ARA Meeting 8/19/24

ARA Meeting Minutes

August 19th, 2024

Open Session

Board Members in Attendance: Luke, Bichen, Dave, Nima, Edwin, Claire, Max, Steve, Aldwin

Working Groups Updates

Tech Working Group:

  • Tamas just got back from Europe. Nothing to report at this time but the WG hopes to have another demo ready for the next meeting.

Outreach Working Group:

  • Lots of outreach initiatives going on but nothing specific to report.

Rules and Judging Working Group:

  • Still waiting for WRC to approve the lower penalties draft. Lots of additional WRC initiatives are slowing down the process.

  • Tamas passed the WRC ref exam while in Europe (congrats!) and shared some information about it. WRC is hoping to be able to provide this exam in the US and it has 3 sections:

    • General reffing questions

    • Scoring hands

    • Chinitsu hands

  • The WG has had some discussion on certain outlying cases and is working with WRC to get answers.

  • Some discussion on active vs. passive ref for events.

Education and Resources Working Group:

  • Luke has a google doc style guide for the tournament-in-a-box that follows a basic checklist for running a tournament including pairing using a Good Enough Golfers style system so others can run their events using it.

  • Request for additional information added from board members and community members about venues and hotels as part of the overall package (Claire and Dave offered to help edit)

Other Business

Professional Organizations

  • WRC pro test announcement soon and looking for an option for an online test thereafter

  • Nothing new from Saikouisen

IORMC

  • 2nd qualifying round has been completed

  • Next two sessions aren’t until mid-September due to competing events

  • A rules clarification is needed from IORMC about kiriage mangan

Community conversation about positive tournament experience - summary of points

  • Unnecessary actions at the table may worsen the experience, like revealing someone’s waits at ryuukyoku

  • Players often do not know how to challenge a ruling or appeal to the head judge

  • Assurance that time will be given back for judge calls should be clearly announced

  • How do we address chronic slow play?

  • Some people when having issues, will not call a judge, nor will they give feedback to the observer or TO, but they will tell their friends and then gossiping starts

  • Actively judging behavior, introducing a table strike tables that are too loud, giving a strike to noticeable bad behavior which will include individuals acting out and tables that might happen to be too familiar with each other that banter too much

  • Suggestion for an open and reserve division as the tournament scene grows

  • When your game is done, go to the waiting area and do not linger and make conversation in the play area!

Bylaws Proposal

  • A two-tiered structure consisting of:

    • A council with a single voting representative from every eligible club that serves to ratify measures from the board.

    • An executive board that leads working groups and other projects. These board members do not get votes on the council unless they are also serving as club representative.

  • Yearly elections are held with 4 seats up for reelection each year. A term is 3 years in length.

Questions from the community about bylaws:

  • What constitutes a club? Some guidelines are being discussed:

    • At least 12 people affiliated with the club inside the ARA database

    • Meetings at least once per month in a public location

    • Some sort of public facing available information such as a website

  • Can two people in the same club be members of the board?

    • Yes, the executive board has no voting power, but they get to direct the organization through the closed session and working groups.

    • The board may internally decide on initiatives and how to carry them out, but all final proposals are ratified by the club council.

  • Accelerated election cycle to allow people to get on the board?

    • A special election is planned for seats as we expand the board

    • Our WRC qualification cycle has worked well this year and too much turnover may hurt that continuity

    • 4 seats/year should be sufficient

  • Votes of no confidence?

    • Suggestion that a 75% vote of no confidence can remove a board member

Closed Session

Sparrows Nest tournament on Oct. 26-27 approved. Needs to be announced soon or it will not count for qualification. Registration will open at a time that is not overlapping with NAO or travel periods surrounding it.

Etiquette data to be sent to the rules & judging WG for recording and adding to the pertinent sections of the tourney-in-a-box documents.

