Wednesday, August 12, 2009

Changing the IE Rules?

Someone posted a comment regarding NCFCA's mid-season rule changes for IEs. This has happened twice in the past three years.

Last time this happened, word was passed down that "it won't happen again", but this year the rules were changed right before the Regional. Many people were very upset about this.

One event that was very disrupted by this last minute rule change was Expos. There was an Expos family that suffered tremendous grief getting their boards to Bob Jones this year in a way that complied with the new rules, the boards couldn't be checked as baggage and they almost had to charter their own plane.

After all that hassle, they show up in South Carolina. This year Expos got the Extemp treatment (i.e.- all prelim rounds on the first day, before everything else). With nothing else to do, this family watched all the Expos rounds and came out to report that none of the competitors were following the new rules & it wasn't clear that any of the judges even cared.

"Well of course not," I told them, "the orientation's only 20 minutes long, how are they going to explain a bunch of new Expos rules?" Then I reminded the parent that IF their child makes it to outrounds, being in compliance will be a good thing, because as the judge pool expands they are more likely to run into a judge who actually knows the rule change.

I guess the team policy equivalent of an IE rule change in late April would be rewording the resolution after the qualifiers were over?

Some blog posters outside of Region 2 seem to believe that the "Stoa" transition is the desire of one person or a small number of people? This is completely untrue. In fact, there is widespread exasperation among the rank and file affiliates, and these repeated mid-season rule changes in the IE events are a major stimulus.

5 comments:

  1. Are you certain that the "blog posters outside of Region 2" are incorrect? How would you know that? Was a vote taken? If so, I missed out on that vote because I am a parent in Region 2 and I know many people who are questioning the Stoa transition. Would you be willing to admit that there may be quite a few region 2 families who never agreed to or asked for the move that Stoa is making?

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  2. Hi "Want 2 Hear Both Sides"-

    Are you aware of any club who is willing to run a Region 2 NCFCA tournament in '09/'10?

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  3. It bears mentioning that those who have been in the league for roughly more than 5 years have been able to witness firsthand the poor decisions that have been and are still being made by the national leadership. Thusly, I suspect that you 'Want 2 Hear Both Sides' are not a parent with a historical perspective of the league. Either that, or you're not from Region 2.

    The most glaring blight on the league has been the increase of executive decisions which are given no context and are poorly timed. There is no transparency, and it leads to problems that affect the quality of education for our children. Stoa is the very delayed and calculated reaction of us parents who have had to explain to our children why they must dramatically change an IE because of an arbitrary decision made by a national board member who is either too careless to understand the ramifications or too vain to take the time to figure out the repercussions (among other things).

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  4. I am a parent in region 2 and I am part of a club who would not be unwilling to run an NCFCA tournament in 2009-2010. I have been in the league long enough to have an "historical perspective of the league." [If you will both agree to post your names after I post mine, I would prefer to operate in that manner.] This covert stuff feels odd. I am curious why you are you operating without your real name?

    I'm not defending the NCFCA in this post, I am trying to demonstrate that not all California affiliates were/are on board with what is happening. Somewhere along the way, people lost sight of this and seem to have forgotten to listen to what are surely seen as "the little people." Being from CA, I'm just not sure where the majority stands.

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  5. Hi "Both Sides,"
    I think the beauty of this new situation is that folks (like you) can run an NCFCA tournament by joining and working with NCFCA, provided you have the number of affiliates and meet their requirements.

    Those who feel like we do (probably because of a closer history of trying to work under the NCFCA) will be choosing to join Stoa and run Stoa tournaments this year. I believe I am correct in saying that all those clubs who have been putting on qualifying tournaments in CA have also chosen to go with Stoa this year.
    Or you can join both and enjoy both (if there are any NCFCA tournaments in the state - or go to one of the open NCFCA tournaments out of state).

    I keep my name anonymous as I do on all public postings to preserve my privacy. (But please feel free to put your name on your post if you would prefer to do that.)

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