Jake, the MHLW, Pups and Bump

While I was away, of course, Big Jake came and went. Registration, that is. It opened on August 1st and closed on August 1st. According to O’C, he’s got enough people on the waiting list to run another tournament simultaneously. And a really good tournament at that. But he’s doing it the right way. There have to be limits, of both schools and field, otherwise a handful of schools can throw off the competition completely. All the major national tournaments worth anything work likewise. Not that I don’t like a venue with open limits, mind you, especially when I’ve got a mess o’ novvies to herd, but if you’re trying to develop a highfalutin event, you need highfalutin rules. So it goes.

A few of us are meeting next week to polish the curriculum for the MHL Workshop, or MHLW as we call it. (If you haven’t already done so, check out the details on the MHL site, and feel free to sign up.) We’ve already got a good starter set of JVers signed up in both LD and Policy. Given the late start of the school year (after Labor Day, which is also late), I don’t know what our novice slate will look like. There won’t be any Sailors, for instance. I won’t even have had the first meeting yet. But it might be better if the workshop this year is small. It will give us a chance to try things out and, if it’s a hit, make it bigger, and later, next year.

The next registration on the docket will be for the Pups. I don’t think CP has put anything together yet but he’s got a few hours before it opens and I’m sure he’ll come through. I’ve got a bunch of Sailors lined up, and a bunch of hotel rooms, and some drivers, and at some point between now and the end of this week I’ve got to finalize all of it and make it so.

After that, I’ll have to start thinking about—oy—Bump. Nothing much will change from last year, although I’m beginning to focus in on judge commitments. A lot of people sign up for a tournament and register judges, and then add notes about all the rounds the judges won’t be able to attend. My theory is that if you have debaters in all the rounds, you need judges in all the rounds. Am I missing something here? I’m thinking about eliminating pre-registration fines altogether and instituting missing-judge surcharges. The only problem is, I don’t want people to think that I’m condoning it because I’m allowing them to buy out. Other than that, as I say, it will probably be status quo. As longtime members of the VCA know, I hate Bump with every fiber of my being. I’m happy to run your tournament, but running my own? It is for the proverbial birds.