Establishing the Club Council and developing a system for asynchronous voting:

  • Need club info: discord information, club name, number of people, location, frequency of public meetups

  • Outreach WG responsible for initial list of clubs, to be registered by the Tech WG when the application goes live

  • When the council is formed, they can be responsible for approving additional clubs

  • Google forms will work for voting, especially for ranked-choice

Next Meetings Sept. 16 (bylaws special meeting), Sept. 30 (general meeting)

Possibly no meeting held in October because there is a tournament every weekend, if so the general meeting will be held as early in November as possible.


ARA Meeting 7/29/24

ARA Meeting Minutes

July 29th, 2024

Open Session

Board Members in Attendance: Luke, Bichen, Dave, Nima, Edwin, Claire, Max, Steve, Aldwin

Working Groups Updates

Tech Working Group:

  • Demo of the player interface

  • Questions about audit trail and admin/superadmin status

  • Question about club leaders having to enter their own members, or if members may sign up and affiliate themselves

Outreach Working Group:

  • Socials are live!

  • Next outreach meeting August 12th 9 pm EDT / 6 pm PDT

  • The outreach group is discussing balancing fun vs. informative for its social posts

  • Discussion of the badge system for the club map, clubs earn badges for having e.g. regular meetups, educational classes, presence at a local convention, a ranked league, etc.

Rules and Judging Working Group:

  • The proposed WRC Lower Penalties Mod changes are drafted and in review, but at the whims of the WRC schedule, which is very busy with the new WRC pro system, online league, and other league initiatives

  • There was a European refereeing seminar that the WG will share when the video goes up

  • There are plans for an additional WRC hosted seminar for refereeing targeted at North American time zones and will be shared when the information is available

  • WG to work on guidebook and strike system in the meantime

Education and Resources Working Group:

  • Currently writing up documents on running tournaments, including tournament software and pairing systems

Other Business

Professional Organizations

  • No updates from Saikouisen nor WRC

  • Suggested to have information available for ARA to share for both of these to better direct players

  • Currently must be in the relevant discord servers to be able to access information, can we partner with Saikouisen USA and WRC to make basic information accessible outside of these discord channels?

IORMC

  • Organization handed off to Max

  • Roughly the same format as prior years, qualifiers on Sundays now as to not compete with WRC Online Team League

  • Signups posted ASAP

NAO Announcement: August 9th cutoff date, hotels will also go up in price if you do not book the block by then

 

Closed Session

Michigan Open Tournament Proposal and Top Cut Discussion

  • Option 1 – Top cut 4, everyone plays all hanchan, if ARA points go to 8th place with over 50 people, it makes the final 2 hanchan meaningful for all competitors

  • Option 2 – Lock the top 8 as 1 – 4 and 5 – 8 and have them play in their brackets

  • Option 3 – Lock the top 8 and seed them as 1458 and 2367 and have a two-game final

Board approved the tournament proposal and decided that SEMI may choose between any of the three cut options as they are all acceptable ways of doing a cut.

Other events: Last day to announce is September 1. Any remaining events would need to be the first or last weekends in October.

Special Bylaws Meeting scheduled for August 12th 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET

Next ARA Board Meeting scheduled for August 19th 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET


ARA Meeting 6/17/24

ARA Meeting Minutes - June 17, 2024 8PM ET/5PM PT

Attendance – 16 in open session. Board members in attendance: Edwin, Claire, Luke, Dave, Max, Steve, Nima, Bichen

Open Session

Working Groups Updates

Tech

  • Tamas has had a lot of personal stuff going on this month so there has not been significant progress. Possibility of a presentation by next board meeting.

Outreach

  • Club survey distributed for top 3 desirables for ARA initiatives, awaiting responses.

  • Badge system for clubs where milestones such as membership, events, etc. are shown.

  • Fixed Kansas City club location on the club map.

Rules and Judging

  • Final draft of the lower penalties in review.

  • With the announcement of the WRC pro system and the online team league, Gemma is very busy and it may take some time to get responses.

