Beppe elected as NAF President

[Pipey]

@Shteve0 - Some interesting points there about the turnout and the NAF's position within the BB community. Though those are separate issues to what I was objecting to i.e. the suggestion that the election publicity was a failure, that people were not reasonably made aware.

[Purplegoo]

This was certainly the most advertised NAF election I've ever seen, I almost got fed up of hearing about it! Of course, people that have been away from the Internet since November or have particularly zealous spam filters may have missed it was happening, but how else to nudge those people? We don't really expect a phone call or a carrier pigeon, do we? The NAF's communication medium is the Internet, the Internet was covered.

Whilst the turnout was (sadly) low, banging on about an irrelevant organisation is reverting to a bit of a lazy fallback. One sided elections (which, numbers wise, this turned out to be) tend to attract a lower turnout, in any walk of life.

Good luck to Beppe, I'm sure he's got a calm enough head on his shoulders to ignore Interweb waffle and deliver the goods.

[JaM]

You've all advertized at multiple sites and stuff, that's pretty good.

I just find it a shame that I, personally, missed the whole voting thing. I am not active (enough) on FB but it's a missed opportunity to not have advertized the fact that voting had started here, on TBB/TFF. Still one of the bigger BB-fora around, right?

That's all. And I probably missed a FB update about the voting, so I really dont blame you guys, I should have red those updates better.

[juergen]

the NAF is drifting into a state of blissfully comfortable irrelevance.

But why? I just don't get it! If someone is interested in BB, and there is a central organising place for BB, with funds available to do stuff, why would you not get involved in the NAF?

Put into two words: BLOCKING DICE

As Austrian membership organizer 9 out of 10 sign ups were purely intrested in the dice. they didn't even plan to attend tournaments. They only signed up to get blocking dice. The only chance to get blocking dice with the original faces are NAF dice plain and simple. Many people that come into BB (attracted from the pc game or similar) cannot buy a boxed set. Getting fields is easy (especially if you play in clubs), getting block dice with the original faces is almost impossible - except if you join the NAF.

Juergen

[TheDoc]

Good luck Beppe.

Just remember to keep breathing and not listen to the inter-twaddle!

[sann0638]

@juergen, you're right why people DO sign up, but I guess my question was more "if someone has the energy to moan about something on the internet, do they have the energy to do something useful on the internet?"

You're a great example of someone who does stuff, as per elfball.org. It would be nice if every time someone complained about something they had to do something first. I'm talking nonsense now. Going to get on with real life and leave this topic alone, as it should be a celebratory thread for a new President who will hopefully be a unifying force in the community leading up to the next World Cup. Onwards and upwards!

<edited for typo>

[JT-Y]

If people only enter into a community group to get hold of some dice and they decide that they don't wish to be part of that group any longer purely because the dice supply has dried up with time, they are very fickle people. We can't blame the group itself for that.

Personally I think there is a lot more that the NAF can do than it does do, and I hope it'll start doing it in the next couple of years.
Maybe the NAF has become complacent in its membership due to the desirability of the dice and only now is realising that it does need to be more proactive.

Whatever. I'll continue to support the NAF and the game locally and I'll hope others, wherever they are, will do likewise. For no other reason than that someone has to.
A long time ago when I first got involved with the WPS and the like I did it purely because I believe someone has to run events and promote our hobby and decided that if I didn't do it then who would
I stand by that belief even now; it's all well and good looking at what the NAF and the greater community can do for you, but if you don't feel it's being done, get involved and do it yourself.
No one will thank you and no one will pay you, and you'll waste lots of your private time and endure a lot of stress induced by gamers because we can all be self centred aresholes, but more events attracts more players and we all benefit.
We can't expect GW to run our community and grow it, they have bigger commercial concerns (and here I will add that the NAF's careful attitude towards GW is the best solution to a plc that delights in hammering it's customer community), and we can't expect the few organisers of the NAF to do it all. We all have to get involved and do stuff.

