It's time for a new FAD - Alberta Disc Golf Page

Registered: 12/07/06
Posts: 149

11/05/09 at 04:26 PM

Public Discussion

If you enjoy Disc Golf and primarily play in Alberta, you are a stakeholder and have every right to participate in this discussion. All comments welcome!

The need for a Provincial Disc Golf Association in Alberta

** The Foundation for Alberta Discgolf (whatever it ends up being called, FAD works for now)

We need to get a provincial association started and 2010 is a nice round number.

The ATC (Alberta Tour Committee) is an informal group of TD's. It has proven to be very loose and ineffective, holding the tour together by a slim margin at times.

Not trying to sound negative at all here, but I think everyone would agree that with enough courses and clubs in place, the Alberta Disc Golf scene as a whole deserves
a united effort to bring Alberta Disc Golfers together under one banner finally.

Tour Committee

A new organization's 1st act should likely be to form a 'tour committee' to replace the ATC.

Once that committee is set up, it would start formally 'governing' the tour by deciding on event dates, TD/club event responsibilities (event standards), setting up and keeping track of the tour points system, possibly starting up a 'regional series fee' system at each event to cover trophy and other costs, etc.

(CBJ and I were working together on a set of bylaws about 2 years ago. I think we were very much on the right track.)

The yet un-named new society (FAD for now) will need a board of directors. The bylaw draft specified equal representation - somewhat like below here - and had a solid set of bylaws, drawn up from standard Alberta NFP association bylaws.

Board of Directors, w/nominations by each club/course/city?? (pdga rep automatic)

1 pdga rep
Calgary - 2 reps
Canmore - 2 reps
Edmonton - 2 reps
Lethbridge - 2 reps
Wetaskiwin - 2 reps
Any Others?

We wouldn't have to get the new association registered with the province right away necessarily, though that'd certainly be a good thing to do when we're able.

It's time for full public discussion. How to make this new society happen quickly and without the endless debate that has prevented it from happening to this point?

==

Tour Championship

In terms of tour points, it's effectively skippable for many players as many divisions are 'decided' prior to it happening.

I suggest that no matter what format is eventually decided on, the tour championship be 'mandatory', in the sense that points are awarded there no matter what. (It shouldn't be 'droppable')

Perhaps we should drop the 'drop' concept altogether?

===

Series fees

Another item for FAD to possibly set up this year.

** Provinces and states that have local 'tours' generally charge a small 'series fee' at each event to cover series divisional cash prizes (for place of finish), trophies, newsletters, and whatever other expenses are incurred, etc etc.

====

Tour Points system

It definitely needs an overhaul for better weighting. I think a happy medium between the current system (100 pts for a win) and the previous system (30 pts for a win) could work nicely.

How about this?

1st - 50 points
2nd - 42 pts
3rd - 35 pts
4th - 29 pts
5th - 24 pts
6th - 20 pts
7th - 17 pts
8th - 15 pts
9th - 14 pts
10th - 13 pts
11th - 12 pts
12th - 11 pts

(8 points separation, then 7, then 6 etc)

3 3rd place finishes = 105
3 2nd place finishes = 126
3 1st place finishes = 150

Middle of the pack fights it out between 20-29 points, winner has well-deserved advantage, poor finish (8th and lower) gets very little separation/advantage.

=====

PDGA

This is CBJ's department, but I sure he'd support the idea of the entire tour being sanctioned, with each event getting sanctioning at the highest level they possibly can. Options are:

A Tier
B Tier
C Tier
X-Tier (experimental event)

To my best knowledge, an event can't be sanctioned at a level higher than C Tier unless the course it's held at has a uniform set of 18 PDGA-approved targets. (correct me if I'm wrong there please, but I think that's right)

There's only 1 course in Alberta that fully meets that requirement at the moment, and that's Sundre.

CBJ is however one step from having his targets officially approved by the PDGA. When that happens, Parkland (and many others) can be added to the list!

--

I did some research about a month ago - by my count we have 23 current PDGA members, likely our best total to date. (According to another thread here, we have 23 courses in Alberta as well.

