Just my view, but the open squad system was the weak point of the match. But, how are you going to know if something could work if you don't try it out? Y'all did a great job with this match's organization.
I agree with this...
actually I have to be honest and say that in my experience the open squadding (and the card system for shooter tracking) was fine, except on bay/stage 2.
Bay two while I was there suffered from a almost perfect storm like combo of the following that resulted in it being a real nightmare.
- long, vision blocked and slightly complex stage design, necessitating a walk-through
- a narrow "backstage" causing everyone to be piled in on each other, resulting confusion
- a single range official (RO) who by his own admittance was overly-cautious (not faulting this btw) and apparently without an assigned score keeper for most of the match, and therefore unable to have an eye kept on the cards of incoming shooters resulting in havoc on the shooting order.
- a stage prop with a high failure rate, and from my observation a finicky reset
while I was waiting my turn, there were shooters who'd been waiting to shoot the stage for 45 mins or more (one guy said he'd been waiting an hour and was getting hot about it) and I know I was there close to 45 mins myself.
This was
the one stage that absolutely needed a 2nd staffer at all times. one person to RO and one for scoring as well as crowd control and for lack of a better term, "Mini-squadding" ie setting up groups/blocks of shooters to walk-through and shoot. too many people were walking up and dropping their cards on top of the pile instead of adding them to the bottom. the backups that caused, along with the swinger issues, which newly arrived shooters could NOT see and therefore understand the holdup, resulted in much frustration. when I arrived there was an RO and a score-keeper, then the score keeper wandered off to finish his match and there was no one to really take his place.
anyway, I think that for future events that overall traditional squads may help. But more helpful might be to make sure any future stages similar to that found on bay 2 , ie narrow, complex, and/or slow(er) to reset and/or brief, should be staffed with at least 2
dedicated officials that do not roam the range, at least an RO and a score keeper, if not RO, score keeper, and a "Traffic cop" to handle incoming shooters.
But then again this was my only gripe about the match, every other problem I had was with ME and my lack of practice.
Great match, please hold it again. hopefully multiple times in the next year!
