Hello all, especially Andrew and the Admin team,
This issue has resurfaced again. Several changes have been made in VK5 due to government changing Reference names and/or incorporating older Parks into new larger Parks. Logically, Paul VK5PAS has “retired” the Parks which have been “discontinued” by adding an end date for the reference validity. Paul also added the appropriate new Parks to the VKFF program.
The LogSearch program now shows several references with which I have made valid contacts as being invalid, even though those contacts were made when the reference was valid.
Similarly, a previous activation of VKFF-0778 Cleland Conservation Park with 47 contacts made now shows as Invalid, even though last week the reference showed as valid! From my Activator summary:
349 VKFF-0778 OC / VK (VK-SA) Cleland Conservation Park VK3PF/5 2017-05-19 47 34 [Not in WWFF Directory]
Logically (at least to me and to several others with whom I have discussed the issue), contacts made to/from a reference when the reference was a valid reference should count, and continue to count, for Awards, even after a reference is retired.
It seems to me that there is something wrong in the way that retired references are handled.
Perhaps a stark example of this is that my Hunter reference count has dropped by 10 references overnight! As a result, my VKFF Hunter tally has now dropped from above 2000 references hunted to 1998 references hunted. I already have the VKFF Hunter Honour Roll 2000 reference certificate, that LogSearch now says that I should not have! I now have a total of 11 references which I have worked in the past which no longer count for any awards.
Surely, any reference hunted or activated when the reference is valid SHOULD remain as valid for award purposes. I appreciate that new contacts or activations of a retired reference will always be invalid – in the case of the recent changes in VK5, new activations should use the new reference number.
I appreciate that our admin team members are all volunteers and undertake their WWFF tasks as volunteers. This issue was first raised by me some 17 months ago, but the issue has not yet been addressed.
I thank all the admin team members locally in VK and globally for their efforts, but I believe that there is a fundamental flaw here that needs to be addressed.
Regards,
Peter VK3PF