Your plans for Sectional qualifiers?

[germanguy]

.....

[fence1848]

Originally Posted by noodle

southeast sectionals this year was too far away and too close to exams for me and anyone in my club to attend, no matter how much i wanted to qualify for 1A. they royally screwed most univeristy students that don't live in virginia. last year it was further away but after school was out. much preferred.

I don't think most university students were screwed by it being April 17-18. It was originally planned for May 1-2, but that was moved because too many schools have finals that week. Also, having sectionals on May 17-18, the weekend before the Summer Nationals entry deadline, is not convenient for ANYONE, least of all the poor national office fax machine.

[noodle]

Originally Posted by fence1848

I don't think most university students were screwed by it being April 17-18. It was originally planned for May 1-2, but that was moved because too many schools have finals that week. Also, having sectionals on May 17-18, the weekend before the Summer Nationals entry deadline, is not convenient for ANYONE, least of all the poor national office fax machine.

well
nobody from mine is going because of the date combined with distance. i'm sure its fine for schools in virginia and whatnot. the week before exams is hell for most university students; may 1st we still have exams going on, but the majority of people are done (all of our fencers are). all i'm saying is that next year, maybe it should be scheduled for the weekend after school is over. last year was perfect even though we had to drive forever to miami. its not the distance, its the timing. (what was wrong with may 8-9, anyway?)

[mlr2fence]

How about if all Sectionals nationwide would be scheduled on the same weekend and placed on the USFA schedule as such and that its held on the same weekend every year? Would that help or hinder people?

[noodle]

Originally Posted by mlr2fence

How about if all Sectionals nationwide would be scheduled on the same weekend and placed on the USFA schedule as such and that its held on the same weekend every year? Would that help or hinder people?

that would be wonderful if done properly
it might also be good to do similar to divisionals

that way tournaments scheduled in other divisions and sections don't get messed up because they're scheduled next to a qualifier tournament.

[fence1848]

I don't think that's really a good idea because it wears your resources a little thin, especially when it comes to referees. Some sections may have a difficult time finding enough referees exclusively within their own section to referee a large, high-level 12-event tournament like sectionals. Many times some sections may have to hire referees from outside the section to referee.

It can also cause conflicts within some "border" divisions. For example - Capitol and Maryland divisions are both Mid-Atlantic but are both very close to Virginia divison, which is Southeast. It is not unheard of for one family member to be from one division and another family member be from another (sometimes has to do with club affiliation). This could cause a serious disruption, since one person has to go north and the other one has to go south both on the same weekend.

[fencerX]

Originally Posted by Capt. Slo-mo

As others have mentioned, we have the odd problem of having our sectional in Alaska this year (for the PacNW). Normally, sectionals are something you can drive to easily.

However it's normally not driveable for those in Alaska.

IIRC the PNW sectionals were at Fort Richardson (Anchorage) back in 1999 as well. Once every 5 years doesn't seem unreasonable.

For a number of fencers in our lower 48 portion of the section, flying to Alaska is just too expensive to add a junior or Div1A event to the list at Summer Nats.

While it still may be too expensive for some, there are fares available for $200 roundtrip from SEA to ANC. That's the lowest that route has seen in years. That's even less than what some Alaskans will have to pay for airfare to get to ANC themselves.

[noodle]

Originally Posted by fence1848

I don't think that's really a good idea because it wears your resources a little thin, especially when it comes to referees. Some sections may have a difficult time finding enough referees exclusively within their own section to referee a large, high-level 12-event tournament like sectionals. Many times some sections may have to hire referees from outside the section to referee.

It can also cause conflicts within some "border" divisions. For example - Capitol and Maryland divisions are both Mid-Atlantic but are both very close to Virginia divison, which is Southeast. It is not unheard of for one family member to be from one division and another family member be from another (sometimes has to do with club affiliation). This could cause a serious disruption, since one person has to go north and the other one has to go south both on the same weekend.

valid points, though the split family thing is a very rare occasion in which it would cause a problem.
could work out something to alternate adjacent sections between two weekends if necessary to help alleviate the directing problem?

[DJ Flow]

I plan to drive up to OKC and bust a few fools in the mouth, same as always. What else is there to worry about?

[Schiavona]

As Fencer X pointed out, having to go to Alaska one year out of five sure beats having to fly/drive 1000+ miles four years out of five! Anyway, the people who do come up here won't find that Sectionals has been relocated 600 miles away in another state-which happened to me in the 80's when I went down for it, during a year I was Alaska Division Chair. Thank God for the internet, things have come a long way since then.

Though no FOC rep this year. Cheapskate Section!

[Inquartata]

Originally Posted by Schiavona

As Fencer X pointed out, having to go to Alaska one year out of five sure beats having to fly/drive 1000+ miles four years out of five!

Yeah, but Alaskans have all that oil-derived bonus money to spend on airfare.

[Schiavona]

Our PFD money gets all eaten up by our cost of living ripoffs. Yeah, we all could move but that would mean living Outside (SHUDDER!). The daily price gouging is remenisent of fencing gear prices in the USA as opposed to the EU.

Personally, we spend ours visiting family at Christmas time. OOPS! There goes $1200! And they don't hold tournaments in mid-winter in Seattle.