Here is the thing that I find so funny about the uproar over the 2017 shooting classes. While so many people got their panties in a wad over them, and sent emails (some offensive as hell), the new shooting classes were never actually used. Yep, it was decided that, since the 2017 National was already well into the planning stage, the new division of shooters would take effect after the National. And I do not know a single posse that used them, though per the by-laws, they had to offer them if someone really wanted to shoot the category. But they needed three to actually compete (also passed in 2017). Why was the change made? There were complaints that there were too many categories and we needed to thin them down. Several proposals were presented to Congress, and this one that made people lose there minds and common courtesy was the only one that got enough traction to even go to a vote. So, it passed, but only by 3 votes. But, since it did not actually go into effect at the National level, and none of the Regionals I went to used it, it was a moot point. Even better, in 2018, we repealed the vote to narrow down the number of categories and took it back to the 2016 listing, then added even more for Senior and Elder. While I personally do not ever shoot an age based category, nor do I think gender has any part in the scheme (yeah, my wife can outshoot me and I am damn proud of her!), we expanded Senior and Elder. I think this is fine for those that want to use age based categories. So now, instead of the 23 categories fo 2016, we now have 41 categories. A little something for everyone, with a healthy dose of irony. Just be glad It did not get thinned to 4-gun, 3-gun, 2-gun (divided by powder and hold), 3-gun, 4-gun Pistoleer, and Originals. Total 15 categories, with minimum 3 per category. I would have proposed that. Think of how simple that would be.