Mike Meier <<email>> writes:

The USHGA did for a time (between 1983 and 1987 if memory serves) implement rules under which the National Champion title was supposed to be determined and awarded based on a pilot's point total over a series of meets. (My memory is that it was best three meets over the one year period between subsequent "Nationals" meets, but I'm not 100% sure on that.) The background behind the proposal for that rule was that at that time, the competition scene was largely centered in Southern California, but there was a desire to move the Nationals around to different parts of the country. This often resulted in "Nationals" meets that were held in less than ideal weather conditions, and in situations where those meets were seen as less than optimally valid. Choosing the champion based on a series of meets was seen to be a solution to this problem, which, I guess, is sort of the same thinking that is going on now.

The rule was, I think, less than completely successful, in part because it was hard to change people's thinking about what the Nationals competition signified. Instead of having one "National Champion" - chosen on accumulated points, and in addition, having winners in various classes of the "Nationals" competition, as the rules provided for, we ended up with multiple National champions - where each Nationals meet winner was considered a National Champion and the actual National Champion chosen on accumulated points was given the somewhat devalued label (in my opinion at the time, at any rate) of "National Points Champion."

This was, it seemed to me, nothing other than an artifact of the reality that decisions made within the committee meetings of the USHGA were often not optimally or completely communicated to, or translated into action within, the hang gliding community at large. Since the intent was to make the National Champion title more meaningful, and the result was that it became (again, in my opinion at the time) less meaningful, it was somewhat unfortunate. In any event, the system was eventually abandoned, and we went back to choosing the "National Champion" as the winner of the Nationals.

Just some historical background, not intended as an argument or advice on where to go from here. There aren't very many of us old guys left that remember any of this stuff.