Rule Changes Decided By Few

[Tyler C.]

Before I say anything else, let me say that I am in full agreement with every motion that passed or failed at this off-season's DCP-I Congress.

I'm guessing this league has at least fifty directors in it, probably more. 131 corps competed in the three classes at Prelims/Quarters in Season XIV, and many of them were a part of a multi-corps organization (84, if the organization of the year standings include them all).

And here's the big ol' BUT (ya knew it was coming):

Scanning the rules proposals for this Congress, only twelve directors participated (with one tiebreaker vote from Jeff).

The seven proposals that passed included some serious changes:

- No Finals Week caption changes

- Increased starting points in World and Open to 145/110

- Off-Season caption selections have been expanded to five seasons, instead of only three

- 2-Day FOCUS shows are back (Although a vote really wasn't necessary for that; Thanks Matt for giving the directors a voice anyway!)

- Entry limits for shows, filled on a first come, first served basis (sizes are 12/16/20)

- Regional tours are back; corps must spend first full week and regional champs in their declared home region

- Caption selection deadline pushed back to 7PM CST

These are some fairly large changes that were only decided by a few directors. I was not eligible to vote (I didn't compete in either of the last two seasons), but there are many directors who were eligible and chose not to participate. This isn't a "if more people voted, I might be happier with the result of the Congress" rant. I've already stated that I'm happy with how the voting turned out. What I was not happy with was the voter turn-out (Hooray for word play ). There are now only a handful of people (the directors who voted) that have any right to complain about the way this league does things (until after next season).

Not to get melodramatic over a fantasy league, but DCP-I is what we make it.

-TC

P.S.: My frustration over participation extends to the boards, as well. I understand that many of the directors have busy lives outside of DCP-I, but so do the few directors that have logos, show concepts, show reviews (which are often humorous in the case of our true "fantasy" corps [unspecified, anyone?]), and corps in Gary's CLASS ACT. Ya'll think about it.

/ rant

[Toby]

I haven't been as vocal here as I have been busy. I'm hoping that changes in the off season. It also happens to be that time of the year where schools are starting and getting routines set up.

[StarOrg]

Well for some reason I missed checking that section last week, my bad. and missed voting. I know it is in it's own section at the top but it might be better to put it in the main section or just make sure there is news about it in the main section. That might get more voter attention. Anyways like I said it's my own fault for not checking.

After review I am mostly inline with the voting on the proposals OTHER then the last one, No Finals Week Caption Changes. I definitely would have voted NO on that one!

Edited September 1, 2010 by StarOrg

[Galen]

I'll echo Animal's disappointment. I saw the same sort of "lack of participation" in the finals location thread. Not saying that every director on here has to be submitting a ton of rule proposals every year, but we do owe it to ourselves to be active participants in this.

[hostrauser]

I get the feeling people abandon ship as soon as Finals is over. Maybe we should look at starting the rules proposals at the start of August. They don't have to FINISH or be voted on until the end of August, but this might be a way to get some of the not-quite-as-fanatical players to stick around for a little longer.

[ced3905]

I'm alot like Mitch on this one. It didn't catch my eye and didn't read that part of the forum. I normally vote, just slipped my mind.

[ccollins792]

I'll have to say that I'm very disappointed that I missed this. I definitely would have participated had I seen it. I like others took some time after finals and completely missed it. Too bad for I would have voted differently then some of these results. Might I have made a difference?

In reviewing this, it wasn't obvious that this was going on as it was in a different section of the forums. There was one post in the main section and then it quickly got buried amongst other topics. Maybe a bump would have helped. I was involved in the finals location and even voted but thats because it was in the general forum.

I can see that in the caption change vote I would have gotten rid of a tie and it probably would have gone the other way. Very disappointing.

Edited September 2, 2010 by ccollins792

[OTGFP951]

Is there any way to have a mass message sent out to all directors just prior to voting? I'm sure a lot of people like myself work full time and don't always get the opportunity to stop by the forums.

[CloudHype]

A thing that would help.

A mass mailer... This, I feel, was the secret to FDCI active success in its early seasons... You had email every day and while we don't check the forums on a day to day basis, we check email multiple times a day. It was not uncommon to have 30 FDCI related emails a day, I have never seen 30 DCPI post in a day.

This might be best to be ran by a director or an organization that is willing to send "email updates" with reminders to check on the board. I know John wants as much traffic as possible and email could keep some people from checking in on the site but it can also be written in a way to get more people onto the site/forum... Hot-links???? Emails could be obtained when you register and you choose to participate or not.

As far as the caption change rule... I put it in place and was my idea. Lets give it a season and vote up or down on it for the next. The offseason needed a new wrinkle and remember, we still get changes for finals in the live season as it is an off season ONLY rule. Live season = Gamble, off season = spread sheet crunching. Now we have a slight gamble to the offseason as you are now stuck with all of your captions for the week... choose wisely. I got a feeling that most will not mind and only the power players might have a problem as they can no longer coast into finals.... and I'm a power player.

Use your frustration over this to think of new rules for an off season as we all would agree, that is the season that needs some change. IMO, offseason rules need to change every season or else it will be a race of 6 directors getting in the best set against a clock. We can't settle for the same system every year. As far as the new rule... It's a change, it's new, you have to think of a new way to win... The old way might not do and I've seen cases where a director dominated an entire season only not to make finals because of a poor caption set for semis (placed 13th) and a finals set that would blow everyone away (FDCI 7... Mitch, James, Ced... and yes, I won that season). I pushed for this as it is an easier sell over RANDOM point changes and I'm not 100% sold on randomness but might be willing to next off season if this season produces the same type of results. At least with this rule, the director is still in control of his corps and not the mercy of a random change, you just cant change 6 captions in 3 days!!!

Edited September 2, 2010 by CloudHype