English Coaches ... Team England Committee Election 2018

[speedingbullet]

We recently chose a Committee as the governing structure for Team England.

The remit for the Committee is not yet fixed but is expected to include inputs to team selection, team administration and other related tasks.

Terms of office for the Committee are also not yet fixed but one or two year terms are expected.

The first job for the Committee is to draft a new Charter to set out how Team England operates including the roles of the Captain and the Committee. The draft Charter will then be put to the community for acceptance or rejection by community vote.

You can find the current Charter in the top thread of this Team England forum.

Would you like to influence Team England? If so, this is your chance to be on the Committee. Please post on this thread to nominate yourself for election to the Committee. The nomination should include a paragraph explaining why you want to be on the Committee.

To make it easy for people to see who is up for election, I’ll copy all nominations (with supporting paragraph) to the second post of this thread.

The deadline for nominations is 6pm on Sunday 02 September. Nominations are now closed and the 8 nominees are listed on the second post of this thread.

The election of committee members will take place over a 2 week period following the deadline for nominations.

Voting opens at 10pm on Sunday 09 September and the deadline for voting is 10pm on Sunday 23 September.

To vote, each coach must send a PM to TeamEnglandAdmin ranking all 8 nominees in order of preference from 1 to 8. 1 being the most favoured and 8 being the least favoured. To clarify, each voter must rank all 8 nominees and the ranking must be in the order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 from best to worst. Votes which do not rank all 8 nominees in this way will not be counted.

Nominees may vote in the election and may give themselves the No. 1 ranking.

So how will we choose the winners of the election when the vote closes? We are looking for a committee of 5 people. 1 place on the Committee is reserved for the Team Captain (the current Team Captain is Lycos) so we are looking to elect 4 people.

The counting process will use the form of Instant Runoff Voting (IRV) that is bulleted below:

• Everyone voting has to list all 8 candidates in preference from best to worst.
• The top 4 candidates from each voter's list get 1 point.
• The candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and removed from everyone's list.
• The lists are then recalculated so that everyone has a new top 4 (if one of your top 4 was eliminated this now means your 5th choice gets a vote).
• Again the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and removed from everyone's list.
• This continues until we only have 4 candidates left, and they are the ones appointed.
• If there is a tie for fewest votes then the candidate with the most 1st places stays in; if that is a tie then the most 2nd places stays in, etc.
• If it is still a tie and eliminating all tied candidates will leave us with 4 or more then all are eliminated. If this takes us to under 4 candidates left then lots are drawn.
• For lots, all tied candidates are assigned the 1st, 2nd, 3rd (etc.) balls from the main Saturday UK lotto (the Saturday following the deadline for voting) in alphabetical NAF name order, and the highest numbers are kept in.

Eligibility: The usual eligibility requirements for participation in Team England matters apply i.e. you must be English and have played at least one NAF sanctioned tourney in the previous 12 months.

[speedingbullet]

The nominees so far, with supporting text in their own words are:

Leipziger

"I am an active member of the blood bowl community, and am a long time tournament organiser and league commissioner. I’m active on a number of forums, including on the NAF twitter account, and engage with a number of coaches regularly so try to stay in touch with peoples thoughts re: the game/community. I am also an advocate of TE and trying to help continue to build/strengthen the idea that TE is a community and not only a group of coaches that represents the country at Eurobowl"

Pipey

"First and foremost I'd like to say how pleased I am to see a clear process in place allowing the English community to choose how Team England works. The last few months have seen great strides forward. Whoever ends up on the committee I think it's a big win.

I personally have advocated change to a more democratic community-led Team England for many years. While I am positive about change, I wouldn't argue for change for its own sake, or to throw the baby out with the bath water just because structures are now in place to allow it. I would also say that community engagement is just as important as winning, and wouldn't lose sight of that.

If I am elected expect a balanced, careful approach as I believe I have demonstrated in previous community roles. I have been TO of several events including the NAF Championship and UKTC, and was a UK Tournament Coordinator and Tournament Director. I also led the process which gave us the current selection policy for TE back in 2009. I hope this breadth of experience will also give me a good insight into what our community wants today.

I believe the views of the community, such as recent input here on TFF, should be central to committee discussions and should shape the new proposed policy."

Speedingbullet

"I'm a huge fan of Blood Bowl, organise an annual one day tourney (Star Championship), assist with running the Shropshire Blood Bowl League, play in the Wolverhampton league, attend various tournaments around the country and occasionally travel abroad to play the game. I’d first seek consensus based decision making on the Committee but believe the Committee should be able to operate on a majority basis when needed to come to a timely decision. I’d like to see the Committee involved in team selection and give consideration to mixing subjective selection with objective selection although I believe the majority of coaches (e.g. 8 from an 11 person Team England squad for EuroBowl/EurOpen) should continue to be selected subjectively as this is likely to lead to the strongest team. I support the idea that the Committee should promote Team England as a community including: researching and advising on travel/accommodation arrangements; taking the lead on merchandise such as Team England shirts; being inclusive in terms of the wider group of English coaches that may benefit from Team England training events and may travel abroad to tournaments where Team England are participating. I’m happy to be an originator and/or reviewer of text for a new Charter."

