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IPMS Region 9: One Year of Competition Rule
Background
Model contests fill a number of rolls. On one level, a model contest allows the public to interact with a club and club members. The public gains access to a hobby that combines craftsmanship and history. The club gains the ability to attract new members and interact with distant enthusiasts. On another level, a model contest allows participants to compete with their piers for the fleeting mantle of greatness. Both old and new members gain a forum for unbiased evaluation of their skills. In the process, everyone gets a chance to learn new tricks.
If a model contest allows the same participants to enter the same models year after year, the entire process stalls. The public eventually loses interest in the same old display. Skilled members stop building models because their greatest works remain sufficient to win one victory after another. New participants turn away because they cannot unseat entrenched masterpieces. The barrier to entry becomes so high that only the most dedicated builders of the highest skill can compete. Under these conditions the contest dies and the club often dies with it.
To prevent this unhealthy chain of events, IPMS national, regional, and local organizations establish exclusion rules to encourage new construction for contests. In a perfect world, IPMS contests function heirarchically. A builder enters his or her model in one or more local contests. If successful, he or she moves on to the regional contest and finally the national contest. A model that wins at the regional level loses the ability to compete at the local level. A model that wins at the national level loses the ability to compete at all other levels. These winning models retire, basking in the eternal (and free) glory of Display Only status. In all cases, winners of a given contest lose the ability to compete again in the same contest.
Unfortunately, contest timing makes it difficult to enter local contests, a regional contest, and the national contest in the correct order. In addition, Region 9 often lacks a formally recognized regional contest. To make life easier for contestants while remaining true to the principles outlined above, IPMS Region 9 instituted a compromise codifed into the One Year of Competition Rule.
One Year of Competition Rule
Participants in IPMS Region 9 contests may enter a given model in a given category for one year, starting with the first contest entered, win or lose. For example, if a contestant enters his 1/72 scale P-51D Mustang in a local IPMS Region 9 contest on June 3rd, 2007, it remains eligible to compete in all other Region 9 contests, local and regional, until June 2nd, 2008. After June 2nd, 2008, the model cannot compete in a Region 9 contest unless it moves to a different category as outlined in the IPMS Competition Handbook. Even then, the model can only compete in the new category for one year within IPMS Region 9.
The One Year of Competition Rules applies to a given model regardless of success at a given IPMS Region 9 contest (i.e., win or lose). A model cannot compete in the same contest, in the same category, more than once (in consecutive years or otherwise). For example, if a participant competes with his 1/35 scale M24 Chaffee at Hobby Expo 2007 and loses, he cannot enter that model in the same category at Hobby Expo 2008.
The One Year of Competion Rule only applies after a given model enters an IPMS Region 9 contest for the first time. A model remains eligible even if the was completed many years ago or participated in contests outside IPMS Region 9.
Please note that IPMS Region 9 largely depends on the honor system for enforcing the One Year of Competition rule. If this rule applies to you and your model, please consider showing off your work as Display Only and give new models a chance for glory.
If you still have questions about the One Year of Competition Rule, please contact us.
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