Thanks Si, That goes a long way to explaining the excellent vision the UKU does have. I look forward to Benji's part.
Scraggy, On Tue, Jun 8, 2010 at 11:22 AM, UKU Admin <[email protected]> wrote: > Phil and BD > > Thanks for your email - its a really good point. Some action: > > 1. You spurred me into writing down the outcome of some work that was done > last year about UKU priorities. I put it on an area of the UKU website that > is laughably called my blog. I knew that idea would get me into trouble. > Anyway... > > My blog is here: > http://www.ukultimate.com/blogs/si_hill > > I've also copy & pasted the text of this latest article into this email - > see below. > > 2. Benji will be publishing a document later today that outlines how the > changes we've planned for the National Championships will work - at least > specifically talking about how Regionals will be handled. > > 3. This seems like a good moment to say that a team led by Andy Kayley in > Southampton will be running Nationals 2010 in Southampton (at the venue used > for EUC 2007 amongst other things) - but that we have been discussing an > arrangement where that team will also run Nationals at the same venue on a > similar date in 2011 and 2012. HOWEVER - Beach Worlds 2011 has kind of > scuppered those plans for 2011, and so disappointingly we don't quite have > 2011 and 2012 Nationals nailed down yet - but we are actively working on it > at the moment. > > 4. To anyone: would you consider helping to re-instate a monthly member > update email? If so please let me know. > > Thanks > > Si > > > "UKU Priorities 2009-2012" > > Apologies for the grand-sounding title. Some time ago, the Board went > through a process of reviewing what *UKU* should be about, and what our > goals should be. In the interests of responding to Phil Richardson's very > good point about "there's not enough information about what *UK Ultimate* is > doing" (sent to Britdisc 7th June 2010) here is a quick summary of those > goals. There have been a couple of aborted attempts to produce something > more polished... > > In a nutshell, the process we went through was to consider all the > different people that come into contact with Ultimate in the UK: mostly > players of course; but also coaches, would-be spectators, *UKU *staff & > volunteers, school teachers, and so on. We also split the players group > into "social", "competitive" and "elite" without worrying a great deal about > exactly where to draw the line between those groups. We then attempted to > look at Ultimate through the eyes of those groups, and list out and > prioritise their "requirements". Finally we took those lists and did some > work to consolidate them - in particular picking out the areas that seemed > important to multiple groups. I think its fair to say we also put more > weight behind the requirements of the player-groups. > > The outcome was that *UK Ultimate* would (broadly) try to work to the > following priorities until reviewing the situation again towards the end of > 2012. Its worth noting that we've been trying to follow these priorities > since 2009 actually. > > - Player growth > - Localized/regional competitions > - Coaching > - Cross-train teachers and community coaches > - L1/L2 -> all existing clubs > - Stretching the top level -> better support for international > competitors > - Lead player debate around SOTG > - Participant, coach, organiser safety > - Sustainable staff and volunteer organisation > > One thing we recognised was that we really really needed to agree that some > areas would receive less attention even though that would cause tension and > problems. Its also obvious to say that some of the things that are not in > the list still have to happen anyway - and this tends to be my biggest > challenge when trying to live to those priorities. So - things that are > evidently not there but still need and get attention: > > - Existing domestic competition structure (in particular The *UKU* > Tour) > - There is nothing about Indoor or Beach Ultimate > - No emphasis on pro-active promotion unless it obviously helps player > or growth or perhaps sponsorship for GB > - Nothing about overhauling the website, or improving > member-communications! Although I'm not doing a great job of communicating > broadly, I do spend a lot of time in discussions (by email and phone) with > all sorts of players and *UKU* members that contact "the office". > > So how are we doing against the priorities? Hmm. I'd say mostly OK, could > do better. And I'll commit to talking about each of those priorities in > this blog over the next few weeks... > > > > > On Mon, Jun 7, 2010 at 4:24 PM, Phil Richardson > <[email protected]>wrote: > >> Benji, >> >> May I congratulate you and every one working hard on all players behalf to >> keep the Tour at the forefront of the development of competitive Ultimate >> in >> the UK. >> >> Could I ask that you and the committee working on this to offer some >> enlightenment on where this might lead to next year. Perhaps you could >> have >> a statement of the intended changes or a draft of ideas ready for all the >> members of the UKU by the end of this season? >> >> I respect that there are a lot of volunteer hours going in here (and admit >> that I do not wish to step up to the plate on Tour scheduling) but I do >> think we have reach a point where our national organisation needs to start >> thinking 2 - 3 years