This may be an appropriate amount of time for the NCAA shooters, but for the club shooters it is way too short.
I received a reply from Tori that I should encourage any other Sectional hosts, team coaches, or shooters who feels the way I do, to write the committee and state you opinions of how the Intercollegiate Sectionals and Club Nationals timeline should be amended.
I think that this program that the NRA offers is a fantastic program and way to keep these shooters competing after they leave high school.
This year, my "vent" to her was written and received too late to make the committee meeting, but I encourage all who want to comment, to get her your opinions well before the April/May 2013 meeting ... say Feb-Mar time frame. It's too bad the committee feels they can only make decisions one per year, but we gotta go with their schedule.
I am attaching both my email to her from this year ... the one that was too late, and her response.
Tori has always been a good advocate of this program, so please don't flame her. There is a new Comps director, Dennis Willing who seems interested in being more responsive.
After you go thru this email thread, if you agree, please send a note of your own to Tori ... and even if you don't, send your opinion too.
Her contact info is in the emails below ... I've modified to keep spammer robots from picking it up
Thanks -- Joel
==============================================
My original to Tori
===============================================Tori .....
Hoping you will take this request "up the chain".
In the past years the Intercollegiate Sectional schedule has been such that many of our state schools and shooters that attend school from out of state have not been able to fire a sectional (air or smallbore) before they have to return to classes for the Spring semester.
The Winter break timeframe is much more conducive to getting more shooters into this match.
I would formally like to request that the Sectional be allowed to begin firing as early as the weekend of DEC 15,2012 when many schools begin their winter breaks.
In addition if these matches would be able to start earlier, they could possibly end earlier, then invites could be announced earlier. Last year our teams and shooters were only given invites 10 days before the start of the national event. As we are not within driving distance of this match, it would be appreciated if the teams in the West could be notified about 30 days minimum before the national event.
There is a great amount of fundraising to do, as well as a cost savings in being able to procure airline tickets 4 weeks out. The difference between a 4 week ticket (about $4-500) to the Ft Benning area doubles to almost $900 when invites are given out so late and tickets have to be purchased at the last minute. In addition, giving the students 4 weeks to inform their professors and get schoolwork rearranged to go during a week of classes, can make this trip possible for some.
Last year our individuals and teams shot well in the sectional, but really were not given a fair chance to get to the national event due to the timeframe between the invites and the event.
Thanks for the consideration in these topics.
Joel Martin
VC4HSS
'Twas busy w/ Perry so a blip to see if she still worked there
==============================================To: collegiate (at) nrahq (dot)org
Subject: Intercollegiate Sectionals
Don't even know who this is going to anymore with some of the changes.
Anyway .... when is the Intercollegiate Sectional program going to come out so that we know hard dates for running the sectionals .... no info on the website or web based registration for the event. Hope this got set back into Dec as last year entries were sent out way too late for any NM qualifiers to attend. Also need HARD dates by when the invites will be sent out.
Joel Martin
(match director for NM 2011 & 2012)
Tori's response back to me to try and enlist your help:
Hi Joel!
I'm still checking the email for collegiate, I don't get much help, so this account can get backed up. I apologize. I'm not sure what changes you speak of, other than the fact that I have a new boss, Dennis Willing. Mike Krei retired several months ago.
The 2013 Intercollegiate Sectional dates are January 12 - February 17. I hope to have the program on-line by the end of the week, but it might be the beginning of next week. The championship information is up, with the programs forthcoming.
The Collegiate Programs Committee discussed your request made in 2011, at the June 18, 2011 meeting (to back up the Collegiate Sectionals into December) and decided not to change the dates for 2012. I did receive your e-mail dated July 14, 2012, but the Collegiate Programs Committee had already met for 2012 (the meeting was April 21, 2012), so I placed it in my folder to be discussed at the next meeting which is slated for April/May 2013.
I understand your position, and I understand the importance of allowing more time between the official invitations and the nationals. I hope to be able to alleviate some of that pressure in 2014. I will submit your e-mail to the committee next year, and that should be due time to make any necessary, or potential, changes for 2014. In the meantime, if there are other coaches/sponsors that feel the same way you do, encourage them to write to the committee. The more support you have for your cause, the better. Of course, student shooters can write in as well. They are their own best advocates.
I will do what I can to get the invites out as soon as possible in 2013. (I hope to have more help in 2013.) It won't be 4 weeks due to the championship calendar, but it may very well be 3 solid weeks if we get all of the scorecards in and processed on time. I plan to strictly enforce the cut-off date for submissions.
We'll see what we can make happen for 2014. In the meantime, I will push to the limits of human possibility to get the qualifications for 2013 out as soon as possible.
Here are the 2013 dates:
Sectionals: Jan 12 - Feb 17
Sectional scores due: Feb 20
All Americans due: Feb 20
NCAA Rifle: Mar 8-10
NRA Pistol: Mar 10-15
NRA Rifle Club: Mar 15-17 (we went back to the preferred wknd format)
ACUI Clay Target: Mar 26-Apr 1
--Tori
Victoria "Tori" Croft
National Manager,
NRA Collegiate & Schools Program
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA. 22030
ph: 703.267.1473
fx: 703.267.3941
collegiate (at) nrahq (dot)org