Folks, We have problems with our competition in MAISA. While the Executive Committee has passed legislation that will address the problems to a degree, we need to deal with some basic problems. Here are some of the problems and situations to think about. 1. Poorly run events. The requirement that at detailed request be submitted for the addition of new events and from teams whose events have been poorly done will help. Teams will be required to give MAISA assurance that they are properly prepared to run a regatta BEFORE they are granted an event. At the least, they will have to give some attention the magnitude of the endeavor BEFORE they ask for an event. 2. Late withdrawals from events that leave little or no time to secure a replacement. The Executive Committee has moved to address this. 3. The heart of the problem for the teams that run small events, lies with the fact that MAISA wants as many teams as it can get in order to have as many spots at the nationals as possible. So, we don't put much scrutiny into evaluating new teams and we don't want to make the task of setting up and running a team seem too big and, thus, scare off potential teams. So, teams start only to be gone in a short time. Some leave without ever having done a single race. Those teams fill events (or, make then seem filled) only to leave them short right before the event. 4. We could get far more restrictive with adding teams, but that isn't going to sit well with the teams who have a legitimate chance of going to the nationals. However, keep in mind that only FIVE MAISA teams went to one of the Spring National Championships and, at best, only eight could be considered to have had a real shot at going. That makes having the rest of the 40+ MAISA teams put up with poor events, weak competitors and unfilled events in order to send one more team to the Nationals seem pretty stupid. Still, when MAISA looks good, all the teams in MAISA look good. The point is that in order for the smaller teams to support the aspirations of the big teams, the big teams should be looking to support the small teams, even if only by supporting MAISA rules that address the problems. 5. A suggestion I would like to advance is that we send new teams only to events specifically organized for new and developing teams. These would be more like our Clinic & Regatta, but these would be smaller events that could be run by smaller teams. As smaller events, they could give more individual attention and as "special instructional events" they would not be so competitive that the last place teams gets constantly lapped by the better teams. The Riley, OCN, and SMC regattas featured this drastic difference in skill and the delays that result. The basic idea is that we may accomplish more with several smaller clinics than we can with one big one. Perhaps setting up one in each region would work well. CNU has not offered to host the clinic because we can't host a large number of teams. We would and could for a smaller group. The weakest MAISA teams could also be confined to these regattas. 6. So, on the one hand, we have smaller events being left unfilled due to poor planning by weaker teams and bigger events being degraded by teams that really are not good enough to be there. While we are striving to fill all events, we could do more to fill them with teams that are of similar skill levels. The draft order does this to a degree. However, it does more to keep the weakest teams out of the biggest events. It doesn't do so well as we go deeper in to MAISA. 7. I'm opening this discussion and hoping for new ideas as to how we can improve. I certainly don't have all the answers, but there must be some things we can do if we only look for them. Our goals should be: Competition between teams of similar skill levels. Full regattas. Better run regattas - both the big and the small. A developmental system that encourages and nurtures new teams, not that overwhelms them. A greater sense of responsibility on the part of smaller teams. Dan Winters, CNU
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