In which I am reminded that I occasionally set reminders for myself

I set a reminder for myself, long ago, to update the registration procedures in the Toolkit. It popped up this morning, just in time for me to delay it for a week and to realize that, yes indeed, registration procedures will be, oh, 100% different this season. Just like everything else. I’ll get on it shortly. Today, instead, it’s golf, which is practically the only thing I do these days out in the world. Helps keep me sane, as much as golf can keep anyone sane.

 

Absent a vaccine/cure, I realize that it’s going to be a particularly long haul of social distancing for me during the season, as it makes no sense for me to rub elbows with anyone who has been in a classroom. Needless to say, I have fears for those who might have no choice but to be in a classroom, namely all my teacher friends. Of course, some may be lucky enough to work in acceptably sterile situations, but certainly not all of them, because that paradigm does not and will not exist. Throw the dice, see what happens? That, I’m afraid, does not sound like a plan. But there isn’t much point in me bloviating about it. That’s a job for other people, many of them in decision-making positions. The only decision I have to make is to tab everything from home no matter what happens. I’ve always felt I could do that anyhow, given how at some tournaments we are so far flung from the action that we might as well be in Neverland. If it wasn’t for the social side of tab rooms, there would be no point whatsoever in being there, at least for me, being teamless. 

 

So it goes.

 

I have noticed a few things. The UKy tournament, for instance, has more people signed up than Goya has beans, and they haven’t even enlisted Ivanka as their spokesperson. 500 VPF entries alone, most of them TBAs, of course. I didn’t bother to count how many were waitlisted, but it seems to be only those over a specific team cap. I gather they simply opened enrollment and let the multitudes flow in. We’ve been recommending event caps that advance all 4-2s (or 5-2s, in some cases) in the most competitive (read TOC-bid) events, and management of entries around 80-20 good regular customers and new worthies (especially those who might have previously been unable to afford the cost of travel to a national event). In other words, some tournaments we’re involved in will not have an open-door policy. Then again, some will. In the early days of discussion, everybody felt that virtual tournaments offered opportunities that eliminated geography. But those opportunities have not eliminated common sense. (Not that I’m accusing UKy of lacking same; I wouldn’t know them if I found them huddled in my basement going through the box of orphaned power cords. Still…) For that matter, the Logan tournament in January—JANUARY—is open and has 81 VPFers rarin’ to go, some of them noted even by name. Schools know today who they will send to a tournament on MLK weekend? I mean, not just a team with one lone wolf for a full battalion? Formidable, as they say on the French barricades. 

 

So, yeah, it’s going to be a crazy season. It already is. 

 

 

In which we pay various pipers, or not, as the case may be

I feel that this is the calm before the storm. 

 

NSDA has clarified its virtual room situation. The bottom line is a cost of $6 per room, per day. That’s reasonable; after all, data access isn’t free, plus they get to make a dollar or two along the way (and they should). Having already used the jitsi software, I know that it works. It’s no-frills, but in a way that eliminates a lot of problems: for instance, no one other than the participants can be in a room, and there’s no recording. What will make things interesting is paying for it. A college will have an outlay of a few thousand bucks in advance, and I have a feeling that their admins are not going to like that. Some of them are already ham-fisted in their treatment of tournaments in general and money in particular. For me, the good news is that it’s not my problem. I’m simply the messenger. Six bucks a room, read ‘em and weep. End of story. 

 

To fill the empty hours I’ve created a spreadsheet for estimating expenses and determining cost per entry. It really only works when you’re relatively sure of your numbers. The point of it is to help you decide how much you should be charging. We’ll see what people make of it, if anything. I have a feeling most folks will charge what they always charge, and most people will pay it. Everyone will be so happy not paying for planes, trains, automobiles and EconoLodges that they won’t even notice. But honestly, if my spreadsheet is accurate, what it costs is what it costs, with a reasonable percentage of profit. No one’s going to be digging any goldmines over it.

 

I’ve also been collecting data on attendees, so far just for Da Bronx. I looked at the last 3 years to see who the regulars are. They get first crack when slots are distributed, minus an estimated 20% of the slots going to new people, primarily those who in the past were unable to attend because of expense. There is a thought abroad that a lot of programs are local not by choice but because of financial restraints, that is, they can’t afford all the auxiliary expenses like travel and lodging, both of which are now removed. One needs to create a thoughtful balance of regulars and newbies, especially if those newbies are especially deserving. Mixing that with caps is going to be…fun? Oh, well. That’s why I earn the big bucks. (Which I’m sure will be coming any day now. I mean, 25 years in, I know it’s just been a question of the banks finding a place to drop off the ingots. Even though I’ve been in the same place all those 25 years. Maybe I was misinformed?)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In which we tackle sex

Sometimes one finds oneself in a curious confluence of ideas that starts the brain fluids flowing, although not necessarily to any conclusion. To wit, in this last week I happened to listen to a podcast about James Triptree Jr., one of the pioneering women in SF, I’m in the middle of listening to The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, and on my Kindle I am finishing up reading The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anders (a juror of the Otherwise Award, originally named after Triptree). There’s no rhyme or reason to this confluence. It’s just happenstance. 

