I don't consider myself a Benchrest Guru, I'm an airgun hobbist and enthusiast. I enjoy all forms of shooting, esp airgun, and have recently, over the last few years, become more involved with the benchrest aspect. But then, I suspect you knew this already.
It seems strange to you perhaps, but in my hours of discussion with Steve by phone, he never indicated he was anything more than a guy trying to help organize a decent Team USA by collecting feedback and disseminating it with respect to having qualifications trials to help select contestants for the USA airgun competitors attending the Worlds Match. I helped him, and he seemed cordial and thanked me for my help. I wasn't cognizant of any charter, bylaws or goals beyond the event, nor informed of who the officials were, how they were elected, their duties, terms, or any of the other things that might have clued me into the purpose of this thread.
I can see now thread has drifted onto a "bash Larry" one, under the purported guise that I'm not good enough for your group, which simply seems to say ... "we don't like outsiders and folk not like us".
So ok, you aren't inclusive, but rather exclusive, I can live with that. Glad you chimed in.
I know neither you nor Steve attended the match, but I did, and I enjoyed it. It was a good match, and the USA effort was pretty successful. I felt WHATEVER part Steve played in it was a good thing. BUT ... while at the event, It was obvious to me, and other contestants that the main players with respect to ORGANIZATION that were making the actual event go were Malcom, Craig, and Bill . Yes, Dave did yoeman's duty and made sure the USA guys had their shirts and hats, and shared some info he had with respect to bench assignments and squadding arrangements, but by all outward appearances, Malcom and Craig, and Bill were running things, which was fine by me. I left thinking everyone was happy in general, and I thought the competition was great, but there were some shortfalls in the awards program. Nothing at all wrong with what I thought might have been related to Steve's work though.
But to be honest, I thought his work was done, the Worlds was over, an that was that ... until today.
Its evident you are privy to a lot more information about the workings of "your" organization than I am, and I guess that's fine. I must say, the use of THIS Forum to inform folks that are not "insiders" as you apparently are, hasn't been all the successful with respect to the way you all feel things need to be. I now realize from today's postings that Steve has his own Website, too, but now, it doesn't matter to me.