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AERC Sanctioning is much like Restaurant Franchising.
Restaurants and Endurance Rides have something in common , growth (expansion) is
the lifeblood of both.. Using Pizza Hut as an example - The more
Pizza Huts that are built in an area the greater the customer count and
resulting economic growth...however, one of the culprits of this industry is
called "cannibalism" - this occurs when a 2nd and/or 3rd Pizza
Hut is built too close to another one and "cannibalizes" the
customer count from the first one. Instead of doubling or tripling
customer count (income), one or both of the Pizza Huts suffers from a decreased
customer count. Instead of two very successful restaurants, you end up
with one that becomes an economic drain and quite often they both
suffer. The successful restaurant chains are very careful not to locate
too many units in the same market area.
The same thing happens if ride dates are not coordinated.
AERC recognized decades ago that ride dates had to be coordinated...that is why
we have REGIONAL SANCTIONING DIRECTORS. AERC also realized in 1990 that
the Multi Day Rides had to have one central coordinating director and the
Special Events Chair was approved by the BOD in 1990 with certain guidelines to
coordinate the Multi Day Rides - just as the RSD have certain guidelines to
coordinate the regional rides. The current discussion on this
Motion has come up because when the BOD added 3 Day Rides to the Multi Day
Category in 1996, it did not include their coordination with all other Multi Day
Rides....it was an unintentional over sight. In 1996 there were
only five 3 Day Rides (and at least one was Special
Sanction - Cow Tanks).
When the BOD added 3 Day Rides to the Multi Day Status, there was not
a coordination problem, in fact their coordination wasn't even discussed at that
meeting. The 1996 BOD was shortsighted in not realizing there
could be a problem because no one realized how popular Multi Day Rides would
become. It is important to remember that the only
reason 3 Day Rides were added to the PIONEER CATEGORY was to keep the
PIONEER AWARD from being voted out of existence by the BOD.
Those who were around back then will remember that we went thru two full years
when the PIONEER POINTS were not printed in the Endurance News and even worse,
the points were not included in the computer system..the office had
to manually calculate the points. This was because many
of the Directors from the eastern regions of AERC were opposed to
the PIONEER category because it was exclusively a "western region" event -
there was actually a motion in front of the BOD to eliminate the category
completely and due to an error, it was never enacted. There were no
Multi Day Rides in the east because it was almost physically
impossible to come up with 5 days of trails. By adding 3 Day Rides the
eastern regions at least had the opportunity to participate in the PIONEER
Category and PIONEER RIDES were saved from elimination as an AERC
category.
Most members may not remember how severe this became, but originally the
Top 10 in each division were recognized in the PIONEER Category
at year end. Their was a motion made (in 1994, I think) to only
recognize the First Place Winner in each category at years end - and then
someone made a motion to eliminate the award entirely...I
made the motion to recognize the Top 3 and that motion was
approved. Also, the motion to add 3 Day Rides to the PIONEER AWARDS status
was made by me as Chair of the Ride Managers Committee at the 1996 BOD meeting
in an effort to protect the status of PIONEER RIDES as a valid interest of the
membership.
Also, there is not a rule that states Special Sanction Events MUST be 2
weeks apart - it is merely a guideline just like Regional Sanctioning Directors
have a guideline that says Regional Rides should try to be 300 miles
apart. Also, I think Mike Maul is correct that existing rides have
nothing to worry about. All this motion does is correct an oversight from
many years ago.
Randy Eiland
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