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Further discussion on expired courses.

Dear measurement forum-please weigh in:
It has been my effort, and my aim to slowly but surely certify most local courses of significance locally--I amazingly, though I have volunteered this effort, have met resistance from some key board members over the years locally, The argument most recently put forth is "show me survey results that show that people even know what a certified course is, or that a course that accurate even matters to most people"--I forwarded him the survey that Duane Russell posted from his website regarding this issue and let him know that I was not sure how random a survey of only 250 from a website from runmeasure.com would be. I will include it my next post race surveys in the future though.

At the same time, I have reminded him the past 2-3 yrs that one of his events has expired, that all he needed to do was fill out the renewal form since nothing has changed and...done for 10 more yrs. He hasn't done so and consequently, has advertised quite boldly a certified course that has been expired for 2-3 yrs. With that aspect being phased out as of the end of this year he will have to remeasure. I think truly he lost the certificate or map of the course.

I was particularly proud of a course I just measured in Immokalee for a new race. It was the 1st time I actually charged them and I must say, I was as professional as I have ever been. I worked together with the contact from the charity. She followed me in her vehicle and knows the course intimately now and loves it. I gave her all kinds of marketing ideas, saved her a butt load with contacts for shirts and got her to think deeply about the message she was trying to convey from her event and how to achieve it creatively. I also got her some terrific ideas for sponsorship that she is implementing. In short, I more than made up for my fee that she invested in the measurement 10X over.

Before I left, this same board member said "why do they need to certify that course?" My argument was simple. Why would you ever want to discourage someone from advertising the correct distance for an event? Why not get the time AND the distance right for every course--it's all we have got!

I followed that logic later with a discussion for the board to have all of our courses certified. "I believe if you advertise a distance, that is what the race should be PERIOD. If our club stands for excellence and professionalism why would we EVER not want people to trust that the distance is correct-"

Though this course that has expired is still the correct distance--this is a touchy issue with sensitive egos. What are the issues? Should I just go re-certify it, put it on their counter and say you are welcome? I did let them know that they are advertising a record would stand when it will not now. They do not realize however that in a few months they will have to re cert. no matter what. Should I walk away from this completely and let them keep advertising the expired course as legit and keep my mouth shut? I really wouldn't want a record to get set and then have our club's name sullied.
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