Committee Meeting January 25, 2018

Attending: President Gaixo/Nate, Vice President Tojurub/Torsten, Tournament Director Purplegoo/Phil, Treasurer Geggster/Paul, Membership Director Rolex/Massimo
Apologies: League Director Valen

Meeting started at 22:00 CET / 21:00 UK time / 4 p.m. ET

1. Welcome new President and new committee members
The committee welcomed Tournament Director Phil Pearson and Membership Director Massimo Rolli as new committee members and congratulated Nate Beem on his election as the new NAF president. The committee expressed their thanks to former President Mike Davies for his great work during the last two years as well as Manuel Garcia Martinez for his work as a Membership director.

2. State of the Union address (Pr)
Nate presented his vision for the next 2 years (and possible beyond) to the committee. He is happy about the state the NAF is currently in. He will focus on further growth, especially in emerging areas as South America and Asia, where new communities are very enthusiastic about Blood Bowl. He also wants to engage more with the community in general. Paul expressed his concerns about the upcoming and existing challenges ahead within the community and the relation to Games Workshop, especially with new rosters coming in (Bretonnians and Khorne) and old rosters still mandatory (Slann). He also pointed out the wish of the community for a more stable and less reactionary behavior on the rules. Nate mentioned that he is not a big fan of cutting things out and that the status of Slann is seen important to the overwhelming majority of the membership. Phil and Paul brought up the topic of the NAF stance on using new non-approved new team rosters and/or new Star Players at tournaments in case Games Workshop puts out new releases. It was the unanimous opinion of the committee that the NAF should have an annual review of the Tournament Sanctioning rules to discuss any new rules and teams, which are released by Games Workshop. That way the membership will be guaranteed a stable rule set for a full year. Any releases by GW within that year will be discussed at the next review and will not be immediately valid for NAF tournaments, though some items (Star Players, most notably) could be treated as house rules until they become official.

– Media Officer / Communication Director Proposal (Pr)
Proposal for the creation of a new Communications Officer is discussed. The committee feels that the proposal is overreaching, and they are uncomfortable ceding so much responsibility to an appointed position. It is suggested that correction or development of the Media Officer role might achieve the same goals.

– Distribution and verification of 24+2 patches (VP)
The committee discussed the verification and distribution responsibility for the patches. Massimo volunteered to do this, i.e. members have to approach the NAF or him directly to request a patch. Massimo will verify if the criteria are met and will initiate the mailing/hand-over of the patches. The distribution in North America will be done by Nate, in the UK by Mike and the rest of the world will be handled by Massimo. Torsten will forward the patches to him in a timely manner. It was agreed that patches can be handed to a member at the tournament in which he qualifies for it.

– Website Update (Pr)
There was a longer discussion about the work on the website and its involved cost. The fear is that the membership sees the development cost but does not see the work which went into the website, because the majority of the work was done on the website mechanics and settings behind the curtain. Just a few things, like the coach page, the coach locator or the drop-down menu for variants on the tourney page are visible to the regular user. The committee is concerned that the membership will question the return value for the money spent. Especially people who are not knowledgeable on the technical side of maintaining a database and website might be very vocal since an aesthetic revamp of the website is still missing in their eyes. Torsten pointed out that last year the decision was made to focus first on the technical part before approaching the cosmetic elements. It was agreed that the face of the website needs to be more up-to-date and that we should explore on how this can be done with volunteer help. Since the accounts will be made public soon and the Treasurer election is coming up shortly afterwards, Nate and Torsten will set up a report about the work which went into the website and the necessity of this being done by a professional third-party and the money was well spend. This report will be published prior to Paul’s account report next weekend.

3. Membership Director Report (MD)
Massimo will meet with Manuel in person to do a proper hand-over of MD duties. Manuel will explain him all the needed details on what is expected from Massimo and how to handle the membership database.

– New gift for 2018 (MD)
Production of the gift was confirmed and distribution methods were finalized.

– Distribution of gifts for online renewals/sign-ups (VP)
The distribution set up will stay unchanged, with Massimo taken over Southern Europe instead of Manuel.

4. Treasurer Report (Tr)
The account report will be presented one more time to the committee during the next few days for final check. The funds are reduced at the moment due to website cost, and two outstanding loans (to the World Cup and Eurobowl). It is expected that 8k GBP will be returned to the NAF after the tickets of the Eurobowl are sold. WC has requested an additional loan for miniature production.

– Upcoming Election planning (VP)
Dates for the election are:
18. Feb: nomination begins
25. Feb: nomination closes, Q&A begins
4. Mar: Voting begins
11. Mar: Voting closes, Treasurer elected

5. Tournament Director Report (TD)
Phil is getting acquainted with the TD position, Nate assisted him during the last few weeks. So far 49 tournaments have been sanctioned in less than a month, several discussions with TOs by mail in regards of sanctioning their tourneys. Nate and Phil released the new NAF Sanctioning Rules Document (Bretonnians/Khorne/patch update), Torsten published it on the website. Phil will try to keep a consistent line of sanctioning. New NAF reps in Chile and Sweden were announced and Torsten needs to update the website accordingly.
Phil is also deeply involved in the World Cup rules committee. There is a working google.doc worked on and the next meeting is on Jan. 29 to finalize it.
Phil mentioned an alternative ranking system that might be displayed in addition to the traditional system. He will seek more information prior to the next meeting.

– Game recording for inactive members
After a longer discussion where every single committee member weighed in, it was agreed that for active members the current ruling of not being allowed to abstain from ranking is still good and valid.

For inactive coaches there will be a possibility to remove themselves from further ranking (though their existing results will not be deleted) if they officially contact the NAF with their request. If this action is taken, there will be a 1-year-waiting period before they are allowed to be an active NAF member again. This should prevent people from constantly changing their minds on deciding if they want their games ranked or not. The username will be changed to “Anonymous+NAF-Number” to keep their games valid for their opponents. The secondary topic of legal implications on the right to be forgotten will be further investigated.

– Major for South America (all)
The committee made its annual review of the proposal to add a Major for South America. Some wonder if the main intention of the request for a Major from the South American was to gain access to a K-value-60 tournament, but Nate advised that it was more for the cachet of hosting a Major, as this would establish their place in the community and might attract coaches from other parts of the world. It is felt that the South American community needs to develop further and that there should be clear guidelines for awarding new Majors. As the committee couldn’t immediately agree on those guidelines, the subject was tabled for future discussion. Said discussion will take place on the committee forum in advance of the next meeting. It was agreed that any ruling in that matter should be applied to other new regions in the World, e.g. Asia or Africa.

– Slann Status Discussion (TD)
A longer discussion on the current status of Slann and possible implications if they are dropped to optional like Bretonnians and Khorne were discussed. As of now, no change of their status is planned. Similar to a regular review of the status of B&K the status of Slann may change in the future.

6. League Director Report (LD)
No update. Plans are made to accommodate Gavin’s schedule for the next meeting, as updates are needed on OBBLM status and certain other matters.

7. World Cup Report (VP)
The miniature team in on schedule to be presented live and in color at the Dungeonbowl. The World Cup pitch is in prototype status and should be ready to be presented at the NAFC. Two miniature teams will go on World Tour after the presentation at the Dungeonbowl. One team will travel Europe, the other team will to the Americas and AUS/NZ

8. Any other business (all)
None.

9. Next meeting (all)
Will be early March. The LD must be present next time and a date should be set to accommodate Valen.

Meeting closed at 00:30 CET / 23:30 UK time / 6:30 p.m. ET
Minutes taken by Tojurub.