touring team application form

[mcallister]

I was looking at the touring team application form and have noticed a few oddities.

Setting aside the difficulties that I noted elsewhere about eligibility for touring teams, the application form does not collect all the information necessary for the committee to determine if a team meets the criteria. For example, the definition requires that teams practice at least once per month as a team, provide open try-outs, and promote ultimate, but none of this information exists anywhere except in the collective memory of the committee.

Second, the form asks about what the team hopes to achieve by becoming a HURL team, yet this is not part of any of the cited criteria in the policy.

Third, the application process this year is asking us to send the completed forms to an e-mail address, but the form provided is not editable. So, we either have to reproduce the form, submit the form's information in a format that doesn't conform to the form layout, or scan a completed form to return by e-mail as an image. In addition to this, requiring a signature would then imply that we have to scan the form anyway (or scan the signature and blend it into a document, at which point, is it really an original signature anyway?).

Mike

[jwwillia]

Hi Mike,

On your first and second points, I think they are valid and the current BoD should address those. In asking for what the team hopes to achieve, the reason behind asking that question was that we felt that when we wrote the document that it would allow the Touring Team Committee to put the application in context with the others.

Your third point is a good point. A fillable PDF form separate from the policy would solve this and when writing that part of the policy, I thought about doing that. But it came down to not having enough time to learn how to do that properly, so it didn't get done.

Last year we had 2 touring team applications. One team filled theirs out by hand and submitted it on paper while the other team filled theirs out by hand and scanned it to a PDF then emailed it. So long as the BoD gets your touring team application before the closing date, wether it is on paper or in PDF format, I can't see it being rejected.

The idea behind having the captains sign the document is to impose a level of responsibility for the content of the application on the captains.

I guess the bottom line is if it is easier for you to print out the form then fill it out by hand. By all means go for it. Just make sure it's in by the closing date. If you run out of room feel free to use the back of the paper or add another sheet. It won't be rejected because of that. We want applications and we want as much information as you think would be helpful to show why you should get all the support your asking for. To me, what's asked for in the application would be the minimum infomation you should be submitting as a touring team.

Cheers,
-Joe

[mcallister]

Joe,

Here's an admittedly cynical view of the "team goals" part of the application form:

The honest answer on any application of "what do you hope to achieve by becoming a HURL touring team" is "we want some resources from HURL", whether those resources are fields, cash, or equipment. Pretty much any other answer is a sugar coating for the touring team committee to make a request for resources seem more palatable.

As for the means for submitting the application form, I was just pointing out that the mechanism provided by HURL (e-mail the application) conflicted with the data provided (a non-editable PDF that has to be printed). You're requiring that the teams compensate for HURL's choice of mechanism. That should be fixed at some time, although it isn't part of the policy itself.

Mike

[mcallister]

Joe,

The application form only requires that the person who is signing the form have some position within the team. It doesn't specify that the team captain is the one who must sign it for the accountability. Also, the form only precludes positions like "cutter" or "handler" by inference of the sample positions.

Mike