Quote:
Originally Posted by Anne Shade
All,
Just to clarify, all teams registered for the Doswell event were sent the same email. The request was meant to find out if there were any teams currently registered at the event who were willing to move. No one is being forced to move.
As for the Northern Maryland events, there are over 10 hotels within a 15 minute drive of the venue and more within about a 20 minute drive. We are working with Experient to get reduced cost rooms. Hope to have them posted shortly.
|
There's another team in here registered for the Doswell event that says they didn't get the email, but they might have and it's hearsay, so whatever.
Not once have I ever suggested we were being forced out of the event. My understanding is that being forced from an event would result in me checking TIMS and seeing that the RD de-registered us from the event, if that even is something within the realm of possibility (which I doubt). Do I feel like the message I received attempted to guilt my team out of the event? Yes, I do, and I'm not the only person on my team who thinks that. Do I think that the invocation of "gracious professionalism" was at best poorly placed and in and of itself, counter to the ethos of gracious professionalism and at worst, totally unnecessary? Yes, I do, and I'm not the only person to think that either.
Once again, let me preface what I am about to say by assuring everyone I'm not trying to sound like a jerk here (probably doesn't help the case, but I'm rolling with it): if Chesapeake FIRST wants teams to make a large consideration to drop existing plans to go to an event, taking some bear minimum considerations themselves doesn't seem like a huge ask in return. Asking teams who are not close enough for it to be there "home event" first, then if possible and necessary, asking teams who registered for the event on a second go-round after that. I don't think this information is hard to acquire; if it isn't available through the RD end of TIMS to find out who is closest to the event, Google Maps would also work (at least, that's what I have used). If the organization came out in December and said "listen, we have a rookie team coming out of Richmond that would need a spot in Doswell to compete this season" that's an accommodation most teams would be willing to make. Asking to bail out another veteran team in October is different; for me at least.
On the whole, the situation seems pretty poorly communicated to me, but whatever.
On the hotel availability front with Experient, that's great! I don't recall this nugget of information being brought up in a newsletter or email blast, but I may be mistaken. Looking at all of my information, it looks like every location has hotels within 15 minutes; 20 with traffic. I was scouting for OOD registration at one point and noticed the 30 minute travel was associated with another event there, and incorrectly matched two bits of info.
We have already made hotel reservations for all events we plan to attend through a parent who works as a travel agent so it is not of much use to us. I hope that information is disseminated soon; as discussed earlier, there is a large travel swim meet in the same area the same weekend as the Blacksburg district. I am unaware if there are any other minor event conflicts at other locations.