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From: "British Ultimate Federation" <buf@ultimateweb.co.uk>
To: "BRITDISC" <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>
Subject: Paying for Ultimate - A Proposal
Date: Sat, 10 Apr 1999 20:40:19 +0100
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Dear All,

Those of you who were at Hitchin will already have had a chance to read this
important proposal (attached below) but we want to make sure everyone gets a
chance to read it.

Please take the time to read this carefully and return (constructive)
criticism of the proposal.

Apologies to team main contacts who may receive this twice. Please can you
circulate this email amongst your teams. Copies will also be posted to all
team contacts shortly.

We look forward to your response.

Thanks

The British Ultimate Federation Committee.

=======================================================================

Paying for Ultimate – A Proposal

Ultimate is growing. In the last five years the number of teams in the UK
has doubled, the standard of play has increased tremendously and the sport
is beginning to be noticed. Perhaps because of its academic roots, the way
it is run has not changed much from the ‘President – Secretary – Treasurer’
university sports club management style. This has kept the sport going for
many years but is now beginning to let us down.

To give them credit, the various BUF committees have given a lot of time and
have all added their bit, but generally this has always been focused on the
bare essentials; scheduling the major tournaments, administrating
membership, etc.

Through the following conversation with an imaginary (and somewhat cynical!)
player we hope to persuade you that we have a viable proposal to shake up
the whole organisation and run things properly.


PLAYER: Why does the BUF never really seem to be doing anything for us
except taking our money?

BUF: Because the whole organisation is entirely run by volunteers who have
their own careers and can’t always make Frisbee their number one priority.
As it happens, the BUF officers do a lot of work behind the scenes. The
committee regularly receives up to 30 letters and emails per day and has an
unceasing stream of rule and regulation queries to deal with. Unfortunately
this generally isn't very interesting work and mostly involves hassling
other ultimate players, writing letters and licking stamps.

As the sport grows (currently approximately 2000 players) the situation will
only get worse. We believe the only way to solve this problem is to pay
people to do the administration work and newsletter production so that the
elected officers can concentrate on the development of the sport.


PLAYER: How could the BUF ever afford to pay salaries?

BUF: By becoming an association with individual membership just like other
countries (e.g. the UPA in America.)


PLAYER: Isn’t individual membership just making more work for the
organisation?

BUF. Individual membership would increase the work of the administrator but
the benefits of having proper contact with every player in the country would
make it worthwhile. The organisation would be able to communicate properly
with all players and the opportunities for starting new teams and helping
special interest groups (e.g. women or juniors) would be huge. Rostering of
teams would become a lot easier with a proper national database of players.


PLAYER: This means I would have to pay more money, doesn’t it?

BUF: Yes, but then the sport is currently so cheap it is almost free. The
average player pays about £10 per year to the BUF through team affiliation
fees and tournament tax. We are suggesting an annual individual membership
of, say, £25. This would allow us to abolish team fees and tournament tax
completely.


PLAYER: What would we get for our money?

BUF: Most important of all is a regular newsletter posted to all members.
Other individual benefits could include individual personal accident
insurance and cheap discs.

For the good of the sport there would be someone running the national
organisation properly so that enquiries are dealt with, information is
provided, initiatives are supported and players are kept informed. Our
national teams could be supported properly with maybe some financial
assistance in the future. We could maintain contact with players who move or
graduate and need to find or start new teams. In general, direct
correspondence from the organisation rather than through team contacts would
improve communication immensely.


PLAYER: Who is going to police association membership at tournaments?

BUF: Clearly the association would have to make sure that players at
official tournaments were all fully paid members. With the increasing
requirement for team rosters at tournaments it would be difficult for people
to slip the net. In any case, we think most players would want to become
members in order to receive the benefits mentioned above.


PLAYER: What about students and junior players who cannot afford individual
membership?

BUF: It may be best to let these groups continue under the current team
affiliation set-up. Apart from anything else, trying to keep in contact with
individual student members would be very difficult. One idea might be to
give these groups a bit more autonomy from the main national organisation.
This is beginning to happen quite naturally now anyway as student ultimate
becomes larger and more organised whilst the non-student teams are playing
at a higher level.


PLAYER: When might this happen?

BUF: This is up to you. If the consensus on this proposal is positive then
there is no reason why we should not consider going ahead within the next
twelve months. The BUF is not going to make this happen unless it has the
full support of players at all levels. It is likely that we might hold some
sort of referendum for teams to make the final decision.

The purpose of this letter is just to spark debate and gauge peoples’
feelings on the organisation of the sport in this country. We must have
input from players to make this get off the ground. Please contact us with
your comments suggestions or questions:-

British Ultimate Federation   buf@ultimateweb.co.uk                  0116
2559638
PO Box 1
Swan House
Leicester
LE9 5ZW


QUICK SUMMARY:

The Federation is replaced with an Association of individual members who pay
a single annual fee.

The Association communicates directly with players

Members receive individual benefits such as a regular newsletter posted to
them and personal accident insurance.

The Association employs people to produce the newsletter and deal with the
administration tasks.