We need to talk about Bob

Bill Spight · **#21**

vash3g wrote:

The AGA currently has a bit more than 2200 members. We're all volunteers, ive been one for quite a while now. Unfortunately we're small enough that most of us do multiple jobs around the org. I havent been on here in a while posting and more time on reddit or facebook. I will have someone local reach out to Bob this weekend. If anyone wants to send complaints about the AGA to me I will escalate them where I can. I cannot speak to anything about the Transatlantic stuff as I was not involved, but I can speak to a lot of other topics.

Only 2200 members. :sad:

I had heard rather more than that, several years ago. I thought that the availability of internet go had brought in a lot of new people. No, that is not enough membership to support professional staff.

vash3g · **#22**

Bill Spight wrote:

Only 2200 members. :sad:

I had heard rather more than that, several years ago. I thought that the availability of internet go had brought in a lot of new people. No, that is not enough membership to support professional staff.

We have varied from 2200-2400 in the times Ive seen the stats. There are a few dozen factors we've heard over the years for people staying or leaving the organization. Technology is hard as people dont need to go outside for games and can play anywhere. Face to Face tournaments have been down for years it seems and growing the crowd is tough.

Kirby · **#23**

vash3g wrote:

Technology is hard as people dont need to go outside for games and can play anywhere.

Yeah, I mean, hey - how else are you going to lag out on time? Face to face tournaments are really bad for that!

yakcyll · **#24**

Kirby wrote:

vash3g wrote:

Technology is hard as people dont need to go outside for games and can play anywhere.

Yeah, I mean, hey - how else are you going to lag out on time? Face to face tournaments are really bad for that!

O Hesus Grande, how much more of this.

From personal experience, I think it's more important to get people to play in a single tournament than to have them commit to club meetings. At least for me, getting to play over the board matches that matter left pretty strong and, more importantly, lasting impressions on me.

vash3g · **#25**

Kirby wrote:

Yeah, I mean, hey - how else are you going to lag out on time? Face to face tournaments are really bad for that!

I shouldnt talk. I havent been to the local club in a while. Been running City League on Pandanet and other AGA projects have eaten a lot of time. Though Im going to the Maryland Open next weekend and that should be lots of fun!

jlt · **#26**

yakcyll wrote:

From personal experience, I think it's more important to get people to play in a single tournament than to have them commit to club meetings. At least for me, getting to play over the board matches that matter left pretty strong and, more importantly, lasting impressions on me.

But beginners cannot play directly in tournaments, they need to get some experience in their clubs first.

And also, people who don't live in dense areas don't have many opportunities during the year to play in tournaments.

vash3g · **#27**

jlt wrote:

But beginners cannot play directly in tournaments, they need to get some experience in their clubs first.

And also, people who don't live in dense areas don't have many opportunities during the year to play in tournaments.

Anyone who is a member can play in AGA tournaments. It makes it tough on the TD with 20k+ players but the organization likes all of its members to play. We had some people start to code an online ratings application to connect to go servers and help with those who could not make it easily to tournaments but lost them to some real life events.

jlt · **#28**

Yes, I know that everybody can participate in tournaments but beginners may not feel comfortable in doing so, even if they are encouraged. I don't know how the situation is in the US since I live in Europe, but here the median level of participants in competitions is 5k. There are very few competitors with a level below 16k. Personally I didn't feel comfortable participating in a tournament until I reached 15k. I don't care so much about performance, but I didn't want to lose all my games and finish last.

We need to talk about Bob

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