The Team Selection Subcommittee has primary responsibility for all matters related to selecting and supporting competitors who represent the USA at international and inter-regional ARDF competitions:
- Creating a fair and equitable ranking system for USA competitors, and publicizing a detailed description of how it operates.
- Extending invitations to potential team members.
- Handling administrative duties related to assembling and organizing a team and facilitating its attendance at championship events.
- Increasing the numbers of participants.
Some examples of questions the subcommittee should ponder:
- What is the fairest way to select the best competitors for Team USA?
- How can we encourage more domestic participation in ARDF?
- How can cost barriers be reduced?
- How can more youth be encouraged to get involved in ARDF and compete in the Youth Championships?
Those and similar considerations are all within the Team Selection Subcommittee’s realm of responsibility. When potential solutions are identified, the subcommittee is empowered to act. Possible subcommittee actions include:
- Direct action by members of the Team Selection Subcommittee itself.
- Submitting recommendations to another subcommittee or to the full ARDF Committee.
- Requesting information from the ARDF community using a poll or email list.
- Posting information to the ARDF community on a web site, email list, or group.
Some concrete examples of possible subcommittee actions include:
- Creating a database of all active ARDF participants nationwide.
- Providing updated competitor rankings following each ARRL-sanctioned ARDF competition.
- Recommending to the Sanctioning Subcommittee a policy change that would promote growth in participant numbers.
- Helping team members submit their entry fees to the World Championships.
First Thing: Team USA 2020
The 20th ARDF World Championships are scheduled for Aug 30 – Sep 5, 2020. Invitations to participate on Team USA need to be extended shortly after the completion of the USA ARDF Championships in 2020.
There’s a lot to be done to assemble a team for the Serbia competition.
Once the immediate concerns of the 2020 games are handled, subcommittee attention can turn to more long-term goals.
New Initiatives
Historically, the two USA championships before a given World Championship were considered when ranking USA competitors. A spreadsheet was used to calculate a figure of merit for each competitor based on standing within his/her age-gender category. Per-transmitter time (pace) was calculated as a potential tie-breaker. Separate calculations for 80m and 2m classic competitions were averaged, unless a competitor didn’t compete on both bands (e.g. injury). Foxoring and sprint were not considered.
- Should sprint and foxoring performance be considered in a separate ranking equation – particularly if national teams are permitted to send “event specialists” to compete for World Championship medals in specific events? Note: check with Region 2 Coordinator to obtain confirmation that “event specialists” are allowed.
- Should 80m and 2m classic performance be considered separately for the same reason?
- Should competitor rankings be publicized so that everyone can know their standing at all times?
- Should a weighting factor be defined based on the difficulty of the qualifying courses? This might allow competitor performance to be fairly compared when they competed on separate (different) courses. This would make it possible to consider competitor performance outside of USA Championships: smaller sanctioned ARRL competitions, or competitions sanctioned by other countries or regions.
A spreadsheet for the historic approach is available. Individual performance data for the 2019 USA ARDF Championships has not yet been entered. That spreadsheet can be used as a baseline for developing an improved system, or it can be reused as-is.
Before it becomes effective, the ranking system that the Team Selection Subcommittee selects must receive a majority of a full ARDF Committee vote. Once approved, a description of how the system operates needs to be published for all to see, on a web site like this one.