From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Wed Jun 9 23:36:40 1999 Received: by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) id XAA16607 for britdisc-outgoing; Wed, 9 Jun 1999 23:35:03 +0100 (BST) Received: from snowdrop.csv.warwick.ac.uk (snowdrop [137.205.192.31]) by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA16595 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Wed, 9 Jun 1999 23:35:01 +0100 (BST) Received: from finch-post-11.mail.demon.net (finch-post-11.mail.demon.net [194.217.242.39]) by snowdrop.csv.warwick.ac.uk (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id XAA03466 for <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk>; Wed, 9 Jun 1999 23:35:00 +0100 (BST) Received: from [158.152.203.174] (helo=[158.152.203.174]) by finch-post-11.mail.demon.net with smtp (Exim 2.12 #1) id 10rqvz-000LBt-0B for britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk; Wed, 9 Jun 1999 22:34:59 +0000 Subject: Re: Ultimate growth Date: Wed, 9 Jun 99 23:36:11 +0100 x-sender: ultimatum@pop3.demon.co.uk x-mailer: Claris Emailer 2.0, March 15, 1997 From: Paul Hurt <paul@ultimatum.demon.co.uk> To: "BritDisc" <britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Message-Id: <E10rqvz-000LBt-0B@finch-post-11.mail.demon.net> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-MIME-Autoconverted: from quoted-printable to 8bit by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk id XAA16596 Sender: owner-britdisc@warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk As Ultimatum editor (why that makes me qualified to pitch in, I'm not sure) here's my thoughts: >> ..... 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. > >Who is this 'management style' letting down? If, as you say later on, that >university clubs represent the largest division of the BUF, then are you >really >expecting to change the way uni societies/clubs are run? I think what Ben meant was that the BUF itself has been run a lot like a big University society i.e. with a President, a Secretary and a Treasurer, all volunteers. >> >> ... 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. > >....similarly, is it not possible to keep a database of players and keep in >contact with them without changing to individual membership? There's currently no incentive for individual players to keep the BUF informed of their whereabouts, nor is there the manpower to maintain such a huge database (it's difficult enough keeping the team contact database up to date). As a result, the BUF has no verifiable figures for the number of players in the country, which is a problem when the BUF comes to represent itself to sponsors or other organisations like the Sports Council. > >> 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. >> > >I actually think that this is similar to a very important question: What do >players actually *want* from the BUF (or whatever it might become)? >Personally, I could happily live without a printed copy of Ultimatum. Ultimatum *could* become a purely online publication. But that would still exclude (I'm guessing) 50% of the players in the country who don't have internet access. And a paper edition is a very useful promotional tool. I don't think we can get the coverage and growth we want without the paper version (which is a shame, since it'd make my life a bit easier if we didn't need to print it ;-) The additional exposure we get by having Ultimatum available as a download is definitely a good thing though. Which reminds me, I'd better get number 38 up there... > >Finally, with regard to paying fees, isn't it logical that you pay >according to >how much involvement you have. Some players may only play in say two/three >tournaments a year. Would £25 for this (and the newsletter telling them about >tournaments they didn't go to) appeal? Don't you think the less tournaments you go to, the *more* important it is that you get the newsletter? I'm sure lots of players gradually dropped out of Ultimate partly because they were no longer in touch with what was happening (I did). This is a real problem for new graduates who move to a part of the country with no teams. Getting a regular newsletter sent to your door would help considerably. As for options for paying less than 25 quid, most other sports will cost you rather more than 25 pounds a year to play even moderately seriously. Tennis? Golf? Sunday league football? If you don't want to participate in Ultimate "seriously", you can decline to become a member, not receive the newsletter, and only play in casual, non-BUF tournaments (at least, that's how I originally understood the proposal). That would seem pretty fair. I would assume that a "guest" player on a Tour team wouldn't need to be a BUF member. > Just think what companies might want to >advertise >to young, athletic graduates. You'd think, wouldn't you? But it seems that we are a far too insignificantly-sized group in the eyes of a company's marketing department, and they don't feel it's worth getting involved for the amount of exposure they get. In the past we've expended a lot of energy trying to get advertising in Ultimatum, with little to show for it. I'm not saying it's not a good idea, it's just that there's a limit to the number of man-hours that can go into producing Ultimatum, and chasing advertising etc has never been a terribly productive use of my time. If advertisers or sponsors want to approach me however, I'm more than happy. I'm not trying to shoot these ideas down in flames, this is just my perspective on things. Paul --------------------------------- Paul Hurt Editor, Ultimatum paul@ultimatum.demon.co.uk http://www.ultimatum.demon.co.uk