I am a 30+ year SSA member and have never raced in competition. Time and family. Helped dad at one National in Elmira and several Regionals in the early years. He got out because of time and money. I helped Sean at one R6 competition. I did not measure anything there. I was just glad to help my soaring comrades run a competition.

Now looking at this from a broader perspective, it looks like this is not just a "Rule A or B" argument. Sean's arguments are going way beyond that. Having been slapped down by the Region Director, it sounds like that really hurt.

It sounds to me Sean like you need to go to the SSA member base, convince them of your arguments and get your POV into the SSA governing structure that way. That is of course if you still believe in the SSA as being the best organization to change this through. From what I understand it is the Region members that vote their Region Directors into office.

Most SSA members do not read the RAC I believe. It is going to take much more then needling people in this thread to get your POV across.

And your arguments really need to be positive. Look at it from a plain SSA member perspective and answer their questions "What's in it for me?" and "Why should I...?" If you cannot do that, it will be very, very difficult to convince most people.