Qualification System For NPS

[Scott Woods]

I say make it a concern when it's proven to BE a concern.

[Delrica]

still having a proxy deadline would be good.

Proxy deadline, yes, I agree with Anthony on this one.

I thinbk scott and i agree just in different ways. I too believe that the tools to properly qualify teams for NPS is there, they are simply not enforced. I think making SM's mandatory is a good first step.  But as we grow and grow there has to be an enforcement of standards. Like the attendance records. look at it this way. Should PSi as a governing body just know general slam attendances in certain areas? Isnt that useful information? So we make it part of registration. We require a little more initiative from the slam master in order to send a team. San Jose already does attendance records and theyre very useful

PSI venue cert/recertification form already asks for average audience size. The tools are there. Now granted, I just played devil's advocate by stating how one could cheat the system.  But, in PSI's defense, we do have those mechanisms in place.  But we're relying (a little bit) on the honor system. It does work more oft than not.

Also I want to debate an earlier point saying that "if theyre there its for poetry" totally untrue, San Jose's venue does not charge everyone, in fact charging at all goes against our venues policies. But we get to ask everyone there if theyre here for poetry, if they say yes we take thier money. But believe it there are people there who could give a crap.

I cant be alone on this one

Depends on where you are I guess.  Because of our location (and the fact that we do charge), the folks that show up here are here for poetry (or the social environment that comes with an open mic reading, which requires them staying for the poetry and respecting the mic).

There has been only two venues here where the people here could give a crap.  One has been done away with; the other well on its way out the door.

[armiller]

thats exactly what I mean Del,

I'm not saying we have a huge problem with cheaters right now. Are there cheaters?  Sure, but theres also a lot of good hard working honest slammasters, which I feel makes up the majority.

However, I feel it is incredibly important to plan for the future.  Not two years but 10. It really looks like the family is leaning in the direction of making Nationals bigger, IE accomadating more teams. which is a beautiful thing and a statement on comraderie and love of hearing different voices. But we must determine what our goal is. Is NPS an event that showcases only the best performance poets in america? OR is it an event that showcases as many  of the performance poets in america as possible to determine the best on a national level?

Honestly my head says plan A. But in my heart I think plan B will have a more positive effect on PSi. The more team going to nats, the more slams
getting excited about the art  form. So if it is our mission to cultivate a art movement then we have power in numbers. Increasing the amount of teams at NPS is a tremendously effective way to do it.

So how is this done? First, we create a system that accomadates more teams. I'm all for several proposals that involve adding a day and can put us up to 125 teams, if I do recall correctly.

That said, the next step is have a set of rules and requirements that are enforced. Most of them exist. But when we take more people thats an increase in general population. With more people wanting to get in, we have to think past what if we hit 80, cause we have. What about 100? or more?

Its about preparing for the future. theres a lot of things that we dont need to do because were not big enough. But we have to be ready for when we are big enough.

Im sure Ill think of more later.

ARM

[Link]

The thing is, is if you do catch a slam cheating, who wants to blow the whistle? I don't

I have, and would do it again if need be.  And I didn't do it to be the "good little PSI boy" but I did it because good voices weren't being heard, and it was giving the entire artform a bad name.

[Scott Woods]

thats exactly what I mean Del,

I'm not saying we have a huge problem with cheaters right now. Are there cheaters?  Sure, but theres also a lot of good hard working honest slammasters, which I feel makes up the majority.

I'll tell you what I told your scene-mate, Paradox, backchannel:

As an official of the organization I don't tend to help steer the organization's resources in a direction that hasn't proven to be an issue that demands the hammer of those resources.  I trust that if any of you know someone is cheating and can somehow prove it, you'll bring htat to PSI's attention so we can make room for legitimate slams.

[AmyD]

Can I just point out that an extra day is really limiting for parts of the slam community?  I know a large percentage of poets are teachers/students/artists/others with flexible schedules, but I'm asking nicely that you remember those of us who aren't.  Someone above said that the cost of an extra night is just the cost of the hotel room, but it costs me, and other corporate types, a lot more than that to miss a day of work.

Thanks for reading!

[armiller]

Can I just point out that an extra day is really limiting for parts of the slam community?  I know a large percentage of poets are teachers/students/artists/others with flexible schedules, but I'm asking nicely that you remember those of us who aren't.  Someone above said that the cost of an extra night is just the cost of the hotel room, but it costs me, and other corporate types, a lot more than that to miss a day of work.

ok cool you've made your plea, so what is your solution? how do we prepare for growth? how do we accomidate more than 80 teams?

how how how how how?

without presenting a solution, presenting a problem , or worse yet a plea to the "powers that be" does nothing.

an extra day costs everybody more money, not just you. I work at a liquor store...i don't teach workshops, im not an engineer but i am a student , and barely pay my bills, but NPS, iWPS, Slammasters, touring, slamnights. these are times when life encompassing hobby gets to be the center of my world...

the fact is, i think youre wrong. in my opinion the majority of people in the slam family are average joes. i think a small percentage of them are professional artists... but for oh so many of us, slam gives us a chance to perform to lots of people, to be heard. and then its back to reality.

stick it to the man, take an extra day offa work

ARM

[AmyD]

Several solutions have been presented above, by those much wiser than I.  I am just saying that, of the ideas presented, adding a day to NPS is not my favorite, and explaining why.