======

Possible 2010 Tour Event Locations (minimum 18 hole course required in past ATC discussions):

Canmore (Nordic Centre)

Calgary (Park 96)

Drumheller/Wayne (course name?)

Edmonton (Rundle Park) *30th Anniversary of the Rundle Park Disc Golf Course

Lethbridge (Nicolas Sheran Park)

River Springs Ranch (possible? still up and running? It's not listed in the directory on this site so wanted to throw it out there... pun intended)

Sundre (Aspen Meadows)

Wetaskiwin (Peace Hills Park)
------------------------------------------------------

Cheers, and looking forward to any and all comments anyone may have.

Steve Mallett
#13450
Course Pro, Wetaskiwin Disc Golf Course

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bee_ryce
Registered: 10/21/06
Posts: 87

11/05/09 at 09:14 PM

thanks Steve for getting the ball rolling on some much needed discussion...and I completely agree with the need for a provincial Disc golf organization to keep things going and hopefully help disc golf grow in Alberta.

In addition to your points I do have something to add to the alberta tour format concerning payouts. I think we should use a standard payout table for every tour event, it would make things easier for the TD's and is more fair to the players. I believe BC uses something similar for their Duck Golf series. Without going into any detail there have been multiple instances at AB tour events where players have felt that the payouts have not been fair...standardizing it should eliminate any controversy.

The PDGA has one here that I think is fair: http://www.pdga.com/files/documents/09PayTables.pdf

Regarding PDGA events....I would be more in favour of sanctioning one of our larger tournaments as a B tier (or higher?) instead of having multiple C Tiers. Past has shown that C tiers do not attract many additional players (if any), and paying PDGA dues for every tournament really adds up. Sure, having lots of C tiers is good for gaining PDGA tour points and establishing a player rating, but these things are only useful if you are trying to qualify for a major event south of the border. Also im sure Luke would appreciate not having to turn down cash at every event

Anyways, just my opinions....the first step i guess would be to get a prov. organization going before we can implement such things...

Registered: 08/04/09
Posts: 50

11/05/09 at 10:21 PM

I like the comments Bryce. Having a payout plan would totally get rid of controversy. Good Idea.

I think we have some great courses around here, and if we sanctioned a tournament as a B tier we will definitely get lots of "out of towners" showing up. Although having the tournaments sanctioned is cool to play against your rating, It will mean more if we have 1 or 2 big ones with more and better players showing. If we were to eliminate all our C tier events, i propose we get at least 2 B tier events. I would be interested to see how much more effort is involved in making those happen, and I am more than willing to help out.

Luke
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Registered: 12/07/06
Posts: 149

11/05/09 at 10:22 PM

Right on Bryce, thanks for the support and thanks for chiming in! We all have opinions of course, but if we don't speak up they have no chance at becoming 'policy'.

Great point about paytables, and I understand your thoughts about sanctioning too. I was just thinking that the more events we sanction, the better overall - sanctioning is a snap, and the event reporting form is fun. Looking it over actually helps the event run smoothly - sort of like a built-in checklist for TD's really.

Something to keep working towards of course. We're already on the path.

1st thing to do then is to nominate and appoint people to the new board of directors. As they have a structured club, EDGA would likely want to nominate/elect 2 people at their AGM, happening later this month.

Otherwise, I would think that any town/city with a course has the right to have member(s) on this new board.

Do you want to be one of Calgary's 'FAD' reps then Bryce? (no pressure to accept of course)

Other 'FAD' Nominations

CBJ - on the board as pdga rep.
Wally Ovalle - hereby nominated as an Edmonton rep.
Rudy Falconer - hereby nominated as a Sundre rep.
Luke Morstad - hereby nominated as a Calgary rep.

If there are multiple nominations (self or otherwise) from a given town/city, an election process should probably occur in that town/city.

Here we go people.

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Registered: 08/04/09
Posts: 50

11/05/09 at 10:50 PM

I would agree with the following nominations, however don't know whether I can accept my nomination. I would feel more comfortable having Mark Dakiv as one of our Calgarian Rep. If Mark decides he does not want to be a rep, I would gladly step up.

