USFA accepts Election

[telkanuru]

Originally Posted by epeeforlife

Are you sure? It seems quite obvious.

Apparently you don't know him that well. That's just the way he is in any argument

[epeemike81]

Originally Posted by Mr Epee

Remember just because something is complicated to YOU doesn't mean that it's complicated to someone else.

Now who's insulting intelligence?

But I suppose you're right... after all, I think Mid-East politics is complicated, but President Bush seems to think it's simple enough.

-m

[epeemike81]

Originally Posted by telkanuru

Apparently you don't know him that well. That's just the way he is in any argument

don't you have some shelves to re-stock or something?

-m

[KD5MDK]

Originally Posted by teacup

Wasn't that quite awhile ago? Maybe even last year's summer nationals?

Nope, Tucson and Dallas this season, that I recall. They might have done a Y12 event in SN, but I don't think so.
As I recall, Dan left Dallas with a lot of changes that needed to be made, so it clearly wasn't ready for prime time then.

[Mr Epee]

Originally Posted by epeemike81

Now who's insulting intelligence?

Oh, I wasn't insulting your intelligence. I was simply questioning your knowledge, experience, objectivity, motives, equal-handedness, judgment, and, uh, ability to hold your liquor. yeah.

But I suppose you're right... after all, I think Mid-East politics is complicated, but President Bush seems to think it's simple enough.

-m

Dude, seriously?

Welcome to reductio ad Bushum - the newest addition to the Godwin family.

[HDG]

Originally Posted by Mr Epee

Welcome to reductio ad Bushum - the newest addition to the Godwin family.

If you're gonna make up latin, at least do it right: reductio ad frutex. Frutex has the merit of meaning both bush and imbecile.

[oso97]

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

Nope, Tucson and Dallas this season, that I recall. They might have done a Y12 event in SN, but I don't think so.
As I recall, Dan left Dallas with a lot of changes that needed to be made, so it clearly wasn't ready for prime time then.

Yep, Tuscon and Dallas. I believe there was also some experimentation in Richmond. At one of these events (Dallas?), one of the events was run, start to finish using FencingTime - I know this because, I was one of the referees in the event and commented on the different looking pool sheet.

Both XSeed and FencingTime are, in their current iterations, unsuitable for current USFA operations, in their ideal form. The Bout Committee staff though knows how to workaround the limitations in XSeed to produce a viable result. FencingTime, however, is improving (rapidly), and is undergoing continual development.

And Kalle, as tournament chair, is the one who invited Dan to the NACs to test his product, and begin the development process to turn it into something that the USFA can use without workarounds.

[mgriff]

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

Nope, Tucson and Dallas this season, that I recall. They might have done a Y12 event in SN, but I don't think so.
As I recall, Dan left Dallas with a lot of changes that needed to be made, so it clearly wasn't ready for prime time then.

Tucson and Dallas and Richmond. Dan worked alongside BC computer people to learn what we do and need, and shadowed several events in FT. At least once, we ran an event on FT and shadowed it in XSeed.

Dan left each event with a list of changes to make in FT, so each time he came back, he had a new improved version to work with.

It was a lot of fun, too, being able to make requests for a few bells and whistles we've wanted in XSeed for a long time, but that XSeed is just too patched and extended and decrepit to be able to handle. The idea that we actually want to continue to use XSeed forever is just silly.

It's hard, sometimes, for most people to see how much we've improved the way we run national tournaments over the past ten years, because we've grown so fast that the bigger numbers have hidden the improvements. After the Atlanta SN in 2006, I compared its figures with those of the first big SN in 1996 (from a woefully intermittent blog of mine):

1n 1996, USFA's National Championships were held in Cincinnati, Ohio, over nine days in June. There were individual competitions in all weapons in Division I (except for women's saber), Division II, Juniors, Veteran Combined, and Wheelchair (except for women's saber), along with Open Teams and Junior Teams (except for women's saber). There were 1502 entries in the 28 individual events and 189 teams in the 11 team events.

