The Good Life - SNs 2008

[Meteoric Iron]

For some reason, the events of this year have made me aware of suffering, and on the way to the Convention Center before my first event I was recalling the Krishna/Arjuna dialogue--is there any way to fence without causing or experiencing suffering? Now, coming down out of the clouds I see the enhancement of skill that comes from meeting an opponent with all I have, in not understanding how I have been so blind to my ignorance, in finding a way of movement that breaks a pattern, in seeing my growth and finesse reflected, however fleetingly, in my placement. Another has taken my measure, reflecting a manifestation I must call my own. I reenter my life with a new perspective, respecting the roles we have played for each other, and looking forward to meeting you next time at en garde.

...and did Christine Strong Simmons and her crew really do line dancing to Tom Jones?? Videos, anyone??

[counter riposte]

If I remember correctly, there was one reseeded event the day "reseed" was the word of the day. The BC knowing the word, avoided it by saying the "div1a Mens epee has been re... revised seeding list has been posted." Rob responded by making "runners" the next day's word of the day. I cheered from my strip whenever I heard the word. Probably the reason George asked me to contain my laughter.

[KD5MDK]

That's not the only reason anyone wants you to contain your laughter.

[hello?]

Originally Posted by Meteoric Iron

For some reason, the events of this year have made me aware of suffering, and on the way to the Convention Center before my first event I was recalling the Krishna/Arjuna dialogue--is there any way to fence without causing or experiencing suffering? Now, coming down out of the clouds I see the enhancement of skill that comes from meeting an opponent with all I have, in not understanding how I have been so blind to my ignorance, in finding a way of movement that breaks a pattern, in seeing my growth and finesse reflected, however fleetingly, in my placement. Another has taken my measure, reflecting a manifestation I must call my own. I reenter my life with a new perspective, respecting the roles we have played for each other, and looking forward to meeting you next time at en garde.

There is someone on another thread trying to write a short story about fencing. Contact that person now. I smell literary awards.

[counter riposte]

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

That's not the only reason anyone wants you to contain your laughter.

Hush. I LIKE my laugh.

[KD5MDK]

Let the record show the vote stands 1,246 to 1.

[pinkelephant]

Originally Posted by downunder

I love the referee bingo!!

Can you explain what role the 'secret word' has?

Your job for the BYCs!

[epeemike81]

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

Let the record show the vote stands 1,246 to 1.

1,247.

-m

[downunder]

Originally Posted by pinkelephant

Your job for the BYCs!

I'm so up for that.

[brtech]

Originally Posted by mgriff

I checked with Ashley (whose layout we used, by the way--for a bit before setup, it was thought we might have had 12 strips in the ballroom, and as strip manager for 7 of the 10 days, I found it really easy to block out events on the layout we ended up with) and she agreed that the pods were not nearly as messy at the ends of the days as has been the case for the past couple of years.

....

All in all, a remarkably smooth and pleasant SN--nowhere near the usual stress on Day 6 (I'm tired, of course, but never reached that "OMG, how many more days of this do we have to endure?" state common to BC staff who work the whole tournament).

Mary

Small quibble, but Ashley told me that it was the decorator figured out how to get all the strips in the main room. I was really worried about having to have strips in the Ballroom too, and very happy with the layout we used.

And, let's now recognize that Ashley has really stepped up to the VERY large shoes Christine created. She really did run the event, and it was huge and smooth. This board has been heaping praise on Christine, who so richly deserves it, and now it's time to spread some around to Ashley.

It was remarkably smooth. I kept waiting for something horrible to go wrong, and it never did. Ted tells me that even teardown went well, volunteers again were tremendous, and they were out of the venue by 7pm.

Thanks again Mary for being so accommodating to us in the strip rehab effort.

[KD5MDK]

How is the strip rehab effort coming? I've seen y'all working every time. Out of 70 strips, you must have finished 20 or 30 by now, right?

[dekko]

Possible additions to future bingo cards:

Coach/fencer follows you back to the TC table to complain about calls

Fencer needs help dressing themselves properly(usually seen in younger sabre events)

Parent compliments the ref for the job they did

Head cord flies onto your strip from another

Broken blade flies onto your strip from another

Reel cord unhooks during the fencing and coils back to the reel

Any others need to be added?

[brtech]

It's going pretty well.

The number of strips is confusing, but being sorted out. It isn't 70 yet.

We have been rehabbing strips since last year's SNs. Not every NAC has had rehab work done, but most have. Some strips have been "top riveted". This made some strips that were literally in danger of coming apart and losing side extrusions stay together, but confuses us when we try to figure out which strips still need work, since the top (which is all we can see) looks great, but the bottom is still a mess.

Ted and I walked the entire SN hall (59 strips, some brand new, plus the rubber strip and the replacement strip) and graded them all A, B or C. We rehabbed all the Cs, and most of the Bs, remembering that some of the As really need work. There are also 3 strips, in good condition, in China.

We have the "Banana" strips, which are now a year old, which can't be fixed, but are not in need of rehab yet.

We have the new large panel BG strips, which don't need any work (although I spotted a panel where the rubber is coming off the bottom).

