Open Session (38 in attendance)
Board Members in Attendance: Dave, Steve, Max, Claire, Luke, Edwin, Bichen, Zac, Nima, Aldwin (100% board attendance)
Rebranding: There will be a public ranked choice vote, including a feedback section so respondents can make the board aware if a name (or the associated acronym) is unintentionally offensive
List of proposed names:
· ARA (American Riichi Association)
· USRA (United States Riichi Association)
· NARMA (National American Riichi Mahjong Association)
· FARM (Federation of American Riichi Mahjong)
· USRMF (United States Riichi Mahjong Federation)
· USRMO (United States Riichi Mahjong Organization)
· RMA (Riichi Mahjong America)
Minimum Activity Levels and Board Turnover
The discussion included transparency about how one can work to be on the board and that board members should be more than just voting only. This can include being a public face and doing organizational work, or backend documentation or supporting of working groups. If a board member is doing neither of these, then they need some project that is for the greater good of the community, such as Edwin running ARML. No limits are yet in place.
Board members to review bios yearly and update as appropriate. Every board member without a picture should submit one for the website.
Mission and Vision Statement, Bylaws
There is currently a NARMA mission and vision statement. The board will have a special meeting to discuss any changes to the mission and vision statement that are out of sync with community goals and needs, and to work on drafting bylaws.
Working Group Updates:
Outreach – Harrison
Looking for a social media manager and other volunteers. The outreach group seeks to be the link between club leaders and the board and has projects such as a newsletter and social media in the works.
Tech – Tamas
The work is continuing with a goal of an end of June launch. The goal is an integrated system with NARMA point standings, club names and a backend where updates can be made. Only for reporting results for events, not event registration. The biggest need right now is volunteers for design work.
Rules and Judging – Steve
This is a new group looking for volunteers. The goals of the group are to close rules ambiguities in the WRC rules as a collaboration with Gemma and WRC, as well as to update the mods and reduced penalties in such a way that they are friendlier to US opens with a variety of skill levels while also maintaining competitive integrity. Long term goals include the creation of a US judging guidebook which may include a strike system for things that remain warnings only in reduced penalties, and the creation of judging seminars or workshops to improve the knowledge base of those interested in judging for club hosted opens.
Adoption of WRC Lower Penalties as the Standard for Opens
TOs may make their own choice on whether to use the competition rules or the lower penalties mod. There should be an update to the lower penalties to decouple a few items and make things a bit more a la carte for the TO. The primary request being a separation of the chombo amount from the penalty level so it can be adjusted for other factors such as uma and aka dora.
Observers at NARMA Events
There can be multiple observers, but there must be at least one that is not from the club hosting and must be publicly announced. Any discrepancies between multiple observer reports will be subject to an investigation by the board.
Making the Observer Reports Public
Observer reports can be made public with the names of the judges and staff present, but any participant names redacted. NARMA will provide a comment period for the TO and staff to respond to any items in the observer report that they think need clarification and both the Observer Report and Staff Response will be published simultaneously.
Invitational Format
This needs to be decided by the board, sooner rather than later and the information published on the discord and the website. Might need to be a special meeting.
Additional Public Discussion Items
· Mahjong convention
· What NARMA would like from club leaders
o Showing up to public meetings
o Outreach to their club members to be involved
· What club leaders would like from NARMA
o Basics on how to set up and grow clubs
o How to build a social media presence
o How to teach completely new players
o Tournament in a box (A wonderful resource provided by Luke)
o A general player ranking system
Closed Session
Making working groups public?
Board decision: each working group can decide. If a working group does not make their contents public, a progress report should be made public on a regular interval.
Tiebreaks for entry into invitational
Board decision: best placement at NAO is the tiebreak. In the case that 2 players tied both did not attend NAO, the top score from each event is compared. Example: the best placement for player A is 8th in a 68 person tournament for 20.6 points and the best placement for player B is 5th in a 65 person tournament, also for 20.6 points. In this case the 2nd best result is compared and player A got 100th in a 200 person tournament for 1.0 points, and player B got 80th in a 100 person tournament for 0.2 points. Player A wins the tiebreaker.
Lower Penalties:
Board decision: TOs may run their events at the penalty level they deem appropriate.
Chicago Open approved by the board. Announcement of event and signups to follow.