SAME DAY FLY POLICY ITEM NUMBER 2019–007
The final matter of business presented to the Executive Committee in 2019 was done so at year‘s end with final vote tabulation occurring past the deadline date of the January–February NBRC Bulletin. President Don Macauley thanked all of the committee members “who have been able to participate in this EC group and keep the discussions professional and healthy in any debate that has occurred… your contributions and efforts have been appreciated.“ Macauley‘s proposal involved the “Same Day Fly Policy“. A Same Day Fly policy was passed by the committee in 2014 and presented as a way to eliminate anyone from violating the policy of not flying any of the same birds twice in the same format when flying two kits. On some of the social networks there were heated discussions regarding this with an undisclosed member admitting that he flys the same birds twice and that “there was nothing the NBRC could do about it.“ A couple of other fliers indicated they may have done the same thing, but would not openly admit it as this flier did. Revelation of this resulted in a heated debate online between the president at that time and the member in violation. The club‘s intent is to always make sure that sanctioned competition is conducted with integrity and respect of the policies and rules. The policy was implemented as an attempt to eliminate cheating of this kind. There were mixed feelings about this policy among a few committee members, and while they were insistent that they would never condone cheating, they were accused of condoning cheating when voicing opposition. The belief then was that all members, due to the actions of a few, were being penalized as going to cheat if not required to fly both their kits on the same day. For example, one committee member stated that as a participant and member of a region that had always been able to fly kits on different days, which allowed them to schedule preferred fly times for all the fliers more fairly, it was felt that they were being penalized. At the same time, larger regions had minimal ability to come back around and allow their members to fly their second kits on a different day so the impact was minimal to them regarding the Same Day Fly Policy. A part of the discussion on Same Day Fly by the EC was that larger regions really don‘t have the same opportunity to fly a flier’s second kit on a different day so why should a smaller region be able to. The other side of that debate was that a region is competing only among themselves in their region fly so why should they be penalized with a restricted ability to schedule their fly, as long as they schedule it fairly among their participants. Another debate was why not allow the same birds to be flown twice? The World Cup allows it and the goal is to get the best kits into the finals, plus that would eliminate any chance of cheating regarding flying the same birds. Counterpoint on this was that the top fliers would then get to fly their best twice and the up and comers would not be able to compete with that. Thus, there were many ways to look at the situation. While some members felt the current policy needed no revision, most of the EC expressed a desire for change, citing that each regional had unique circumstances regarding scheduling. Stances included: “If a region’s members and RD are in agreement on how a regional fly is conducted concerning whether kits are flown on the same day or on successive days (or weekends) then I have no issues with one region using a different system from another. When the regional qualifiers meet up in the finals everyone has the same opportunities and how they got there has no bearing on the outcome.“ “Each RD should have figured out what works best as far as scheduling. Those with regions that are small in area can do flys completely different then what I am able to do being a region of several states“. It was entered into debate that one method of combatting a flyer from this type of unapproved behavior would be to limit a competitor to one kit entry versus two. The consensus feeling on this was that limitation should not be imposed because RDs faced enough problems as it was trying to get the minimum number of entries. Among the comments, “I am not in favor of reducing the number of flies per flyer from 2 to 1. This would be a simple solution to the problem, but sometimes the easiest solution is not necessarily the best. At a time when we are seeing dwindling numbers in our club and especially our flys, I believe we need to do everything we possibly can to encourage more participation with more flexibility and ease in the process. Also, limiting the fly to only one kit per entrant will raise the cost of participation. And it would also require a complete overhaul of how we determine the number of qualifiers per region and how we determine master flyer points – opening another can of worms. Overall, the majority opinion echoed this submission: “I think that we should have a general set of rules for organization of the flys, but yet still allow the local regions the flexibility to conduct their fly in the best possible way for their situation.“ After a period of debate and discussion, Macauley wrote: “Thanks for your participation. A lot of pieces to be considered regarding the fly policy. The other things brought up will most likely be included in future proposals and discussions. The discussion period has passed and we will put this to vote. The vote will be to eliminate the wording regarding Same Day Fly requirement, as well as clarify that a kit not flown is a Did Not Fly, not a DQ, regardless to the reason the kit isn’t able to be released. This proposal doesn’t mean a RD has to schedule everyone’s kits on different days. That is at the discretion of the RD. The voting period will start now. Below is the current wording applicable to this proposal – the wording is in bold that is directly being considered. Below that is the revised shortened wording to be voted on as “Yes“ or “No“. CURRENT 001–04 PARTIAL (ii) multiple kits entered by the same NBRC member and flown from the same location (Individual Membership or Family Membership Plan) will be allotted a maximum time on the regional schedule to be determined by the Regional Director up to, but not to exceed, a total of one hour per kit entered (two hours for two kits flown, three hours for three kits flown, etc.). The allotted time on the schedule for multiple kit entries must be announced by the Regional Director at the time the schedule is released to the region. The Regional Director (or the judge in the absence of the RD) may extend the competitors time, on an as–needed basis during the competition, in the event of delays caused by severe weather conditions or in the event of interference from a bird of prey, but it must be completed on the same day.. Each kit, subsequent to the first, may be released at any time at the discretion of the flier as the kits fly their time, land, and trap in, whenever the judge and scribe have announced that they are ready for the next kit. Kits that fail to land within the suggested one–hour time limit may result in the release of a second kit, at the discretion of the flier, which could result in the two kits joining together at some point. The second kit released will be scored only until such time as the judge determines that any of the birds from the two kits have become intermingled. At that time, the judge will announce the cessation of scoring of the second kit, and the second kit’s score will be tabulated and recorded for the time flown up to the point of co–mingling. All kit releases and scoring will be halted at the end of the allotted time for the number of kits entered by the flier. Any kits that are not released at that time, due to excessive flying time for previous kits, are disqualified. Subsequent kits may also be postponed until later that same day in order to stay on schedule, at the discretion of the Regional Director (or the judge upon the absence of the RD) when time is of the essence. This same policy applies to each successive kit that is flown at the location of multiple entries as may occur in family memberships. PROPOSED REVISION 001–04 PARTIAL (ii) multiple kits entered by the same NBRC member and flown from the same location (Individual Membership or Family Membership Plan) will be allotted a maximum time on the regional schedule to be determined by the Regional Director. such as a total of one hour per kit entered (two hours for two kits flown, three hours for three kits flown, etc.). The allotted time on the schedule for multiple kit entries must be announced by the Regional Director at the time the schedule is released to the region. The Regional Director (or the judge in the absence of the RD) may extend the competitors time, on an as–needed basis during the competition, in the event of unforeseen delays, severe weather conditions, or in the event of interference from a bird of prey. In cases of kits being flown back to back– each kit, subsequent to the first, may be released at any time at the discretion of the flier as the kits fly their time, land, and trap in, whenever the judge and scribe have announced that they are ready for the next kit. Kits that fail to land within the suggested limit may result in the release of a second kit, at the discretion of the flier, which could result in the two kits joining together at some point. The second kit released will be scored only until such time as the judge determines that any of the birds from the two kits have become intermingled to the point of causing the 2nd kit to be not judgable. At that time, the judge will announce the cessation of scoring of the second kit, and the second kit’s score will be tabulated and recorded for the time flown up to that point.
Approved 16-4 .
Acceptance: 1/3/20