SOs should be awarded more points for shoots !!

**Fred24** · 03-07-2009, 09:43

We all know there is a shortage of SOs at club and league level. However the current points system does not make it worth your while if you want to be an SO and not shoot as well !!

Why would anyone want to get up in the wee hours of a sat morning to set up a shoot, run the shooters through for 8 hours, break down the range - to be awarded a whole ONE point !!

An SO who runs stages at any shoot, but does not shoot, should be rewarded with half the points a shooter would earn.

Shooting is an expensive and time-consuming sport, those willing to give up their time and money to be officials for the sport should be rewarded accordingly.

Thoughts KUMBA, Glock Gremlin etc ??

**BoerBok** · 03-07-2009, 10:42

I tend to agree. There are a few guys willing to take all the hassle and moaning that goes with being an SO, and extra points would be welcome.

**KK20** · 03-07-2009, 10:48

there are strong arguments for and against that.

to be dedicated sportsman doesnt mean just the actual shooting its the time and effort one puts in.

then on the other hand does one get extra points to do labourers work ie set up break down etc

**Fred24** · 03-07-2009, 11:09

I don't believe any shooter or SO should be "labouring". Almost every range I know of has some sort of "workforce" who clean, maintain the range etc.

Aren't our club fees paying their salaries? If not, a percentage of the shoot fees should be used for casual labourers to do this work.

**KK20** · 03-07-2009, 11:12

if a labour force is in place then i believe that the SO should get as we get now

**Geoff Carter** · 03-07-2009, 11:24

Guys, I'll be the first to admit that an SO's job is a thankless one but.... we did volunteer to do the duties ;)

Fred24 you make a good point of earning more points per shoot but that will not solve the problem of the work load. My personal solution has been to make sure that ALL shooters are on the range early and that they set up the CoF's, this way the workload is spread amongst the people who are there to enjoy the sport. If anyone doesn't want to do his/her fair share then, at FBGC, you get no score which = 0 points for the match.

**Fred24** · 03-07-2009, 11:41

Hi Geoff - it's pretty easy to get tough with a small club. In Gauteng if some lazy SOB gets "caught out" for being lazy, they will just move to another club.

The fact is - given the cost of ammo and fuel, many of us can only afford to shoot AND SO a few times a year. If we got more points for just being an SO it could be an incentive to be on the range more often.

I don't hear anything from the people who make the "executive" decisions ??

**Geoff Carter** · 03-07-2009, 22:37

Bud FBGC has got 67 SADPA shooters and most of them rock for a match, JHB clubs must be enormous if we're small confused0068

**camouflage762** · 04-07-2009, 07:58

Originally Posted by Fred24

We all know there is a shortage of SOs at club and league level. However the current points system does not make it worth your while if you want to be an SO and not shoot as well !!

Why would anyone want to get up in the wee hours of a sat morning to set up a shoot, run the shooters through for 8 hours, break down the range - to be awarded a whole ONE point !!

An SO who runs stages at any shoot, but does not shoot, should be rewarded with half the points a shooter would earn.

Shooting is an expensive and time-consuming sport, those willing to give up their time and money to be officials for the sport should be rewarded accordingly.

Thoughts KUMBA, Glock Gremlin etc ??

Totally agree.
It is usually the same people doing the work.
Either award them points or free membership.
Alternatively every one has to qualify as an RO/SO & take turns in running a range.

**deonh** · 04-07-2009, 08:35

Interesting thoughts.  On the one hand no-one forced you to participate in IDPA, no-one forced you to cough the bucks, do the course, write the exam and become an SO and no-one forces you to SO at matches.  One the other hand, if you didn't and you don't, there'd be no matches, SADPA or IDPA!  To be frank, a match can run without shooters but it can't run without SOs (who are themselves shooters if you know what I'm getting at)!

I dunno how it works at other clubs but at KSC (we're still (thankfully!) quite few in numbers) the SOs shoot (should they choose and get the time to shoot) for free (i.e. no match fee) and they do get that extra one point whether they shoot or not.  IMO this should serve as sufficient reward and incentive to voluntarily SO.  At KSC we have a large enough pool of SOs (made up of experienced shooters and appointed SOs) to dip into, to run at least a 3-4 CoF club match on a monthly basis.  But we also work on a simple enough principle:  if no-one volunteers to SO at a match = then there's no match.  It seems to be working quite well thus far and to date we have never had a shortage of volunteer SOs.  In fact at the last match we had too many volunteer SOs!!!!

The other incentive to becoming and SO (and SOing on a regular basis) is that it does serve you in good stead when it comes to license motivation time!  That lil' SO appointment certificate and your regular and lengthy record of SO duty does serve to prove that magic word that leads to more than two handguns... dedication!  If you look at all of the afore-mentioned, I feel that there're more then a few incentives to becoming an SO and SOing regularly at matches, not to mention just doing it for the love of shooting and the shooting sports!  hpy180

What's next?  Extra points for scoring? confused0068