Education and Resources

  • Luke identified that a lot of the documents from NARMA are gone, but the outline of tournament-in-a-box survived.

  • Recreation of these resources to be done later.

Other Business

Professional Organizations

  •  Interest gathering phase for the WRC Pro org.

  • Kenji is the main point of contact for the Saikouisen USA and there is a confirmed October exam

PML Open Venue format: Split venue should be okay if needed.

Bylaws meeting has been rescheduled.

IORMC

  • Desire to get IORMC quals set up between now and NAO due to the break in the event schedule.

  • Saturday mornings no longer work for quals due to the WRC team league.

  • Plan to discuss keeping the current qualification system or making changes.

Invitational Tournament Structure

  • 12-hanchan scramble then 6 hanchan playoffs in set play of 2 hanchan sets.

  • Everyone plays all 18 games.

  • The event will be all autotables!

Closed Session

No pressing business. Short discussion about encouraging clubs to utilize local universities and collegiate clubs to access cheaper event space, however this varies greatly from location to location. Helping club leaders recognize all the options available to them makes events easier to host.

Next meeting: July 29th, 8pm ET / 5pm PT

ARA Meeting 5/20/24

ARA Board Meeting Minutes - May 20, 2024

Board Members in Attendance: Claire, Dave, Bichen, Steve, Nima, Max, Edwin, Luke, Zac

Open Session

ARA Invitational community vote

  • Jan 18 – 20, 2025 won out of the provided options

  • The invitational will be all autotables with scoring

  • Since we do not have the WRC seat quota, everyone will need a precise placement

  • 12 hanchan scramble into 6 hanchan set play

Working Group Updates

  • Tech

    • Looking at a bulk import feature to import clubs and people

    • Web app has some time before it is ready, NAO is a potential release timeframe

  • Outreach

    • Discussion on club affiliation and getting a list of all clubs

    • How big does a club need to be for ARA recognition? Discussion about club tiers based on size and accessibility of meetups

    • Logo discussion: 2 options, the circle one is currently more favored. There is an opening for more submissions by the next meeting

  • Rules/Judging

    • The US has been given leeway to build the lower penalties to suit open tournament culture here as we are the main ones using it

    • Based on community and working group discussion, we have suggested all empty calls to be dead hands

    • Due to use of red fives and commensurate uma, the WG has suggested to decouple the chombo of -20 from lower penalties so it can be adjusted

    • The draft lower penalties are complete and will be sent to WRC pending final review

    • After the WRC rules mods get updated with WG suggestions, work will begin on the strike system for warnings and a judging pamphlet

Riichi Nomi Open Pairing Format

  • Presentation of modified swiss system by Mike (Good Enough Jongers)

  • A few options proposed for how to deal with final rounds

Bylaws and Structure

  • Board is working on a draft bylaws to determine structure, how votes are held, who can vote, and classes of clubs and members

Closed Session

Proposal of PML Open 2024

  • Potential for split venue with some specifics on how the dual bucket system must be carried out to follow the WRC guidelines. More details to follow when venue is determined

RNO Pairing

  • As there are no issues with any of the proposed methods to deal with the final rounds or the system itself, the board leaves it to RNO staff to pick their preferred method

Pro Group Certification

  • MJStars is working with Saikouisen to bring the pro test to the US

  • WRC has partnered with JPML and NPM to do the same

  • The board and ARA will not align with one or the other, and all players are free to choose if interested

International Online Riichi Mahjong Championship (IORMC)

  • In the past, IORMC qualifiers were brought under the ARML umbrella and Edwin managed the setup

  • Edwin does not currently have the bandwidth for this, so IORMC is becoming an ARA initiative with a new working group. Edwin will continue to provide support as able, Max volunteered to assist

Education Working Group

  • Channel was created for this working group, members and initiatives TBD

Next Board Meeting: June 17, 2024 8PM ET / 5PM PT

NARMA Meeting Minutes 3/18/2024

Board Attendance: Dave, Edwin, Claire, Max, Steve, Aldwin, Nima, Luke, Bichen

Open Session Minutes

Scoring Applications

Public discussion on scoring applications, continued from the previous open session. The general decision is that scoring applications WILL NOT be used for NAO or any other national events without additional discussion. For regional, club hosted opens the use of a scoring application is left to the discretion of the tournament organizer, however to be considered as a NARMA qualifier, the usage of the application must be all or nothing to ensure consistent competitive experience per the WRC rules. A table may not opt out.

