Topic of the Week: National Organizers Convention

[matthewbourland]

As covered in The Ultimate Nation #11, this Febraury 26-27 in Washington, DC is the National Organizers Convention. Have you or are you considering signing up to attend? Which of the presentations would you most want to see? What types of topics/presentations would you like to see at future conventions? Although the convention's scope is beyond just league organizers, which leagues out there are being innovators in how Ultimate is organized?

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Each Thursday usaultimate.org will feature a different topic of discussion on its message boards in order to engage USA Ultimate members and the Ultimate community around the world. The idea is to encourage discussion about some of the current events happening in the sport of Ultimate, and to collect opinions, ideas and feedback from our members and athletes across the globe. Interesting, exciting, controversial or informative, a featured topic will be chosen each week and representatives from USA Ultimate will provide their input in an effort to enhance its communications with the Ultimate world. Please send topics you’d like to see discussed to matthew@hq.usaultimate.org

[william.bartram]

I am very excited to see the keynote by Jay Coakley. I've read Sports in Society and look forward to hearing his thoughts about ultimate and the experiential elements of sport. The connection between play and sports/games is evolving. As a kid, my friends and I organized our own activities. It was a great experience to be in control of our own games. This is not really the case anymore, for youth or adults. As an organizer, I would value being able understand a way that "participation is facilitated without compromising the playfulness and experiential joy of participants."

In 2009, Jeff Malmgren gave a great presentation on value based management. His presentations on league growth and development will certainly be worth checking out. Jeff is from the Vancouver Ultimate League. I think that organization does a fantastic job of providing opportunities to play ultimate and promoting growth of the sport.

Dave Barkan is a skilled presenter. I was lucky to work with him during the the strategic planning process undertaken by the then UPA. As an ultimate organizer, I have been looking for a way to find simple language for the complex concept of Spirit of the Game, so I will plan to attend Dave's session.

[torre.hargett]

What media will be available for those of us not able to travel to DC, yet still want to learn and hear what others are say? Audio? Video? Anything to give us a chance to hear presentations in their entirety (& not just relying on what someone blogs about to find out what was said)?

[hockeypeteschramm]

I am primarily attending the convention for the panels on youth ultimate, but are interested in Jeff's panels on league growth as well. I am curious as to how many opportunities there will be to acquire information from panels that run concurrently. (For instance, I am particularly excited to attend Lindsay Hack's panel on Building a Youth League, but that will force me to disappointingly miss one of Jeff's league growth sessions.)

[matthewbourland]

What media will be available for those of us not able to travel to DC, yet still want to learn and hear what others are say? Audio? Video? Anything to give us a chance to hear presentations in their entirety (& not just relying on what someone blogs about to find out what was said)?

We'll be posting more detailed information from the sessions on the website after the event. We are not live streaming the convention.

[ambler]

Looks like a really interesting line-up. Wish I could attend and will be looking forward to reading the detailed information posted after the fact. Thanks.