Since USPSA transitioned to evergreen, or all electronic, rulebooks in January 2019, there have been a lot of questions as to why? My old rulebook was still good? Why do we need a new rulebook?
If you were carrying the 2014 version of the USPSA Handgun Rules in your range bag, great. That’s a start. But, did you have all the other information as well? The 2014 version of the rules was only part of the complete rule set. Since 2014, two new divisions (CO and PCC) had been added, the Production division appendix had changed, there was a PCC rules addendum, and about 26 NROI rulings that had changed some of the rules in that 2014 book quite significantly. To actually have the complete rules, you needed the 2014 rulebook and a ton of extra sheets of paper.
Yes, we like to think that our rules are not very fluid, and they don’t change, but change is inevitable. And over 5 years, a lot of change did occur. By switching to an evergreen rulebook, when NROI rulings happen in the future, they will be announced, tracked in a change log, and integrated into the rulebook immediately, on the day they go into effect.
But how am I supposed to keep up on the rules changes and know when a new version of the rulebook is released? There are several ways:
- Make sure that the right email address is associated with your USPSA profile. USPSA does send announcements to it’s members. If your email address is broken, then you miss out on the announcements and other things like notifications about RO renewal exams.
- Read the DNROI’s column in the USPSA Magazine where new rule changes are discussed and announced.
- Sign up for the Down Range email. It is a weekly email with USPSA and NROI news along with other articles from the shooting sports communities.
- Use the USPSA App. The app has a Rules section and the rulebooks are searchable by keyword and have a clickable table of contents.
- Follow USPSA on Facebook and other social media.