This year in Atlanta, we held 77 individual events (Divisions I, I-A, II, III, Junior, Cadet, Youth-14, Youth-12, Youth-10, Vet-40, Vet-50, Vet-60, and Wheelchair —except, of course, for women's saber) and 18 team events (Division I, Open, and Junior). There were 6,240 individual entries and 353 team entries. And we took only one day longer to make it all happen.

If we (bout committee, referees, everybody) hadn't been working our tails off all these years to improve the way we run tournaments, we'd never have been able to pull it off. We've pretty much reached the limits of what tweaking and fine-tuning can do for us--not that we won't keep at it. But as I've said before, I much prefer the candidates who already know what's been and is being done to those who have yet to learn and have yet to demonstrate that they can make things happen.

Mary

[teacup]

Originally Posted by epeemike81

I am a big fan of engarde, and that is what we (Prise de Fer) use to run tournaments. That said, since it is designed for FIE events, there are some USFA specific issues that it doesn't deal well with (large pool to top seed, for example).-m

What software do the Germans use for their extremely large and complicated two day cadet events? (These are not FIE events.)

[Mr Epee]

What role does the Peter Principle play in this discussion?

I just don't understand why serving as head of the Tournament Committee would qualify someone serve as president of the entire organization.

If Kalle doesn't win the election, will she refuse to continue as head of the Tournament Committee (if asked)?

[Mr Epee]

Originally Posted by teacup

What software do the Germans use for their extremely large and complicated two day cadet events? (These are not FIE events.)

das Fechtermanschafttenflichter-gemeinhaltenschliessenhauskoptoffern.

[jjefferies]

Originally Posted by epeemike81

The on-line registration issue is more complex (and I have less understanding of it), but my limited understanding is that the USOC is persuing an online registration solution which would be applied to multiple sports, and the USFA has elected to be part of that project. The delays are, thus, not in our shop right now. It is certainly legitimate to question whether pursuing that option instead of our own (or outsourcing to AskFRED) was the correct decision, but I don't feel informed enough to make that determination.
-m

Re: Online registration. What are you referring to? Tournament registration or membership registration?

But either way, you know we've discussed this matter a number of times in great detail and this is the FIRST TIME I remember seeing any comment about USOC involvement in providing any solution. Where did you pick this up at and why haven't we heard about it before?

[gorgie101]

Originally Posted by oso97

And Kalle, as tournament chair, is the one who invited Dan to the NACs to test his product, and begin the development process to turn it into something that the USFA can use without workarounds.

This seems pretty proactive on Kalle's part. What has big T done to improve things thus far?

[Mr Epee]

Originally Posted by gorgie101

This seems pretty proactive on Kalle's part. What has big T done to improve things thus far?

You mean other than working through the system to help the USFA produce a Junior World Champion, a 2/3 of a World Champion Jr Team, and an Olympian?

Last I checked these sort of things were pretty important in the scheme of things.

Does those things alone mean that she's qualified? No.

But kick in a Doctorate degree in Business Mgmt with specialization in Knowledge Management in the non-profit sector... and I think you've got pretty positive traction.

[gorgie101]

Originally Posted by Mr Epee

You mean other than working through the system to help the USFA produce a Junior World Champion, a 2/3 of a World Champion Jr Team, and an Olympian?

Last I checked these sort of things were pretty important in the scheme of things.

Does those things alone mean that she's qualified? No.

But kick in a Doctorate degree in Business Mgmt with specialization in Knowledge Management in the non-profit sector... and I think you've got pretty positive traction.

Out of the quote above the only thing that gives big T some qualification is her Doctorate degree in Business Mgmt.

The thing I can't get over is that the NC picked Kalle over Tracy to be the president. That means that they saw some quality in Kalle that they didn't see in Tracy and the OTHER people that they considered. What was so special about Kalle? I wonder....

[Jason]

Originally Posted by gorgie101

The thing I can't get over is that the NC picked Kalle over Tracy to be the president. That means that they saw some quality in Kalle that they didn't see in Tracy and the OTHER people that they considered. What was so special about Kalle? I wonder....

You might be giving the NC too much reverence.

