To the presidents of NASPA:
We, the Scrabble community write this letter not as enemy combatants, but as concerned members of the NASPA organization. We appreciate the time and effort that you have put into tournament Scrabble. We want NASPA to succeed. While we may have different ideas, we share a common desire for our community to grow both in number and in significance.
Unfortunately, we are concerned about our current direction. Many have become discouraged and stopped playing tournaments or heavily decreased their involvement, including many elite players, directors, or others essential to our past success. Participation and prestige in major tournaments has plummeted. Active membership has dropped significantly. Participation has dropped by 1/3 from 2007 to 2011 (86,300 games were played in 2008, whereas only 57,852 were played in 2011). Prize money in all tournaments is greatly reduced. We are deeply concerned that these unpleasant trends are our future. Staying on the current course simply isn't good enough. We need to grow the size and scope of our game.
NASPA has put itself into a secure financial position. According to your financial reports, you should currently be at or near your target 250k, completing the "war chest". Now that you have developed a firm foundation, it's time that you impart your vision and use your future income to create a vibrant, prosperous community. We want you to invest both time and money to help our community blossom.
We understand that growing our community is a monumental task, and there is no silver bullet. We are asking not for a single policy change, but a change in direction. We ask that NASPA develop a grand plan to grow our game (represented by a mission statement) implemented through multiple policy adjustments and a serious investment of time, effort, and money to increase participation and advertise the organization to potential members. The mission statement would serve as a way to inspire our community and increase our morale. With strong, inspirational leadership implementing new ideas (from members and committees alike) we believe that we can reverse these trends.
We believe that a plan must be presented by NASPA to move forward so we can aspire to become a bigger and better organization in the future. We urge you to share your vision in the form of a mission statement, signifying a plan to reach far beyond our current membership and to employ your resources to grow the game in size and scope. Once this plan is developed, we would like you to share this plan with the community so we can help you to achieve our common goal of helping tournament Scrabble flourish.
PLEASE NOTE: The contribution asked for at the end of this petition is
part of the website and does NOT contribute to the petition's message or
signers.
Updates
January 10, 2013
Reaching this point has been a long and draining climb but seeing so many of you echo these concerns keeps me going. It is clear that the community is exhausted by the current decline and ready for a shift in direction. We have a long road ahead before we see actual change but I am not walking away now.
Reached 100 supporters
January 10, 2013
6 Comments
I would love to promote the game and direct rated tournaments in my area, but recently it has become rather difficult to persuade people to join an organization which offers so little and seems to care even less. Let's see some fresh vigor and enthusiasm. Let's see a plan to entice new members and invite old stalwarts back with warmth and recognition for their years of service to the community.
I'd love to see NASPA invest in growing the youth participation as has been done so successfully in Thailand and Pakistan.
NASPA spent members' money to purchase Zyzzyva knowing full well its iOS version needed to be fixed. Two years later it still has not fixed it.
Fix Zyzzyva already. It is embarrassing that we are still using software that crashes half the time on newer phones.
The club scene is dying out here. Back when I started we had ten tables going every week. Now nobody wants to pay dues for an org that does zero outreach or marketing.
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To the presidents of NASPA:
We, the Scrabble community write this letter not as enemy combatants, but as concerned members of the NASPA organization. We appreciate the time and effort that you have put into tournament Scrabble. We want NASPA to succeed. While we may have different ideas, we share a common desire for our community to grow both in number and in significance.
Unfortunately, we are concerned about our current direction. Many have become discouraged and stopped playing tournaments or heavily decreased their involvement, including many elite players, directors, or others essential to our past success. Participation and prestige in major tournaments has plummeted. Active membership has dropped significantly. Participation has dropped by 1/3 from 2007 to 2011 (86,300 games were played in 2008, whereas only 57,852 were played in 2011). Prize money in all tournaments is greatly reduced. We are deeply concerned that these unpleasant trends are our future. Staying on the current course simply isn't good enough. We need to grow the size and scope of our game.
NASPA has put itself into a secure financial position. According to your financial reports, you should currently be at or near your target 250k, completing the "war chest". Now that you have developed a firm foundation, it's time that you impart your vision and use your future income to create a vibrant, prosperous community. We want you to invest both time and money to help our community blossom.
We understand that growing our community is a monumental task, and there is no silver bullet. We are asking not for a single policy change, but a change in direction. We ask that NASPA develop a grand plan to grow our game (represented by a mission statement) implemented through multiple policy adjustments and a serious investment of time, effort, and money to increase participation and advertise the organization to potential members. The mission statement would serve as a way to inspire our community and increase our morale. With strong, inspirational leadership implementing new ideas (from members and committees alike) we believe that we can reverse these trends.
We believe that a plan must be presented by NASPA to move forward so we can aspire to become a bigger and better organization in the future. We urge you to share your vision in the form of a mission statement, signifying a plan to reach far beyond our current membership and to employ your resources to grow the game in size and scope. Once this plan is developed, we would like you to share this plan with the community so we can help you to achieve our common goal of helping tournament Scrabble flourish.
PLEASE NOTE: The contribution asked for at the end of this petition is
part of the website and does NOT contribute to the petition's message or
signers.
Updates
January 10, 2013
Reaching this point has been a long and draining climb but seeing so many of you echo these concerns keeps me going. It is clear that the community is exhausted by the current decline and ready for a shift in direction. We have a long road ahead before we see actual change but I am not walking away now.
Reached 100 supporters
January 10, 2013
6 Comments
When I first joined the NSA there were around 20,000 members. Years after it became NASPA, clubs, general membership and tournament director just stopped associating with them. A little thing that NSA used to do was send out a framed certificate to club players who had 50 wins. NASPA stopped doing that but wanted more money from the clubs. There has been no vision to take Srabble forward
I would love to promote the game and direct rated tournaments in my area, but recently it has become rather difficult to persuade people to join an organization which offers so little and seems to care even less. Let's see some fresh vigor and enthusiasm. Let's see a plan to entice new members and invite old stalwarts back with warmth and recognition for their years of service to the community.
I'd love to see NASPA invest in growing the youth participation as has been done so successfully in Thailand and Pakistan.
NASPA spent members' money to purchase Zyzzyva knowing full well its iOS version needed to be fixed. Two years later it still has not fixed it.
Fix Zyzzyva already. It is embarrassing that we are still using software that crashes half the time on newer phones.
The club scene is dying out here. Back when I started we had ten tables going every week. Now nobody wants to pay dues for an org that does zero outreach or marketing.
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When I first joined the NSA there were around 20,000 members. Years after it became NASPA, clubs, general membership and tournament director just stopped associating with them. A little thing that NSA used to do was send out a framed certificate to club players who had 50 wins. NASPA stopped doing that but wanted more money from the clubs. There has been no vision to take Srabble forward