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Standing Subcommittee (Rules):
      rgadoury (chair), BosqueVerde, chesskix, f5/fpawn

Standing Subcommittee (Technology):
     bmw2002 (chair), AlPearson, BosqueVerde, chesskix, DaveTheRook, fledermaus, Gomer, rgadoury

The role and purpose of the Steering Committee is to manage the affairs of the league, to set its direction and expansion, see to its advertisement and management, writing the Constitution, Statutes and Handbooks, and reviewing the rulings of the previous Oversight Committee. This is the ultimate governing body of Team 45 45 League with all rights and responsibilities. (Article III of the League Constitution)

League Members may stay informed of potential rules changes by watching this page. Prior to voting results being displayed here, members may make their comments known by notifying any Steering Committee member, who may choose to forward your comments to the Steering Committee. The Committee members will not disclose any details of the Committee discussions.
 

Item 1 - T37 Tournament Parameters - Approved
Item 2 - Scheduled Evaluation of Reliability Rating System
Item 3 - Editorial Implementation of SC 35-36 Item 8.c
Item 4 - Allow late-entering duct tape teams to replace bye spots. - Approved

Item 1. T37 tournament parameterss

Submitted by the Chief TD; 03/11/2008

Time Control: 45 45
Sections: 6 (U2200, U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400, U1200)
Rounds: 6 - (possibly 7) followed by Playoffs

Team entries accepted: April 1, 2008 – April 15, 2008.
Team Entry Deadline: April 15, 2008.
Ratings "fixed" starting March 11, 2008.
(Some ratings may be adjusted by the Entry Clerk)

Round 1 Posted: 22:00 April 22, 2008.
Three rounds of playoffs will end July 1, 2008.

Count of team RR reductions (if any) precedes board removal tie-breaks.
Tiebreak board removal rules start with board 1 this tournament.

Approved - 10 yes, 0 no; 10 Mar, 2008

Item 2 Scheduled Evaluation of Reliability Rating System
Submitted by the Rules Subcommittee; 03/23/2008

At the time of its enactment in 2006, a two-year moratorium was placed on making any major changes to the Reliability Rating (RR) method of handling forfeits. Rules has completed its review of the program. It is the unanimous opinion of Rules that this method should be continued, but with some modifications, notably to situations where a scheduled game is conceded ahead of time and temporary loss of server access; in the latter we feel an administrative rule would be appropriate. We also suggest some fine tuning of how forfeits are “forgiven” and multiple forfeit suspensions. Other than the changes proposed in Item 2, we think we should keep the method in place. Item 2 has several parts for the SC to consider.

Item 2.a. Resolved: Continue the RR system. We suggest a vote on enactment or rejection be tabled until the various changes below are approved or rejected.

Approved - 10 yes, 0 no; 30 Mar, 2008

Item 2.b. Rules feels that some consideration other than an automatic RR reduction should be applied when a scheduled game is conceded ahead of time. Our suggestion is to allow the SecTD to recommend either (1) the standard 1 point deduction be applied or (2) that no point be either deducted OR ADDED in regards to this forfeit. In other words, that instead of the usual addition of 1 point for a tourney without incident (forfeit) the player’s rating would remain unchanged for the next tournament.

Section 10.G.ii Remove “automatic . . reduction” from ii.a, and add a new paragraph ii.c.

i. Conceding a Game: If a player at any time posts in the Forum that he/she concedes the game to the opponent, the opponent will receive the game point and need not be present at any agreed time.

a. Conceding a game before it starts constitutes a forfeit. Remove: (automatic Reliability Rating point reduction).

b. The TD will judge whether the Game Forum message constitutes a concession, for example, when the player states that he is unable to play, or unable to meet a previously agreed time. The concession becomes official when the TD posts the forfeit. (¶ SC 35-36).

c. (New) When a scheduled game has been conceded by a post in the forum at least 24 hours in advance of the game, the SecTD, with advice from the dTD, may recommend that a RR reduction not be applied, but instead that the provisions of Section 3.A.vi.b (addition of RR point at end of tourney) be voided in regards to the forfeit.

The 24 hour figure is somewhat arbitrary, but does allow the opponent time to make other personal plans and discourages last minute attempts to avoid a forfeit. The merit of the rule itself is that a player is extending a courtesy to his opponent by not making him wait around for a game that is not going to get played anyway. The original draft of our text started out like this: “Because of the courtesy being extended to the opponent ahead of time, a conceded game is an exception to the automatic reliability rating reduction for a forfeit…”;

Approved - 10 yes, 0 no; 1 April, 2008

Item 2.c. We have an inconsistency in how RR points are added.

3.a.vi.b. reads, “Players earn one RR point when they complete one tournament incident free (no forfeit).