[jfarmer]

Originally Posted by PeterGustafsson

jfarmer - is not your proposal quite close to a considerably more fleshed-out version of my idea?

Similar, but mine was first!

Seriously, I first started tossing these ideas around in my head last year after the discussion about the USACFC tournament (USACFCs 2007)

But truly, none of this is new stuff. It's things that are done in other industries (and fencing & running large fencing events is an industry...) all the time. We just tend to think that fencing is "special."

From Dan's comments, it looks like he's on the same page irt future development. Once the basic infrastructure is there, then all sorts of neat options are available. (SMS? Sure. there're packages available today that will do that, driven off events or DB entries. They work. They're used in managing most web farms...)

[dberke]

Originally Posted by oso97

Yep, Tuscon and Dallas. I believe there was also some experimentation in Richmond. At one of these events (Dallas?), one of the events was run, start to finish using FencingTime - I know this because, I was one of the referees in the event and commented on the different looking pool sheet.

Both XSeed and FencingTime are, in their current iterations, unsuitable for current USFA operations, in their ideal form. The Bout Committee staff though knows how to workaround the limitations in XSeed to produce a viable result. FencingTime, however, is improving (rapidly), and is undergoing continual development.

And Kalle, as tournament chair, is the one who invited Dan to the NACs to test his product, and begin the development process to turn it into something that the USFA can use without workarounds.

Several people have already answered the question, but I'll add some details:

In Miami last summer, I was ready to demo the new support in Fencing Time for projector systems. At the end of one day, I hooked it up to the projector that Blue Gauntlet was using to project some of their specials on the wall behind their booth. I set up a display cycling through a DE tableau and strip assignments.

Once set up, I went over to the BC and introduced myself to Kalle and told her to look at the wall. She said she had noticed the display and wanted to discuss it. A few minutes later, I was up on the BC platform with her and several other BC folks. After a quick rundown of what FT could now do, she suggested we try the system out in Tucson that October. I wasn't expecting such a big step so quickly, but was thrilled at the chance.

Over the summer, Kalle drove the organization and logistics required to get us set up in Tucson. I provided input on hardware needs and logistics, and everything was all set by October.

For the two days of the NAC that I wasn't fencing, I was on the BC platform shadowing an event or two each day in FT. XSeed still ran the events, and I just copied the scores into FT as they came in. It also gave us a chance to compare how FT did things (like seeding) to XSeed. In addition, I got training on working with XSeed and learned the current workflow so that I could see where FT would improve things (and where XSeed was more efficient.)

The other computer folks also played with FT and offered a lot of feedback. By the end of the weekend, I had a to-do list of about 50 items, some minor UI changes, some major things (like referee tracking).

The following month we repeated the process in Dallas. This was a good test since the events were more complex, both because of the seeding with points, and the repechage. Also, FT helped out when it was discovered that one of the women's saber events was set up incorrectly in XSeed. The problem wasn't present in FT, so we used it to run the event and (once the XSeed problem was fixed) shadowed the event in XSeed. That too was a great learning exprerience, and the weeked produced another 40 or so items to add to the to-do list.

In Richmond we did more shadowing, but by then there were no surprises, so I only had maybe 5 new to-do items.

Since then, I've been working on a lot of the item on the to-do list... for example, I have the referee tracking all done. The exact prioritization and scheduling of the remaining issues will depend on how soon the USFA wants to consider switching... stuff that's still TBD.

The point that should be clear is that changes are in the pipeline, and Kalle certainly has been instrumental in taking that first step.

Dan

[Mr Epee]

Originally Posted by gorgie101

The thing I can't get over is that the NC picked Kalle over Tracy to be the president. That means that they saw some quality in Kalle that they didn't see in Tracy and the OTHER people that they considered. What was so special about Kalle? I wonder....

If you love the NC so much, then why don't you just marry it?

[ivlobane]

Originally Posted by dberke

Several people have already answered the question, but I'll add some details:

In Miami last summer, I was ready to demo the new support in Fencing Time for projector systems. ...snip...
Dan

So what happened to the projector in Richmond? What stopped the BC from using projectors further on?