Results of the mid-season survey

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood's picture
Submitted by Hadrian Mertins... on Sun, 2020-01-26 13:35

Forums:

Thanks to everyone who participated in the mid-season survey. Results are available here: http://bit.ly/36yFTPX

A brief summary and discussion is included at the link. The two headline takeaways are (1) that people are generally happy with how things are going, and (2) that we can do a better job of walking the talk on gender equity.

Your comments and suggestions are welcome as we move into Session 2.

Mehmet Karman

Mon, 2020-01-27 12:05

Very useful stats and summary.  Bit dismayed to see even among those responding the volunteer rate to statkeep is only 47%.  The league doesn't function without volunteer statkeeping.  How best to "nudge" more people into statkeeping?  A rule that makes it a requirement means we're changing the meaning of volunteer. 

What about a much lighter version - require every player in Parity to keep stats for 1 game a season.  Realize that people have busy lives, but that's one additional 80 minute commitment game in a 12 week season.  Hoped for results would be that new statskeepers realize it's not that hard, and can even be fun. 

Sina Dee

Mon, 2020-01-27 12:35

Do comp teams still require volunteer hours?  Do those count?  Perhaps a chance to win some gift certificates to the movies or LCBO?

Justine Price

Mon, 2020-01-27 19:22

Mehmet, I did comment on the survey that stat keeping is tricky. With two early slots and two late slots....the 8:20 slot is coveted to sign up and take stats. Every time I looked, it was already taken. Unless you have the middle slot as your actual game time, stats keeping becomes a looong night. You're there ALL night so you can play at 7pm, sit around and wait through the 8:20 , do stats at 9:40 or 10:00 or reverse that. If only it was just an additional 80 minutes of commitment. It's a big commitment for a Monday night in a cold dome. I usually volunteer a bunch but the planets have not lined up for me this session to log the 4 hour evening at the dome. 

Marcus Bordage

Mon, 2020-01-27 12:13

Thanks for sharing the overall survey results with the parity community. As a player I appreciate knowing the general feelings of the league including some of the feedback.

It's great that the league coordinators are invested in improving the league but it shouldn't be all on them to do it. These results are a great way to reflect on how I conribute to making parity ultimate what it is and how I can individually help Make Parity Great Again (I swore to myself I wouldn't use this line but I had a moment of weakness). If you like the league and creating a fun environment for all (and read the forum) please take a moment to think about what you can do to help everyone!

Christopher Keates

Mon, 2020-01-27 16:57

That joke stopped being funny November 9th, 2016.

Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood's picture

Hadrian Mertins...

Mon, 2020-01-27 14:29

Among the people who have not done any stat keeping, I think a number of them are genuinely stretched to the limit because of other commitments (typically kids and the challenge of finding babysitters). Fear of the unknown probably accounts for a portion of the others. I'd bet (although I don't know what the evidence says) that once someone has gotten over the hurdle of stat keeping once they are much more likely to do it again. So directly reaching out to those people and offering to hold their hand the first time might pay dividends in the long run.

We've discussed the possibility of attaching an incentive to stat keeping (e.g. if you do a minimum number of games you're guaranteed a registration spot next season). I'm not sure it would get new people stat keeping, but it might get the occasional stat keepers to do it more regularly. Even still, there are real risks to something like that, because if people feel like they can't reach the threshold or don't want the reward they may be less likely to volunteer in the first place. Ultimately the best approach is one where we're generating enthusiasm for the league and the process independent of incentives.

Christopher Keates

Mon, 2020-01-27 17:05

It's hard to mandate volunteer time as a requirement for the league. People's lives are all very different and there are lots of reasons why some people may not be able to fit volunteering into their already busy lives. We should strive to remove as many barriers to volunteeering as possible, but accept that it may not be possible for all people to volunteer. Everyone's situation is very different.

Culturally I think we can both carrot and stick people into volunteering. Failure to statskeep is often met with endless heckling, especially when you break the first rule of Parity, which seems an appropriate stick. You can't heckle statskeepers ever, but until you statkeep you can't even give them side eye (I think this is a very fair rule to keep in place forever), so if you want even be able to pretend to put on airs about how much better your statkeeping is than anyone else's, you need to do the job first. 

The carrot is harder. The league has historically hesitated to let anyone jump registration queues or waitlist queues. I tried for years, with mixed success (followed by zero success) to reward good (civic?) behaviour. Cookies for volunteers is a semi-regular staple of the league. I always bought the top 5 volunteers prizes of some sort, but it wasn't much. Maybe a raffle with proportional entry for a spot or two in the league is something OCUA might be amenable to?

Surely we can think of an appropriate carrot.

Jim Robinson

Mon, 2020-01-27 17:13

I just find it challenging to stat keep unless I am playing the middle game. It's usually easy for me to come early or stay late, but I don't really want to stay for the middle game and then stat keep. The middle game players should really be pushed to cover the other slots. The middle game is always booked up far in advance. 

Also, when I say it was easy to work the other games from the middle slot, that was when Jessie was not playing. Next session it will be even harder to make that happen. 

Thomas Sattolo

Mon, 2020-01-27 18:44

I generally only statskeep when I'm playing the middle game. If we didn't have this weird butterfly pattern to our schedule or if people who actually statskeep got the 8:20 game more often there'd probably be a lot more volunteers.

Brian Perry

Tue, 2020-01-28 13:50

you play the early time slot, enjoy a couple bevvys the second time slot, and become super generous with stats while stat keeping the third time slot! It's just that easy :)

Tom Newman

Tue, 2020-01-28 07:38

I just want to echo the comments re: statskeeping difficulties. Due to trades I actually didn't play a single 8:20 slot this session, and so found it impossible to find a spot to statskeep where I wouldn't be at the dome from 6:45 until 11:30. 

 

Brian Perry

Tue, 2020-01-28 13:51

that due to trades I never played Tom Newman or his eggs once this session!