Brisbane Ultimate Strategic Plan (BUSP) - Brisbane on the National Stage

So as discussed in previous weeks, discussion continues on the Brisbane Ultimate Strategic Plan (BUSP) 2011-2013.

Part of the focus so far has been on League play, and equally some boundaries about gray areas between Brisbane Ultimate and state-wide/Queensland Ultimate have been discussed. For example, for 2011-2013 at least, the BUSP won't be talking about schools Ultimate or fostering tournaments. These are jobs for QUDA as they are relevant statewide.

But one gray area that's still being considered is whether and how League play has a role in supporting Brisbane on the national stage?

At the moment is is a policy void for QUDA as well as BUDA. It's also pretty challenging as most key Ultimate volunteers are passionate about this area.

At the moment, this sort of thing is left to these grouping of players themselves. Players come together, organise their clubs, training, shirts, etc - all separately from the other things that are going on in Brisbane Ultimate.

I would love to see some strategic plan by the governing bodies about this (even if the strategic plan could well be "we'll leave this to clubs themselves to sort").

But I think that many folks see the logic in strengthening the links between League play and Brisbane on the national scene.

Does this include the BUSP supporting development camps, training, coaching etc? Do we make money in Leagues and put it into supporting our representative times (like practically every other sport in the country)? Does the BUSP commit us as a group to aiming to have one Brisbane representative club in each national division with the very best players campaigning together? Or should we try to have lots of clubs each developing themselves through Leagues all the way through to pushing onto the national stage if they can?

A theme or thread for the BUSP could well be something like "build a base that supports Brisbane teams being competitive on the national and international scene" or "make Brisbane a city that great players want to move to."

I'll put one big reminder or caveat on any of this discussion. The BUSP aims to run 2011 to 2013. Decisions about things like the above may not necessarily "come in to force" on 1 Jan 2011. Some folks are already thinking about their national and international campaigns for next year. But maybe we can work out where we want to be by 2013 or later, and work backwards and forwards to that.

Brisbane Ultimate Strategic Plan (BUSP) - Doing Better at Establishing New Leagues

So as discussed last week, thinking progresss on the Brisbane Ultimate Strategic Plan 2011-2013, and we here at stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion once again have the desire to share a concept and invite some comments. Note that everyone in Brisbane will get a say in the eventual Plan - think of this post as a chat at the pub.

Strategic Direction - Doing Better at Establishing New Leagues

So one of the blobs that regularly floats to the surface when discussing Brisbane Ultimate over the years that we've been paying attention is the establishment of new Leagues. Typically this involves thinking along the lines of at least one of the following:

1. it seems our current Leagues have run out of field space, so new field space should be found and a new thing set up.
2. there are lots of pesky beginners (bless them) running around - maybe we should hive them all off into a separate thing (the same thing could be said of elite players too).
3. we want to grow Ultimate, so setting up a new thing in a place and time different to what we have at present will attract new people, as well as give existing players another opportunity to play.

Each of these lines of thought seem to be articles of faith, and while essentially right are of course challengeable - an existing League can operate across multiple venues, many beginners want to play with and learn from their experienced rather than play in a baby League, new geographic areas aren't that important it seems, etc etc.

Sadly, in the recent past when we've tried to set up new Leagues, the model seems to have been Ultimate sending a few individuals off into the wilderness to find a field and make it happen. There is no willingness to change what exists to support the new.

This suggests to me that our efforts to do this in the past have been ‘opportunistic’ rather than ‘strategic’. I say sadly because these efforts seem to be somewhat doomed to failure. Jangles has been struggling manfully to get some regular northside play going for some time now. In the middle of 2009 JdR tried to get some play happening on Wednesday nights at Nathan, with little success.

Part of strategic thinking is about what sacrifices will you make for what benefits. In the past we haven’t been willing to even consider the balance, let alone actually change anything that exists (ie no sacrifice) to do more to ensure the success of any new ventures.

Strategic decision making is about weighing up what are the best short term pains for long term gains.

So here's a couple of guidelines that might go in a Brisbane Ultimate Strategy, with regards new Leagues.

Have a Solid Core
First, we need to do better than just sending a couple of keen people off into the wilderness. Perhaps the Brisbane Ultimate Strategic Plan needs to say that BUDA will support efforts to set up new Leagues, if:
- the proposed new League is being proposed by an established Ultimate club or group; or
- the proposed new League is the natural extension of an existing weekly Ultimate event (eg training, pickup); or
- at least three teams from an existing League are committed to the proposed new League.

Stating this clearly helps to manage the expectations of the membership, and remind keen volunteers that successfully setting up a new League in Brisbane is probably going to need more than a couple of people. You need a solid base. Even if you think you can recruit a lot of new people into the sport, you need to have enough experienced people to bring them along into a new sport that doesn’t have officials to tell you when to start, what to do, what not to do, etc etc.

