UKHBPA - United Kingdom Hardcourt Bike Polo Association

This year we've seen a real need for a clear and legitimate structure in place to organise the UK Champs and Euro qualifier. There has been lots of great input from a range of people so let's build on that momentum and create a UK polo association.

There are two parts to this discussion, both equally important. Everyone should contribute to this discussion no matter how small the point. Please be respectful of peoples views and suggestion and approach them with a constructive attitude. Hopefully with a clear remit and a clear structure the UK polo association will go from strength to strength.

1) What should be the remit of the UK polo association?
For instance: UK Champs, Euro Qualifier, National Series, Rules, Reffing, Sponsors, Sports Recognition etc.

2) UK polo association reps. As with the UK Champs and Euro qualifier I am going to suggest a default model which we can either build upon or find a better alternative to.

We have created a very basic constitution which is based entirely upon the LHBPA constitution. The reason being that it can be built upon/amended/rewritten along the way so that the more important tasks can be prioritised. My proposal is for 2014/2015. As you can see there are 5 regions. Individuals in each region will vote for on candidates in their allocated region.

• Once elected the UK polo association will make executive decisions. Proposals will be voted on by all members.
  
• All proposals must be made public. (LFGSS)
  
• For each proposal that the association wishes to pass there must be a 2 week(minimum) period of feedback/discussion. However the Association has the last word on proposals.
  
• Regional reps report to city reps and vice versa.
  
• Individuals or city reps may suggest proposals for consideration by the association.
  
  

Finally, what should we call it? UKHBPA, UKH etc

Great work fin. 100% behind those ideas.

Call it UKHBPA : it does what it says....

+1 to everything! It sounds great

Nice work Fin! Glad to see this is taking shape and really hope it all comes together this time around.

There are two parts to this discussion, both equally important. Everyone should contribute to this discussion no matter how small the point. Please be respectful of peoples views and suggestion and approach them with a constructive attitude. Hopefully with a clear remit and a clear structure the UK polo association will go from strength to strength.

I've sent word to most of the smaller scenes around the north and Scotland that either don't use this forum or don't regularly check. Also encouraging them to get their EHBPA city rep survey filled in.

1) What should be the remit of the UK polo association?
For instance: UK Champs, Euro Qualifier, National Series, Rules, Reffing, Sponsors, Sports Recognition etc.

It'll be good to see these points being discussed. I'd like to see effort being put into helping players understand the ruleset better (waiting to see what NAH come out with ahead of their regional qualifiers/champs) and the development of reffing in the UK.

2) UK polo association reps.
...

[*]All proposals must be made public. (LFGSS)

Ideas in section 2 sound good and I agree that proposals should be made public although I think it's worth looking at how well LFGSS suits all players - I know several scenes don't use LFGSS despite it being the go-to place for UK polo. Would it be unreasonable for UKHBPA(or whatever it ends up being called) to have it's own identify, rather than being "hosted" by London, I was under the impression the developments and forum migration to Microcosm might offer some scope for a separate-but-linked spaces for London polo, individual scenes and UKHBPA I don't know how far off that is though.

Hopefully that makes sense...

I think it is important to create an email newsletter that notifies subscribers of important polls, upcoming tournaments and news. I think the forum is still the best place for discussion and voting but I don't think we should assume all players read it regularly.

Great to see the ball starting to roll on this though. Round of applause to all involved.

I think it is important to create an email newsletter that notifies subscribers of important polls, upcoming tournaments and news. I think the forum is still the best place for discussion and voting but I don't think we should assume all players read it regularly.

Great to see the ball starting to roll on this though. Round of applause to all involved.

That'd work too, as long as there's a reliable alternate form of communication (both ways) available for all scenes.

Sounds good. I think having one regional rep is a good idea as efforts to organise something similar in the past has taken a lot of effort to find each cities rep. With just half a dozen reps, the committee will be a lot more manageable.