Wilf

"I’ve been an active tournament player since 2006, have run the STABB Cup event most years since 2011, am commissioner of a fumbbl league and have also been lucky enough to have played for England at a Eurobowl in 2016.

I’m a passionate defender and advocate of TE and would be delighted to be able to play a part in how we can improve on and continue to build the TE community as a whole. I’d like to think I can contribute some good ideas, and be a sounding board for members of the community who share my enthusiasm for TE as a whole.

I’m a familiar face on the BB scene in the UK and Europe, although perhaps less so in the last two years after child number 2, but would relish a chance to help shape how TE moves forward at future Eurobowl events."

Indiana-Utah

"I'll throw my name in to the hat. As the commissioner of WYBBL, joint commissioner of TYBBL, organiser of various Yorkshire Tournaments each year, and admin on the BBC FB group, I believe I have a lot of experience with the hobby. However, I do have zero experience with Team England, and I think this is the main reason why I should be involved...

Yorkshire, while being the biggest county in the country, and having multiple leagues and tournaments running, has been isolated from the main community for many (many) years. This is changing, and we are getting more active and involved (over the last 3 years we have made a huge push in to the wider community), and this is a good thing. This lies my strength, I'm (was?) an outsider looking in, I represent the people who say the old school run the show, but from a position where I say they only run the show, because new people need to stand up and be counted (and this very process shows that the the old school are more than happy to embrace the new players, and likewise Yorkshire is showing that if you engage with the community, then it engages back with you). I'd be the bridge between the old and the new, making sure that all voices are heard, and that no one is left behind (so long as they shout up so we know they are there to be heard)."

Flick

"I am currently SYBBL Commissioner and a join Commissioner of the TYBBL structure. TYBBL been The Yorkshire Blood Bowl League. This idea started back in 2007 and I was part of the initial set up of the structure then. Bringing it back along side Indiana-utah, last year, it now has over 100 active players. South Yorkshire - SYBBL contributes 25 players to this.

Myself I have been playing since 1998 (20 years now!) and been tournament organising since 2013.

Of all the people applying for these roles I possibly am one of the least “experienced” in team England having not attended any events under the team England banner. It is because of this I would like to become involved and help bring more players in to the experience of playing nationally, working more on the recruiting side of the committee."

Besters

"I have been playing tournament BB since 2002 and after a slow start have now played one hundred plus tournaments including two World Cup's and have played all 26 races.

I would be looking to represent the views of southern and particularly SWTC coaches, but given the success of the team to date, I do believe in creating a consensus to provide an environment to enable that to continue.

I haven't been to Eurobowl and believe it unlikely that I will be a candidate for selection moving forward, however I will be going to the europen in Cardiff later this year to get experience of the event."

Mubo

"I've represented England at the 2 last Eurobowls in Sweden and Portugal, and regularly play tournament bloodbowl in the UK and Europe. Playing since 2008. I have spend several hours arguing about the best direction for Team England on various forums.

I'm keen to see Team England maintain their recent success, and the more people that are involved, and the greater the competition for places the better.

I also implemented the new NAF glicko rankings, which I guess points to my wholehearted commitment to the community."

[Pipey]

Thanks for your efforts in setting this up. Looks good.

Couple of questions on this.

Each coach will be allowed to vote for up to two different nominees.

So how will we choose the winners of the election when the vote closes? We are looking for a committee of 3 to 5 people. 1 place on the Committee is reserved for the Team Captain (the current Team Captain is Lycos). So we are looking to elect 2 to 4 people.

Is that a first choice, second choice thing? Or you just vote twice?

Regarding the 2018 captain being on the committee automatically (having input on selection, administration for EB 2020 onwards) - would it not be more appropriate to have a new captain in place, following on from the usual yearly cycle? i.e. Lycos is the captain for Cardiff, normally we would have a new captain for the next EB.

[speedingbullet]

Is that a first choice, second choice thing? Or you just vote twice?

There isn't a first or second choice, you just vote for the 2 people (on the list of nominees) that you'd most like to see on the Committee. So if 30 people vote, there could be up to 60 votes to tally.

As a further clarification, you can't vote twice for the same person. If you only want to support one person then you can choose to just cast one of your two votes.