So, if you want to set up a new League, you need to have a sizable number of people willing to make the sacrifice of leaving their present comfort zone of League play, for the longer term benefit

Then Look for Fields
If one of the above conditions can be met, then the next step is to secure fields at the desired weekday and time. This is purely mechanical, and everyone has ideas about where and when would be nice, as this is the easy bit (this is also why discussions previously have always jumped straight to this, ie people at the pub saying “what we really need is a league on this night in that suburb”. The hard part of this has usually been in a willingness to spend a long time looking and building potential relationships. Its very rare for a field provider to have a field just sitting there empty at a time and price we’d be interested in (of course, when this happens it’s a good thing if we’re ready to jump!).

Financial Subsidy
I haven’t talked much about obvious sacrifice yet, but we’re getting to the harder end now. In supporting new Leagues, we will need to make a clear decision about whether existing Leagues financially subsidise new Leagues or not.

In the past we haven’t really and clearly (we sort of have, and its been ad hoc). The ‘new leagues’ element of our strategic plan needs to explain this clearly one way or the other.

I think they should, because new Leagues need to be able to make a loss so as to attract players, and because players in existing Leagues benefit from having new Leagues. They benefit in terms of great legitimacy for our sport, for making it easier for new people to come into the sport, for reducing the load on existing Leagues, and for increasing their own long term choices.

It is also necessary to make the new Leagues attractive. Say for example the new League gets enough field space for 90 players, but to start it only attracts 45. If those 45 have to pay close double to support the fixed costs of the League, then this won’t be very attractive.

Hence, perhaps the form and amount of subsidy provided should be based on the budget of what the new League would charge as a player or team fee if the new League were relatively full – ie if the new League would cost $40 if it was full and had around 90 players, then you charge something close to $40 (rather than $70) even while it has 45 players for its first season and is getting established. Brisbane Ultimate as a whole adds in what it has too, taking that money from other Leagues. (Figures above are just rough for example).

Calendaring ‘Subsidy’
A second thing we haven’t done too well in the past and could do a lot more about is ensuring the best possible launch of a new League by adjusting the calendaring of other Leagues.

As discussed earlier, to succeed, new Leagues need to have a number of current players join it from the start. Current players at the moment are getting all the Ultimate they want (this is a topic for another post – are we seeing a decline in growth and the level of volunteering because the old motivation of wanting to grow Ultimate so you could play more yourself is now gone?), so there are few reasons to join a new League.

In planning new Leagues then, we need to launch them at times when there isn’t a lot of other Ultimate on, and going a step further, actively reduce the amount of other Ultimate available.

Again, obviously this involves some sort of sacrifice for current players – eg having your League season start moved and length possibly shortened for reasons outside your immediate League.

A lot of the above will annoy people. These are hard decisions to make. But this is what real strategic planning is about. This is what we have been missing in Brisbane, with our general disorganised ad hoc approach, and we’re getting left behind by the other capitals around Australia.

Of course, I’ll caveat again that a strategic plan is intended to be a guide. Stuff can change and you need to be able to go with it – eg Oakman Park just offers us Wednesday nights out of the blue. Equally, a strategic plan is ideally representative about a series of decisions a group has made, about the sacrifices its willing to make for the goals it is most eager to attain. To make Oakman Park work, where Northside and Nathan Wednesday’s didn’t, we need to think outside our present box.

As usual, comment lines are open.

Brisbane Ultimate Strategic Plan (BUSP) - New Player Friendly

So folks (including the Lord of the stately Brisbane Ultimate Blog mansion) are starting to work on the Brisbane Ultimate Strategic Plan 2011-2013. The process is going to be something like a small group doing some thinking and writing together, before putting a draft document out for everyone to consider and provide feedback on, probably via a meeting of something.

To help smooth some of this, occasionally there'll be some posting here on the blog, being as it is a central point for many members of the "chattering classes" of Brisbane Ultimate. So today, a ramble about the importance of new players and what we could be our strategies for getting more and managing them better.

One important thing to keep in mind - the BUSP is not going to change things tomorrow. Some things included in the BUSP may occur at the start of next year, others may be agreed to be good ideas but deferred until 2013. The timing of change is one of our key strategic issues, after all!

Strategic Direction – Making All Leagues ‘New Player Friendly’

There is regularly talk about how to integrate new players into Brisbane Ultimate. Its taken as an article of faith that we want new people to join our sport, and we generally do a good job of this, if in a fairly ad hoc manner.

Thinking about how we integrate new players is frequently tied up with how to manage ‘beginners’. I’m keen to separate out these ideas, as discussions about ‘beginners’ lead us to a belief in the need for beginner leagues run by kind hearted experienced players, which is valid but only takes us in one direction.

At the least, the problem with a concept of a ‘beginner league’ falls over when the beginner league goes into a second season and most people who’ve gotten used to playing at that place and time aren’t beginners any more!

