Seattle UPA summit, July 7th
benlw...@gmail.com
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What Happened:
Meet and Greet
Intro to UPA, Membership, and long review of Poll Results (these polls
helped determine what questions should be asked at the Summits, and
framed the discussions)
Small Group Work, Topic: What are the big plusses and minusses to take
from the UPAs data
Presentation: Going Forward (what are possible approaches, and which
ones show support from the membership?)
Large Group Work (the bulk of the discussion, brainstorming, and
finally tabulating ideas about strategies and outcomes)
Voting (putting personal votes on strategies/results that each person
wanted to emphasize)
Closing and Raffle (seriously, the raffle was awesome. trust me.)
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My take:
1) Visual Presentation:
Starting off with a weak point here...the powerpoint presentation was
tough to follow, and reading statistics in rote text was a problem. It
dragged on. This was the low point. Next time, there will be pie
charts and bar graphs and color coding and anything, anything other
than text paragraphs with lots of numbers.
In Short: Room for a lot of improvement.
2) Professionalism and Effectiveness:
This was a seriously high-grade event. The folks leading the
discussion had a plan, ran it really well, kept on track, and allowed
for productive discussion. Also, thoughtfully, they managed their own
input so as not to bias the discussion. They did a great job of
listening. Felt like a pro brainstorming operation.
In Short: The process worked, and I was impressed.
*a note: they mentioned that they had decided not to publicize any
results until after all 4 summits, so as not to bias the next
summits...smart move (and explains why you haven't heard any results
yet).
3) Attendance:
40ish folks, from high school players to retired players to
Californians to elite players and, it seemed, pretty good
representation from every group (except for casual players,
understandably...everyone there cared about the game a good deal).
League organizers, administrators, coaches and elite players were
overly represented compared to the population at large (again,
understandably).
Really strong group of UPA Board members and staff present as well.
In Short: You try getting 40 Seattle-ites to come inside in July. Not
bad.
4) Topics of Interest:
Rules experimentation was a big topic. The observer system as well.
Youth growth and increasing the UPA's value to local organizations was
big. Should the UPA start doing more international work? Business
interactions?
In Short: The UPA folks did their homework, and for everything I could
think of, they had a forum to discuss it meaningfully.
My new favorite coming out of the meeting: The idea of having online
rules quizzes came up, and either requiring that some (3? 7?) team
members pass the test or giving discounts for passing. Or, just using
Rules Quizzes for general membership education...in either case, the
idea of the UPA doing something to reinforce the importance of
individual rule knowledge. Coming soon to a UPA near you, I'd bet.
My new revelation: A lot of things that people wish the UPA would
do...they are already doing. Things like Observer Certification,
Online Tools, Outreaches and Conferences...members don't know what is
available to them, and how many places the right thing is already
happening. If you don't have your own contacts, a lot of good UPA
programs are probably not on your radar.
5) Final Score
This is the kind of thing that serious critics of the UPA (like me)
have been waiting for. For a long time. The real results won't be
known until we find out if the UPA Staff is actually going to act on
what they have heard. I think that the battles in prioritizing these
topics against each other are still in the future and will be severe,
but necessary. Formal listening like this is really necessary, and I'm
glad this change has come about.
In Short: The UPA is doing the right thing here.
Peter Mc
You mentioned your revelation at the recent Seatle UPA gathering...
"A lot of things that people wish the UPA would
do...they are already doing."
Wanna add some more thoughts to that comment for other skeptics out
there?
Later,
Peter Mc
mdsc
columbia, mo
(card carrying optimist)
benlw...@gmail.com
> You mentioned your revelation at the recent Seatle UPA gathering...
>
> "A lot of things that people wish the UPA would
> do...they are already doing."
>
> Wanna add some more thoughts to that comment for other skeptics out
> there?
Peter, I think I phrased this badly...
I'm not surprised at the things the UPA is doing, since I tend to be
pretty well informed on UPA projects (both through official and
unofficial channels).
My surprise is at how little people know about what the UPA is doing.
As the Summit, this led to a lot of good suggestions from
members...suggestions that I replied to by saying 'you know, they
already do that'.
So...my point is that the UPA should put more emphasis on getting that
word out about what they do already. This makes me reluctant to do
that for them (plus, being on the outsides, I might tell you wrong).
The UPA is a 'doing' organization, not a 'talking' organization, and
there is something refreshing about that. However, I think they could
significantly improve their public perception with some outreach, and
by getting some credit for the good things they do. An regular,
informed voice on RSD would be a good start.
[yes, UPA RSD posts would be targets for YourFavoriteTrolls. possible
solution: UPA policy to inform/clarify by rsd, but not engage in
debate...or, use the Ultivillage approach...hit rsd with regular
linking emails to draw people to the website for press releases
instead of posting directly]
I betcha anyone at UPA HQ could, in 20 minutes or so, write out a
quick list of the projects they are currently working on or have
completed in the past couple of years. I think it's a pretty cool
list. However, their policy in the past has been to avoid RSD (and
take a minimalist approach at publicity). This fits the mission
statement, which is why they do it (I think). I think the mission
should be changed to include 'getting the word out to members about
what the UPA is doing, including what is going well and what is still
in a work in progress'.
That's what I think, so far. You keep your optimist card in your
wallet, but keep in the same pocket as your skeptic card.
blw
UPA Member