Tuesday, August 16, 2016

In which the numbers are high

I know that you’re curious about such things, so I’ll pass the info along. Rather Large Bronx opened registration yesterday, and now has enough entries to fill a battleship. Damn the torpedoes! Full speed ahead!

Like all good tournaments (and you know this of course because you are a sworn follower of my Tournament Director’s Toolkit), everything starts off as waitlist. This keeps out the riffraff, which all major tournaments attract despite any preventative protestations in the invitations. USDA-approved entries only? Yeah, but, we almost always pay and won’t cause much trouble until round three at which point our freshman PFer will slip on a papaya and break his whatsits and his parents will sue you until your school has nothing left but a leaky water fountain, half a piece of yellow chalk and the faint but pungent small of chlorine, while our judges will all disappear as soon as the sun is over the yardarm and the bar opens. Modern waitlist management, and best practices, demand that you wait a couple of weeks before clearing the waitlist, giving enough time for everyone to get a chance to register, including the handful taking that late vacation in the Norwegian fjords, and then choosing evenly amongst the pack rather than favoring those who clicked in first. The thing is, clicking in first is not a warrant for guaranteeing admission. Any clown with a clock can click in early. Clicking in wisely is better. With names, better yet. With judges, even better still. You’re bringing the max in every activity and want to hire 100% of your judging? I wonder how that will float with the Bronkwegian powers that be.


Speaking of which, am I the last person to learn that a person from Manchester, England (or, as theater buffs would put it, Manchester, England, England) is a Mancunian? How did this escape me for my entire lifetime? I could have used this information. Maybe I was so taken by Glaswegians that I got stuck like a broken record (which, if you’re young, is a phrase you can Google). Damn. You learn something every day (or every other day, if your attention tends to wander).

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