JW/Jake I don't which of you two is more exasperating!?
JW- I doubt there is as much vehemance as you imagine. The straw ballot gives you a chance to judge.
A straw ballot costs you nothing, obliges you to nothing but forces the opposing parties to take a stand. In any of our politcal conventions there are multiple ballots before a candidate is selected.
What you are trying to do is establish a platform (pun intended). That would normally be done in committee but can be done just as well here.
You're on the right track, you're almost there. Just push a little harder for a committment.
Jake- everytime you get frustrated you retreat into the world of engineering. This is not an engineering problem, mechanical analogoies will not suffice. This is NOT a contraption. It is a socio/political debate. You, hopefully, are trying to move others to your point of view. You need to bring out the salesman in you and send the engineer home for a nap.
Many here are having difficulty grasping the situation so I tried to put it in mechanical terms. Reason and explanation weren't cutting it already.
...And I think JW was pretty clear that he didn't think a poll would hurt anything. I'll be glad to take part....but the poll ignores the political situation of the issue. Personally, I would like to see a big double handed "open" spin boat as the Olympic boat but I don't think we have much chance of getting ANY spot if that's what we try to push right now. Make a poll. I'll vote in it...but we don't have visibility of all the people and organizations that are pushing elsewhere. Even in the off chance we could agree here on what we want to see in the Olympics, significant compromises would most certainly have to be made in order to increase our overall chances of getting an Olympic spot. I trust JW and the few souls helping to do that in the best interest of our sport.
