Having given it a few seconds thought, How's about:-
26 free cards for £9. And organisers self validate 300, 400 & 600 events - Only BR events of course.
Sure - poor old uncle AUK takes a hit of a whole 10p on the card production.
BUT our intrepid and incredably hard working Validators save well over £1 (prob nearer £2) on every ride event that's validated.
Can't see it being adopted some how for a number of reasons, those being:-
1, It's a reasonably thought-out solution.
2, It makes sense for a majority.
3, Riders get a faster turnaround on brevet validation, useful for longer ride qualification validation.
4, Everybody wins, AUK get a bit of dosh up-front, organisers less likely to drop events.
5, A BlackSheep doesn't always have to be Black or a Sheep.
6, The shock of getting up-to-speed on organiser validation for BR events. The plan was to introduce the 300, 400 & 600 in consecutive years, once the 100, 200 events were proven - well that was years ago. We should be well onto on 600k self validation by now.
EDIT 09/02/11 @ 14:04 to clarify diiference between ride and event.