We haven't done any serious work on the PBT strips (we have 6 of them, I think). They need the anti-skid material fixed or replaced and some riveting.

It was unrealistic to ask the hired help+volunteers to do something that would let us spot the top riveted strips during tear down, so we don't know how many of the "A" strips need work.

So, I would say that we have probably 10 - 20 more strips to rehab. I hope we can finish those at NACs in the first half of the upcoming season.

Just a little tidbit: I estimate we have put more than 10,000 rivets in the strips so far. I bought a box of 10,000 rivets for SN, but we also had a couple thousand from the last purchase.

[bigdawg2121]

1,246 - 2

[Dr Epee]

Am I mistaken, or did the venue seem much roomier and less congested than previous SN's. That carpeted room off to the side where people could hang out, give lessons, leave their gear, etc. was also a blessing.

[Dr Epee]

Originally Posted by brtech

It's going pretty well.

The number of strips is confusing, but being sorted out. It isn't 70 yet.

We have been rehabbing strips since last year's SNs. Not every NAC has had rehab work done, but most have. Some strips have been "top riveted". This made some strips that were literally in danger of coming apart and losing side extrusions stay together, but confuses us when we try to figure out which strips still need work, since the top (which is all we can see) looks great, but the bottom is still a mess.

Ted and I walked the entire SN hall (59 strips, some brand new, plus the rubber strip and the replacement strip) and graded them all A, B or C. We rehabbed all the Cs, and most of the Bs, remembering that some of the As really need work. There are also 3 strips, in good condition, in China.

We have the "Banana" strips, which are now a year old, which can't be fixed, but are not in need of rehab yet.

We have the new large panel BG strips, which don't need any work (although I spotted a panel where the rubber is coming off the bottom).

We haven't done any serious work on the PBT strips (we have 6 of them, I think). They need the anti-skid material fixed or replaced and some riveting.

It was unrealistic to ask the hired help+volunteers to do something that would let us spot the top riveted strips during tear down, so we don't know how many of the "A" strips need work.

So, I would say that we have probably 10 - 20 more strips to rehab. I hope we can finish those at NACs in the first half of the upcoming season.

Just a little tidbit: I estimate we have put more than 10,000 rivets in the strips so far. I bought a box of 10,000 rivets for SN, but we also had a couple thousand from the last purchase.

From your experience, is there one make of metal strip that seems to stand out over the others in terms of durability and reliability?

[KD5MDK]

One option might be to use the rubber strip as a floater to replace whatever metal strip you're working on at the moment, rather than have the BC keep track of which pods is down a strip.

[brtech]

Originally Posted by Dr Epee

Am I mistaken, or did the venue seem much roomier and less congested than previous SN's. That carpeted room off to the side where people could hang out, give lessons, leave their gear, etc. was also a blessing.

It was not roomier in the venue itself. Some of the aisles were somewhat wider than we normally get. The Ballroom was a good thing.

Originally Posted by Dr Epee

From your experience, is there one make of metal strip that seems to stand out over the others in terms of durability and reliability?

Well, first of all USFA use is weird. We use them 10 weeks a year, with shipping stacked up two high all over the country, and have variable quality of labor to assemble and pack. Not something your local division would replicate.

Having said that, the original BG strips are the most reliable overall. These are the ones we are rehabbing. They made them with aluminum rivets, which was a mistake, and we're having to replace them with steel rivets. However, they have the fewest problems.

Unfortunately, you can't get them any more. The last run of the narrow panel strips were the "banana" strips. Same product, but manufactured poorly. The latest attempt is a wide panel. They do not appear to be as good, but they are new; ask me in a couple of years.

Originally Posted by KD5MDK

One option might be to use the rubber strip as a floater to replace whatever metal strip you're working on at the moment, rather than have the BC keep track of which pods is down a strip.

And here I thought you were actually paying attention.

The strip is down for about 10 minutes.

1. We rehab a strip
2. We pull up a bad strip that needs to be rehabbed
3. We put down the just-rehabbed strip in its place
4. Start at point 1 again

[fencerbill]

Relative to the discussion about strips. Can someone tell me what the USFA expended on strips and over how many years the investment was made, since we moved on from the copper mesh? I believe the last NAC I worked was 2003 when it was all copper mesh.

I am not saying we had any choice, the copper strips were dying and the new strips bought in 2000 were already in tatters. And we had a lot less than 70 strips.

Now we have 70 odd metal strips. What was this capital investment and has it been a significant factor in the USFA money troubles?

I am not being critical. But we can't get ourselves out of this financial mess until we understand how we got into it. Hopefully the metal strips will be reasonable to keep up but what did it cost to get them? Was it a one time capital investment that will have long term economies?

Is it significantly more expensive to move all of the strips and other equipment around the country than compared to, say, 2003?

[oso97]

Originally Posted by fencerbill

Is it significantly more expensive to move all of the strips and other equipment around the country than compared to, say, 2003?

Umm.... yea, I think it would be. We have a significantly larger store of equipment that needs to be moved around, so the costs are going to be significantly larger.

The question you need to ask is what is the difference in price on a per-strip-basis...