Ask PDGA Board Member Peter Shive

[shive]

I have maintained an "Ask Board Member Peter Shive" thread on the PDGA Discussion Board since I was elected in September 2011. I do it because I feel that I should be accountable to the PDGA membership, and because I learn from the members' questions and the related discussions.

I am starting a similar thread here for several reasons. I think I have the time. We'll see. This Forum has more vitality. The PDGA Discussion Board has not yet rebounded even though the PDGA website has been vastly improved over the last few months. Also, I'm interested in questions and comments from players who are not PDGA members. We'd like to make the PDGA more attractive to nonmembers, and I can probably learn a great deal from their perspective.

So ask away, and I will do the best I can, subject to the considerations discussed in posts #1 and #7 of my thread on the PDGA Discussion Board.

 

[JSurmann]

Welcome to the site.

My question: When first becoming a board member, did you have any specific goals or wishes that you had hoped to accomplish by now? What were they?

 

[ManU]

I don't frequent that Board (although I am a member) so would you mind pasting considerations #1 and #7 here?

 

[Todd Wiley]

welcome shive. I've recently been informed that distance restrictions between sanctioned events will be eased in '13, any details on this yet?

 

[bergdawg]

2011 Worlds DVD, is it going to be shipped soon?

 

[The Hammer]

2011 Worlds DVD, is it going to be shipped soon?

lol. Just hold your breath.....

 

[joegraham]

Hi Peter. I think you will get much more activity on this site than PDGA's. Thanks for your interest in all of us.

I would like to know what we can expect in the near future for sponsorships for big PDGA tournaments. We need serious commitments for money and big brands if media are going to take our sport to the next level in terms of coverage and respect. PDGA hired a marketing guy a while ago. Any news on this front? Thank you.

 

[elnino]

i would like to thank you. people here have many questions nice that someone is out there talking back to us so we don't seem crazy.

How many total on the board?

 

[DiscJunkie]

This Forum has more vitality.

We've got vitality alright.
We may lack common sense, better judgement, discretion and consideration; but we got vitality!

 

[Moonshine]

Hi Peter,

I am a program manager at a local non-profit, and a brand new PDGA member. I am very interested in applying for a PDGA Innovation Grant. Is there anything specific that you look for when evaluating proposals? Thanks for any input you can provide!

 

[ru4por]

Welcome to the board Pete. Since you are asking, I cannot seem to get action on getting my 2012 membership packet. I have emailed several times in an attempt to get this, to no avail. I know it is trivial, yet the key tags display so proudly in my office. I am on a five year membership, number 17958
If there is anything you can do, that would be great. If not, so be it, perhaps the PDGA could start working on my 2013 now. I don't know if anyone else has had this problem.

 

[shive]

Omigosh! I posted, waited half an hour, and I already have eight responses. That's more than I got in a month on the PDGA Discussion Board. The first one alone will take some time to answer, because I had many goals. I think this is going to be very "non-boring", which I like. I'll start in this afternoon and see how well I can keep up.

 

[bazillion]

Peter, I've posted the content of your emails relating to age-protected divisions here in the Doddering Discers social forum.

Fyi and if anyone's interested, there they are.

Now where's my Geritol?

 

[shive]

I'll take the easy ones first:

Todd Wiley, the distance restriction policy is, I believe, under consideration, but no formal recommendation has yet come to the Board.

berdawg, the office has received dvd #1, but not #2. It is, obviously, a regrettable situation. We hope for the best, and have been careful not to bill anyone or retain payments made before delivery. I don't want to make the kind of prediction you would like, because past predictions have raised hopes unnecessarily.

elnino, there are eight current Board members, seven elected and one appointed. The Bylaws provide for two appointed members, so we currently have a vacancy.

ru4por, there have been communication glitches between the Office and the Fulfillment House (which actually sends the packetsl). Brian Graham is very concerned about this, and has handled similar complaints personally. If you send him an e-mail I'm sure he would appreciate it and would take care of it.

 

[Todd Wiley]

I'll take the easy ones first:

Todd Wiley, the distance restriction policy is, I believe, under consideration, but no formal recommendation has yet come to the Board.

Thank You for the response and good luck on keeping up with some of the wonderful and colorful questions you will no doubt see on this thread.

 

[turbosteve]

What happened with the PDGA working with the EVP Pro Volleyball Tour?

 

[bergdawg]

berdawg, the office has received dvd #1, but not #2. It is, obviously, a regrettable situation. We hope for the best, and have been careful not to bill anyone or retain payments made before delivery. I don't want to make the kind of prediction you would like, because past predictions have raised hopes unnecessarily.
QUOTE]

Understandably out of your control. Thanks for the update!

 

[ru4por]

ru4por, there have been communication glitches between the Office and the Fulfillment House (which actually sends the packetsl). Brian Graham is very concerned about this, and has handled similar complaints personally. If you send him an e-mail I'm sure he would appreciate it and would take care of it.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for the response, I have tried a couple different email. Brian was not one of them. I will send along a note. :thmbup:

 

[shive]

ManU, I append below several statements I have made at various times in the past about participating in a thread like this. As you can see, it is not a simple matter to be fair, professional and fully informative at the same time. Still, I like to try.

"I am limited somewhat by considerations of confidentiality (mostly with regard to personnel, disciplinary and budgetary issues), time (I have a very active life beyond this message board), and my own temperament (I place a high value on brevity and courtesy). With this in mind, there are some things that I intend not to do:
1) I won't attribute other points of view by name, unless invited (by that person) to do so.
2) I won't criticize anyone, except possibly myself.
3) I won't comment in detail on personnel, disciplinary or budgetary matters.
4) I won't keep doing this if it doesn't live up to my expectations."

"There must be ground rules for something like this. This isn't like a gossip column, or a campaign platform, or even like a newspaper editorial. I need first of all to consider the feelings of my fellow Board members, who may feel uncomfortable about posting themselves and understandably edgy that I do it. I expect that we will discuss this issue at the Fall Summit meeting (Sep 26-28), and I hope that we can set up ground rules that are agreeable to all of us. Until then I will be reasonably cautious. But not mute."

"I've been on the Board for a bit more than a month, and recently returned from the Fall Summit. Although Board Member Peter must necessarily be far more circumspect than Board Candidate Peter, this is a good time to open communication with the membership. I can talk more about the Summit than I could about teleconferences, because any PDGA member is free to attend Summits and could thus have received the information from the horses' mouths, so to speak."

"I am not the spokesman for the Board. Rebecca Duffy was elected to that position. The recollections and opinions expressed on this thread are entirely my own. I do this out of a sense of personal accountability to the membership, and a desire to get feedback about issues of interest. I can learn a lot from this kind of interaction, as I did during the campaign. I have more time than most Board Members, so it is easier for me to do it."

"Communication: We talked about this at some length. The Board would like more communication with the membership, but this is a very complex matter. As I may hold minority views on many issues, the Board might well wish that someone else wanted to do the communicating instead of me. For my part, I don't want to sacrifice effective working relationships on the Board or introduce unnecessary contentious elements into Board deliberations. The Board seems quite willing for me to give this a try, so long as I observe the protocols that bind all members of nonprofit Boards."

 

[skottyb]

Peter, quick question, as a tournament director (almost former) what can the PDGA do to keep Tournament Directors for the sport. When I first started running an event 4 years ago I was very passionate about running events to further the sport in my area. After several years of being a TD it has lost the "zest" it once has. With limited benefits and more headaches what can the PDGA do to help keep tournament directors interested in throwing events.

Thanks,
Scott Bateman
27959