Skamanda
Double Eagle Member
The last point is the most difficult to police. For the measurement of the certification throws, they would be done in as reasonably long and flat an area as feasible (many, though I know not all, events happen some place with a practice field on-site, or nearby) at each tournament event, with as reasonably favorable a direction to the wind a possible. The tournament staff would be the ones tasked with measuring. Nothing prevents someone from throwing softer than they're capable of, especially since lower tiers having lower payouts isn't a barrier to earning more money (as I said, I'll always allow someone to play in a higher tier than they certify for, so if they manage to win against people who throw 200 feet further, they can get that bigger payout).
Having worked in the non-profit space, I'm aware to at least some degree of the functions and purpose of a board. I'm also aware of how transparency in situations where privacy is not explicitly required (eg- protected data such as medical records) is always beneficial to understanding, and furthering discussion. Nothing in an NDA should preclude, say, publishing the Eisenhower Matrix for the current year (or even keeping a live version, as priorities shift), so that players can see what things the board considers important.
Transparency is the foundation on which an organization can best build its reputation. I went to a very special school, which was founded by German Jews who fled the holocaust. They created a philosophy, and a culture, of always speaking up when something was wrong, and accepting that no one was inherently better than anyone else. Earlier this year, a careless teacher used a homework packet published by Duke University that included a very overtly racist image. Despite every alumnus of the school urging them passionately to address the issue, and show how that isn't what the school is about, they released one press release, and were silent from then on. Now, rather than having corrected the misconception about the culture of the school, they will forever be "that racist school in Michigan". Had they been transparent about that, and positive action taken after that, they would be seen as a force for good.
Transparency doesn't require violating NDAs (which, frankly, are a very odd thing to have at play in the governing body of a sport, which also publishes its board minutes on its own website). It requires open, honest communication, even just to say you don't find something acceptable, and showing the ways your organization continues to work towards equity, and eliminating hate.
Heck, it'd go a long way to showing the PDGA has been doing something about the question of fairness with trans women competing in FPO, if it was even pointed out that you'd discussed gathering info from both trans and cis women for the medical subcommittee to discuss, back in May 2022 - two months before Natalie had won DGLO. I had to go digging though the minutes to find that. Then again, considering other than the month prior, where the subject seems to only come to your attention via other orgafnzations (WFDF and ACES), and that nothing pertaining to trans players shows up in any of the minutes available prior to, or since then, perhaps not. Doesn't seem like the board considers it enough of an issue to discuss, or at least to note in the minutes that it was discussed...
I wonder what ever happened to that request for "feedback from affected populations, including transgender athletes and a selection of female PDGA members." It sure wasn't whatever that survey that went out was, and any time I reached out to try to give feedback or advice, I was told "sorry, you're not a paying member - give us money or we won't listen" (never mind that I was literally reaching out to ask if the PDGA was doing anything about the aggressively transphobic culture of its player base, so that I'd know whether or not I felt safe enough competing to renew my membership). Even when specifically asked, I was given no details - no transparency. I was told one thing, and one thing only. We won't have this discussion with you, unless you give us money first.
Think about the difference in the impression I got of the PDGA from that one interaction, compared to how transparency would've changed it.
Nothing in an NDA precludes the PDGA from holding a press conference, to address emergent situations that affect the player base. If the PDGA could issue a statement for Nico being suspended, they could just as easily issue as many statements as are necessary to curb the growing aggression towards trans players.
The one I used as an example is one that is disturbingly widely used as fuel for the fires of hate, at this point. It would be exceedingly difficult to not know about it, at this point. As for the truth of it, I found the interview Natalie did where she talked about when she was first exposed to the sport, the very first time I had to refute that lie. You, as a board member, have a much more direct line to the elite level pros than most. You could've asked
her directly, if you couldn't find that interview.
The same is true for any of the other pieces of misinformation or dishonesty going around (trans women are dominating FPO, men are transitioning just to make money in FPO, being trans is a choice, young children are having bottom surgery, the study claiming testosterone causes better hand-eye coordination that didn't account for whether the backgrounds of its participants were athletic or not, to ensure they were comparing athletes to athletes, etc...) I also have a pretty full work week, and these are things I have picked up over the years since I socially transitioned, since that's about when everyone seems to have an opinion about your existence (I'm certain you know what I mean).
I can only meet you where you are. Your stated stance, here where you're vocal about it, is far from where the actual fight is, and the way you have stated it is dismissive of the actual fight. I cannot take you at your word that you are having discussions elsewhere, which I am not privy to. What you have said, where the public can see and hear it, is what you will always be judged on. Few and far between will be the people who read through all of the PDGA board's meeting minutes, to see how or why your values at meetings may (or may not) differ.
Deleting comments is one thing. Speaking out about their inappropriateness is another thing entirely. If you delete them, and no on knows they were posted, or why they were removed, nothing has changed. Again, transparency is paramount in these sorts of situations, because outside of this conversation, how many people outside of the PDGA staff themselves do you think even know that's going on? It comes across as silence, which always, always helps the oppressor - never the oppressed.
Look, I appreciate that your heart is in the right place, and that you feel you are doing what you can. Don't ever get me wrong on that. I won't, however, keep from speaking truth to power - even if that power is an ally that I feel is in need of a course correction. My family has a long history of doing that (we're in the US because my Babcia had to flee Poland, having been found out by the Nazis when she was smuggling Jews out of the country to save them from the camps a lot of the rest of our family died in), and I would not be able to look myself in the eye in the mirror if I just accepted the way things are, when I see injustice. Sometimes injustice is the aggressive bullying I fight against, and sometimes it's someone who has the power to make things better, but isn't using it to its fullest.
