New Association

[James Hewitson]

BD,   Finally got round to reading the new association proposal and just thought I'd send out my thoughts:   Overall I think the proposals are a massive step in the right direction and the creation of an association with subscription fees, membership cards, bumper stickers(?) and Personal Accident Cover can only be a good thing (do we get a secret handshake too?) BUT:   1. Where do the other disc sports fit into this scheme? As I read it this is purely an ultimate based association - are we not better presenting a united "disc sports" front to the media, sports Council, BUSA etc?   2. I'm concerned by the lack of attention given to university students (the "lifeblood of our sport") this proposal doesn't seem to do much to help "attract" new players to the sport - while other "university sports" are offering to let someone play pretty much for free all year we're now saying "You can play for free in your first year but if you like playing and want to go to Regionals Indoors in your 2nd year it's gonna cost you �18"...   3. Whilst I appreciate the need to "discourage" players from ducking the main membership fee the �10 per tournament fee seems a bit steep - Given the current tournament costs - this could mean that a visiting player could end up playing up to �25 just to play a tournament - Perhaps a better solution being that each team is allowed one guest player, who would need to be rostered (with reasons) as such, these guest players could then be monitored to see if the sytem is being abused ??   4. Will you be offering the ability for teams to register "en masse" with the money coming via the "club representative" - not all potential members will have access to the internet, a credit card or even a cheque book ?   5. Is a �18 vs �30 differential for Unwaged vs Waged fair (I'll leave others to argue about just who it may be unfair on!) and how are we proposing to check up on unwaged status and how often will this status be confirmed?   Subject to clarification of point 1 above BUA seems like a pretty sensible name - I think someone already beat us to British Ultimate Players Association :-)   Just to re-iterate I believe this is a great idea and one we should actively pursue...   Balti BAF34