Voting on proposed changes to the USMRSC ends June 14. There are a number of proposed changes this year and several are quite controversial. The following seeks to be a brief but still full dicussion of the this year's proposed changes to the USMRSC. Given the number of proposals and the often contentious issues they touch upon, even this brief discussion is rather long.
My "quick and dirty" recommendations are as follows:
2025-101: Yes. Although this is close to being a toss-up.
2025-102: No. But vote Yes on 2025-106.
2025-103: No. If passed, this will kill most craftsmanship event except for scale.
2025-104: Yes. This will keep NARAM to a reasonable duration.
2025-105: Yes. This will keep the pace of NARAM reasonable.
2025-106: Yes. Empatically YES to preserve many NAR competition events.
2025-107: no RCP under this number.
2025-108: No. Reducing age divisions is detrimental to competition.
The link for voting is:
https://www.nar.org/content.aspx?page_id=22&club_id=114127&module_id=780117
Your time in reviewing and considering the changes and in voting is appreciated. A more detailed discussion follows. If you have questions, please feel free to ask.
RCP 2025-101
A quite technical RCP that looks to clarify some of the model rocket motor wording in the USMRSC. Two specific steps taken are to specify that motors must confrom with NFPA 1125 and that the NAR, TRA and CAR are all qualified certifiers of model rocket engines.
A second part of the proposal under 4.4 Alterations specifies alterations that are not permited rather than the current fairly general wording that is in the USMRSC at present.
Discussion in the Forum seemed to have been along the lines of "well meaning, but unnecessary".
Vote Yes if you believe that the USMRSC needs more clarity and specificity in this area, notably on the NFPA rule that engines must comply with, on a role for the NAR, TRA and CRA in certification and in making more specific alterations to motors that are not allowed.
Vote No if you think that the current more general wording in the USMRSC is sufficient.
RCP 2025-102
This RCP and 2025-106 both seek to address a similar point and are conflicting.
2025-102 allows FAI events to be flow only in a year when there will be an FAI World Space Modeling Championship (WSMC). Under the proposal, 5 of the 6 NRC events for the year would be FAI events. In non-FAI WSMC years, no FAI events would be flown.
Discussion in the Forum was rather sharp given the current fault lines within the NAR regarding the NRC and FAI competition.
My own take on this is that success in competition flying requires some consistency from year to year in events so that experience in one year can inform activity in the next year. This RCP creates a pendulum effect where events flown would gyrate wildly from year to year.
Vote Yes if you want to support FAI flying and international competition in the years of WSMC.
Vote No if you think that so few modelers have an interest in flying internationally that there is no need to distort the NRC to match FAI requirements.
RCP 2025-103
This year NARAM-67 will have three craftsmanship events: Scale Altitude (S5), Scale (S7) and Concept Scale. This proposal seeks to limit the number of craftsmanship event in any NARAM to 1, except in FAI WSMC years when both Scale Altitude and Scale could be flown.
Moreover, the proposal specifies that for NARAM championship points, a contestant need only compete in one of the two craftsmanship events.
Discussion in the Forum was quite limited on this RCP, mostly noting the challenge to any competitor trying to build three crafsmanship event models for NARAM.
To some degree, this proposal would create a situation whereby Scale Altitude and Scale are flown at every other NARAM. This would create considerable advance notice and allow for long term planning and development of a scale altitude or scale model.
Unfortunately, by locking in Scale Altitude and Scale to every other NARAM, other craftsmanship events would likely disappear. Scale is typically flown at every NARAM, so limiting NARAM to a single craftsmanship event would in non-WSMC years would probably mean the death of Concept Scale, Plastic Model and Classic Model.
Vote Yes to limit the crafsmanship requirements of NARAM competition.
Vote No if you think that this proposal works in the right direction, but is too restrictive and will negatively impact other craftsmanship events.
RCP 2025-104
This proposal will limit the number of NARAM events to 8, the six NRC events plus a craftsmanship event plus one additional event.
NARAM this year is 12 events over a 4 day schedule. This is a lot of flying in a short period of time.
Discussion in the Forum noted that this proposal is potentially in conflict with 2025-104 which limited craftsmanship events to 1 at NARAM except in WSMC years when 2 were permited.
Looking at the USMRSC, 2026-104 seems overly wordy. A more simple phrasing that NARAM should be limited to 8 events would seem a simpler solution.
Vote Yes to restrict NARAM to 8 events and to some degree specify the structure of NARAM.
Vote No if you think that wording too restrictive.
RCP 2025-105
This RCP is related to 2025-104 in tieing the length of NARAM to the number of events. It does not limit the number of events, but says instead that the length of NARAM shall be defined at a rate of 2 events per day. An 8 event NARAM would be scheduled for 4 days, a 10 event NARAM for 5 days and so on.
If the NARAM events are multi-round FAI events, 2 events a day would still mean putting up 6 flights.
Discussion on the Forum was more or less neutral.
Vote Yes to keep the pace of NARAM fairly moderate at 2 events a day.
Vote No to allow the possible compression of NARAM and a busier flying schedule.
RCP 2025-106
This RCP comes to the heart of the current division within NAR competiton between let us say traditional competitors and FAI WSMC competitors. This RCP would limit the FAI events to be flown as part of the NRC to 1 event.
At the core of this proposal is a resistance to the takeover of competition and NRC flying by the FAI WSMC competitors.
Of all of this year's RCP's this is the most critical. It essentially decides if NAR competition will be reduced to FAI events or will contiue with the diverse and eclectic events of the current USMRSC. In all likelihood, if this RCP fails it will mean the death of events like B/G, egg lofting, sport scale, and almost all of the altitude events.
Discussion on the Forum was, as expected, quite heated.
Vote Yes to preserve NAR competition along the curent lines of the NRC.
Vote No to effectively change NAR competition to be the same as FAI competition.
RCP 2025-107
No RCP.
RCP 2025-108
At present, there are 4 NAR competition divisions defined by age: A: 0-14 years old; B: 15-22 years old; C: 23+ and D: teams being 23+. This RCP would reduce the divisions to 3. A Junior division of 0-18, a Senior division of 19+, and a Team division of 19+.
As the present A and B divisions also allow for teams, the new Junior division would also include teams.
Discussion in the Forum asked which records would be preserved and noted that this change would bring NAR flying into alignment with FAI age divisions.
Vote Yes if you would like the competiton divisions to be simplified and NAR competition flying to be aligned with FAI flying.
Vote No if you believe that more divisions allow the divisions to be aligned to individual skills and point in life.