Echoing others' thanks to the Rules Committee for their efforts and prompt posting of the results. Very interesting reading. A lot of good thoughts. Reinforces my long-standing belief that the competitive soaring crowd is exceptional in many ways. I don't agree with everything said but, unlike the case with politics in this country, I'm confident this group can move towards compromise solutions to our differences that work for most of us. The trick is communications: i.e., getting the parties involved to discuss their positions and rationales. It's unfortunate that we're spread out all of the U.S. but electronic communication has made it much easier than ever before to exchange thoughts.

We put a lot of pressure on the Rules Committee to digest all of our input and then synthesize a series of solutions each year. Just a thought: would it be an improvement to extend the decision-making process a bit? For example, the Rules Committee meets and deliberates as usual but then presents their findings as a series of up-or-down or pick-one-of-the-following votes to the respondents to determine the final outcome? Just a thought. It seems many times there's an outcry after the new Rules are announced and hard feelings all year from some who feel their wishes have been ignored.

Chip Bearden
JB