 

One interesting thing is the difference 50 years makes in SF writing in general. I’ve remarked before about LeGuin worriting (I love that word) a theme to death, and while her content is anything but stodgy, her writing is definitely of another time. Anders, on the other hand, is as modern as today: the book just won the 2020 Locus for best SF novel. I’ve always been fascinated by the styles in art that define a moment in culture. The 1960s simply are not the 2020s. I’m not talking about the content so much as approach. Storytelling is both faster and more elliptical. Literary brushstrokes are shorter, looking one way close up and another way from a distance. Stories are told differently. My favorite way to explain the stylistic differences is to reference comics (or, if you prefer, graphic novels), which have a similar continuum. Take a look at 1950s Batman, and then take a look at 2020 Batman. Faster, more elliptical, shorter brushstrokes, a completely different gestalt. Art—all art—is moving that same way (at the moment).

 

As readers, we can enjoy the past and the present. It keeps us on our toes. As critics, we can try to explore it all in depth, to figure out what makes it tick. And as students of life, cogitating on a woman writer with a feminist slant whose success had to come with a male pseudonym, a feminist writer slicing and dicing ambisexuality in what has become an SF classic, and a prominent present-day trans writer creating a story where men barely play a role and the key to the story is another species entirely? 

 

As I said, it keeps the juices flowing. 

 

In which we pace the floor, waiting for the obstetrician to deliver 2020-21

Anyone who is paying even the slightest bit of attention knows that things are going to be totally nuts for the schools when summer is over. What is not in question is that learning in person is an extremely good thing, and that learning remotely is not a perfect substitute. This seems to be especially true for younger kids, but it holds up through college as well. For that matter, the premise holds for life in general. Online is no substitute for being there; I can easily speak to that as the grandparent of a three-year-old living in London. As for the schools, while some people seem to want definitive answers now, others—perhaps more wisely given the current situation—are hesitant to say much of anything if it can all be overturned in a matter of a week or two. Then again, if kids do go back to schools, much planning will be needed. So there’s some wisdom there too.

 

Thank God we have such strong leadership from our national government. (Oops. Wrong universe.)

 

Meanwhile, we’re coming up to mid-July. I haven’t posted much lately because there isn’t much to say that I haven’t already said. But it won’t be long before we have to fish or get off the pot on the early tournaments. If you have an event in October (think Bronx and Byram Hills in my circle, and Yale for my closely connected circle), the clock is ticking. Decisions have to be made. Fortunately some awfully smart people have been thinking hard about all of this, and are providing direction. One thing that has to be kept in mind is that I, personally, have no horses in the race. I don’t know what it’s like coaching a team virtually. Others do, and I rely on them for those insights that I can just imagine. Then again, even on their end they’re not sure what’s going to be what next season. But one certainty is that online tournaments are it for the foreseeable future. And foreseeability is limited. 

 

May you live in interesting times. 

 

 

In which we declare, this is how we're doing big tournaments

It’s not easy planning something in great detail when, for all practical purposes, you have nothing to go on. I mean, yes, we’ve been to and even run a few virtual tournaments, but nobody’s actually got it knocked yet. By knocked I mean an attainable vision of a competition successful on all counts: fair, reasonable, predictable, satisfying—a tournament teams want to go to year after year, that judges can’t wait to judge because of the great treatment they receive, that even the tab room looks forward to the fun of making it all happen yet again. We don’t have anything close to that with virtual tournaments. We have all of our experience with IRL tournaments, and a tad of experience with e-tournaments. And we’re trying to assemble from that a top-to-bottom plan for 2020-21. I will add that the "we" here is a group of individuals with differing opinions, whose teams and the needs of those teams sometimes vary from one another dramatically. Fortunately, the "we" here is a group of professionals with mutual respect who also happen to be friends. We can disagree, but we can also come to a decision, sometimes concurring with a decision that goes against our personal opinions. 

