News From the Annual Meeting

Bob Baumel Writes About the Measurement Contest:

I may not have time to send meeting highlights until around the end of the week. But I'm sending the contest results now (and I'll let you post them because what I'm sending is an Excel spreadsheet). Unfortunately, the calibration course length was stated in obsolete units (Ed note: corrected here), so most people submitted answers in those units. Floyd Ormsby, who got the closest measurement, wasn't present at the meeting, so didn't receive any award. Ron Pate presented prizes, consisting of shell necklaces and Honolulu Marathon t-shirts, to the 2nd through 5th place finishers. Irene Herman also received a prize for finishing last.



Ed note: Marcia Baumel won the inaugural measurement contest, also held in Honolulu, in 1987, with Bob second.

Bob's wife was delayed in transit by weather problems, or might have defended her Hawaii title.

Also, Floyd Ormsby was in attendance at the meeting, and did collect his prize, a puka shell lei, courtesy of Ron Pate and the Honolulu Marathon.

Got home today and I feel we had some good ideas that I will postsome for all of you to comment.

Neville was praised for his work with keeping the records current by Andy Carr. Bill Roe(President of the USATF) and Fred Finke(LDR Division Chair) are happy with the direction the RRTC has taken.

Stu Riegel, Jim Gerweck, David Katz, Justin Kuo and I represented the council and I hope next year we have more of you at the convention.

A special thanks for Ron Pate, Justin Kuo, Justin's daugther and Ron Pate for setting up the measureemnet contest. Both Bob and I didn't do a great job and were beaten by my wife, but at least we were not last.

Finally I will post some ideas presented for comments!

Gene
Can you tell us where the Convention will be in '08?

Tom,
The '08 Convention will be in Reno NV at the Silver Legacy Resort. For a list where it will be in other years, see http://www.usatf.org/about/AnnualMeeting/

Thanks Bob
It sounds like one of those places where all you have to do is bring money.

The first RRTC measurement-by-pacing contest was held twenty years ago, at the USATF (then TAC) Annual Meeting, also held in Honolulu. It was the longest one we have ever had, and counting steps was a real chore.

The scenery was fun, though. I remember seeing a tall, very tan, man striding along lost in his own world, clad only in a leopard-skin jockstrap. And, of course, the palm trees.

Below is an account of the contest taken from Measurement News, Issue #27, January 1988.

quote:

Originally posted by Pete Riegel:

The scenery was fun, though. I remember seeing a tall, very tan, man striding along lost in his own world, clad only in a leopard-skin jockstrap.

How'd you know what I was wearing?

Behind the scenes at the USATF Annual Meeting, here's our Chairman, ever devoted to duty, taking time out to interview a potential entrant to the measurement contest

Unfortunately we had to disqualify her since the "Calibrated Coconut" method has yet to gain RRTC approval.

This year's course would have been ideal for Norm Brand's "Eye in the Sky" method, assuming his room was on the correct side of the Sheraton.

POSTCARD FROM STU

While Dear Old Mom and Dad were stuck in midwestern snow, the Prodigal Son was hard at work promoting the goals of RRTC, five time zones from home. What a sacrifice! Received this sensitive gesture from him today. Note the curious positions of his thumbs and pinkies. I’m told this is a common Hawaiian gesture signifying something.

Looks like Stu needs to take a lesson from Gene in selection of photograph companions.

Naturally the big kahuna gets the hot babe, and I've got bird poop on my back.

Jim Gerweck wrote:

quote:

This year's course would have been ideal for Norm Brand's "Eye in the Sky" method

In fact, I attempted the ultimate 'eye in the sky' method--Google Earth--but abandoned it after noticing that some key points were obscured in the visible imagery. Here is a screen capture from Google Earth of the contest course behind the Sheraton Waikiki:



Note that trees obscure the turns in the pool area, but more importantly, the hairpin turn defining the west edge of the course is obscured by the hotel roof (this happens because the photo in Google Earth wasn't shot from directly overhead, but from a point somewhat northward of straight overhead).

In the above screen capture, I've tweaked the points so as to obtain the exact "true" distance of 141.38 m. But when I tried it in Google Earth the first time, I got slightly over 137 m (about the same as Gene got by pacing). I abandoned that answer when I realized that the hairpin turn was obscured, so I went out and paced the course (in the rain) and turned in an answer that was slightly worse on the high side than Gene's was on the low side (and, of course, Carole's answer was better than both Gene's and mine).

Stu - as a former bird owner, I can vouch that bird poop is good for maintaining hair. At least it was for me.

Wish I could have been there.

While I don't have the minutes ready yet, I have collected the Officers' Annual Reports and posted them at http://www.rrtc.net/annual_meeting_reports_2007.pdf for your reading enjoyment. We still don't have a report from the Vice Chairman East. Whenever I receive that report, I will add it to this posted document.

Meanwhile, I am happy to report that the Certified Course Search Engine has been enhanced to make it easier to see courses' Drop and Separation. See the final paragraph of my report on the last page of the above posted document.