ahead to be fair to the members. We are beginning to >> reach a point where by the networks disseminating the information from the >> UKU are extending quickly but the flow of information is not increasing. >> I >> say this because I find an increasing number of players with Tour >> experience >> that are not on BD and do not read the UKU Updates. >> >> I would like to note I do appreciate the current changes going to to draw >> the European teams over to the UK and I see UKU making great gains in its >> organisation and structure. So please carry on but plan and communicate a >> little further ahead. >> >> >> >> Scraggy >> >> >> On Thu, Jun 3, 2010 at 10:10 AM, UKU Director of Competitions < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >> > Just a reminder that the Birmingham venue will host the top 32 teams for >> > Tour 2, meaning all those who played T1 in London (except the 5 >> > non-returning European teams) and the top 13 teams from Bishop's Cleeve. >> > Other teams, and Women's, will be in Burton. >> > >> > I don't imagine there will be drop-outs at that top level, but if any >> team >> > amongst that top 32 is not intending to attend T2, please get in touch >> very >> > very soon so that we can bump someone up. >> > >> > Cheers, >> > Benji >> > >> > >> > UKU Director of Competitions wrote: >> > >> >> BD, >> >> >> >> A note about tournament formats for this season, and an explanation. >> >> Long-winded no doubt, but you should see the amount of discussion >> that's >> >> gone into this. >> >> >> >> The competitions committee are very much behind the idea of keeping a >> >> separate identity for the A,B and C tour - it seems to us that most >> people's >> >> imaginations have been caught by the divisional structure and that most >> >> people refer to themselves as 'an A tour team' or 'a B tour team' and >> so on. >> >> The divisions also allow simple schedules to be written for at least >> the top >> >> 32. >> >> >> >> However, for this year, there are some difficulties - of our own >> making, I >> >> suppose, but we didn't see them coming. For Tour 1, we expected 8 >> European >> >> teams, and took the obvious decision to extend T1 A to 24 teams. This >> will >> >> enable us to run perhaps the best Tour event the UK has seen, but it >> has >> >> some knock-on effects. >> >> >> >> We actually have 7 non-UK teams, but in fact 2 of them are intending to >> >> play the whole tour, and thus are not really foreign teams at all under >> the >> >> rules. In particular, they'd expect to hold their seed for T2. So >> instead of >> >> the planned 16 UK and 8 Euro teams, we actually have 19 fully-fledged >> tour >> >> teams at T1 A. Thus, in order to have 3 promoted from the B-tour for >> T2, >> >> we'd have to relegate 6 teams. That's clearly too many. >> >> >> >> Reducing the number promoted is also not appealing, since T1 is not >> >> guaranteed to be well-seeded. And in order to have just our normal 3 >> >> relegated, we'd have to promote no-one at all. >> >> >> >> The possibility of making A-tour 2 larger is unfair on the TD for the >> >> C-tour 2 and Women's who would lose 4 teams' cash - significant money. >> >> >> >> So we've taken the decision that Tour 2 (with A&B co-located) will be a >> >> 32-team format with some crossing over possible around what would >> normally >> >> be the A-tour and B-tour boundary. This will give all the teams the >> chance >> >> to find their level. The top 8 will of course remain peer-pooled - this >> is >> >> an issue around the 16/17 barrier, and we don't want or need to change >> >> things for the top teams. >> >> >> >> There is also a similar problem with B&C tour 1 - only 13 teams can get >> >> into that top 32 for T2, and the same things apply to promotion and >> >> relegation as above. To get 3 C-tour teams promoted, we have to >> relegate 6. >> >> And that means those 6 miss out on playing with the top 32 at T2 and go >> to a >> >> different venue, which is a big thing. >> >> >> >> So again, we have taken the decision to remove some boundaries from >> Tour 1 >> >> B&C. There will be a top 8 (peer-pooled), a middle 16 in 4 pools of 4 >> >> (across the important 9-24 bracket that determines getting into the top >> 32 >> >> for T2) and a bottom 12, followed by the chance to crossover between >> these >> >> brackets. >> >> >> >> Hopefully that all makes sense. And hopefully the big tournament with >> all >> >> those non-UK teams will be so excellent that it's all worth it. >> >> >> >> Cheers, >> >> Benji >> >> >> >> __________________________________________________ >> >> BritDisc mailing list >> >> [email protected] >> >> http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc >> >> Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed >> >> >> >> >> > >> > __________________________________________________ >> > BritDisc mailing list >> > [email protected] >> > http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc >> > Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed >> > >> __________________________________________________ >> BritDisc mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc >> Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed >> > > __________________________________________________ BritDisc mailing list [email protected] http://www.fysh.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/britdisc Staying informed - http://www.ukultimate.com/staying-informed
