March Minutes
NAF Committee meeting 8th March 2020
Present: Nate, Paul, James, Anthony, Phil, Massimo
Meeting Started at 19:17 CET
- Welcome (all)
– The Committee welcomes James Russell-Wills AKA Rabid_Bogscum as VP, and congratulates Pr Nate on his re-election. Thanks to Torsten for his years of service.
– (VP) Nominations post for Treasurer election to be put up later today. Committee agrees that a debate might be good, as Paul has been Treasurer since 2010 with only one contested election.
- Website Info (TD)
– Tech volunteers have been found. Phil has set up a repository and Slack channel for their use.
– Much thanks to Kyrre/Ketil, who has finally been able to fix our Paypal issues and has been working tirelessly in the background – tidying up permissions, fixing some front page functionality so pending tournaments are visible. Looking to update tools for Score.
- Membership Director Report (MD)
– Further props to Kyrre from Massimo, who much appreciates the Paypal fix. This has freed up about 3-4 hrs a week for Massimo. Having to process memberships manually would not have been possible on top of regular workload and global covid-19 issues. Shipping files have been streamlined, now receiving correct data.
– Next project for Kyrre is to look at account merging, with hopes of making the process less complicated, as the current process can be lengthy.
- European Engagement (TD)
– Results from the recent presidential election still point to a disengagement with some of our largest European membership bases in France, Italy, Spain.
– Phil raises three ideas for engagement:
+ A pre-meeting prior to the committee meeting involving NTOs. More direct ear to the committee. Several options for this meeting were discussed. Ant to investigate practicality of these.
+ Translations of NAF files and announcements into Italian/Spanish/French (at least to begin with). Need volunteers still.
+ Majors. Discussion of history and intent of Majors. Discussion of alternative system, to be discussed with NTOs prior to potential rollout.
- Corona Virus (All)
– No official statement or advice from the NAF. Strategies and decisions on tournaments to be made by individual tournament organisers, who will have a better sense of the local advisories and also have personal investment in their event(s).
– Some gift shipments might be delayed due to outbreak and quarantine in Massimo’s region.
6.Gifts (MD)
– Some delays due to virus outbreak in China.
– Plans for remaining World Cup 4 stock discussed. Probably most sensible to outsource sales and distribution.
– Recovery of funds. 28k outlayed to World Cup. Possible to recoup 7-8K through sales of WC4 stock?
– New memberships are plentiful, income is replenishing treasury.
– Distribution of new trophies from Hungry Troll is ongoing.
– Nate’s package delayed (since resolved). Massimo comments that there is little difference in cost between parcel post and courier. Will start to move stock via courier in the future to protect against these losses.
- Data Protection (All)
– What do we know of GDPR? Phil to reach out to DavetheImpaler, who suggested he could help.
– Claims we are not compliant but what impact will that have.
– Because we hold a database of peoples private information we are responsible.
– Need to send message to all members when they renew with our current privacy policy.
– Members need to be instructed on how to show/hide their information such as their name
- Tournament Director Report (TD)
– Jan/Feb Busy. 150 Tournaments, many variants.
– First 7s tournament series, in Australia.
– New tournament approval staff: Nate, Hacha, Matteo joined the approval team, taking numbers to 6.
– DeeferDan new tournament series organizer.
– New regional staff
– Possible new staffer from Ecuador, still in discussion
– Many ranking options now in effect: Racial Glicko, Global Glicko, ELO racial, Global ELO (hosted by Danes), so members can decide which is most interesting to them.
– Plans to add these different rankings to the coach page.
- League Director (LD)
– 30 new leagues
– Pulling back the repository for OBBLM to make it easier for new commissioners to setup
- Contact@theNaf.net (MD)
– Massimo would like to pass on email address to James. James agrees to this.
- Treasurers Report (Tr)
– Accounts prepared with updated commentary.
– $5000 Paypal memberships already this year
– We were low on cash but are back in surplus
– Gifts/Dice/Coins all paid for
– Discussion of NAF providing more than 1 trophy for tournaments. Why not best painted etc. Discussion of tournament packs based on attendees or what the TO is prepared to “purchase.” Probably not possible due to the way the organisation is set up as club, and also creates substantial supply chain issues.
– Need another Shipping point for Northern Europe to save on costs. Will ask Lycos.
[Anthony Departs]
- Podcast (Pr)
Ben Greenman has reached out to Nate to discuss bringing back the NAFCast in some capacity, i.e. a NAF-focused podcast. James noted that he listens to all the Blood Bowl Podcasts and is happy to take the lead on this. Determined that we would request a pilot episode and go from there. Want to make sure that it is a global conversation piece, discussing what is going on all over the world, upcoming tournaments etc rather than getting bogged down in local tournament/league talk. Committee happy to interview and also arrange for appropriate NAF members to take part. Would like to review episodes prior to any release to ensure no inaccuracies being attributed to the NAF.
- Final Comments (VP)
– Discussion of some communities wishing to stay with CRP rather than embrace the most recent developments. Committee determined that those wishing to do so could be granted Specialist variant tournament approval but not pure Blood Bowl approval.
– Re-avowal of support for Annual Review system, despite some criticism during recent election. Organisers retain adequate control over tournament rules.
Next Meeting proposed for 26th April
Meeting finished 21:10 CET