I did not say you said it was a “hot” topic, but, for the Board to consider it, it would lend one to think that it had or has been requested for consideration for some time and frequently. The “hot” is my own assumption.

I don’t understand your point. I never said that this was a “hot” request.

I first became aware of this idea on NAFA Chat dated April 26, 2006.
It was brought up in NAFA Chat again on August 23, 2006.
A formal written proposal was brought before the NAFA Board in the Detroit meeting in summer of 2007. The initiator of the proposal was not identified but, the people who brought it up in chat compete in FL and AL.

The last time it was brought up was Candidate Chat on Oct 11, 2007.

It may be a Regional issue and not NAFA-wide.

Here are the links to those chat transcripts:
http://www.flyball.org/press/chat_04262006.html
http://www.flyball.org/press/chat_08232006.html
http://www.flyball.org/press/11Oct2007cand.html

In all my travellings and speaking to persons about NAFA flyball, I have never heard this request – “if only 5 instead of 4″ I have heard consistanly about they way measuring is done, the subjectivness of it, etc.

Additionally, I don’t recall ever seeing this as a topic in board minutes? Now, I don’t commit minutes to memory, but, I would think if this was such a “hot” request, it would have shown up in the minutes over the last few years. And if it did, my bad for not remembering.

This is a good post, a well thought out opinion. You have a valid question. Why? I’m not sure that anyone will ever be able to answer it satisfactorily. The argument I hear most often in favor of subtracting 5″ instead of 4″ is: “…its ‘safer’ for the dogs and the ‘proof’ of that is that the dogs run faster.” (I’m not saying that I agree with this statement, only that is what is usually said to me.)

Here’s MY question: IF there is such a problem with the “concept”(system) of measuring a dog from the withers, WHY? do so many NAFA competitors cling to it? I understand why those who support measuring the leg bone argue its “superiority” over NAFA’s use of the wicket. BUT, what I don’t understand is why nobody cares about the reasons why NAFA keeps this system.

The NAFA BoD knows that they face STRONG opposition to the suggestion that NAFA should depart from measuring a dog’s height from the top of its withers to the floor. The NAFA BoD is literally between a “a rock and a very hard place” when it comes to ‘measuring’.

So, my question is “Why do so many people blame the NAFA BoD for NAFA’s measuring issues when those issues stem from many, many competitors?”

Is there really any good way to find a compromise between these two extreme views?