In which we report on our website

I think I’ve finally got the jimmenick.com website updated for the season. Things change, needless to say, and if one is hosting a website with a lot of one’s things, the website ought to change along with them.

I guess the biggest new thing is that I’m really pushing the Tournament Director’s Toolkit. As I’ve said, if I know nothing else, I know how to run tournaments. I did it on a weekly basis for years, never taking a weekend off because I was really enjoying myself. CP is probably the only person I know who is similarly up there behind the curtain (probably moreso, since a lot of it is his curtain). Sure, plenty of people attend tournaments every week, but that’s not the same thing. Planning to attend a tournament requires lining up your team and getting transportation organized and lassoing judges and maybe fundraising and so forth, which is no easy feat overall, but which is different from running said tournament. I’ve run little tournaments and big tournaments, not just tabbing them but literally as tournament director. To tell you the truth, those occasions when I’m just tabbing are like a weekend off; if something goes horribly wrong, it’s somebody else’s problem. But when you’re the director, it’s your problem. And the work often begins months before the event. And some of the simplest things can be killers in the execution. Just running a nice smooth onsite registration can be a stopper for some people. Tabroom can do so much to ameliorate the process, but either people are unaware of that, or more to the point, they just prefer to exercise what they see as control where it is unnecessary. Whichever, it can really be a nightmare or a piece of cake, depending on how you handle it. Anyhow, I certainly believe that there are best practices is running tournaments, and I’ve tried to capture them. I think there are some reasonable variations, but mostly best is a singular approach. I also believe that it is constantly changing. What’s best this year might be second best next year, so I’ll try to keep things up to date (although, honestly, I don’t know how, short of having people read this blog religiously—I’ll figure out something).

After the toolkit, I think some of my stuff might be getting a little long in the tooth, and I’ve downplayed it accordingly. I certainly wouldn’t put much stock in my thoughts on LD anymore, although there’s probably some value at the beginner level. I think what I’ve written about PF is still viable, based on what I saw down in Orlando at the NDCA finals. And of course there’s all the ancillary stuff, the fiction and audios and whatnot. The website doesn’t look terribly different—I had considered trying some new design tools but I just didn’t really have the time or the energy—and the content mostly isn’t terribly different either. But it is what it is, and at the moment, it’s up to date. I can stop thinking about it for another season.

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