Friday, April 18, 2008
Justice
The head professional scouter made things right. He had Jimmy come down to the Council office on Tuesday. He told Jimmy that they messed up and that he knew Jimmy had done his best and that he had won. He also said that they were going to do their best to fix their mistake. He asked Jimmy to come back on Thursday. When he came back, he was presented with the First Place trophy seen below.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
District Pinewood Derby
Jimmy went to Districts today. If you want to know how it turned out, here is a copy of the letter I'm sending to the Council:
12 April 2008
Grand Columbia Council
12 N 10th Ave.
Yakima, WA 98909
Dear Boy Scouts of America:
I just returned from the Skookum District Pinewood Derby race. Jimmy Church is my son. His car (actually an Army truck) was number 12. He was in the Wolf category. He won every single race he was in. In fact, none of the races was even close. He won by several lengths each time. The computerized finish sign at the end of the tract confirmed that he won every race. Everyone who was there can confirm that his camouflage truck was undefeated.
Understandably, he was very excited that he must have won at least fourth place (there were only eight Wolf cars). However, as they announced the top four Wolf winners, he was not one of them. He was devastated. I spoke with the race officiators afterwards. They tried to give me every excuse in the book. I explained to them that it is possible that it was just coincidence that he happened to race against all the slowest cars, but they did agree that wasn’t very probable.
I don’t see any way this is what happened considering his margins of victory. Due to the structure of the race, he raced six out of the seven other Wolf cars. He beat every single one of them hands down, some of them multiple times. He never had the opportunity to race the remaining Wolf car. While one could possible conceive of a way he could have beaten that many cars and still not had the overall fastest time, it is nearly impossible that he would not have finished in at least the top four.
Then I asked the race officiators to confirm what place he finished in during each of his races. To my utter amazement, they did not have him placing first in each of his races. This is absolutely incorrect. He did in fact win every race. Anyone who was there can confirm it. The race officiators basically said that it must have been a computer error. This is unacceptable. There has to be human oversight and accountability.
Cub Scouts are taught to be honest. The race results should be honest too, especially if a computer and lasers are involved. Having all the fancy gizmos lends credibility to the race, which makes the incorrect results even more difficult for an eight year old to accept.
This has been a horrible experience. My son is very upset. He left the event in tears. Please don’t misunderstand. He is not a poor sport. He has lost on other occasions, and it has never been a problem because he knew that he lost fair and square. The problem is winning every race, knowing he went undefeated, expecting recognition, and then having the rug pulled out from under him because of a supposed computer error. He acknowledges that he may not have won first place, but due to this glitch, we’ll never know how well he really did.
In the future, you should do something to ensure that this does not happen again. Perhaps you could project the standings onto a big screen so that everyone can verify the computer’s results. Perhaps the track should be configured and tested before the race starts to verify that the computer is recording the results properly. (At this race, the MC had to stall for nearly 20 minutes before the computer would start working, and it was never tested after booting up). Perhaps different software needs to be used. Perhaps there is another method to fix this incompetence. In any event, this problem needs to be remedied.
Cub Scouts is supposed to be fun. The event was great and quite a bit of fun until the very end. However, I came away from this race with the realization that this was as far from fun as I can ever remember at any Scouting event, and I’ve been to a lot of them. Please don’t think that I am being a poor sport either. I am simply sticking up for my son. At this point, he obviously isn’t going to get the recognition he deserves from the District or the other cubs, but at least he will know that his dad tried to do something so that hopefully another cub in future years doesn’t have to suffer the same agony he is experiencing now.
Very truly yours,
David M. Church
12 April 2008
Grand Columbia Council
12 N 10th Ave.
Yakima, WA 98909
Dear Boy Scouts of America:
I just returned from the Skookum District Pinewood Derby race. Jimmy Church is my son. His car (actually an Army truck) was number 12. He was in the Wolf category. He won every single race he was in. In fact, none of the races was even close. He won by several lengths each time. The computerized finish sign at the end of the tract confirmed that he won every race. Everyone who was there can confirm that his camouflage truck was undefeated.
Understandably, he was very excited that he must have won at least fourth place (there were only eight Wolf cars). However, as they announced the top four Wolf winners, he was not one of them. He was devastated. I spoke with the race officiators afterwards. They tried to give me every excuse in the book. I explained to them that it is possible that it was just coincidence that he happened to race against all the slowest cars, but they did agree that wasn’t very probable.
I don’t see any way this is what happened considering his margins of victory. Due to the structure of the race, he raced six out of the seven other Wolf cars. He beat every single one of them hands down, some of them multiple times. He never had the opportunity to race the remaining Wolf car. While one could possible conceive of a way he could have beaten that many cars and still not had the overall fastest time, it is nearly impossible that he would not have finished in at least the top four.
Then I asked the race officiators to confirm what place he finished in during each of his races. To my utter amazement, they did not have him placing first in each of his races. This is absolutely incorrect. He did in fact win every race. Anyone who was there can confirm it. The race officiators basically said that it must have been a computer error. This is unacceptable. There has to be human oversight and accountability.
Cub Scouts are taught to be honest. The race results should be honest too, especially if a computer and lasers are involved. Having all the fancy gizmos lends credibility to the race, which makes the incorrect results even more difficult for an eight year old to accept.
This has been a horrible experience. My son is very upset. He left the event in tears. Please don’t misunderstand. He is not a poor sport. He has lost on other occasions, and it has never been a problem because he knew that he lost fair and square. The problem is winning every race, knowing he went undefeated, expecting recognition, and then having the rug pulled out from under him because of a supposed computer error. He acknowledges that he may not have won first place, but due to this glitch, we’ll never know how well he really did.
In the future, you should do something to ensure that this does not happen again. Perhaps you could project the standings onto a big screen so that everyone can verify the computer’s results. Perhaps the track should be configured and tested before the race starts to verify that the computer is recording the results properly. (At this race, the MC had to stall for nearly 20 minutes before the computer would start working, and it was never tested after booting up). Perhaps different software needs to be used. Perhaps there is another method to fix this incompetence. In any event, this problem needs to be remedied.
Cub Scouts is supposed to be fun. The event was great and quite a bit of fun until the very end. However, I came away from this race with the realization that this was as far from fun as I can ever remember at any Scouting event, and I’ve been to a lot of them. Please don’t think that I am being a poor sport either. I am simply sticking up for my son. At this point, he obviously isn’t going to get the recognition he deserves from the District or the other cubs, but at least he will know that his dad tried to do something so that hopefully another cub in future years doesn’t have to suffer the same agony he is experiencing now.
Very truly yours,
David M. Church
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