On Jan 24, 11:04*am, "Karl Striedieck" wrote:

One item that has been incorporated into nationals this year (regionals last
year) is the "start anywhere" rule change favored by a majority on the pilot
poll. In an effort to simplify it "anywhere" has been defined as the front
half of the cylinder. Still, this adds a new (and interesting) dimension to
the task which some may find unwelcome.

My understading of the rules process is that before a rule is
implemented at Nationals it is first tried out at Regionals for a
year. The start anywhere rule was tried in 2008 at Regionals, but the
rule that was evaluated is not the rule that is proposed to be applied
at Regionals and Nationals for 2009.

My understanding is that the start anywhwere rule that was evaluated
at Regionals was modified, not to simplify it (which it certainly does
not), but to discourage starts from the back, even though there
appears to be no evidence from 2008 Regionals that there is a
problem.

If the rule is to be changed from the one that was evaluated doesn't
the rules process require a further year of evaluation at Regional
level before it is applied at Nationals?


Andy