nameisjoe:
You ask if it is a compulsory purse since "we" have already paid into it.
What's this "we" business?
You paid your annual membership, but that's all. You haven't shot a registered event since 1996 EXCEPT for 100 caps in 2011 and 100 caps in 2012, and all this hostility about the Grand going to Sparta? Well:
You weren't shooting at the Grand in '97, or in '98 or in '99, or in 2000, or at anytime up to including the last year.
And, in another diatribe concerning Sparta, you talked about having to stay in St. Louis and the awful drive to Sparta-well, if you did go to the Grand, you either never shot any targets there or that was the 100 caps you shot in 2011.
BTW: Looks like you've not supported any registered shooting at the Cardinal Center, either. They didn't exist when you dropped out of registered in '96 and you've only shot 200 total registered targets since.
How did I find this out? Easy, you left your email address on one of your posts. I just googled it and it took me to several posts captured on the world wide web and on one I looked at you gave your name. Then I put that name in the ATA site and, well, the rest is history. Not much history, though.
So, my point is simple. All this hostility, hatred towards Sparta, that ATA, the EC-it's all an act, isn't it. You weren't shooting ATA for several years before, not shooting ATA during and not shooting ATA after the move from Vandalia to Sparta.
Doesn't that make you a troll?
Bob