may be an option whereas traveling four to six hours for a single day competition isn't.

 

[tl3]

All couple of things to consider:
Would more / smaller regions lead to increased participation, or would participation remain stable but now be diluted amongst more regions?
What is the motivating factor for pilots? If it's chasing points and a regional championship, then more regions may increase the numbers, if it's simply the contest experience and the pleasure of competing against peers, I'm not sure the number of regions makes much difference.
More contests can often lead to smaller turnouts, which can in turn lead to lost contests as clubs look to events as fund raisers.
Not suggesting redistricting is a good or bad thing, just that there are many many factors to consider. There may be some merit to looking at the topic in certain parts of the country, ie SW, but I my hunch is that no matter where the lines are drawn, or how many regions there are, the population centers of IMAC pilots probably wouldn't change.

 

[MarkDennis]

All couple of things to consider:
Would more / smaller regions lead to increased participation, or would participation remain stable but now be diluted amongst more regions?
What is the motivating factor for pilots? If it's chasing points and a regional championship, then more regions may increase the numbers, if it's simply the contest experience and the pleasure of competing against peers, I'm not sure the number of regions makes much difference.
More contests can often lead to smaller turnouts, which can in turn lead to lost contests as clubs look to events as fund raisers.
Not suggesting redistricting is a good or bad thing, just that there are many many factors to consider. There may be some merit to looking at the topic in certain parts of the country, ie SW, but I my hunch is that no matter where the lines are drawn, or how many regions there are, the population centers of IMAC pilots probably wouldn't change.

Smaller districts would allow contests to be held more frequently since there would be less competition for dates. I know its hard to get a contest scheduled on the same weekend here in the southwest even if the contests are hundreds of miles apart. For those who have the time/resources to travel to many contests under the current regional layout I doubt we would see much of a change in their contest attendance. I think what we would see is more local contests with more local interest in the lower classes, thus increasing contest attendance as well as clubs interested in hosting a contest. I know that is always one of the limiting factors for new IMAC pilots in our area, they want to be able to go to as many contests as possible, once they realize that will entail driving upwards of 1200 miles to get to some contests they quickly loose interest. The pilots on the upper classes or those who have been in IMAC for a long time will still travel like we always have, I think where we would see the biggest increase in attendance are the areas that are somewhat isolated by their current regions as well as an increase in new pilots wanting to try IMAC but did not want to travel but still wanted to be competitive on a regional/district level.

 

[aarestor]

We have 2 contests on our side of the NW region and the nearest one after that is 1200 miles away. I usually go to a contest out of my region to get experience. It would be nice to see a few a little closer. Either way you slice it, even going to the out of region contest it is still a 400 mile one way trip.

 

[C.Edwards]

All couple of things to consider:
Would more / smaller regions lead to increased participation, or would participation remain stable but now be diluted amongst more regions?
What is the motivating factor for pilots? If it's chasing points and a regional championship, then more regions may increase the numbers, if it's simply the contest experience and the pleasure of competing against peers, I'm not sure the number of regions makes much difference.
More contests can often lead to smaller turnouts, which can in turn lead to lost contests as clubs look to events as fund raisers.
Not suggesting redistricting is a good or bad thing, just that there are many many factors to consider. There may be some merit to looking at the topic in certain parts of the country, ie SW, but I my hunch is that no matter where the lines are drawn, or how many regions there are, the population centers of IMAC pilots probably wouldn't change.

I agree 100% with your statement on more contest can lead to smaller numbers. More importantly having multiple contest on the same weekend within the same region! I had brought this issue up in the past and was met with a fair amount of blow back on another site...

 

[tl3]

In my opinion, for whatever that's worth, more contests is a by-product of greater participation. I don't think that re-drawing the lines on a map has much if any impact on participation. Regional boundaries really only impacts the IRPS, which already permits pilots to count two out of region contests in their points, and allows for pilots to re-assign their home region. If an RD is refusing to permit contests on the same date even when they are a great distance apart, that is an administrative issue that should be addressed within the region. The point that there are regions that cover an enormous amount of geographic area and pilots from opposite ends never fly against each other is certainly valid, and from that perspective some study of the size and number of regions may be warranted. But let's not look at it in the belief that changing or adding regions will increase the number of contests or pilots.
Increased pilot numbers comes from concerted grass roots efforts by folks willing to roll their sleeves up and actively promote Scale Aerobatics at the basic level: IMAC University, Basic only events, bootcamps, and primers are the ways in which the pilot numbers will escalate; it means seasoned IMAC pilot's recognizing interest at the local / club level and being willing to take the time to foster that interest.

 

[Flatspinjim]

I tend to agree with Mark, at least in the western regions. The SW region goes all the way from Colorado to California. That's a huge span and as I am the CD for the LAMA contest I know that scheduling contests can be a bear because there are a lot of contests in this region, even though they are thousands of miles apart. I'm from Colorado and usually make at least one trip a year to an Arizona contest, but any of the CA contests are pretty much out of the question.
The guys that are more centrally located do have an advantage as far as being able to enter more contests and gather more points.

 

[aarestor]

Jim bring your crew up to ours, we are closer than AZ or CA.

 

[Flatspinjim]

Jim bring your crew up to ours, we are closer than AZ or CA.

I'm working on it. Sounds like a great time!