BCDSS

[dcowley]

Folks,

at this year's AGM (24 Oct 2009) there will likely be a motion presented to the membership which would result in fundamental changes to the BCDSS, and which may cause it to cease to exist as an organization. If that does come to pass, then it is likely that two organizations will replace it, one representing Ultimate and another representing Disc Golf. At this time it is unclear what this would mean for the other disc sports which currently fall under the umbrella of the BCDSS but which are dramatically less well developed or organized in BC.

Let us know what you think about this direction,

David Cowley
BCDSS President

[dcowley]

This forum thread may have previously not allowed replies. That should have been addressed, fire me an e-mail if you still have problems.

DC

[Lindsay]

Why??What is the driver behind this motion and to who's advantage??

[maniak]

This is bad news for disc golf...Promoting the two together is a good way of getting the word out about disc golf which I don't think a lot of people are too aware of when compared to the relative popularity of ultimate.

More disc golfers may at some point entice the municipalities of the lower mainland to build some new courses or enhance existing ones. Better courses should theoretically attract more players and the growth of the sport can continue.

[Peter]

If QE is any indicator, disc golf amongst the Ulti crowd is gaining in popularity. On any given night during the summer, the course is packed full of people who are not "regulars". Maybe my assumption that they are Ulti folks is wrong, but I suspect not, as they all seem to throw a decent flick.

[dieno]

we do get quite of few of the new players from ultimate ....... they're young and maybe don't want to keep running ... i know i don't like running ..... maybe playing rugby earlier in life but not now ...... what would be the benefit for the dgb if there was a split? wouldn't have to do what the ulti people wanted to spend monies on? would the dgb still be able to get funded by way of grants? how would the money in the pot now be split up? what is our board's take on all this? who is pushing the split ulti or dgb? will our board speak to this before the AGM so we can all have an idea .... thanks cd

[Dan Laitsch]

All good questions. The UB is the group that brought the motion forward, and the DGB officers (also on the main board) are trying to figure out how best to respond. If done amicably, the split could be almost seamless. The biggest impact would be making up the shared costs on things like insurance, web hosting, etc. This could impact our bottom line, but it shouldn't break the bank. Our ability to get grants should not be affected (that's based more on Provincial economics). Bottom line is there would likely be a need to increase dues or greatly expand membership to address the gaps.

Problems could arise if the split is less than friendly however. The biggest concern, for me (and the rest of the DGB) is that disc golfers have their voices heard. The best way to do that is to go to the AGM and vote. If you can, bring a proxy ballot from a colleague who can't come. The DGB will work as hard as we can with the UB to reach a reasonable resolution that protects disc golf, but no matter how that resolves, we will share our opinions with the larger community and make recommendations to you before the AGM.

As I see it, the biggest impact will be on minor disc sports (while not a focus of much recent activity there would be no home for free style, guts, double disc court, etc.) and our ability to present a joint membership when advocating for the sports. That said, this could be a time for us to really focus on disc golf, recruit all those rec players floating around the courses, and energize the disc golf membership to play a stronger role advocating for our sport.

Keep sending us your thoughts, and check back soon. We'll make sure to keep you updated about any formal motions as well as our recommendations (which you are, of course, free to accept or reject as you see fit). Power to the people (as they say), so lets make sure the people take that power to the AGM.

[Peter]

What about insurance? If my understanding is correct, an Ulti player playing golf, is covered through the BCDSS umbrella insurance. If there is a split, will we need to purchase a separate policy? If so, it seems to me that insuring a couple of hundred DG'ers would be far more expensive on a per player basis than covering a larger group.

[dcowley]

There are a lot of ways that insurance could be handled if there ends up being multiple organizations formed. It could be that pooled insurance still exists, but the separate membership are required for each sport, or any number of other alternatives.

What is definitive, is that for the type and level of insurance that the BCDSS currently purchases has a "minimum retained premium" of ~$2,000. What does that mean? Well, it really means this:

Insurance costs the greater of ~$2,000 or M x per member rate.

In the current BCDSS scenario each member costs us the per member rate, as the formula works out to closer to $5,000 in insurance costs/annually.

If separate organizations were formed, and no agreement was reached on shared insurance, or insurance reselling, or anything like that, then every organization would need to come up with at least $2,000 to cover their insurance costs.

DC

[Peter]

So...assuming that there are 2500 + Ulti folks and x??? number of DG'ers, the cost per person now is approx $2/person.

If DG stood alone and we have approx. ???....500 members???, the cost would be $4 per person?

Any idea how many we have on the current list for DG?

Are these numbers close?

[joesmith]

How would one go about bringing a proxy vote to the agm? What rules/regs are there in regards to this?

[Dan Laitsch]

Membership is pretty fluid. Disc golf runs 400-900 and ulti runs 7500-8500. A large number of disc golf memberships come from private courses, so we have room for growth if we can get people to sign up at the public courses and the clubs to recruit rec players more aggressively.

As near as we can estimate, insurance, web hosting, and other costs currently shared through the BCDSS would cost the DGB around $5+/- on its own. Things like the duck golf series, support for Provincials and the BC Open, course development, clinics, outreach, etc., would have to come from other funds.

As far as the proxy voting goes, the rules are each person at the meeting can bring along one proxy ballot allowing them essentially two votes. The proxy ballots are available in the Bylaws, page 6 (located here: http://www.bcdss.bc.ca/policies/BCDSS_Bylaws.pdf).

We will also have a conference number for people to use to call in on.

Thanks for keeping tabs on this thread! We'll keep trying to be responsive to everyone's posts.

[Jaymo]

What about doing a training day for all the clubs (ie. key members who are around the course a lot) give them the tools (forms, float, propaganda) to promote registering with clubs for transient disc golfers. I think the "improved course maintenance, and the possibility of new courses, should be something highlighted when talking to prospective recruitees... IMHO of course

[cwoods]

So where are we supposed to go for the AGM this weekend?

Should we tune-in here for an online chat? :p

[Dan Laitsch]

Sorry for the long delay... the meeting will be October 24 from 2 - 4 PM in room 420 at VCC downtown. The closest Sky Train station is Stadium. You can access a map here: http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=&q=250+West+Pender+Street,+Vancouver,+BC+V6B