 

Just as an aside, I have never believed that the best solution to a disagreement is a compromise. Sometimes, yes, of course, but other times, no. Sometimes there really is a correct or more desirable path that has to be taken where perhaps one party to the group isn’t happy but the group as a whole is better off. This is preferable to no one in the group being happy, and pretty much no one being better off. I have known business managers who were so fearful of disagreement that they could never pick a side (much less have their own) and inevitably proposed the worst possible solution where not only no one was happy, but the true goal that was being sought was rendered unachievable. Fortunately for the debate community, our Traveling Tab Room is not like that.

 

Anyhow, we have endless discussions about handling tournaments next season. I don’t think anyone believes anymore that there will be any IRL events. The Times today discussed how college teachers think the last place they should be next season is in a room with college students. Can’t say as I blame them. The high schools are kicking around all sorts of solutions for the School Year in the Time of Coronavirus, some of which sound to me like cake in the sky; I’d say pie in the sky, but that’s giving them too much credit. In any case, e-tournaments are going to be it, and we’ve come up with what we think is workable. There are some ifs, which could cause changes as things evolve, but so far, we’re set. 

 

Big three-day tournaments with TOC bids will look like this, until something better comes along: single flights, 6 rounds, cap at 180, judge ratio 1-2 (not partial obs), MJP in VLD for Quarters bids and above (or wherever the precedent has been established) otherwise strikes, break to triples. This applies to PF and LD both. At tournaments where we’re predicting a big overflow in varsity divisions, add a JV division; my idea for Community/Open was a non-starter, not being able to get past the looks-like-a-loser-division problem.

 

Skeds look like this:

 

LD
	Start time	Duration	Finish time
Day 1
RD	4:30 PM	1:30	6:00 PM
RD	6:30 PM	1:30	8:00 PM
RD
RD
RD
RD
Day 2
RD	9:00 AM	1:30	10:30 AM
RD	11:15 AM	1:30	12:45 PM
RD	1:30 PM	1:30	3:00 PM
RD	3:45 PM	1:30	5:15 PM
Trips	6:00 PM	1:30	7:30 PM
Day 3
Double	8:30 AM	1:30	10:00 AM
Oct	11:00 AM	1:30	12:30 PM
Qs	1:30 PM	1:30	3:00 PM
Semi	3:30 PM	1:30	5:00 PM
Final	5:30 PM	1:30	7:00 PM

 

 

PF
	Start time	Duration	Finish time
Day 1
RD	4:30 PM	1:30	6:00 PM
RD	7:00 PM	1:30	8:30 PM
RD
RD
RD
RD
Day 2
RD	9:00 AM	1:30	10:30 AM
RD	11:00 AM	1:30	12:30 PM
RD	1:30 PM	1:30	3:00 PM
RD	3:30 PM	1:30	5:00 PM
Trips	5:30 PM	1:30	7:00 PM
Day 3
Doubles	8:30 AM	1:30	10:00 AM
Octs	11:00 AM	1:30	12:30 PM
Qs	1:30 PM	1:30	3:00 PM
S	3:30 PM	1:30	5:00 PM
F	5:30 PM	1:30	7:00 PM

 

CX
	Start time	Duration	Finish time
Friday
RD 1	4:30 PM	2:30	7:00 PM
RD 2	7:00 PM	2:00	9:00 PM
Saturday
RD 3	9:00 AM	2:00	11:00 AM
RD 4	11:45 AM	2:00	1:45 PM
RD 5	2:45 PM	2:00	4:45 PM
RD 6	5:30 PM	2:00	7:30 PM
Sunday
Elim 1	9:00 AM	2:00	11:00 AM
Elim 2	11:45 AM	2:00	1:45 PM
Elim 3	2:45 PM	2:00	4:45 PM
Elim 4	5:30 PM	2:00	7:30 PM

 

 

The extra time in LD is for Varsity teams prepping. Otherwise, LD would go by the PF sked. There is serious consideration that CX might break the biggest reasonable number and forgo a final. There might be a little seasoning to taste for some of this, but overall it’s the fairest, and it’s certainly the closest we’ll get to decent results vis-à-vis TOC bids. 

 

The single flighting is, of course, the biggest issue. One can argue it till the cows come home, but when push comes to shove, it’s the only way a big machine—a tournament with hundreds of entrants in multiple divisions—can operate. Smaller tournaments, e.g., HS tournaments without bids or with a finals or even semis bid, running on two days, would take different approaches. I’m leaning toward two-dayers being Sat-Sun if at all possible, which allows for a lot of variations, and, more to the point, more leeway for double flights. 

 

As for speech, all events live, including DUO on separate cams. Double-entry okay except in extemp.

 

And that’s about it.