Canadian Events

The current structure was unclear. Some players assumed that Canadian events would be counted based on the current organization name, as they are North American events. Others assumed they would not be counted because the application process says that US organizations may apply. However, it does not say that Canadian events may not. There is an east/west divide where many players in the east consider inclusion of Canadian tournaments as a nice to have, where the west coast player base sees this as further increasing the geographical imbalance of open tournaments for qualification purposes.

WRC Rules Ambiguities

The documents are up for board interaction, and shared with Gemma. A suggestion is being made to make the lower penalties the default and make the current harsher penalties something like a championship level. There was public opinion that some items, such as an empty call only being a dead hand in the harsher rules, should be a dead hand throughout. There’s some desire to mix and match a few of the elements and we can further discuss this with Gemma. Gemma has requested a meeting with the board to discuss.

Tournament Observers

At least one dedicated NARMA observer must be present, but any number of people may be an observer if they choose. There was a suggestion to modify the feedback form for electronic entry, and to add the opportunity for anonymous feedback to the website.

Prize Structure for Events

Legality varies from state to state, and TOs are strongly encouraged to review the local laws and/or receive legal advice to protect themselves. Regarding the prizes themselves, it is encouraged to provide an entry fee breakdown to show where the money is going and how much of it is covering operational costs versus going into the prize pool. For example, the $1500 prize pool may seem large for RNO 2024, but at 180 people, which is the cap and the number required to trigger that prize tier, it amounts to less than 10 dollars per person from the total entry fee being used for the cash prizes.

Closed Session Minutes

Due to the length of the open session, many points of discussion were tabled until the next board meeting:

  • Rebranding and name suggestions

  • Minimum activity, attendance and service requirements for NARMA board members

  • Additional discussion and a written guidance for cash prizes in events

Application for Eligibility

  • A player originally filled out the form as ineligible due to attempting to qualify in another country.

  • That player is living in the US and has re-entered the information and intends to qualify here.

  • The board has no determined no reason to reject this request. Points from placement in qualifiers were reinstated.

Scoring Applications

  • Usage allowed at TO discretion.

  • “Opt out” is not allowed. All tables must use it in order to maintain a consistent competitive environment.

  • If using a personal device it should be placed flat on the table, in do not disturb mode, so the whole table can see it.

  • The board has suggested a sandbox mode or demo version be created so players may familiarize themselves with the interface prior to the event.

Canadian Events

  • For this cycle they will not be allowed as qualifiers.

  • For the next cycle we will revisit.

  • Additional discussion surrounding the lack of events in some West Coast areas and how to grow the tournament scene there to provide a better geographic balance.

NAO Announcement

  • To be announced ASAP.

  • Using Discord and various club social media outlets to advertise.

  • Dave to work on additional graphics and logo.

Penalty Levels

  • At TOs discretion.

  • Currently the mods and rules as written do not allow a mix-and-match approach to rules levels.

  • Additional discussion needed with WRC around the rules and documents drafted, meeting to be scheduled with Gemma.

Action Items:

  • Board meeting decision summary to discord - Max

  • Announcement of NAO to discord and socials - General, board members to share with their own clubs, discord spaces and social media outlets

  • Graphic Design for NAO - Dave

  • Update of Observer Form for Entry - Unassigned

  • Schedule meeting with WRC for penalty and other rules discussion - Steve

Next Meeting Scheduled for April 15, 8PM ET/5PM PT