The existing North American rules are currently being used for WGPO events. The Executive Committee agreed that the committee’s focus in its first year of operations will be to develop and have adopted WGPO’s own initial tournament rules, which shall maintain in substance the position of the existing rules, but rework them, as necessary, in text, style, and structure to achieve greater clarity and ease of use; consideration of any proposals for substantial changes to the rules will be deferred until the second year of the committee’s operations, unless circumstances require more immediate action in specific instances. Under our new Bylaws, the final arbiter on rules decisions is the Board of Player Representatives, and Rules Committee determinations may be appealed to that body. The committee’s chair coordinated the development of the newly-adopted WGPO Bylaws, a major project which took considerable time and required Rules Committee work to be temporarily suspended during that process.