Planning for a Match

There is a lot of effort that goes into the planning of a match. You need to:

•	A lot of human resources to the match (e.g. Match Director; Range Master; Chief Range Officer; Range Officers; Stats Officer; people to construct stages; etc.).

•	Create a match schedule.

•	Develop course designs that comply with the current IPSC Shooting Principles and Rules.

•	Obtain match sanctioning, if you want it to be a recognized IPSC match.

•	Prepare match documents.

•	Enroll IPSC members into the match as competitors.

The complexity of these tasks depends on the size of the match. For example, a match schedule could be as simple as stating that you will have an IPSC match every Wednesday, or as complex as having to schedule the following:

•	Shooting range closures and stage construction.

•	Accommodations for your competitors and match officials.

•	Days and/or locations of your match.

•	Work schedules.

•	Shooting schedules.

•	Catering and banquets.

•	Award ceremony.

Tip: The International Classification System (ICS), Classifier Stages, are a great source of stage designs. They offer stage designs that vary in complexity, from Short Courses to Long Courses of fire. They also offer the ability to rank shooters around the world, providing a vehicle for true peer-to-peer recognition. See IPSC.org for more details (http://www.ipsc.org/icsStages.htm).

For the purposes of this documentation, we look at the planning of a match from the Stats Officer's perspective.