So I announced my resignation 3 months ago as VOTS president, but I'm still in office. That will need to change, as I'm close to starting, in honor of Derek Bell, Operation Shutdown.
So where does the organization/community go from here? I think part of my frustration/burn out was the result of spending more time thinking about doing things than actually doing them. Yes, I made sure leagues and NYF happened, there were fields for pickup and so on, but those were all established duties--I was essentially a caretaker. The value add was pretty low--ultimate hasn't really spread geographically or been introduced to youth groups because of me/VOTS. Tournament participation is lower as well--despite increased interest in Sprawl & Ironwood. My personal feeling is there is a malaise in the community, but that could entirely be my projection of my own lack of enthusiasm for playing/organizing.
So then it becomes a matter of why expand and grow? Well, the main reason is the larger the pool of players, the more likely you have more better/serious players, which makes competitive scrimmages and tournament teams easier to form. And, heck a bigger league. I think most people would be in favor of that. They play ultimate, they like ultimate, so they'd like to see more people play ultimate. And it means more to win a bigger league.
So then let's expand league to get more people playing. But... that means different times. Different locations. And this change is viewed as a negative. A common comment I've received is "i really like when league was all on one night". yeah, that's great--but that's at odds with growth.
So there's two issues in the community that are not complementary: togetherness (one community) and growth (more people playing and more geographic diversity). What is the approach to take?
The set up for this spring league may set the tone for the future. I think the best means to achieve growth is to establish multiple 8 team leagues. Get an 8-team Tempe league. 8-team league at Cap Basin. Support efforts to get an 8-team west side league going (which would take some time). and so on.
The second main goal is greater efforts in developing youth ultimate. This is kind of sore point in that I never did get around to addressing this, but it is what will make the community more vibrant. But this isn't a one-person or even small group job, because a number of people will need to be committed to be available as coaches, advisors, etc.
The third goal for the future is a change in the leadership model. Less Keith and Jills and more Jots. The community is so familiar with one person being in charge that it makes that position seem to daunting. Contrast that with the role Jot plays--takes care of Sunday open play & is the video guy for NYF. Jot has carved out his niche, finds it manageable and is in charge. So more Jots need to be found--people willing to do a couple of things--not everything--and do them well and do them responsibly. That spreads the burden, gives more people ownership in the community, and makes it easier to do more.
But why I resigned wasn't the lack of ideas, it was a lack of initiative to get started and loss of purpose of why something like this needs to happen.
Why do you support the health and growth of ultimate in Greater Phoenix?
What are you willing to do help that along?
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5 comments:
So you resigned from the board but it still sounds like you have unfinished business with the ultimate community. I'll be anxious to see what 'enlightenment' your time off gives you.
It's going to be fun reading your blog!
Hi Keith,
I think you've identified an important thing here in terms of the Keith/Jill vs. Jot model. I guess the challenge comes in figuring out how to go about making the transition. Some of this will have to come from simple bush-stomping, but maybe there are institutional things VOTS can do to encourage this. I realize that there are other problems with formalizing a billion positions, but maybe this is worth a shot. Break up all the jobs the President is responsible for into enough small pieces (n) until people are willing to do them. At the limit as n goes to infinity, this means that everyone will have to do nothing! No, seriously, I realize that there are limits, not only because jobs are at some level discrete quanta, but also because the number of people willing to do anything is finite. I'm sure that this is something you and the board have given thought to, but I was very excited at the prospect of being your first commenter and didn't have anything else to say.
Jim
I really like the idea of switching to a more Jot-like model. As long as president means doing all the work Keith does, we won't have any volunteers. For example, how about tuesday night open play at apache (during league)? It is staying light out long enough now. And if two people had cones they could, between them, very easily get it going. A lot of people contributing in a small way like that will keep the onus from falling on one person.
I think part of the difficulty with vots expanding or being open to new changes is the club feel. You can see this in full effect on sundays when there are easily enough people for two fields. Many people decide there is a "good field" and the second field never reaches critical mass to get a game going. If we can't split into two games AT THE SAME LOCATION, how can we expect to have leagues and open plays going simultaneously at different locations? Incidentally, kudos to Gus for starting west valley pick up.
As I look for jobs in different places, I've checked out local ultimate websites. Some places have simultaneous "fun" and "competitive" leagues. Some have many leagues, but require teams to form themselves for competitive ones. DC, for example, has probably 15 or 20 open plays per week, some concurrent, in different locations all around the city.
We're here because we love to play - it'd be great to see vots players open to trying new ideas and taking on small responsibilities... and we'd probably find a lot of new players along the way!
What's happened to the "youth outreach" in the PHX? Why it wasn't more than a short 14 years ago that you and I first played, in a beach game (no less) that included me catching a disc near the goal line, stopping, utilizing my "one legal step", and diving into the endzone for a score; this type of move is *rarely seen*, even in top leagues. Where are these recruits now? The AP Physics dork demographic is totally untapped!
I like the idea of naming the blog after a Gretchen Wilson album, btw...
I will give youse guys credit -- at least you haven't missed out entirely on the Poli-Sci Dork demo...
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