Hi, I'm Liz Mahanna, your TFDA secretary. I've been playing Ultimate in the Triangle since 1990 and in the past few years have begun organizing women's Ultimate. I'm not quite sure how I became TFDA secretary - it all happened very fast - but I'm glad to do it. Ultimate's been very good to me (it's the way I've met most of my friends, married my sweet husband, and kept from being a house slug) so it seems a small recompense to buy a fireproof safe, tote around the TFDA Great Seal and keep minutes of meetings.
I envision TFDA to increase the growth and development of Ultimate in the Triangle while also giving back to the awesome Ultimate community we have, by finding fields, hosting competitions, running Winter League, and whatever else the Ultimate community would like to see happen.
Liz Mahanna
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After living in the Triangle for four years and playing Ultimate for seven, it is time to give something back to both. As a member of the Triangle Flying Disc Association (TFDA) Board of Directors for this inaugural year, I hope TFDA enables Ultimate to become more rooted in the Triangle. The Triangle already has enough people to sustain Ultimate; now the Triangle needs stable playing sites, an organization to guide the growth of Ultimate in the area, and the members to further the sport and its presence in the Triangle.
As Chair of the TFDA Membership Committee, I would like to briefly explain the committee. This committee includes the membership of TFDA, the HomeSpun publication, and the TFDA Web site. Committee members are Jon Carnes, Garrett Dyer, David Silbey, Mollie Sanders, Sherry Kappel Knecht, and Joe Slater. The committee has met and decided upon the following guidelines, which still need to be approved by the Board of Directors.
Membership to TFDA falls into three categories: individual ($25.00), couple ($40.00) and student ($20.00). Couple memberships will be limited to those couples residing at the same address. Student memberships will include undergraduate and graduate students currently enrolled in a degree curriculum. Memberships will be valid for one year. A TFDA member will receive a membership card and possibly some of the following benefits: bumper sticker, removable window decal, reduced rates for TFDA sponsored events (Winter League and Summer Hat Series), reduced prices on TFDA merchandise, and mailed hard copies of HomeSpun.
HomeSpun takes on new leadership and format. As TFDA assumes responsibility for HomeSpun, we have two new volunteer editors, Dave Silbey and Sherry Kappel Knecht. The first 'new' issue is this one, released August 1997, with issues to follow every quarter. HomeSpun will also be available on the Internet at the TFDA Web site.
The TFDA Web site will be host to a number of things. Under the watchful and creative eye of Garrett Dyer, the Web site will encompass information about TFDA, the organization, board, and events. The site will also contain a copy of current and backdated issues of HomeSpun. The TFDA site will provide information regarding Ultimate teams and tournaments for the area, as well as links to other Ultimate sites on the Internet.
I have highlighted just a few of the exciting things the Membership Committee is working towards. Since this committee manages three distinct activities, more committee members are welcome. If you have an interest in any of the committee's activities and want to join us, just contact Joe Slater or me. Also, if you have any suggestions or comments, please let us know.
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Since Brian Dobyns, the field chair was out of town at press time, I [Joe Slater] will write a bit about the fields committee. Since one of the long term goals of TFDA is to obtain reliable fields, the fields committee promises to play a vital roll in TFDA. I hope that within five years we can begin to make a serious effort to obtain our own fields. In the meantime, we have a corps of volunteers who are gathering information about public and private fields for Winter League, free play, practice and other competition. Stay tuned...
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I have been playing Ultimate in this area for the past eight years and have seen the Ultimate playing population more than double in size. I believe the sport is still growing. On one hand, I think it is great that so many people are playing. We have one of the largest Ultimate populations per capita in the country.
As with all good things though, there also comes some bad. The bad thing in this case is that as we grow, we need more space. The demand we as a sport put on fields is tremendous. As a result, we are becoming less welcome in more places each year.
I see TFDA's number one priority as obtaining dependable, reliable fields for Ultimate. This will not be easy, but I hope and believe that it is achievable.
As vice president of TFDA, I will help out as best I can where needed. I plan to try to make the sport of ultimate more well known and understood in the Triangle area by getting information about our sport into the local printed news media.
At some point in the future I would also like to see TFDA get involved with local high schools. I will also serve as a member of the Competition committee.
