GADPA Discontinues IDPA Affiliation

[rob_s]

Please refer back to the post I made in reference to knowing the GADPA players and the games they play. IDPA is not the only culprit in this drama.

I don't know the GADPA people from Adam and I could have told you that. This is well-timed shenanigans because:butt-hurt over their match reclassification, timed to take advantage of (intentionally or accidentally, I suspect the latter) all of the general dissatisfaction over the rules.

I blame the internet for 99% of this garbage. When people just came out and shot, and saw each other once a month at the local and two or three times a year at sanctioned, matches things went much smoother and with far less drama. Look at all the garbage spewed about the CZ debacle prior to Nationals. Even just 10 years ago that would have been a complete non-issue.

When I started shooting with my local IDPA club we saw each other at the matches, and select few exchanged emails and phone calls away from the range. Some people made strong friendships on the range that extended off the range to include other social interactions, and extending to their families, etc. We never encountered such drama as we did when they opened up the discussion forum online. The damage from the personal problems took YEARS to overcome, and some people still bear animosity towards one another over it. The causes ranged from all kinds of things, such as cops and cop-haters that had shot together without issue, but who now found themselves at odds over things posted online. We had issues with people being given a public venue to spout off about their perceived slights such as a procedural they didn't think they deserved, and the entire club splitting into factions over something so trivial. We had problems where one shooter complained that scores took too long to post, rallied a bunch of people to his cause, and ousted a very long-standing and contributory member of the club.

people take this shit too seriously. I would say they need to get a hobby, except that this is supposed to BE a hobby. Maybe they need a job?

I don't see why any of this is really news, now that I think about it, unless you're a member at GADPA or shoot their (previously) sanctioned matches. For anyone else it's a non-issue. Unless, of course, your hobby is the internet and arguments therein.

[JHC]

people take this shit too seriously. I would say they need to get a hobby, except that this is supposed to BE a hobby. Maybe they need a job?

ROFL that is great. Same thing is the most pedestrian of civic organizations. Must be some part of human nature too.

[Peally]

people take this shit too seriously. I would say they need to get a hobby, except that this is supposed to BE a hobby. Maybe they need a job?

Going to have to agree here. USPSA and IDPA both have their issues but the drama is at comical levels. Maybe I'm being naive here but they've both always just been games with different sets rules to me. Ones you can dump a lot of time and money into to become perfect, but at the end of the day still games.

[cclaxton]

people take this shit too seriously. I would say they need to get a hobby, except that this is supposed to BE a hobby.

Absolutely! Well said.
Cody

[Glenn E. Meyer]

That's the truth about local group psychology. We had two IDPA venues. One is still run as a business in cooperation with the range. Runs quite well. The other was a combined IDPA and USPSA club. It fell apart due to internal silliness. The first venue took up the slack. The match runner said he decided on the business model just to avoid the club DB fun fest.

Every organizations becomes factions in a bit of time.

[Mr_White]

I don't think it's at all unfair to say that the internet helps fan the flames of controversy, real and imagined. I also haven't experienced competition shooting prior to the current internet situation, so maybe I don't have good perspective on this.

It seems like the flipside to that coin is slimy or incompetent officials being able to sweep things under the rug and dodge responsibility for all kinds of wrongness that few people end up knowing about. Maybe it wasn't always hunky dory before the internet, now we just know about it?

I dunno.

[rob_s]

I don't think it's at all unfair to say that the internet helps fan the flames of controversy, real and imagined. I also haven't experienced competition shooting prior to the current internet situation, so maybe I don't have good perspective on this.

It seems like the flipside to that coin is slimy or incompetent officials being able to sweep things under the rug and dodge responsibility for all kinds of wrongness that few people end up knowing about. Maybe it wasn't always hunky dory before the internet, now we just know about it?

I dunno.

If you don't know about the "wrongness", does it matter?

I'll give you another local example, also something that turned ugly online...

One of the members of the club started asking questions about where the money was going. Then he started insinuating that it was going into the pockets of the BOD. then, because of the forum and other battle lines that had been drawn thereon, other people started jumping in.

From the get go, my reply was "who cares"? Our club puts on three monthly Saturday matches now plus two Tuesday night events. They are there early, set up, sign people in, run the show, tear down... and many make a 45+ minute drive each way to do that. So frankly, I hope they are getting rich doing it! The stages are engaging, the props are kept in good order, we get raffle prizes from time to time, etc. So why on earth would I give one little crap about whether someone on the BOD is skimming $10 from the $100 they take in? As far as I'm concerned, I'm getting fantastic value for my dues and match fees, and that's all I care about. That and the fact that I don't have to do any of that BOD admin crap!

FWIW, I later WAS on the BOD and know for a fact that no skimming was going on, but it just never mattered to me.

Now, if you're talking about some kind of cheating issue, then sure. But I've only ever been tangentially involved in anything like that, and we could have resolved our issues (and ultimately did) without the club membership at large knowing about it and without the forum.

I would submit that "just knowing about it" isn't really a better system, and is likely worse in the vast majority of cases. Ever go read the feedback forum on barfcom? Every dumbass and their mother with nothing better to do starts weighing in on stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with them.

it's, again, a lot like this thread. In terms of day-to-day or week-to-week or millenium-to-millenium is anyone here actually affected by what GADPA does?

[tootalltrucker]

I am not on the GADPA board but have been involved enough to know just just how hard they and some of the GADPA "regulars" work to set up and run their matches. I am not as familiar with IDPA management other than the comments I see on the internet.

Based on my experience to date and comments I heard prior to the recent match I would strongly speculate:

1. It was not any one issue that led to this. There was just a culmination of things that led to GADPA's decision. As mentioned elsewhere, GADPA is not the first to make this move.
2. When you spend countless hours working on this stuff you eventually get to the point where you question if the administrative burden of dealing with IDPA is worth the benefit. I think GADPA decided the benefit was not worth the aggravation.
3. One thing in particular I am pretty sure was a factor was having to deal with IDPA every time someone wanted to nitpick over whether a stage design was legal or not. GADPA will now have more freedom in stage design and I trust they will adhere to their promise to discourage designs that might lead to bad habits when I shoot sanctioned IDPA events. I look forward to seeing what the changes are. So long as it is safe and is consistent for every shooter then I am fine with changes.
4. I respect the hard work that a core of GADPA people do week in and week out and respect their freedom to decide what they want to do.

I am not knocking IDPA or GADPA. Neither is a member run organization and are therefore free to do as they please, as we all are. While it is just my opinion, I just don't think anyone should feel that there was just one or two items that led to this decision.

[PPGMD]

It seems like the flipside to that coin is slimy or incompetent officials being able to sweep things under the rug and dodge responsibility for all kinds of wrongness that few people end up knowing about. Maybe it wasn't always hunky dory before the internet, now we just know about it?

Exactly, if it weren't for the internet PVH would still likely be ROing major matches.

[Mr_White]

If you don't know about the "wrongness", does it matter?

...

So why on earth would I give one little crap about whether someone on the BOD is skimming $10 from the $100 they take in?

And I thought I had a cynical attitude, lol!