WGPO Meeting Sunday, February 15, 2015, 1 pm, Raintree Room @ Doubletree by Hilton, Tempe, Arizona
Attending:
Executive Committee – Stephanie Steele, Keith Hagel, Larry Rand
Board of Player Representatives – Ruth Hamilton, Steve Pellinen
Committee members − Dominick Mancine (via Google Hangouts)
Guests − Maliha Mahmood, Richard Moyer
WGPO Member Liaison – Melissa Brown
Unable to attend – Bennett Jacobstein, Susi Tiekert, Janice Kaye
Moderator: Keith Hagel
Meeting called to order by Keith at 1 pm
Word Cup 2015
Ruth shared a report of the Word Cup financial status.
Assets:
Seed Money $1,500.00
Donations $ 912.15
Entry Fees $ 670.00
Excursion Payment $ 400.00
__________
$3,482.15
Rebates owed $ 40.00
$4,000 more needed to reach 100 % payback goal
Ruth has set up a page on the website dedicated to all things Word Cup 2015. Highlights: There will be Collins division if enough players show interest. An excursion bus trip to Oregon coast is being planned; 4 people so far have paid for the bus trip.
Tech committee
Dominick reported that a new web host has been put in place; Rick has moved the WGPO site over to the new server.
There was discussion of issues with timely updating of the ratings. Obstacles include coding problems caused by player records getting mixed up. Dom believes the new host will make it easier to upload tournament results to the database, and the new web host will enable the committee to work in a more collaborative environment. Players will not see anything different resulting from new web host. Dom could use assistance in doing ratings; Winter has expressed interest in supporting.
Steph asked if we’re moving in the direction of more automated rating system; Dom feels with Winter’s help on ratings and Henry help on the tech side, we are.
Phpbb will remain in place for membership, mailing, voting. Dom to investigate possible phpbb replacement.
Larry raised issue of more user friendly voting; currently there are limits owing to the phpbb tool. Discussion to be continued with Henry, with consideration of possible modifications to phpbb or the use of an alternate tool.
Word Judge 2
Maliha is close to completion of the new word list, and plans on turning over the data to WGPO for posting on the website to be available to members. Maliha has hired a developer to work on an IOS application.
WJ3 is in the works to include US, Collins and Taglesh.
Next steps … Maliha can send list (PDF and text) to Henry. New words can be loaded from text file into the old version of Zyzzyva.
Word Judge for Clubs and Tournaments: the official WGPO word list for word game players in North America — 2-21 letter words: Agreement that it is up to Maliha to determine what if any copyright she wants to include on the list.
Larry spoke on behalf of the EC and BPR to say that WGPO thanks Maliha from the bottom of our heart for all her work and contributions to WGPO.
Treasurers report
Janice Kaye provided the following information:
Last year at this time we had $5613.72. We now have $5,932.92
Inflows: local club tourneys, private donations, silent auction Dells proceeds and overage of Madison auction
Outflows: silent auction Dells proceeds, paid entry for WC Denver Directors, Funding for WC Portland, and webhosting.
Note: the reason that the silent auction Dells is an inflow and outflow is because I deposited several checks which had to clear of course, and once they did, the proceeds went to WC Portland
Keith moved to accept the Treasurer’s Report, Larry seconded the motion, and it was agreed unanimously.
Word Cup 2016
Larry stated that the venue will be announced at or before WC2015. There was discussion of holding WC2016 Phoenix as well as other locations previously considered. (Note added following the meeting: At the conclusion of the tournament in Phoenix, Larry announced that the 2016 Word Cup will be held in Phoenix.)
Expanding Tournaments, Directors and Venues
Keith spoke of the board’s responsibility for due diligence in the present climate, stating that we have the opportunity to prove ourselves as a national organization. We need an action plan for expanding tournaments, directors and venues. Discussion to be continued.
Meeting adjourned at 2:30 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Melissa Brown, WGPO Member Liaison