ITEM: For those waiting for further Halibut round-ups, I've been pestering Dusty for the official results (so that I don't get it wrong), but he's been too busy recovering some semblance of normal life to get them to me. Next week I hope.
ITEM: Tonight it’s the final of BPL – I am predicting a titanic struggle that'll be well worth getting down there for. The UQ Lovers and the Moreton Bay Buggers have been the powerhouses of Brisbane Open Ultimate the last twelve months or so (since the decline of Whippet Good really, and the longer but slower decline of Dojo Mojo). I missed the semi's last week but understand they were pretty close too, so perhaps this might be the last season of MBB/UQL Finals?
ITEM: Meanwhile, I've been busy on some AFDA stuff. We've been engaging in getting all our various policy out of the cupboard, dusting it off and deciding whether it’s being a) donated to the Salvos, b) taken to the tailors for some repair and adjustment or c) getting a quick iron and going back in the cupboard.
So I've been working on the 'Safe Play' policies like pregnancy, lightning, hot weather, sun protection and the like. I'm pleased to report that there's practically no change to these policies, which are all about 2-5 years old. Looks like the AFDA got them right the first time!
One area that I think we'll be developing something new will be in relation to 'blood rules' – while the WFDF2007 rule have a one-liner about this (which is fantastic imho), it looks like we need to go further for juniors and to fulfil requirements for ensuring our coaching programme remains accredited. I'm also looking at the idea developed via the thread at Ulti-talk (kicked off by Matt A I think), that we should make a more formal standard about keeping 'hard' things further away from sidelines – gear, chairs, scoreboards, prams and even personal water-bottles (they hurt to land on). We'll also be tidying up how we determine results for games that are cancelled – we've got that all in place for lightning affected games, but need to extend it generally I think.
ITEM: What's policy for anyway? Well some people view it as 'ass-covering', and it certainly has that benefit. We also typically do it to formalise our sport administration and bring it into line with wider Australian sport. But these kind of answers relate to things well away from the field, and its wrong to think that's the focus. Policy is really about what happens close to games – only one step aside from the rules. I think the main uses of policy are a) to save people having to think too much and b) to give some force to our sports' received wisdom.
Policy saves you from having to think too much (that is, use precious time and energy resources) because someone's already done the thinking (particularly in terms of adapting more general knowledge to our sport). So if you're organising a tournament and you foresee a particular problem (for example, bloody hot weather), you might find your answer in AFDA policy.
Which brings me to the second benefit of policy – legitimacy. AFDA policy has been drawn up by some pretty bright sparks, then run through the mill by some more bright sparks, and typically tried and tested in the time since then. So its probably pretty good quality stuff, and well adapted for our sport (as opposed to more general stuff you might find on the web, for example). Just as importantly perhaps, particularly in dealing with people who might disagree with your decisions as an administrator, is that AFDA policy has the force that comes from being approved by the democratically elected representatives of the Australian Ultimate community, that is, the AFDA Board. If someone wants to complain to you about how you've done something, if you can tie it to AFDA policy, then you can tell them to hassle the Board, and get back to work.
No comments:
Post a Comment