+1 to emails. Im not on here that often but always check my emails. Good effort man!

UKBPA

Every time I say hardcourt people think I'm saying hardcore and I have to explain that we're not* that *up ourselves.

Ha, so true!

I agree with regional reps.

I think we need a very clear proposal process and voting system.

I think the regional groups should have their own internal dialogue procedure.

We need a bank account so that we can look towards becoming a recognised sport.

'Proposals will be voted on by all members' - this is probably realistically going to mean 'will be open to'.

Excellent work Fin.

Like

Nice work fin.

This all looks pretty good to me. Just a couple of things to check:

'Once elected the UK polo association will make executive decisions. Proposals will be voted on by all members.': Is 'Member' in this case the regional rep?

Will there just be one rep per region (I'm happy for that in my area, but I guess a case could be made for more from certain areas)?

'Individuals or city reps may suggest proposals for consideration by the association.': Doesn't that just mean 'anyone may suggest proposals?'. I'd have thought it would make sense for proposals to come through some sort of chain (e.g. via individuals to city reps, then on to regional reps to put to the Association).

Sorry if I've misunderstood anything.
Electioneering smear campaigns welcomed.

'Once elected the UK polo association will make executive decisions. Proposals will be voted on by all members.': Is 'Member' in this case the regional rep?

'Individuals or city reps may suggest proposals for consideration by the association.': Doesn't that just mean 'anyone may suggest proposals?'. I'd have thought it would make sense for proposals to come through some sort of chain (e.g. via individuals to city reps, then on to regional reps to put to the Association).

1) Members means Regional Reps who make up the UKHBPA.

2) Some smaller scenes/isolated individuals may not have a city rep or know the regional rep. So for the first year at least rather than having a bureaucratic chain of command I'd rather people have the option to suggest things directly.

Great work on getting this going again.

One thing I would say is get a list of active scenes. Will help break down regions a lot easier/elections. And also figure out where everyone is.

Next is way of communication, know from last attempt it was impossible to physically meet with all reps in same place minus the first meeting. Closed fb group probably would be best.

I was up for the Canterbury rep and if clubs still happy for it I'll stay that way and more than happy to help push this forward to get things rolling

I'd like to see effort being put into helping players understand the ruleset better (waiting to see what NAH come out with ahead of their regional qualifiers/champs) and the development of reffing in the UK.

Keen for reffing development to be an integral part of UKBPA, too.

I think it is important to create an email newsletter that notifies subscribers of important polls, upcoming tournaments and news. I think the forum is still the best place for discussion and voting but I don't think we should assume all players read it regularly.

This, for instance after the exciting time in Bristol, I am itching to see what other tournaments there are. It'd be sweet if UKBPA had a newsletter, or at least a little website with a google cal on it detailing UK tournaments, either proposed or confirmed, and tournaments abroad also, all in one place so it's super easy?

This probably exists on LOBP or whatever? I don't really go anywhere other than LFGSS. This said, I increasingly only use LFGSS for polo... In essence I agree with:

I think it's worth looking at how well LFGSS suits all players - I know several scenes don't use LFGSS despite it being the go-to place for UK polo. Would it be unreasonable for UKHBPA(or whatever it ends up being called) to have it's own identify, rather than being "hosted" by London, I was under the impression the developments and forum migration to Microcosm might offer some scope for a separate-but-linked spaces for London polo, individual scenes and UKHBPA I don't know how far off that is though.

I don't know what the timetable is for Microcosm and I'd say hold off on our own discussion site, because potentially Microcosm could serve us very well, and it'd be a lot of work for all to set something up.

UKBPA

Every time I say hardcourt people think I'm saying hardcore and I have to explain that we're not* that *up ourselves.

Yep. Plus, what's to say our remit will always be hardcourt? Hoverbike Polo in 2040 would need a whole new association!

2) Some smaller scenes/isolated individuals may not have a city rep or know the regional rep. So for the first year at least rather than having a bureaucratic chain of command I'd rather people have the option to suggest things directly.

