This should not be news to anyone but we are all human, and as such, we make mistakes. Even if we are super careful, and sometimes because we are being TOO careful, we make mistakes. There are several ways you can react to this, some good, some really not that good. Let’s chat about it.
We all make mistakes. That is a given. If you say you never make mistakes, well, bless you, but you just made a mistake in thinking you don’t make mistakes. No one is perfect.
For our purposes we are going to limit the discussion to mistakes made on the range while working as a Range Officer.
Let’s start with a simple scenario that you call a foot fault penalty on the shooter and you believe they fired three shots while faulting and that significant advantage is in play (as previously determined in your discussion with the RM…right?) so your call is for three procedurals. Simple enough, right? Maybe.
If the shooter has digital evidence (video for our purposes on this one), then the ROs on the stage are allowed to review the evidence immediately. I recommend the RO making the call as well as the CRO review it. A couple things could be challenged here: 1) Did the faulting actually occur, and 2) How many shots were fired while faulting, if indeed it did occur.
So let’s say the digital evidence clearly shows faulting occurs. You are done, right? Not so fast. What about the number of shots fired while faulting? Maybe the video shows that only the last shot was fired while the fault was occuring. Change your call. Simple. Apologize if you feel it is necessary and move on to the next shooter. The RM will want to know that you did review digital evidence and what the outcome was.
But what if the digital evidence is not so clear and the shooter wants further review. Call the RM and get back to running shooters. The RM will review when they show up and render a decision or supply the shooter with an arbitration form if they want to take it that far.
That’s pretty simple and very cut and dried. But what if it is a more complex situation.
During their run on the course of fire, a shooter leans against a wall to gain support while engaging a target. You call two procedurals for firing two shots while gaining support on the wall because you remember talking about this in your RO class. Digital evidence confirms they were leaning on the wall. All done, right? Well, not really. What do the rules say? The shooter takes their lumps and moves on without challenge.
A few minutes later, while discussing it with another RO you are reminded that the rule involves whether the structure used for support is inside or outside the shooting area. You examine the wall and realize it was, by rule, inside the shooting area and thus able to be used for support. What do you do? Well, the right thing to do is to tell the RM. They can find the shooter and the score can be corrected by mutual consent (9.7.4).
Or, you can not do anything and hope it goes away. Except that later that night your social media is blowing up because the shooter posted their side of the story, went back and got pictures of the wall being clearly inside the shooting area, and you are being called out as a “bad RO”. Hyperbole? Hardly.
As I tell every class, just about every time I rely on a foggy memory to make a rules call I get burned. If it isn’t a rule I am using continually, especially if a new version of the rules has come out recently, I really need to refer to the book and make sure I am making the right call.
A lot can be done before the match starts to refresh yourself on the rules. Before working any big match as an RO I always re-read, for content and context, chapter 10. The Instructors and NROI staff spend more time in the rules than just about anyone but we all still are continually referring to the book. Even then we have been known to get in a hurry and miss a word or forget to read the WHOLE rule. Don’t just read until you find the word you want. Read the whole rule. Take rule 10.5 for instance; there are 19 sub rules and many of those have subs as well. Pay attention to the hierarchy as this provides context.
While I really like the USPSA App, it is getting long in the tooth and there are a few things I don’t like. That it doesn’t properly format the sub-sections in the rules is a major one for me. A new App is in the works (for both IOS and Android) but it isn’t here yet. For this reason, I am back to recommending, and using, the PDF version of the book. The formatting is correct in the PDF version.
If I am working a Virginia Count or Fixed Time stage, I re-review those specific rules to make sure I have them clear in my head.
I also look at the stage I am assigned to. Are there places on the stage where something could happen that would require a call, like the wall being leaned on earlier? Time to review the rules pertaining to such things.
And so on. You get the idea.
The longer you have been an RO and the more time you have been digging around in the rules, the more familiar you become with them; but, and this is a big one, the more versions of the rules you have loaded in your memory. This can be a big reason to NOT rely entirely on memory for rules you haven’t confirmed recently.
And, when a competitor challenges your memory of the rules, take the time to look it up, even if you are 100% certain you are correct. Show it to them in writing and explain as necessary.
It’s okay, we all make mistakes. It is what you do AFTER you make the mistake that matters far more than that you made the mistake in the first place.