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Old April 18th 17, 03:35 PM posted to rec.aviation.soaring
Sean Fidler
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Default Improved live tracking for the SSA membership?

The SSA already requires its sanctioned contest organizers do several things in order to be sanctioned. Thing such as writing a pilots kit, securing a CD, submitting a budget, buying Costello event insurance, following SSA rules and guidelines, etc. Trust me, this is not a very high bar for an organizer to get over.

These SSA standards are similar to FAI events standards. The FAI also requires certain standards to be met. Same for FAI SGP.

So the quality of the event is generally governed by the organizing authority.

Moving forward, SSA contest organizers should be required to take the two (measly) minutes each day to enter the tasks into Glideport.aero per some new SSA contest guideline/requirement. Or required them to simply use the integration to push the task out of winscore. Or the SSA should designate someone enter tasks for all contests remotely (organizer is required to send that person an email each day with the task). SOMETHING! ANYTHING! It's simply not being done. It needs to be done consistently. Otherwise all the effort in developing Glideport.aero is a complete waste. This requirement would be a wonderful improvement for an SSA organization which (thru its apathetic attitude towards technology) has created (for itself) a sport with an average (and increasing steadily) age of the upper sixties (per almost zero focus on youth for decades now) and is therefore so obscure to outsiders that it's "sport" (are all TATs even a sport or is it more of a pastime, like golf?) is almost impossible to follow, even for people who know exactly what they are looking for, even in today's modern world (well, that is to say modern outside the SSA)...

If the idea of requiring the SSAs tracking investment (Glideport.aero) to be used (properly) by contest organizers hilarious to you, I'm not sure what to say. For me, what is hilarious (and sad) is how ridiculously low the contest organizer bar is being allowed to be. What's hilarious and sad is how poorly the SSA represents itself outside of the the SSA insiders club.

The SSA, IN SO MANY WAYS, needs to raise itself off the floor and to have some respect for itself and it's brand (outside of the good old boy network that controls it).

The first step in improving Glideport.aero tracking for SSA contests is to REQUIRE contest organizers enter the tasks into Glideport.aero. The second is that pilots ensure that their trackers are operating properly. The third is for the general group to actually give a **** and stop walking around in three day old clothes (so to speak).

Clean yourself up SSA! Have some respect for yourself. Care enough to ask the organizers to use your own tracking investment.