Are you a PDGA Hater? Why?

I like the PDGA. I think they have, do and will do a lot of good for our sport. I want to know why you don't like it. Please be specific.

[Atrain]

As would any good TD. Keep it up Mark. I wish you lived here in SC, so I could play in your tourneys. Not that we don't have good TDs and tourneys already.




Mark Stephens said:

I reward my volunteers...

They worked hard all day long when they could have been playing. That means a lot to me, the club, and the players at the event. ; )

Atrain said:

EZMONEY25 said:

Chuck, your getting VOLUNTEER mixed up with getting compensation. That has to be the very definiton of volunteer: Someone that does something to benefit the wealth of others, and not YOURSELF. You are doing all this because you want to. Nobody makes you do it, and if you werent doing it im sure there will be someone else to jump right in your place...
And what free benefits am i looking for?

When someone volunteers to help a club, the club does not pay them anything. Therefore, the volunteer is not getting compensation. They are doing it for the benefit of others and not themselves.

[Jamestown]

It is a tour, but last I knew it was run by a separate organization and not the PDGA.

Mark Stephens said:

That is a TOUR not an organization...

[Will Corey]

It still has some organization, it has a BOD that votes on some things, but its still just a big tour with a nice site that keeps up with stats (and isn't full of irrelevant ads like the pdga site that i dont get thanks to abp)

[nitegolfer]

Hey now...I'm not a PDGA hater but I want to get this discussion back to what it was originally all about. Twizzlers.

Now, I've been cold turkey for quite some time but the very mention of 'em here is making me want them more and more. My problem with Twizzlers is that they don't stay lit.

Anyway, I can't determine the "worth" someone else receives for their PDGA membership. Only, it was worth it to me when I joined years and years ago and it was worth it to me when I renewed this year after a pretty lengthy break from competing. The PDGA is not perfect and with the growth the sport has undergone in the last 5 years expect some small bumps in the road.

Meanwhile, keep discn'
Steve Countess
#6484

[Steve Timm]

Hate is a strong word.

Areas that should be improved:
The rules:
1 Required knowledge by touring players
2 Updated periodically (not just when the supply of old books runs out)
3 Newly found Q&A, are they suggestions or part of the rules?

Regional representation
1 Low membership/growth potential area candidates, almost impossible to get elected to BoD
2 High membership area candidates get elected
3 "Us vs. Them" tribal attitudes widens this gap

Financial accountability
1 Still difficult to get a idea of how the money is spent
2 If there is nothing to hide, why the secrecy?

Yes there is a pDGA document request form, give it a try and see what happens.

pDGA staff is spread too thin
1 Too many different directions/tasks
2 Outside contractors perform many tasks, what are the tasks and what is the cost?


Suggestions
1 Split the org into accountable divisions with separate budgets and missions
a Pro tour/worlds
b rules/standards/stats
c sport development (ams, education, course design,..)

2 Complete update/rewrite of the rules.
Example: Player uses a disc that is not pDGA approved.
ChuKey34 will recite you the merry-go-round of "When is a disc illegal."
Should be a simple enough issue, nope!

3 Develop a method to get Regional Representation

4 Eliminate/Greatly Reduce the $10 "privilege to play" fee

5 Include the strong regional orgs. (NEFA, Southern Nationals,...)
They have devoted volunteers, they are growing the sport and they know their regions.


This may sound like a BoD candidate's platform, not really.

I have run for the BoD the past 2 years, TD'ed one of the two
PDGA events held in LA last year, played in the ONLY pDGA MS
event last year and still not sure how many of the 43 LA members
voted for me.

steve timm

[Jared Person]

I think you just became my hero

Steve Timm said:

Hate is a strong word.

Areas that should be improved:
The rules:
1 Required knowledge by touring players
2 Updated periodically (not just when the supply of old books runs out)
3 Newly found Q&A, are they suggestions or part of the rules?

Regional representation
1 Low membership/growth potential area candidates, almost impossible to get elected to BoD
2 High membership area candidates get elected
3 "Us vs. Them" tribal attitudes widens this gap

Financial accountability
1 Still difficult to get a idea of how the money is spent
2 If there is nothing to hide, why the secrecy?

Yes there is a pDGA document request form, give it a try and see what happens.

pDGA staff is spread too thin
1 Too many different directions/tasks
2 Outside contractors perform many tasks, what are the tasks and what is the cost?


Suggestions
1 Split the org into accountable divisions with separate budgets and missions
a Pro tour/worlds
b rules/standards/stats
c sport development (ams, education, course design,..)

2 Complete update/rewrite of the rules.
Example: Player uses a disc that is not pDGA approved.
ChuKey34 will recite you the merry-go-round of "When is a disc illegal."
Should be a simple enough issue, nope!

3 Develop a method to get Regional Representation

4 Eliminate/Greatly Reduce the $10 "privilege to play" fee

5 Include the strong regional orgs. (NEFA, Southern Nationals,...)
They have devoted volunteers, they are growing the sport and they know their regions.


This may sound like a BoD candidate's platform, not really.

I have run for the BoD the past 2 years, TD'ed one of the two
PDGA events held in LA last year, played in the ONLY pDGA MS
event last year and still not sure how many of the 43 LA members
voted for me.

steve timm

[sennsm]

I am glad i found this post, since i am trying to decide if i should join or not.... I have a point to make..... example....... In ball golf, the USGA is the sanctioning body for rules and standards, and the course follows those rule but if I am playing in a scramble down at the country club benefiting the local Lions Club or whoever and I pay the $60 fee to enter the scramble, maybe $35 would go to the course and the rest goes to the lions club and the expenses that they have for the scramble but none of that money goes to the USGA. and to the best of my knowledge, they are the same type of org. as the PDGA.

[Steve Belliveau]

I used to be on the side of the liberals on this one until I played a round at cinci worlds with a young dude wearing a tee with a drawing(painting) of a man screwing a goat.That should not be ok!

[mark ellis]

So was the goat cute? Oops, sorry, just a joke.

More to the point: So you blame the PDGA for this??

The PDGA is made up of well-intended, hard-working, unpaid volunteers who use their best judgment to promote the game they love. You may disagree with some of their policies. So be it. Now name all the international organizations which do a better job.

If the PDGA ceased to exist tomorrow, someone would have to create a replacement for it. And what would assure you that the new organization would do a better job? They would just start at ground zero and spend a decade or more getting to the point the PDGA is at today.

If anyone doesn't like the PDGA (and there are many critics) then vote in better Directors or become one yourself. Having sat in that seat, I know it is easier to criticize it from the outside than taking the reins and pleasing your 10,000+ bosses.

I don't always agree with the PDGA but......... I love the PDGA.

So long as someone else is running the organization and running the tournaments then I don't have to. I can be player. We all should know that playing and practicing are more fun than organizing and administering. If you have any doubts about this then step up and run a major event next year.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

I refuse to be a DittoHead, but . . . ditto.

From personal experience I know it is not so difficult to get elected to the board and have a seat at the decisionmaking. (Although it is a bit more difficult than taking sniper shots from outside.)

[J.D.Guy]

It should be a dictatorship and I will be that dictator. Wait,...Steady Eddy tried that. Nothing is perfect,....... but an Ace. PDGA = Good

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

Must of been from one of those Midwestern rural areas.....Where men are men and the sheep are nervous.

Did he say? "you are awaaaaaaaaaaay"