As far as a Wetaskiwin rep, I would nominate Steve Mallet.
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11/05/09 at 11:21 PM

Cheers, thanks Luke. I accept. Stop turning down cash! lol

Nothing wrong with C-tiers at all, no need to eliminate them completely... if they turn into B-Tiers, even better!

Remember, 2 reps per city max. Up to each city to determine it's 2 reps if more than one person is interested in being on the board of the yet-named new organization.

That said, I do like the name FAD - Foundation for Alberta Disc Golf.

Steve

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Registered: 08/04/09
Posts: 50

11/06/09 at 12:31 AM

1 more year till i can accept cash.

We don't need to eliminate them all. But I believe a valiant effort in making a top tier event such as a B tier would be worth while. With the courses we have set up, I believe its very attainable.

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11/07/09 at 07:44 PM

(Insert society name) volunteer Board of Directors nominations:

PDGA Rep Alberta (automatic)
Craig Burrows-Johnson

Calgary
Luke Morstad - nominated accepted
Bryce Pickford - nominated
Mark Dron - nominated

Canmore
2 spots open

Edmonton
2 spots open, TBA after election at the EDGA AGM in late Nov 09

Lethbridge
Murray Friesen - hereby nominated

Sundre
Rudy Falconer - nominated

Wetaskiwin
Steve Mallett - nomination accepted

Other available positions:

Millarville
River Spring Ranch
Bragg Creek
Olds
Three Hills
Cardston
Redwood Meadows
Nordegg

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MarkD

Registered: 07/22/09
Posts: 30

11/09/09 at 01:49 PM

I am in favour of this provincial association and the other comments already posted.
I think it would be great to have a couple of "major" type tournaments a year...a couple of B level at our better courses. But we should also continue to have a few C level.
From my experience it is tough to get any kind of voice at (or funding from) City/Provincial levels without a unified and organized body and presence. On this note there should be no reason why a city the size of Calgary cannot have more/better courses.

I'd be pretty much willing to help out in any way that I could.
a) legal/law background
b) been on a couple of boards in the past (Brain Injury Rehab Centre, Calgary United Soccer Association, Calgary Soccer Federation)
c) my wife is on the board of Calgary Ultimate so we could do some cross over work with them

a couple of points:
I am not saying the above to take the nomination away from those nominated already but just to indicate that I am happy and willing to give back some time.
And to save any confusion given my user name I am not Mark Dakiv (maybe an administrator can help me change that user name to ManU).

Thanks
and let's really work on getting this foundation/association/society organized
p.s. I am not sure that FAD works...it misses the Golf part

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Registered: 08/04/09
Posts: 50

11/09/09 at 02:41 PM

#10

I talked to Mark Dakiv, and he does not accept his nomination. I have thought about my nomination, and would love to be part of it and represent Calgary
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11/09/09 at 02:52 PM

#11

Mark - I added you to the nomination list for Calgary.

The experience and cross-over into Ultimate would be a welcome addition, as communication with the Ultimate community would certainly be a plus.

This discussion has hopefully made it obvious that Calgary is currently without a Disc Golf club. The league at Park 96 can likely be used as a building block however.

I'm sure I'm not alone in hoping that this effort to formalize a provincial association helps things move forward in Calgary. (Edmonton will be holding an election to appoint their 2 reps to this new board, and it's looking like the same thing must now happen in Calgary.)

FAD is just a suggestion for a name at this point. In the past we've talked about lots of ideas including:

ADGA (there's an Atlanta club called ADGA)
DGA (no chance, that's the Disc Golf Association, started by DG target inventor Steady Ed!)

FAD has some pun factor... I don't think the letters D and G necessarily need to be in the name of a Disc Golf organization.

Thanks for the support Mark!

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MarkD

Registered: 07/22/09
Posts: 30

11/09/09 at 03:49 PM

#12

Steve can you edit the nomination for me then...Dron (not Dorus assuming that means me).

Additionally are you suggesting that Calgary needs a club/association again?

I think the CDGA dissolved before I started playing so I know nothing about it nor the reasons for its demise.

Perhaps someone versed in that can send me a PM with details.

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11/09/09 at 05:03 PM