Buying an Early Registration Exemption

[_MTL_]

Standards and expectations: PDGA rules of play are upheld, PDGA gets their money, Tier standards are upheld in regard to payout,etc.

Regarding registration for their events TD's should indeed be able to do whatever they want.

I respectfully completely disagree.

If I decide to play an event 10 hours away with a PDGA name on it, I shouldn't have to figure out the local standards of how to register for that event.

I very much support the "this is the PDGA way of doing things. You don't have to sanction your event if you don't want to do them" mindset.

 

[Discette]

State Coordinators were receiving A LOT of complaints about early registration and how it conflicted with the competition manual. This got sent up the chain by multiple state coordinators and we arrived at this.

Personally, I think this is a fantastic solution.

The PDGA should not tell TD's you can't do this. There are too many variables such as a club members, high dollar sponsors, etc.

The PDGA also shouldn't let TD's do whatever they want. There has to be standards and expectations at all PDGA events regardless of where it is.

The Comp committee took all of this in consideration and arrived at this middle ground. I don't necessarily agree with it perfectly - I would have like to seen the caps tier based - but this really is fantastic.

The statement in bold is incorrect. The PDGA Board of Directors voted to allow this practice effective immediately. The PDGA Board then directed the Competition Committee to update the Competition Manual accordingly. The Comp Comm never discussed any changes to these procedures prior to the direct order from the PDGA Board of Directors.


It is right here in the first sentence of the announcement:

After extensive debate and consideration, the PDGA Board of Directors has voted to instruct the Competition Committee to create three new exceptions to the "first-come, first-served" registration required by Competition Manual section 1.02.C.

 

[biscoe]

I very much support the "this is the PDGA way of doing things. You don't have to sanction your event if you don't want to do them" mindset.

Works until it doesn't.

The one thing the PDGA has done a good job of over the years is allowing TDs freedom to run their events the best way they see fit. Cookie cutter procedures=cookie cutter events.

 

[DavidSauls]

I very much support the "this is the PDGA way of doing things. You don't have to sanction your event if you don't want to do them" mindset.

Works until it doesn't.

The one thing the PDGA has done a good job of over the years is allowing TDs freedom to run their events the best way they see fit. Cookie cutter procedures=cookie cutter events.

The balancing act is the wisdom of deciding which aspects should be standardized, and which should be flexible.

I think the PDGA has done a pretty good job of this, despite certain things I'd quibble with.

 

[JohtoVillage]

I ponied up a tee sign sponsorship fee for Ledgestone. I obviously have no issues with the practice. It saves me the stress and hassle of "speed sign up" and gives a great opportunity to promote my club. I suppose a club could even be reimbursing a club member for the sponsorship, if so inclined. I did not follow such a path, but having the chance to promote Ann Arbor disc golf is pretty cool, IMO.

I did assume the money was going to a separate and unique fund. I envisioned some going to the courses, helping to defray the cost of water, parties and such. I could be wrong. I would hope, moving forward maybe some guidelines on how this money is used, could be set up through the PDGA.

Thanks for bringing this up! So far we have raised $2600 through hole sponsorships being sold through registration. That doesn't even account for 1% of our budget (really not even close). So while ever dollar does count, its a very very small number in the grand scheme of things.

One of the unique things we did this year was the GRIPeq partnership. A lot of people incorrectly assume that those bags are being donated to the event. While I wish that was true, its a substantial investment I am making in these bags to better the event. In fact, its by far the largest check we have ever written for the event (it wasn't a check, it was a wire transfer because it was so large). So while its still a good deal for the event and GRIPeq is a great partner, its a real expense we chose to incur in the hopes that we would do enough fundraising to help defray some of those costs. While we certainly don't expect to raise enough extra sponsor money to pay for the bags, there are other ancillary benefits we are seeing from the increased awareness in the event (ie, more disc sales) that will help.

Additionally, costs have risen over the last several years as expectations rise for the event:

-All of our courses now have a minimum of two staff members, and a lot of courses have 3 or 4. These staff members have a real expense.
-7 years ago I think we had one cooler on a course and maybe it had ice. Now our water operation (spread over several courses) is MASSIVE and requires dedicated people, golf carts, gators, tables, tents, jugs, bottled water, ice, etc. Its a costly endeavor.
-We used to spend a few hundred dollars on porta potties. Our bill will be over $2000 this next year.
-This year we are hosting two player dinners instead of the normal one dinner. We have only hosted one dinner for the last 9 years, so this is a huge additional expense. Just do the math on 1200 players getting a free dinner and then multiply that by two!

I could go on and on. I think most people would be shocked to see the Ledgestone income statement every year, because the expenses are truly substantial.