Nancy Whinham
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I volunteered for the Committee chairmanship of the Competition Committee of the Triangle Flying Disc Association. You know, I like competition. It gets my fires going and takes me to a level I might not have gotten to on my own. But that's really not the point of this blurb. Since Joe Wolhar retired from organizing Winter League (many, many thanks and acknowledgments to Joe for gracefully running Winter League over the years), it turns out the Competition Committee's biggest responsibility is organizing Winter League.
I like Winter League, too, and it seems other folks really like it. If anyone is at all interested in taking part in organizing Winter League, let me know, and you can be on the Competition/Winter League Committee too. Call me at 286-1606 or e-mail me at lizaug@mindspring.com, or get in touch with Joe Slater. C'mon, join the fun of the Competition/Winter League Committee!
Augie Kreivenas
Kudos go out to Zemo Trevathan for taking the bull by the horns and opening up discussion concerning the Winter League format. My initial reaction was one of "Don't change the Winter League I know and love." It didn't take me long to realize that I in fact was being Reactionary and consider the "challenges" involved in making sure Winter League is competitive enough to be fun for the more gung-ho and experienced players (not necessarily the same groups) and inclusive enough to give everyone involved a chance to learn and enjoy Ultimate with others around the Triangle. My conclusion was, "Don't radically change the Winter League I know and love."
So what's my point? I thought about my experiences over six seasons of Winter League and tried to determine why I enjoyed it so much. When I first started, Ultimate and Winter League opened up the world of organized, competitive, team sports. Before, I had only seen organized, competitive, team sports as closed groups of people who were talented or skilled enough to play but had no interest in sharing the experience with the those who weren't (yes, that sounds like a bit of sour grapes coming from the not "talented" or "skilled" group). At Winter League there were, and are, some of the world's best Ultimate players who're not only willing to share the field with the less skilled and talented players but who also work(ed) to help those lesser skilled and talented players become more skilled and talented. My eyes were opened even more when I attended the Winter League tournament and saw the intensity level rise.
Every year I have played Winter League I have improved my game, gained confidence in my abilities and learned new things from my peers and mentors. I have also witnessed new players discover the game, learn from the best, and, a few of them, go on to become among the best players in the world. Also, a unified Winter League gives the Triangle Ultimate community a chance to come together as whole. This significantly enhances the social and spirit(ual) aspects of the game for me.
Does all of this mean there is no room for change? Not hardly. As Zemo stated, the challenge of ensuring that "less competitive" players get enough experience is real for some teams. However, this year the team I played on, the indefatigable Blue Spruce, lost many of its members to injuries, family commitments, medical boards and participation in other sports. We typically had fewer than ten players throughout the season and played the tournament with one-and-a-half subs (and a player with his throwing hand in a cast). In one of our games, we lost two of our players to injury early in the game and were down to six players. The opposing team had plenty of subs and graciously loaned us a couple of their members to finish out the game and the loaners got plenty of playing time.
I know from talking to people on other squads that some teams were low on numbers while on other teams people hurt for playing time. So maybe we could have a mechanism that would allow people to move from teams where they aren't getting enough playing time, to teams that have a hard time getting enough people. Of course, there would probably have to be (yuck!) rules, so this wouldn't be abused. The players and the captains of each team would have to be in agreement, and higher round draft picks might not be eligible.
This one suggestion won't necessarily meet all of the challenges involved in making Winter League competitive, equitable and fun for all participants, but combined with other ideas/improvements, including the current effort to secure fields, could help preserve and promote the Winter League we know and love.
TFDA Secretary
lizaug@mindspring.com
The Membership Committee & Member Information
By Beth Cates... catesba@raleigh-nc.org
Fields Committee
Brian Dobyns...limpindog@aol.com
TFDA Vice Presidential Goals
By Nancy Whinham... njw@vnet.ibm.com
Vice President, TFDA
njw@vnet.ibm.com
Competition/ Winter League Committee
By Augie Kreivenas...lizaug@mindspring.com
lizaug@mindspring.com
Op/Ed: A Humble Rebuttal
By Anthony Burgess... jab11879@glaxowellcome.com
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