I think there are pros and cons to potentially adding regional meets.
One pro is that it would help maintain, and potentially increase, participation and involvement of club members at ABC shows on a yearly basis. It also may help draw in more members. The more visible you are at shows as a club, the better.
One con is that it could potentially pull numbers, and involvement, away from the yearly National. Members that might have otherwise made plans to attend the National may settle for attending only their specified regional meet. I would think that there would need to be specific criteria and requirements in place regarding regional meets to not take away from the National, such as placing regional meets a certain number of weeks away from the scheduled National. If regional meets and the National landed on the same weekend, I would think it would definitely impact participation at the National.
Another pro is that with the amount of travel involved for some members to the National, as well as the differing NPIP requirements among the states, it could boost club moral. It feels like due to NPIP requirements, we are becoming increasingly limited as to where the National can be held to try to include members outside of the hosting district. Maybe these regional meets would help soften the blow of not being able to attend the National due to the high costs involved with meeting the NPIP requirements of the hosting state.
A con would be that we would be increasing the workload of the district directors further, as well as spending additional monies of the club to host these regional meets. Hosting four regional meets a year could get expensive and add up quickly.
We would want to be sure that by adding regional meets, we are not taking away from the “special nature” of the National.
Hopefully these thoughts can help with getting the conversation started.