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Old August 18th 17, 08:17 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
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Default Standards for competition reporting

This is just a suggestion (and I speak for myself here) but it seems to me it should be the job of a contest manager (not the CD) to report (or delegate this function to someone else) on the contest. The exception to the rule of course, is the CD and Scorer are responsible for uploading daily results to the SSA website.

We now know that very few SSA members visit the website on a regular basis. Of those who do visit, most are individuals who race who are checking on results, etc. Moreover, the SSA's website does not lend itself well to hosting digital media.

I have had several conversations with organizers, and other volunteers who've helped with reporting from contests in the past and its clear to me that FB is the most efficient way of posting information, videos, and photographs about a contest in real-time. Having said that, some members choose not to participate/use FB. Unfortunately, unless the SSA paid staff to regularly update a blog there's no easy way to do any form of qualitative reporting and/or publish any human interest pieces coming out of the contests than to have pre-approved volunteers post to a Public FB pages (and possibly corresponding YouTube Channels) that are created and hosted by the Contest Manager of the respective contests. Moreover, this gives the SSA and a panel of digital media editors (i.e., volunteers) the ability to repost selected pieces (including videos, interviews, photographs, etc) to its network of subscribers.

Lastly, the "information page" of every sanctioned contest should provide readers a link to that contest's respective Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube Channels. Likewise, such channels should remain property of the SSA and the content should fall under the SSA's policies on uploading media, etc.

While much of what I'm suggesting may cause heated debate among some SSA members these are pragmatic solutions, and even with imperfect execution will likely lead to greater promotion of the sport.

Respectfully,

Chris Schrader
SSA Director Region 6
Chairperson of the SSA's Growth & Retention Committee

P.S. If this gets read by Competition Committee members, please feel free to contact me about this. These topics need to be addressed going forward and a plan executed by 2018 which insures greater reporting of such events.