[speedingbullet]

Regarding the 2018 captain being on the committee automatically (having input on selection, administration for EB 2020 onwards) - would it not be more appropriate to have a new captain in place, following on from the usual yearly cycle? i.e. Lycos is the captain for Cardiff, normally we would have a new captain for the next EB.

My take from the many previous posts related to Team England structure is that the current Captain should be on the Committee. The Captain may well change prior to EuroBowl/EurOpen 2020 but I don't think we want to be electing a Captain for 2020 now?

Drafting the new Charter could and probably should take place after EuroBowl/EurOpen 2018 so that learnings from the tourney can be incorporated. In which case the structure we're proposing wouldn't add to Dave's workload in advance of Cardiff. However, Dave didn't sign up to being part of a Committee when he was elected Captain so if he doesn't want to be part of the Committee that would clearly be fair enough and we could adjust the process to take account of that.

[speedingbullet]

Following on from the previous post, I don't have a direct way of contacting Dave (Lycos). Can someone that does please give Dave a nudge to post his thoughts on whether or not he wants to be part of the Committee?

[Lycos]

PM sent Jim

[speedingbullet]

I've had a chat with Dave (Lycos, Team England Captain) and he is happy to be on the Committee. So I believe we are good to move this forward as outlined in the top post.

If you'd like to be on the Committee, please put your name forward with a supporting paragraph.

[Jip]

I know we can’t nominate others but, to get the ball rolling with a heavy hint, I hope people like Gorgoroth, Deeferdan and Wobert see this thread.

Those were the people who came to my mind when I read this; not necessarily massive contributors to TFF, the Blood Bowl Facebook group, bbtactics etc, but sensible, pragmatic, Blood Bowl players, not buzzwords and bravado.

Sadly, I can see this thing dwindling to nothing, given the bureaucracy (maybe necessary, maybe not) at every stage, but I’m happy to be wrong. Good to have some buy-in from Lycos though, that should add more glitz and glamour to the process.

[Pipey]

I'll add to that (If I may)... I think Speedingbullet himself would make a good committee member. Lots of interesting and measured and innovative input in recent discussions.

Informal nominations might not be such a bad thing. At least it lets people know people think they'd do a decent job. Gets the ball rolling.

[lunchmoney]

Why cant people be nominated?

[Pipey]

I don't think it's quite so formal such that nominations aren't allowed.

Jim asks for this:

"Please post on this thread to nominate yourself for election to the Committee. The nomination should include a paragraph explaining why you want to be on the Committee."

Other discussions and chat are fine?

[speedingbullet]

Discussions and chat around this and informal nominations of coaches are absolutely fine, to be encouraged in fact, the more community engagement the better in my opinion. Get out there and communicate with other interested coaches in whatever way you want including posting on this thread

I recall some previous posts stating that one of the most important things, whatever the structure, is to have engaged people looking after Team England. For that reason, I don't want us to be voting for people who have been nominated by others but are perhaps themselves not 100% up for being on the Committee. That's why I'm looking for people to hold their hands up and say something along the lines of "I want to be on the Committee" with a supporting statement explaining why so that others have a bit of information about what they might bring to the role.

[deeferdan]

I know we can’t nominate others but, to get the ball rolling with a heavy hint, I hope people like Gorgoroth, Deeferdan and Wobert see this thread.

Thanks for the vote of confidence Jip... I've had a think about this and for me I think at this stage I wouldn't want to put myself forward. Although a long term gamer, i'm really quite new to the BB scene and I'm not sure I have the experience or credibility as yet

However, having said that I'd be keen to put some names forward too...

I would certainly second the nomination of Speedingbullet without him this process wouldn't be happening quite as efficiently as it is.

Additionally I've had a chat with Leipziger who I know is keen (and now outed)

I'd also love to see some other current members of TE involved, in particular Joemanji, Nippy and Pipey who all have the clout to give those whole thing some additional credence.

[cornish]

I would wholeheartedly support SpeedingBullet (Jim) and also Wobert (Ali) who above being great contributors to the B.B. community as generous tourney organisers are excellent coaches and above all lovely chaps. So two excellent people there. Jim has shown his passion through this process and Wobert has a whole raft of history drawing many of us all to the game and establishing a great sustainable scene in the Midlands/ South West through varied events at often his own expense.

There are so many in the South who give to the community as tournament organisers and may wish to put their names forward however; Thor, Lunchmoney, Glowworm, Loki, Monkeyjuice, HairyPete, AndyDavo, Itchen, Nazgob, CharlieBanks and Twelfman. There are others who I think would do a great job; Landrover, Jip and Sann to name but a few. ??what do you mean he is Scottish?? It’s like those English Welsh. There are no doubt many I overlook but welcome interest from Anyone who can commit time, consideration, sensibility and passion to the cause.