Another rule change for pack

[Dscross]

It has become almost expected now that my sons pack will somehow mess up pinewood derby. This year they issues a new set of rules, which some of you may have seen, by Great lakes feild service council. Last week the pack held the derby, then friday, and a week before district race we all get an email.

Wrong rules... yup they somehow gave everyone the wrong rules. Now the "correct" rules are very differant, and all the scouts that qualified for district must rebuild their cars. Instead of bent axles, three wheels touching, and clear directions... Four flat, no sanding, no bending, and no dimensions given.

Now this has become all to frequent, with parents getting incorrect information. Everyone getting late changes to schedules. Anyway, I'm mostly bemused, but there are several parents who are very upset by this.

Now I'm wondering if this is just something that happens? Anyone else gotten a change a week before an event that requires them to completly change plans, rebuild cars, or rail gutter boats, etc?

 

[Pinewood Outlaw]

I be telling them your Pack and others won't be racing! We post rules about 2 months prior to our District race....for them to wait until a week before to re post is unacceptable. At least they should honor the previously posted rules simce it is their snafu not your pack

 

[DuckOfAllTrades]

Definitely should honor the first rules given! Implement the second set next year. I'm sure a lot of scouts have put a lot of time and thought in building and tuning there cars and are all ready to roll. Hate to hear this happened! They have to understand that anyone wanting to be competitive will have to start back at square one on a build with the new rules in mind.

 

[Jimmy & his 2 Kids]

Agreed with what the guys said... your Pack needs to present a unified front to them. If I am told to change a car the week prior we are not racing and those in charge are receiving a very “informative and colorful” letter as to why and also a phone call requesting (notice I didn’t say demanding, tryin to keep blood pressure down) an explanation as to why they think it is acceptable to do that to these scouts who work so hard on these cars.
My gosh these horror stories about Scout Racing just keep getting more frequent year by year. Thankful we do Awana only. Don’t think my blood pressure could hack it. Lol
God bless you all for dealing with it!!!

 

[Chantuay McCoy]

Agreed with what the guys said... your Pack needs to present a unified front to them. If I am told to change a car the week prior we are not racing and those in charge are receiving a very “informative and colorful” letter as to why and also a phone call requesting (notice I didn’t say demanding, tryin to keep blood pressure down) an explanation as to why they think it is acceptable to do that to these scouts who work so hard on these cars.
My gosh these horror stories about Scout Racing just keep getting more frequent year by year. Thankful we do Awana only. Don’t think my blood pressure could hack it. Lol
God bless you all for dealing with it!!!

It has become almost expected now that my sons pack will somehow mess up pinewood derby. This year they issues a new set of rules, which some of you may have seen, by Great lakes feild service council. Last week the pack held the derby, then friday, and a week before district race we all get an email.

Wrong rules... yup they somehow gave everyone the wrong rules. Now the "correct" rules are very differant, and all the scouts that qualified for district must rebuild their cars. Instead of bent axles, three wheels touching, and clear directions... Four flat, no sanding, no bending, and no dimensions given.

Now this has become all to frequent, with parents getting incorrect information. Everyone getting late changes to schedules. Anyway, I'm mostly bemused, but there are several parents who are very upset by this.

Now I'm wondering if this is just something that happens? Anyone else gotten a change a week before an event that requires them to completly change plans, rebuild cars, or rail gutter boats, etc?

That is horrible and frankly, you have me panicked! The rules we have say 3 wheels bent axels, etc. so I am truly concerned about what rules you received that said otherwise. Do you have a link with the “newer” rules that was sent to you?
Thank you

 

[AceMontana]

We had the opposite scenario last year...we had to run 4 touching no bent axles at pack level to find out we would be racing against three wheel bent axles and after market wheels at districts....and to top it off district qualifying cars were impounded at pack level durectly following the pack race and the scouts did not get them back untill they arrived at the district race...no repreping of the wheels or checking alignment no test runs...just squirt a bit more graphite and go get beat up on by the packs that went by the district rules to begin with....yeah im a bit bitter

 

[Chantuay McCoy]

It has become almost expected now that my sons pack will somehow mess up pinewood derby. This year they issues a new set of rules, which some of you may have seen, by Great lakes feild service council. Last week the pack held the derby, then friday, and a week before district race we all get an email.

Wrong rules... yup they somehow gave everyone the wrong rules. Now the "correct" rules are very differant, and all the scouts that qualified for district must rebuild their cars. Instead of bent axles, three wheels touching, and clear directions... Four flat, no sanding, no bending, and no dimensions given.

Now this has become all to frequent, with parents getting incorrect information. Everyone getting late changes to schedules. Anyway, I'm mostly bemused, but there are several parents who are very upset by this.

Now I'm wondering if this is just something that happens? Anyone else gotten a change a week before an event that requires them to completly change plans, rebuild cars, or rail gutter boats, etc?

Actually after going onto the website and finding the email that was forwarded from Great Lakes field counsel… I don’t know who gave you the second set of rules but Great Lakes feel counsel is running bent axle’s with three wheels touching this year. If you want me to send you the email… Let me know it has the link to the rules and everything

 

[Chantuay McCoy]

We had the opposite scenario last year...we had to run 4 touching no bent axles at pack level to find out we would be racing against three wheel bent axles and after market wheels at districts....and to top it off district qualifying cars were impounded at pack level durectly following the pack race and the scouts did not get them back untill they arrived at the district race...no repreping of the wheels or checking alignment no test runs...just squirt a bit more graphite and go get beat up on by the packs that went by the district rules to begin with....yeah im a bit bitter

That would be horrible and unfair :-(

 

[Pinewood Outlaw]

This year our district allowed oil. We sent everyone a copy of the rules. Our Pack has our own 42 foot best track and we also run a couple other pack races. Those packs that don't make arrangements with us go to a set location and race on the district's old beat up wood track....but the kicker is the guy running those races refused to allow oil cars on the old track. My wife was the district derby chair and told our district committee chair about this. Not much was done about it which made me mad.....after all it was district's rules and the district's track but they didn't care. They tell is district leaders must live by principles of the scout oath and law...but it didn't appear so in this case.

 

[Chief]

WOW! sorry you have to deal with that. But it just like dadio says, it’s probably some parent with their scout that didn’t put in the effort so we will just change the rules. Problem is, if ya don’t race it’s the scouts that really loose out on some what should have been fun. Pull an all nighter rebuild and WIN !! Show them that by changing their rules doesn’t help them win haha

 

[HurriCrane Racing]

This is the kind of thing that happens when the WRONG scout wins!

 

[zigzag]

This is the kind of thing that happens when the WRONG scout wins!

That was exactly what I thought as well -

 

[Bw56]

Let district know how many cars they have eliminated from racing. Our BSA district takes its cut right off the top of all monies taken in for the event. Our event could be in the red but they still take a full cut. So Show them what they could lose in cold hard cash.