I can somewhat answer this question. I joined in 2013 and I'm not really interested in tournament play and haven't played a sanctioned event. What I am/was interested in is supporting the tournament organizational body, being an official for helping tournament directors as well as being a director myself. I love to play this sport but I don't play it to be competitive. However, I love being involved in the organization of events. Our organization's members that run the tournaments around here also like to play in them as well. Having me at tourney central allows them to focus more on their play than being tournament directors. It's a win/win situation. I don't know about the other 6,999 members, but I'm definitely a member that doesn't play tournaments.
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Does the PDGA still give PDGA numbers to new playes who pay the $10 temp fee?
- Thread starter chris deitzel
- Start date
Jenga54
Double Eagle Member
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2010
- Messages
- 1,976
the magazine lists lots of folks that have bought numbers for their kids etc.
i imagine there's a few guys out there who bought a number for their wife/girlfriend/significant other... and are still trying to get them to play... :wall:
good point.
Thanks for the replies.
Thanks for the replies.
Cgkdisc
.:Hall of Fame Member:.
Here's some additional info from HQ. Looks like almost 7800 numbers below 80,000 are "dead" and will not be used, leaving just over 72,000 players who could potentially be current in any year minus those who have passed. However, at least Steady Ed's number 001 remains current each year. Clarification on the temp membership program, you never got a number just for the $10, you had to go online to actually sign up to get a number.
livedoen4
Par Member
Our local chucker Bravethrower is a current member this year JUST to run sanctioned events.
Talk about sustainability...what happens when the huge growth of new players out paces the number of quality or even less than quality TD's?
Talk about sustainability...what happens when the huge growth of new players out paces the number of quality or even less than quality TD's?
Cgkdisc
.:Hall of Fame Member:.
More leagues including night and winter play.
Thanks Chuck!!!!! That is exactly the info I was looking for. As a TD, I never fully understood the temp membership situation. I appreciate the clarification.
I'm glad you fully understood it. I understood I was to hand out a card to non-members who paid the $10 fee. I also recall not all TD's having these cards available at the tournaments during those years. I think you misinterpreted my post.
This was from a 2009 PDGA post. http://www.pdga.com/supporting-members
Disc golf is booming and so is the knowledge. The PDGA is looking towards the future and sees an opportunity to move closer to our goal of global-recognition. With an already impressive member base of over 41,000, we recognize the need to market how many people, in addition to our members, are competing. Our hope is that this more accurate number will attract major corporate sponsors and bring disc golf into the eyes of the media.
We have created a new system to track these competitors, known as Supporting Members. Previously it was the sole responsibility of the Tournament Directors to gather all non-member contact information at their event. Unfortunately, this data was not always complete and/or accurate. Now, TDs will simply hand out a card (available through TD packages) to each non-member who competes in the event and pays the $10 non-member fee. This card will explain how to sign up for a Supporting Membership.
As a thank you for competing in a PDGA sanctioned event and registering as a Supporting Member, we will send them a personalized mini marker disc and PDGA rulebook as well as assign a lifetime membership number. These competitors will continue to pay the $10 non member fee at all sanctioned events and not be able to participate in SuperTour or Majors until they decide to become a FULL member. These Supporting Members will show up at PDGA.com and on a Tournament Director's weekly member list as non-current members. However we will continue to track our Supporting Members and update their stats for when they do decide to join. This will also help determine which divisions these Supporting Members should participate in based on the skill level, age, and gender. In addition, Supporting Members will be given the opportunity to upgrade to a FULL membership at a discounted rate ($10 off).
So apparently my assumption as using this as a way to boost numbers for sponsorship were not so far out of line either.
Since that all seems to make sense, why did the pdga change their mind about this practice?
krupicka
Double Eagle Member
One problem was some players who signed up for the supporting membership received their mini and rule book and then thought they no longer needed to pay the $10 non-member fee. It took a while to sort this one out as they insisted there must be a problem on the PDGA end that it was not showing current. As a TD, I saw a very recent number (that would have been from that year) and had to trust that they were going to work it out with the PDGA.
There also weren't a lot of TDs that were all that keen to follow through on the collecting of data necessary to complete the supporting membership transaction. Essentially, the process for getting players signed up for the supporting membership was the same as the process for signing players up for a full membership (name, address, contact info, etc), only without collecting the full price. That was a source of confusion for players as krupicka states, but also a PITA for TDs. It's one thing to do that for a handful of new/renewing members at an event. It's another to have to do it for 20-30-40+, many of whom (clearly) had no interest in following through to become full members.
While the PDGA has always asked TDs to collect that kind of info from non-members and include it in their report (for the purposes of building a mailing list to invite these folks to join), I can't say I've seen many TDs really follow through on it, supporting memberships or not. Most TDs (myself included) are content to collect the extra $10 from the players and turn it over to the PDGA with no further effort.
I'm guilty of this, for no other reason that in the Saturday morning rush, I forget. Online registration has helped me a bit.
Saturday morning rush is reason #1 I'm guilty too. Most players at my events don't want to be bothered to fill out paperwork anyway, member or not...it's sometimes task enough to get them to put their name down on the sign up sheet in a legible fashion, let alone include address, phone, email, etc. But more than that, I don't really feel like typing (or copy/pasting) the names, addresses, phone numbers and emails into the report at the end of the day. And considering I've rarely ever done so in 12+ years and I've never been reprimanded or asked to be more diligent in the future, I'm not all that inclined to change my effort level on that front.
Now that I use DGU for online registration, this task is so much easier. I simply copy and paste the non-member information from the DGU download directly into the PDGA TD Report. All it takes is one sort and one copy/paste to complete this task that I specifically agreed to in the sanctioning agreement.
As a TD, when you sign the PDGA Sanctioning agreement, you agree to send a COMPLETED TD report (Condition #10). Nowhere in the sanctioning agreement does it say you don't have to complete any sections of the TD report that might require extra work or record keeping. It does not say "if you haven't completed this section of the TD report for the last 12 years, you don't have to start now".
By all means we should definitely start penalizing these lazy TD's.
I mean it's not like the PDGA would be lost without the effort put in by mostly volunteer Tournament Directors.
Why would you want to penalize a volunteer TD? I certainly never implied anything like that should be done.
JC's candid reply is exactly why the temp membership thing didn't work so well. Many TD's do not consider collecting this non-member information to be an important task. I will add that I too have been guilty of not collecting and inputting the non-member information in the past. Once upon a time, nearly everyone registered the day of the event and this task added extra work at check-in and at report time. However, with the advent of online registration, most players are registered in advance and it is now very simple to transfer the non-member information to the TD report.
For TD's that are not using online registration or taking sign ups on the day of the event, simply print out the "$10 Fees" sheet of the TD Report and have the non-members fill it out while they check in. Then you can scan it and include with the report - no inputting or copy/pasting required!
I am offering solutions for TD's that have trouble with this part of the TD report. I am not encouraging punishment.
krupicka
Double Eagle Member
How much information do you collect for non-members? Does DGU ask for date of birth (I haven't used it).
I put names and PDGA #'s in, but that is all of the information that I usually have.
I put names and PDGA #'s in, but that is all of the information that I usually have.
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