17.A.i.c. reads, “Each RR point reduction is "forgiven" when the player completes the next tourney without incident (two RR points are then added) or does not compete in the tourney (one RR point added).

The two passages are inconsistent. 17.A.i.c. harkens back to when we had yellow cards for forfeits; two forfeits meant automatic suspension. We see no merit in adding a point if a player did not play a tourney, nor two points for simply playing a tourney incident free.

Rules suggests that 17.A.i.c be deleted, leaving 3.A.vi.b as our only rule on the earning of RR points.

Approved - 10 yes, 0 no; 1 April, 2008

Item 2.d. There is not now any restrictions placed on “repeat offenders” of suspensions for forfeits. We have had a few players with literally more forfeits than played games! Rules Subcommittee suggests that a rule be adopted similar to one we now have for red cards; a second suspension means a year’s wait.

Section 17.A.i.e. (new, amended) A player who receives another forfeit suspension within four tourneys after being reinstated from the previous suspension shall be suspended from league play for four complete tourneys.

Approved - 9 yes, 1 no; 7 April, 2008

Item 2.e. Administrative Rule sought, summarized here by a committee member: The main issues presented with the RR system were conceding a game and allowing some excuses that could be independently verified by league staff (e.g. major weather or other disaster or internet outage effecting parts of the world but not ICC itself).

Discussion of how to handle forfeits when the server is not down, but large numbers of members cannot access it, due to widespread internet issues or other emergencies.  The Chief TD has issued Administrative Rule #8.  April 18, 2008

Item 2.f  Member suggestion to award an extra Reliability Rating point to TD volunteers, up to +3.   Pros include: provides a token of appreciation and an incentive to TD's.  Cons include: volunteers who fill jobs other than TD are also valued; and the proposed practice may be susceptible to perceived favoritism in TD selection.  League Disclaimer states: "Services provided by the Team 45 45 League are provided free of charge, by volunteers giving freely of their time and resources."

Not Approved - 1 yes, 9 no;  April, 2008

Item 3. Editorial Implementation of SC 35-36 Item 8.c
Posted April 8, 2008.

Under our editorial revision policy, unless a SC member wishes to bring it up for further debate, this change will be incorporated into the Statutes in one week.

Item 8.c. Split a large section into two sections , to reduce the number of weeks needed for playoffs: In the event of an over crowded section, with more than 32 teams entered, we split that section into two sections, such as U1600 Blue and U1600 Red. After the traditional playoff format is completed we may, or may not have a championship round between the two section winners (Blue and Red). Approved - 6 yes, 4 no; 6 Feb 2008

Seems a good time to do a complete rework of 5.C as well as 6.D. so that our programming fits our rules and the rules fit our programmer’s suggestions.

6.D (old) Should there be more than eight divisions in a Section, it is suggested that the Steering Committee consider splitting the section/league into two leagues, perhaps geographically, with the winning teams in each “league” competing for a World Championship.  ¶Sections B-D SC 18-19.

Section 6.D (revised). When there are more than eight divisions in a Section (see Section 5.C.xi) each sub-Section shall compete for its own Championship. When convenient, the Steering Committee may authorize a playoff between sub-Section champions.

5.C. revisions

C.  Divisions shall be formed in the following manner:

1. One(1) team shall be incorporated into another the next higher Section/ICS group;
2. Two(2) teams . When there are only two teams for a Section on an ICS, those two teams will compete for the Section divisional championship by playing a 6-round head-to-head match, following all other procedures as provided for in these Statutes. The winning team shall be declared Section champion. ¶ SC 16-17.
3. Three (3) teams shall form a Quad Division with seed 4 being the bye;
4. Four (4) teams shall form a Quad Division;
5. Five (5) teams shall form a Hex Division with seed 6 being the bye;
6. Six (6) teams shall form a Hex Division;
7. When there are seven (7) teams in a Section, a single division of Seven (7) teams shall will form a single division be formed. The first and second place teams at the end of the seven rounds of play will then play off for the Section championship.¶ SC 21-22.
8. Eight (8) teams shall form two Quad Divisions, one division being having seeds 1, 4, 5 and 8, the other division being having seeds 2, 3, 6 and 7; or
9. Nine (9) or more teams shall be set into Divisions consistent with the above subsections paragraphs and also bringing into consideration the Divisional structures of the other Section s/ICS groups and how the Championships will be conducted. Divisions will be formed.
10. The ideal division has four teams; hex divisions are only formed when there are one to three extra teams in the Section. The extra teams assigned to the hex divisions shall be taken from the median seeded teams. Hex divisions shall be placed last in the array of divisions.

Previous SC Agendas: