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mrbiggs · 10-01-2005, 02:45 PM

Has a map of all the divisions or sections been made before? I can't find one on the USFA site.

mrbiggs · 10-01-2005, 03:09 PM

Okay, well, I made a division map from the USFA website.

Texas didn't come out too well, and I couldn't figure Pennsylvania out at all.

I found Massachusettes to be hard, even though I go there all the time for tournaments

Tell me if anything is inaccurate.

JEC · 10-01-2005, 07:28 PM

http://oldsite.usfencing.org/Clubs/

Indirectly. As you click in the state, it shows the division lines.

oiuyt · 10-01-2005, 08:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrbiggs

Okay, well, I made a division map from the USFA website.

Texas didn't come out too well, and I couldn't figure Pennsylvania out at all.

I found Massachusettes to be hard, even though I go there all the time for tournaments

Tell me if anything is inaccurate.

Pennsylvania is now VERY easy to figure out... as of the latest USFA Congress meeting all of the division boundaries are county lines. Oh, and a bit of Delaware (listed as national division on your map) was tacked onto Philadelphia Division.

Separate note, a bunch of Western MA, that you have listed as Hudson-Berkshire, is actually Connecticut. H-B only gets Berkshire County (the one right adjacent to the border). The Springfield/Northampton area isn't easy because the official boundaires have not been followed with the local club affiliations.

UMass and Amherst College (in Amherst, MA) each have USFA clubs in Connecticut Division. Moving West you quickly encounter Pioneer Valley Performing Arts in Hadley (an adjacent town to Amherst, and the town between Amherst and Northampton), which, at times has been a USFA club, in the New England division. Farther West is Northampton, current home of the Northampton Fencing Club (New England), and former home of the Northampton Fencing Center (New England) and Pioneer Valley Fencing Academy (Connecticut). Both of these latter two clubs are currently in Easthampton (which, unsurprisingly borders NoHo to the Southeast). Northampton Fencing Center has also recently had space in South Hadley. Salle d'Armes Springfield, which hasn't been in operation for the past several years has variously had space in Springfield, Chicopee (just South of South Hadley), and Northampton, and was a member of the Connecticut Division. Smith College, Mount Holyoke College, and Hampshire College all have clubs that may or may not have been USFA member clubs at any point in the past. Smith thinks of itself as part of New England, MHC and HC consider themselves part of CT (for reference, the locations of these three are Northampton, South Hadley, and Hadley respectively).

There are a TON of clubs in the area (helped by the cluster of 5 colleges that each have clubs, plus 2 high school clubs, in addition to the 2 private (and 1 no-longer-functioning) clubs. All in 5 contiguous towns with a total population of ~100,000.

It MIGHT be possible to draw lines that result in contiguous division boundaries, but only by massively gerrymandering the area (Northampton Fencing Center and Pioneer Valley Fencing Academy are about 4 blocks apart, and probably about 2 as the crow flies (my old house, before I moved to Philly, was between the two of them, although neither had their current spaces until just after I left). Where are the official lines? Good question. I know that about a dozen years ago the UMass club received official permission to switch from NE to CT division, that's likely when the problems started, but with the exception of Salle d'Armes Springfield, and POSSIBLY Northampton Fencing Club, all of the other clubs have been created since that date.

West Virginia is a part of Western PA Division, not Virginia Division.

-B

mrbiggs · 10-01-2005, 09:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JEC

http://oldsite.usfencing.org/Clubs/

Indirectly. As you click in the state, it shows the division lines.

Not for all of them...

But that's how I got the information in the first place.

Thanks for the information, oiuyt.

If anyone cares, I plan to eventually do maps showing tournament strength, number of fencers, number of ranked fencers, etc., for each division.

dknj · 10-01-2005, 10:13 PM

The same map that was on the old site is on the new site.

DHCJr · 10-01-2005, 10:30 PM

Orange Coast is a little bigger than that, since it includes all of Orange County and from 20 to 25? of L.A. County.

mrbiggs · 10-01-2005, 11:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DHCJr

Orange Coast is a little bigger than that, since it includes all of Orange County and from 20 to 25? of L.A. County.

Someone has to tell the USFA, then. I copied California directly from their site, because it was too complicated for me to replicate.

Plus, it was already color coded.

http://oldsite.usfencing.org/Clubs/c...t.asp?State=CA

I would modify it (you are from there, after all...), but I don't really know the area well enough to do a good job.

(And the state maps are not on the new site, dknj)

DHCJr · 10-02-2005, 04:06 AM

You're right. Looking at the USFA map it is obvious they only show the Orange County part, not the L.A. County part. I wouldn't change it.

ReverseLunge · 10-02-2005, 04:15 AM

USFA sucks. 22 thousand + members and no way to pay for memebership online. Are they just too cheap to get a merchant account?

Black Jeebus · 10-02-2005, 12:00 PM

You might want to label the divisions with numbers. And organize the list alphabetically.

oiuyt · 10-02-2005, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Black Jeebus

You might want to label the divisions with numbers. And organize the list alphabetically.

Also I'd suggest using colors a bit more carefully. You have so many colors that nearby divisions (close to, but not adjacent) shouldn't have the same color (eg GMD and CT)). The numbers idea is a good one, would help with finding names in the key.

-B

SmokeyTheCat263 · 10-02-2005, 02:00 PM

Biggs - West Virginia is part of the Western Pennsylvania division. Yes, all of it.

Chuck · 10-03-2005, 01:16 AM

The Texas division lines on the USFA Texas map are not anywhere close to what is listed in the USFA records. We researched the Plains Texas Division lines from official records and published them on our division website at http://plainstexasdivision.tripod.com/map, with a more accurate map as well. Our division is actually smaller than what is shown on the USFA site.

Chuck · 10-03-2005, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mrbiggs

Okay, well, I made a division map from the USFA website.

Texas didn't come out too well, and I couldn't figure Pennsylvania out at all.

I found Massachusettes to be hard, even though I go there all the time for tournaments

Tell me if anything is inaccurate.

I suspect that all of the Texas division boundaries are inaccurate but I can only speak specifically for the Plains Texas Division. If you were relying on the old USFA map, that is a problem. I believe they just guessed at the approximate lines. USFA records do contain the actual boundaries but you have to research them. We did that with our division and published the actual lines on our division website, as well as an accurate map. If you want to know our actual boundary lines, go to

http://plainstexasdivision.tripod.com/information.html.

KD5MDK · 10-03-2005, 01:51 AM

Offhand, I thought the Border Texas division covered most of the border, but I don't know at all why I thought that.

oiuyt · 10-03-2005, 09:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

Offhand, I thought the Border Texas division covered most of the border, but I don't know at all why I thought that.

Meh, then you'd probably think New England division covered most of New England (for reference, it covers Rhode Island and Eastern MA, omitting the rest of MA, and all of CT, VT, NH, and ME).

-B

schlager7 · 10-03-2005, 11:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chuck

I suspect that all of the Texas division boundaries are inaccurate but I can only speak specifically for the Plains Texas Division.

It's a bit off on the Gulf Coast Division, as well, but close enough for these purposes.

mrbiggs · 10-03-2005, 11:41 AM

Thanks for the corrections, everyone. I'll update it sometime soon.

By the way, it seems that Texas and California are significantly incorrect on the USFA site, and I assume that whoever made the maps basically eyeballed some general definitions. Where can I get more accurate division boundary definitions?

oso97 · 10-03-2005, 12:00 PM

A good place to start is the Division By-laws of the division in question. Division By-laws are supposed to contain a description of the boundaries.