I didn't really think of this and good point, until setup and shown to be working, a chain of command will just exclude people/scenes.

[]Once elected the UK polo association will make executive decisions. Proposals will be voted on by all members.
[]All proposals must be made public. (LFGSS)
[*]For each proposal that the association wishes to pass there must be a 2 week(minimum) period of feedback/discussion. However the Association has the last word on proposals.

I like the idea of newsletters keeping people up to date which is great. The place for feedback and discussion is important. Obviously the LFGSS is an easy option but i can see why some would rather not. I think one thing is this should be a private place to discuss uk matters. Could we not have a private UKBPA section on the forum?

As far as I can see (if this is wrong can one of the none Londoners correct me?), is it just the L at the beginning of lfgss that people don't like?

I think one thing is this should be a private place to discuss uk matters. Could we not have a private UKBPA section on the forum?

This is important for the development of a UK scene but last time there was a private UKBPA section it swiftly descended into a bit of a farce.... Maybe have it viewable by polo players but only reps can post...?

As far as I can see (if this is wrong can one of the none Londoners correct me?), is it just the L at the beginning of lfgss that people don't like?

I wasn't suggesting people don't like the L, it's just that people from other scenes or new players interested in the sport elsewhere don't/might not think to check a London forum... If discussion and so on remains here that's fine as we do have an established base of UK players, but I think it's important there is an alternate way to find out what's going on/get updates and so on under a UK badge.

In some ways similar to how the NAH has it's own identity, updates etc. but LoBP is still used when there are proposals for rulesets etc.

Microcosm is good to go if you want to set up new stuff, the reason lfgss isn't over there yet is that the code to sort out transferring all the masses of stuff on here without losing chunks of it is currently being written. I see no reason that a UKHBPAco.sm couldn't be set up sooner than this getting moved over, especially if you'd like to keep a degree of seperation between the two.

I have been living in the sticks in France now for a while and missing polo so have been thinking about the UK association A LOT.

My points:

• I think 2 regional reps would make sense rather than one. Meetings will be easier to organise with two reps per region if only one needs to attend and If the regions are split quite broadly then a player representing West and Central but living in Birmingham (for example) might be too far removed from the goings on in Plymouth.

• Northern Ireland will need its own region in my opinion, but until there is an established scene could remain inactive on votes etc.

• The word 'Hardcourt' is horrible, but does differentiate us from grass polo and aligns us more with the EHA and NAH and presumably the international body when it arrives. UKBPA is already taken too.

• I think that all decision makers in the association must be elected by the players, however, I think that administrative roles can and should be given to other people. The organisation of polls, media relations, marketing and the newsletter should all be handled by the volunteer who is right for that role (they may or may not be a regional rep also).

• 1st November should be the start of the season. I'd propose that all regional rep elections take place at this time. Currently this is after the tournaments of the summer and the worlds have taken place. This date would also allow for a good amount of time before the next UK champs/qualifiers. When the southern hemisphere start hosting the worlds they will presumably hold them at the end of their summer (February/March).

• I think the main responsibilities of the association should be:

  • Facilitation of Euro qualifiers
    
  • Facilitation of UK champs
    
  • Ref training
    
  • National Series
    
  • Rules contribution
    
  • Gaining official 'sport' status
    

• The association should produce/make available

  • A newsletter
    
  • Tournament calendar
    
  • Official press pack about UK polo
    
  • Contact and map of UK scenes
    
  • Social media presence
    

matt for president.

Would the association be defining the core activity, its remit, its spirit and its goals etc. in a clear manner from the outset?

Would the association be mandated by a newly invoked membership ie. those that wish to work/play under the above auspices would be considered stakeholders/voters?

What thresholds/numbers might define a national mandate?

Would there be an annual membership or some kind of refresh?

Would representatives need to consider/represent the views of those who do not necessarily agree to the remit of the association/may not consider themselves members?