European Bike Polo Championship! London?

yeah, good question Bill
Roxy - you mentioned a "head producer"above - would that be you ?

So what that messenger Champs have a tournament as well ? - i agree that it feels like it's mostly for messengers, and as we all know not that many people made the effort to go over there out of non-courier teams.
My vote is a yes to the idea.

I would be disappointed to go to the ECMC and not have the opportunity to play some polo, but it's pretty obvious that a EBPC is a stand-alone thing.

Oh, and another thing.

Who decides where the EBPC will be? I don't want to bore you all with a lot of ancient messenger history, but coming up with a credible, transparent process for deciding the host venues for the Messenger Worlds involved a lot of heartbreak, and some truly vicious arguments.

More here

The nub of the matter was deciding who was the mandated body of people that would take the decision. What we eventually came up with was not totally satisfactory, but definitely conclusive.

before we jump the gun and start assigning people jobs, is it not important to communicate with other countries in europe a little more? give them a chance to pitch their countries?

us euros were a tad unhappy when the americans on bikepolo.ca informed us the worlds were going to be there..

(which i've seen in 09 will be in philly, making it easy to get to for the europeans)

i've set up a forum, for people all over europe to discuss where/when it should be. In the mean time, if we want it to be in london, probably good to have a few key people to deal with some of the managerial tasks, and then if it does really happen, then people can turn up to help out on the day/day before much like the other tourneys.

as for who decides where it's going to be. I'm staying out of that one!

before we jump the gun and start assigning people jobs, is it not important to communicate with other countries in europe a little more? give them a chance to pitch their countries?

us euros were a tad unhappy when the americans on bikepolo.ca informed us the worlds were going to be there..

(which i've seen in 09 will be in philly, making it easy to get to for the europeans)

yes...

So lots of discussions in Zurich turned to the realization of a proper big-ass EBPC!!
I think I'd like to pitch London for it...
I have registered http://europeanbikepolochampionship.wordpress.com/ (there's nothing there yet.). I would like to make several discussions on it, first and foremost would be that London would like to host. Then once that's decided it can be used for discussing rules, finding housing, planning dates, etc... It would basically be a space for Europe to discuss EBPC's.

I will email my Shoreditch email list and the Zurich email list and announce this page as the discussion ground...

;340370']... much of the conversations over the weekend seem to be in agreement that polo should be and actually is completely seperate from a messenger event...

before we jump the gun and start assigning people jobs, is it not important to communicate with other countries in europe a little more? give them a chance to pitch their countries?

just as an information, i'm one from the munich's and we're planning or better thinking about the same in munich for summer 2009, but our start with these project is just an idea at the moment.

i would like to speak with the others in the next few days, because 2 or 3 big events at the same time aren't good and steal the power of each other.

One quick question - when are the other polo tournaments, so that the EBPC can be spaced far enough from other tournaments. It also seems to me that all the tournaments are placed too late in the year, so people get really into it just as the weather gets bad?

ok all, I think I covered most of the comments above in my start to this thread.

Yes, if London will have me, I'd like to head up the tournament and the bid for it.
Yes, I believe we have to bid for it.
No, there isn't any sort of body currently that will decide this, so we need to make it. That's the point of the website. We can't decide the Euro's on the London forum. That's the point of making a discussion panel on a website other than here. I believe that the only fair way to do the bidding is to set a forum, not londonfgss, and open it all up for discussion. We can put our bid in (if London is going to) and so can Berlin and Munich and anyone else if they like. Gabe and I are working on this website now (behind the scenes here).
I wasn't saying we should start assigning jobs. I don't think that's the way forward right now. My list above is just to say that we absolutely need people who are willing and able to fulfill these roles if we are to bid. We can decide how to decide on people later perhaps but we need to know that we have people who are willing. If we don't have people willing to fulfill these roles then we shouldn't bid. Currently on this thread I don't think we have what it takes to bid.(of course I do think we have what it takes)

I am trying to get this thing moving fast though as there is not much time for planning.
Also, I think Europe will agree, other tournaments should be planned around the EBPC not the other way around, with the exception, this year, of the ECMC's as it's already set in stone.
I believe that the EBPC's should be a completely stand alone event.

Also, my lists and ideas above are far from complete. Yes, we'll need some sort of treasurer and a gizzillion other bits and pieces. I will edit the list above to include treasurer.

As for Bill's question as to "who will control it?". I would think that it would be obvious that those who take part in it's planning would be in control of it's planning because they are planning what happens. But maybe Bill was asking something deeper there?
As for whether things are voted on and the like, well, that could work. Perhaps there is a main body of volunteers, like the list above, who make decisions or a wider body of volunteers that can vote on stuff. I think it's basically down to who can make this thing happen. As for whether it's 'owned by the players' considering we don't know who the players will be, I don't think that's possible. I think the only way to properly get stuff done is to get on with it. The list above has 10 different roles on it, a few of which may require more than one person. That's a lot of people to be making decisions.

If we're going to do this though, do we have the team to do it?

put me down for the zip ties

I'll help with courts, reffing, housing, and other bits and bobs when they are needed.

I am pretty sure, if London were to be chosen to host this, we would have no problems at all getting people to help out. Several people have already said to me they will, but not sure yet how much time they can commit to.

The site will be set up in the next couple of days, and we can start posting up on bikepolo.ca pignonfixe etc and get people discussing this event, where/when/how it should be.

I can medic, be a nurse not a pretty one though... I can borrow a uniform if that helps. Also other bits and bobs when they are needed.

I think the tournament and the controlling bodies should be controlled by the Central Comity of the Second Situationist International. Any thing else will be just plain wrong. Discuss.

aside from reffing, i'll be able to help with court building, maybe (probably) sponsorship (working in a shop i've got lots of trade contacts), and probably lots of little things that crop up, but i just can't commit long spans of time, etc.

as gabes said, with the growing (and already quite large) london polo community, i'm sure this is something we could pull off, and likely quite well

situatuationist international was shite

situatuationist international was shite

but it will be better leadership then bill.

probably. maybe.

but debord was truly worthless.

the bike polo buhaus will be an interesting movement, i believe.

bike polo fluxus. we could instigate 'happenings'.

actually, i guess polo already is fluxus, in a sense.

shit derailing thread.

That said, it would all have to happen in May, and i think we should form the Shoreditch Occupation Comity now.

I saw a Fluxist speak yesterday, quite interesting.

I happy to help in whatever need it, court building, carring stuff or general labour.

I think London can pull this easily, so we need just go for it

Design- web and print - all merch, flyers, website... Doesn't all have to be one person but we do need this to be consistent.

I'd like to be on this with Gabes and whoever.

yeah i can help with that shit as well... specialism is youtube to animated gif.

but seriously up for getting my hands dirty too... and have lots of friends who would be willing to help with marketing etc. and drumming up support.

I'd like to be on this with Gabes and whoever.

cool man, PM me your email, and we can talk logos etc, need something soon as a banner for the forum/blog that i've set up.