Earl Sargent Memorial Trophy Rules

About the Points System

Several methods of awarding the Sargent Trophy have been tried over the years in an ongoing effort to achieve a balance for both local and distant members.  The current system awards points for each official TCMG event attended, weighing more heavily on driving events than meetings.

This system is designed to encourage members to use their TCs in the way which most effectively promotes them, and brings their attention to the public eye. Driving events tend to do this more than meetings since they take the cars to public places during daylight hours and spend more overall time out in the open.

As the points are currently assigned, a distant (100+ mile) member is unbeatable (given equal attendance by a local member) due to the mileage bonus awarded them.  However because distant members usually attend fewer events in their TC due to the added effort, this method has proven itself to even the field and create better competition, therefore giving incentive to bring the TCs out more often.

Awarding Points

Points are accumulated each year starting the day after our Annual Holiday Party until the next year’s Holiday Party.  Points for the trophy are awarded to TCMG members in the following manner:

• Two points are awarded for attending TCMG driving events, including long distance events such as Annual Conclaves and GoF West, with an MG TC. (One point if TC is housed at event location and not driven, but it must be displayed)
• One point is awarded for attending TCMG club meetings with an MG TC. (TC must be parked at meeting, not on trailer) One point will also be awarded for attending online meetings, for members who drive a TC at least 10 miles on the day of the meeting. In-person meetings that are simulcast online do not award points unless attending in person with a TC.
• Driving a TC to and from an event or meeting will yield a 25% bonus for distances over 100 miles each way, or 50% for more than 500 miles each way. Mileage is calculated by actual distance driven to event, not by shortest possible route.  Travel distance is calculated between point of origin (such as member’s home) and official starting / ending locations of an event.  Official starting locations include rally points for caravans to event locations, or actual event location if no caravan or driving tour is offered.  It does not include mileage accrued during a driving tour.
• Attending an event spanning three or more days will award one half of one point (must attend entire event or all major activities, with TC, to qualify).  This bonus is a fixed amount, not increased by distance bonus.
• One point is awarded for attending Tech Sessions (those which are listed officially in the TCMG calendar) with your TC.
• The memorial service for any TCMG member is considered a club affair, therefore one point is awarded for attending in a TC, so long as the service is announced to the club by print or email beforehand.
• At the discretion of the TCMG council, partial points may be awarded for failed attempts (i.e. break downs), to bring a TC to any of the aforementioned activities.

Other notes regarding points awarded:

To encourage the use of TCs and to avoid penalizing those who drive them to events, the 100+ mile bonus is only awarded for driving to and from events, not for mileage covered in the events themselves.  In other words, we are preventing someone from trailering to an event and then driving over 100 miles during that event / tour in order to gain the same bonus points as someone who drove over 100 miles just to get there, in addition to the event tour mileage. This also applies to the 500+ miles bonus.

Partial points may be awarded for TCs driven to an event which do not participate in that event, i.e. meeting the group at a rally start and leaving without driving the rally.

If so desired, a local member is allowed to drive the extra distance to achieve the same mileage bonus as a distant member (100 or 500 miles each way), but this mileage must be a loop. In other words, they cannot go home and then back out to accrue more miles.

Members joining late in the year who attended events or meetings in a TC earlier that year may have points awarded for those activities by discretion of the awards committee.

Tie Breakers

Ties are broken by total number of club activities attended with a TC. In the event there is still a tie, driving events shall weigh more heavily than meetings.  For stubborn ties, the following rules shall be observed.

Multi-day events (i.e. Conclave, GoF West) shall weigh more heavily than single day events.

Events driven to shall weigh more heavily than events trailered to, regardless of whether or not it is a multi-day event.

Attending an event as “display only” (not driven, one point awarded) is weighed in the following manner:

• “Display Only” – TC is trailered to and from event location.  This weighs the same as attending a meeting with TC.
• “Host Display” – TC is housed at event location because the owner is hosting, planning or otherwise supporting the event.  This weighs more heavily than meetings.

Distance driven or trailered to events or meetings can be used to further break ties.

Special Conditions Regarding Ties

If the parties tied have each achieved 100% attendance at all official, pre-planned TCMG activities for the year, then all tie breaker rules are disregarded and a tie is announced.  For more information on perfect attendance, see the Iron Bottom Award page.