[Daanz-dip] GongCon 2006 - A couple of points

[Greg Evans]

Grant,

It seems we have a differrent recollection of events.  You say :-
"Greg, you stated publicly in December last year that you wanted to organize 
this event.....You are the one who put his hand up to do this publicly"

This is not true.  I expressed concern about the events future and I said I 
was considering stepping up.
Here are some excerpts from correspondance on the subject.  Yes, as an email 
dip player I keep all correspondance - you never know when it will come in 
handy.....

8th December 2005
"....theres a bit of a question mark over the future of GongCon and I am 
considering whether I will step up and take on the responsibility of running 
GongCon in 2006"

10th December 2005
"Since Will has answered my questions satisfactorily regarding GongCon....it 
seems that I have a bit of time up my sleeve to decide whether to take on 
running that tournament"

30th August 2006
"I have been intending to put a proposal forward for running GongCon in 
early December....I will put something together over the next couple of 
days"

At no time did I commit myself to run the tournament, only that I was 
considering stepping up (as I believe anyone else would be free to do) and 
would put together a proposal - which I have.  At no time did I ask or 
expect the committee to consider me the ONLY option for running GongCon in 
2006.

I was originally involved in getting GongCon off the ground 5 years ago, 
back when we got (I believe) 3 boards and a lot of new faces - people I was 
friends with before the tournament and am still friends with today.  My 
support of GongCon since then has been much more passive, primarily due to 
the fact that I was busy, Sean was taking a firm TD role and I was 
criticised for my choice of venue (which apparrently blew a budget that I 
never saw).  I do not claim to be able to repeat that kind of attendance, 
but I'm prepared to give it a red hot go.

I know that I'm the only active FTF player left in Wollongong and thats why 
I made the assumption, that if it wasnt me running the tournament then the 
tournament would die.  I apologise if I have offended you with this 
assumption, but I do not see anywhere that I "blame this tournaments demise 
on the executive" unless of course you decide to withdraw affiliation, in 
which case, by undermining the tournaments appeal to the community, then as 
a committee you will deserve the blame.  What I did say was that "...there 
is no current plan for the DAANZ to run GongCon in 2006 or beyond"  This is 
a true statement isnt it ?  If there is a "current plan" then I am not aware 
of it.  Once again, I apologise if I was insensitive with my remarks.  I am 
certainly guilty of talking up the threat to GongCons future - but thats all 
part of the promotional effort :)

As for my official request to the committee.  Yes, my post on this list was 
it.  I dont believe in secret meetings behind closed doors in such 
associations and since there are 2 critereon for me running this thing, I 
thought I'd shoot for them both at the same time.  Its a chicken and egg 
thing.  There is no point gaining affiliation for a tournament the community 
doesnt want, and theres no point gaining community support for a tournament 
that the committee wont affiliate.  So why not explain the situation in 
full, to everyone involved at all levels of the association and have full 
transparency of the decision making process ?  The mailing list is more 
alive this week than its been for several months......

On "growing the tournament", I think you've got to learn to crawl again 
before you can walk.  I'll be happy to just save the tournament for a start 
and stop its death/decline.  I want 7 to commit from the existing community 
to cover my "worst case scenario" and any extras I can dig up will be a 
bonus, but I do think its possible (through initiatives such as the Party 
atmosphere, Poker and AoR expansion/exposure) I'll do some arm twisting and 
call in some favours aswell.

The ANZAC Cup "ceremony" is a minor issue, that I didnt even bring up.  The 
tournament was conducted over email, so it may even be fitting 
(satisfactory) to have the awards handed out over email.  I thought I would 
atleast acknowledge the top players at GongCon, but if thats an issue, I'm 
flexible on that.  I wont be travelling interstate to do the presentation 
and I wouldnt like to assume that there will be a NSW based tournament in 
the first quarter of 2007 that I can attend.  Anything later than that will 
be opportunity lost.

I hope that I have clarified some of the issues for you and I apologise if I 
have slandered you in any way.  If I did it was unintentional.

Regards,
Greg