There will be a few regular posters read that and think I'm having a go, and probably more lurkers who'll think the same.
And truth be told I am having a go; don't wait to see what someone else will do for you and moan when you think a specific someone isn't doing enough; roll up your sleeves, get your hands dirty and do it yourself. There is a lot of satisfaction to be drawn from doing a thankless task well.
Run tourneys, run leagues. Venture out of your comfort zone and visit local clubs and groups that don't play BB and play some BB there. Talk about the game, remind older gamers how much fun it is, show them that it isn't dead and point them to the NAF; seeing 300+ pages of current user rankings comes as quite a surprise to anyone who thinks that only a few grognards play the game.
And let the NAF know what you are doing, let Sann have the info for newsletters and blog posts. It all helps and your small efforts may inspire others and before we know it the NAF is doing some of what many expect it to be doing.

It works, I know that because 18 months ago I wasn't playing BB. I was burnt out on WM&H, very ill, and off work for an unfeasibly long time with little to do but dick around with lists and minis for a game I didn't want to play to the point I damn near gave up the hobby all together, and it was Podfrey who reminded me how much I used to enjoy BB, and since then my club has attracted several new members and is in the middle of its second BB league and has introduced 10+ long time members to the game. I love it and our club is having great fun with it and our membership has just been increased that little bit more, and all because Podfrey took the time to enthuse about BB.
Small numbers from our small area in the scheme of things maybe, but do that in every town in every country and imagine the numbers, we suddenly have a huge, global community.

Who'll do that if not you

[babass]

If 90% of members are members just because of the Dices, having more than 300 voting members is a great result, because most of the 10 last% participated.

Anyway.
Good luck to Beppe

[Darkson]

I have been highly critical of the NAF (rightly so I believe) but I find the notion that anyone didn't know about the election laughable - I can't fault them (the NAF) on that, mainly because of Sann, even though he had a fine line to tread being one of the candidates (which he did well IMO). The only place I can remember not seeing it advertised was Google+, and I may well have missed it there.

Yes, there are faults in the NAF - this election wasn't one of them.

[Indigo]

All his words

What a load of shit mate. Disappointed.

[Thadrin]

I cannot believe that anyone with a genuine interest in voting could have missed that it was happening.

[Joemanji]

But I want to complain! Raarr. I did a poo-poo this morning and the NAF didn't wipe my bum-bum for me. Now I'm sticky. The NAF is a disgrace!

[sann0638]

I cannot believe that anyone with a genuine interest in voting could have missed that it was happening.

Or at least not the 100+ people that it would have taken for me to overtake Beppe

[nazgob]

Ok. I want to make my feelings on this matter clear.

Firstly, I want to congratulate beppe on the win. I look forward to seeing what will happen in a naf with such a lovely non English gentleman in charge.

Secondly, I want to thank everyone who has assisted in running and publicise the election. I have some, very limited experience with such matters and I know how complicated it can be. And how much of a time sink. So thank you.

Thirdly, I want everyone to make an effort when they post in this thread. I am aware that the naf is a sometimes contentious issue, and that not everyone is a fan. However, please be aware that it is incredibly easy for the opinions posted here to be taken very personally. Criticisms can and should be aired, but please ensure that you do so with care.

Fourthly, it is my stated opinion that the naf is a well run organisation with the needs of its members at heart.

[Shteve0]

Hi Mike

I think at least some of the people raising ideas and constructive criticism of late would be more involved if they didn't get flamed every time they attempted to contribute. Note that for every "then why don't you chip in?" there's a "if you don't like our club, piss off and start your own". Conveniently, there's a good example earlier in this thread - note how daloonieshaman, a huge contributor to the hobby in his area, is told to get out from behind his computer and go and start his own NAF, but the same has happened to so many people who already do a massive amount for their local scenes. Would it not be better to offer people a little more credit? I personally contributed hundreds of hours of coding last year alone in support of the hobby in our region. Is there a minimum threshold I have to hit before I'm entitled to express an opinion?

To address your question of why people would not want to sign up to the NAF; the NAF effectively survives on the goodwill of the community, not on its own merits. Once you accept that the NAF is not really relevant to the majority of Blood Bowl players - of tens of thousands of active coaches worldwide, only three hundred bothered voting in its presidential election, which would be funny were it not so tragic - and suddenly it's people asking "but why would any new player not want to pay money to my entitled little club to not change the ruleset?!?!", and then get a great big rage-on when people try to explain it to them.