VP Western 2005-2006 Final Report
Monica Ferris
It’s been a pleasure to serve as VP West for the past year. Although I was elected rather later than the previous VPs, I think we’ve managed to get a lot done in that time. This report will be rather extensive, so feel free to peruse and skip at your leisure.
Things We Accomplished This Year:
1. CA School Resources
The CA School resources were contributed by Kevin Massie, Sharon Ohayon, Chris Jones, Deborah Book, and Spencer Keys. I thank them for their contributions, and believe the West will be better off for their work. This information comes from experienced TDs, tabs directors, CAs, and a Worlds CA. It’s essential that new CAs read this resource, and that new contributions and updates be sought from people with experience on adjudicator teams, and experience CAing. Getting inexperienced CAs and tournament organizers to read this guide should be a top priority for next year.
2. BP Guide
The Calgary BP Guide is posted on CUSIDNet. For how long, I don’t know, but there is that resource available for people who are interested in BP.
3. French Debate
There has been an increased interest in French debate, which almost everyone in the West seems pleased with. I’d like to thank Guillaume Laroche and Meaghan Beattie for their efforts to improve interest in French debate, and UBC for their inclusion of French debate at Pac Cup.
Things We Could Improve Upon:
4. Communication With NPDA Schools
One of the biggest disappointments for me this year was a lack of outreach on the part of tournament directors to NPDA schools. Pac Cup was one quarter of the size of last year. One of the reasons for this was that the tournament announcement for CUSID wasn’t even made until late January, never mind the NPDA. I had to go and put it up myself. For important CUSID West tournaments that could be a draw to schools in the NPDA, we need to tell them about our tournament well in advance. Six to ten weeks in advance for the tournament announcement, and by early summer for the finalized tournament date. Speaking of finalized tournament dates…
5. Tournament Scheduling
If people are genuinely interested in improving attendance for tournaments, I would suggest having both first and second semester tournament dates fairly firmly fixed by May or June. It may seem slightly silly, but we need a great degree of warning in order to book flights, find partners, figure out which tournaments we’ll be attending, etc. For instance, it shouldn’t take eight months to set tournament dates for Pac Cup and McGoun, and we should definitely be avoiding a situation where we have CUSID West tournaments on back-to-back weekends. I think this is actually a very important factor when considering whether to go to a tournament.
6. Tournament Costs
The $15 tournament Ed Open had better food, more fun, and a smoother run than many “prestige” tournaments this year. People need to look into being more flexible with tournament costs, and realize that fancy banquets don’t make tournaments big draws, good competition does. I’d suggest contacting Julia and Chris about how they kept the costs down for Ed Open.
7. Equity Policies
Yes, I know, roll your eyes at me. But equity issues aren’t just a Central problem, and they need to be taken more seriously. Equity policies should be posted sooner, and equity officers need to be visible entities at tournaments, not hiding in the tabs room thinking that equity issues apply only in rounds.
8. Fair Warning
Even for invitationals, it makes a lot of sense to post style guides, and to make sure everyone knows about the rules of your tournament before they go. Everyone will have a much better time that way, and no nasty surprises will crop up that leave people badmouthing tournaments afterwards.
In any event, I’ve really enjoyed representing you guys on the exec, and good luck for next year.