This ties in to the much-heated discussion over in the rules forum about innovation and risk-taking on the NPS stage.  Adding a day favors teachers and students, and making our teams more homogenous has the dangerous side effect of making our poems more homogenous.

[simone]

Amy, I agree that the extra day off of work is a hidden cost that maybe not everyone considered with this proposal. I did mention it when I backed the proposal at the SlamMaster meeting, but it may have been glossed over.

I did consider it, though, and I feel that the cost of missing the extra day is well worth it; it's one more day at a huge poetry festival, attending workshops and networking with other poets, or just vacationing in a city you might not otherwise have occasion to visit.

I also disagree with you that it makes teams more homogenous by favoring teachers and students. I understand that these are people who have summers off and so wouldn't lose the money from work, but I really don't think that there's suddenly going to be a teacher/student rush to make slam teams because we've increased the length of Nats by 20%.

You might be able to convince me that it actually favors those in the corporate world, though: those who get paid vacation time and who make more money always have an easier time getting to NPS. When I had a corporate job it was far less painful for me to get the time off for Nationals than it is now.

...To return to the orginal subject of this posting, though, the one extra day only buys us time until the number of slams becomes too great for us to handle with even three nights of preliminary matches. I know that Regionals scares most of us silly, but I still support the idea for long-term growth, and I already participate in another competitive series that uses a a regional model that I think would work for us. What other options do we have going forward at this point?

[Stefan Sencerz]

I like the idea of the deadline for proxies. I think perhaps it should by by midnight before the slammasters meeting starts.

Furthermore, I was thinking that, perhaps, we should expect that, when someone sends a proxy, s/he also should give some instructions about how to vote; at least, how to vote on the issues already on the agenda.

I know this point would be hard to enforce, for what exactly (or even roughly)  counts as "some instructions." So, I am not sure how to state this requirement in a precise and enforceable way. Still, I would like someone who sends me a proxy to also give me instructions concerning the items and issues to be discussed during the meeting. I'd like to be convinced that this someone does not simply blows things off, to clear the hoops, but rather thinks about the agenda and give some guidance about how the issues are to be decided. (I remember that, on one occasion when I was not able to be at the slammasters meeting, I send Mike henry several pages of detailed instructions and some general principles to be used when the votes are taken. Just saying.)

[armiller]

Heres a question, is anyone against a firm proxy deadline?

I say if SM's starts saturday, deadline friday at midnight

although i could be convinced to have it a week in advance

I'd really like to see a proposal on this.

Is creating a firm deadline something everyone needs to vote on or is it something the EC can decide?

ARM

[Steve]

Anthony and all,

Since most people believe they need to to get their proxy to me and since I usually leave for these meetings AT LEAST 24 hours in advance, you need a deadline considerably further out from the meeting than midnight the night before.

If they are sending them with their proxy, like they are supposed to do, they won't arrive at the meeting until the proxy person arrives at the meeting.

If they are sending them to someone else, me, President, Secretary, they had better have at least three days worked into the system. (If I had actually come to Austin, I would have been driving 2 days to get there.)

[armiller]

as i said, i could be convinced to say a week.

But Steve, I do believe that out of this discussion has come a lot of people who do think there should be a proxy deadline. I don't know how many last minute proxies that had to be dealt with this year but im sure it was more than 3 (random number).

So lets say that proxies have to be on your doorstep or mailbox whatever one week before SM's
things that could make this more feasible; online proxy forms, Do we still (or have we ever) send a letter (like a physical letter) to slams upon venue certification regarding slammasters and important dates and such.? Maybe the letter can have a proxy form with it.
I don't think this is asking too much of people and the extra work beforehand is gonna make crap easier later. Obviously there needs to be a discussion reguarding what constitutes a "really good excuse" ie: house blew up, has the flu, sudden financial situations. Im not saying we cant have compassion. While I see your point on not making proxy limits, I think that creating a proxy deadline is a simple way of asking for a little accountability and planning from our slam masters. It seems we can have a deadline if we make proxy registration a little easier.

ARM

[Steve]

There's no argument about a deadline here.

But how much easier can we make it than sending a note to the meeting that says, I give my vote to Snuffie? Signed and dated.

I mean, I remember taking a note like that to my 3rd grade teacher to explain my absence from school the day before.

You make it sound like there's a big wad of bureaucracy in the way. Write a note. Send it to the meeting. That's it.

[zadriana]

Anthony, you know I love me San Jose, but, dude, what do you think is on the venue certification form you fill out every year?

Here's the questions on the form:

What is the cost at the door?   
Is the event open to the Public?   
Do you have an Open Mic?   
If yes, please describe
If so, how many participants per night?   
Do you have a Feature?    
How much is the feature paid?   
Do you have a Slam?   
Average number of Slammers per night?   
How much is the winner paid (if anything)?   
Are they any restrictions on who can Sign Up?
If so, please describe   
Other special features? Describe.

How often is your slam held?   
If Other, please describe   
Day of the Week it's held   
Starting Time   
Average Audience Size   

History
Month/year your event was first held   
Have you always used this venue?   
If not, please list your past venues   
Please enter any additional information you think we should know about your Slam

I skulked around and didn't find this, so I'll ask...
Is any of this information posted publically? I think it would be great to have a downloadable spreadsheet with all this information available to the public.