Barbara,
As you know, when the guidelines were established years back regarding the
special sanctioning of multiday rides and the need to schedule a number of
weeks apart, there was no way near the number of multidays that we have now.
The problem now is that there is no way you can schedule multiday rides
during the sometimes narrow "window of time" that is best for each ride
without putting them "on top of each other." The problem has been further
compounded by the fact that 3 day rides (which also received pioneer points)
did not have to go through special sanctioning which meant that there was no
coordination between the scheduling of the new 3 day rides and the
established multiday rides. This has been a complaint of the managers of
the multiday rides because new 3 day rides were scheduled by the regional
director right on top of the older, established multiday rides.
The rules require that any ride of more than 3 days or 155 miles has to be
special sanctioned. One of the major problems is that as it was, all three
day 150 mile rides were eligible for pioneer points, even though they were
not special sanctioned. Motion 4 was a motion that would require any ride
more than 2 days to be special sanctioned. This would have been a serious
problem because there are just not enough weeks during the desirable times
to schedule all the multiday rides without putting them on top of each
other.
The board passed a motion that would help remedy this situation. Rather
than require that all three day rides be special sanctioned, the board
adopted the policy that only 3 day rides that wanted to be eligible for
pioneer points needed to be special sanctioned. Ride managers who want
their 3 day ride to receive pioneer points will need to add 5 miles to one
of the days, making it at least 155 miles, and will need to have that ride
special sanctioned as required by the rules. This was a compromise of the
Motion 4 since now ride managers who do not want to bother with the special
sanctioning requirements (180 days leadtime, and coordinated scheduling with
the special sanctioning director) will still submit their sanction request
to their regional director, and the regional director is in no way obligated
to coordinate the date with any special sanctioned ride outside of their
region. This is not a rule change, but a policy change which gives the ride
managers the choice of having to obtain special sanctioning, depending on
whether they want their ride to be pioneer point eligible by adding 5 miles
to one of the days.
It will be interesting to see how important pioneer points are to the riders
and whether they will travel distances to attend the pioneer point rides or
will be just as interested in attending a nearby 3 day ride that is only 150
miles. It may be also, that ride managers will be pressured by their riders
to add the 5 miles so that they can obtain pioneer points.
Terry Woolley Howe
Pacific Southwest Regional Director
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