That the Canadian Championships "cost too much", and that they are also "too long", is a completely fair point, and was made a number of times in the survey conducted by the DCRA last fall. I make those points to myself every year, and I wish it were shorter and cheaper. Having said that, I enjoy the whole nine days every year, and they finish far too quickly. But it really seems to be an enormous luxury of time and money (in some ways this is a bug, in some ways it is a feature)
We're not going to change the 2009 Canadian Championships, but perhaps in future years we could do things differently?
In this post, I'll try to lay out the considerations involved, and open up the discussion of what we might be able to do better. Please write your thoughts/questions/ideas in the "Comments" section (or you can communicate them privately to me at dmc@danielchisholm.com).
The reason we haven't made the matches shorter and/or cheaper yet, is that we haven't figured out how to do it. But if anyone has the desire to talk about ways that we could make the matches shorter and/or cheaper, we should go ahead and do that. A fair warning though, once you get started at it, it ends up being more difficult than you might think at first.
If you're up to it, we can have a go at trying to figure it out. This will initially take some effort to get to first understand the problem and its constraints, and only then might we be able to make any real progress on it.
By my reckoning, here are some of the factors that should be taken into account while trying to figure out a better format for the matches:
- the number of ordinary work days that need to be taken off
- the total number of days of shooting while in Ottawa
- travel day(s) to and from Ottawa
- how many days for the Grand Agg, and on which days
- Gov. General's match
- when and where do the team matches fit in amongst the Grand/Gov's time period
- the warmup, and "extra" matches (e.g. ISSF) that we have at the beginning
- how our matches satisfy and fit with the cadets shooting needs
- some "near" shooters (e.g. Ontario) who don't attend, suggest that a 3-4 match might be more attendable
- some "far" shooters (Prairies, BC) who do attend, say that if the matches were made shorter, they would not attend, because it would make the very large costs of getting to and from Ottawa no longer worthwhile
- some "far" shooters say that they can't attend the matches as they are because they are too long
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Here's a start from me:
ReplyDeleteAt present, the core matches (Grand Agg, teams matches, Gov. Gen) occupy 6.5 days, spanning from Sunday afternoon to Saturday afternoon. They require than five work days be taken off (Mon-Fri). Assuming one day of travel at either end (either flying or driving), one can travel to the matches on Saturday, shoot Sunday to Saturday, then travel home on Sunday. The base cost for this is ~$650 match fees for the Grand and Gov's, which is $100 per day of shooting. Meals and accommodations are $30/day. Teams shooting is an extra cost. If you don't enter the teams matches, alternate individual shooting is available at the same time (Street, Perry, Hayhurst, etc) for "dirt cheap" prices.
Note that at $100/day our match costs might not be as high as they seem at first glance. If the US F Class Nationals are $180 for three days of individual shooting plus $US20/day for marking, that is $US80/day, which is $CAD 100/day.
We could make the matches cheaper by reducing our costs per day of shooting, and/or reducing the number of days that we shoot.
I can't think of any large per-day cost savings, but am fully open to suggestions.
If we are to shoot for fewer days, what would be the best way to do it? Whatever we end up with, we want it to be a "meaningful and worthwhile" national championship match.
I would disagree that they are "too long".
ReplyDeleteIf I'm coming all the way from Victoria, I would argue that they are "too short" and should be expanded!