‘New players’ thus includes ensuring we welcome people who are familiar with Ultimate and new to Brisbane. As Ultimate continues to gain wider recognition world-wide, and as people continue to come and go from Brisbane, this will be a growing flow of players. We need to be new player focused to ensure these people come and play Ultimate with us, rather than taking up other options competing for their time in their new home.

My thinking in terms of strategic plan 2011-2013 is that we endeavour to define how all Leagues in Brisbane can be "new player friendly". If we establish this, then we have something that we can try to do consistently across the different places and times to play in Brisbane, as well as carry from season to season.

I also say that by ‘all Leagues being new player friendly’ I include BPL or any ‘elite’ League. The difference between BPL and other Leagues is that the LD puts emphasis on whether new players are welcome onto Captains. A BPL Captain could decide to take on a rank beginner (and in practice may well do that if they have a superb athlete who they think they can train up quickly). In contrast, in our ‘non-elite’ Leagues, efforts are make by LDs in cooperation with Captains to ensure that all new players can find a place on an existing team, or if numbers require it, new teams will be set up specifically to accommodate new players, often with leadership support from spirited experienced players.

So, to be new player friendly all Leagues could (and please remember, I propose these as general directions, not iron-clad orders):

· Program at least one night before the start of each season’s fixtures, where new players are specifically encouraged to attend.

This allows new players to have a no obligation taste, find the fields and get a feel for the League, learn to play, to find a team, etc etc. It gives existing players an easy way to introduce friends etc to the League. (Even an elite league would benefit from this, as players from could give playing at a higher level a go.)

This week (ideally two really) also helps LDs and Captains to get the season and their teams together, and returning players to get going again.

Leagues can do this how they want. Some might run it on a team basis – ie training nights. Some might run specific ‘Learn to Play’ if there are experienced players/coaches willing to teach. Some might run pickup at least so there’s an opportunity to turn up and have a go.

I also say 'program' in that if one of these nights is rained out, it isn't 'replayed' - its just too bad and fixtures should still start on time.

[a strategic alternative might be to not do this, but instead make a much bigger effort to use and support ‘pickup games’ to fulfil this avenue]

· Have the establishment of multiple divisions as a long term goal for any League

I guess it’s a given that all Leagues seek to grow, and that they will if necessary seek multiple locations to support this growth (or at least, this would be discussed in other parts of the strategic plan). Multiple divisions multiply the entry points for new players. They also strengthen retention of players, as players get to play at a level that suits them – they get a more consistent experience from week to week, and can aspire to improve and move up. Multiple divisions also seem to be easier to manage than a single big one.

A rule of thumb for Brisbane Ultimate could be that any competition that achieves 8 or more reliable teams should get cracking on planning to split into two divisions. Equally, if we have two competitions on the same night and within a reasonable distance of each other, then once they achieve a certain collective size, we should encourage them to merge and ‘divisionise’ themselves.

· All League seasons should start around the same time of year

Aside from the obvious of being able to do a single promotional effort, and also making it straight forward for individuals to move between Leagues. Leagues starting around the same time helps new players get into the League that’s right for them. [this assumes a separate discussion that agrees that LDs cooperate to plan the year together across all of Brisbane]

· Look to have more and shorter seasons, rather than fewer longer ones

There is great benefit for LDs to have longer seasons. A large part of your admin effort goes to getting the season started, teams sorted etc etc. Ongoing players like longer seasons too, as they want routine rather than the non-routine of seasons finishing and starting. Frequently they also express the desire to ‘play every team’ for social or competitive reasons.

But, the start of the season is the best time for new players to join. So increasing the number of starts will increase the opportunities for new players. Draws can be constructed to manage this.

Shorter seasons also tend to be cheaper in pure dollar teams (although not necessarily value for money due to slight loss of economy of scale). A 16 week season might cost $160, where a 6 week season costs $60. Which one is more appealing to a new player?

· Leagues should have mechanisms so that new players can join during the season

As the sport gets more competitive, so too do Captains and players want to see consistency in rosters etc through the season. But, to be welcoming to new players, we need to have mechanisms that allow these people to join during a season. The nature of this should vary of course depending on each League’s circumstances – eg an elite League might have an LD acting as an impartial drafter, who allocates new players to specific teams based on their sense of ‘balance’. Another League may leave it to Captains to recruit as they wish during seasons (typically people bringing along their mates), based on what this means for their individual team’s ‘time on the field’ and so forth. There could also be fee reductions etc for the new player and/or a team that takes them on. What is important is that new players are not turned away.


I'll conclude by reminding that the above is only one train of thought in terms of the BUSP, and the ideas here need to be compared to others and decisions made (the most important thing in doing a strategic plan is that you make hard decisions and commit to sticking to them for the next three years). So for example in saying "have more and shorter seasons" to make it easier for new players, we would have to balance that against a desire to have "round robin + finals seasons" to support competitive play, "only one or two seasons" to reduce administrative load, and so forth.

Anyway, ramble out. Comment lines are open - minds are also open to all ideas!