Question about purchasing passes for NPS...

[MattMason]

Has the math been done on the cost a team could pay for a 6th bag and passes for teams bringing a 6th? Might be a good consideration for future years... coaches love love, too, and would certainly appreciate a discount on the whole bag/pass package so it's cheaper than them buying it all separately but still profitable for PSI.

[Scott Woods]

Has the math been done on the cost a team could pay for a 6th bag and passes for teams bringing a 6th? Might be a good consideration for future years... coaches love love, too, and would certainly appreciate a discount on the whole bag/pass package so it's cheaper than them buying it all separately but still profitable for PSI.

It has not, and I think that's a suggestion worth investigating, Matt.

[rwmclellan]

Didn't know I'd start some shit up with my wimpy little question

Thanks for the info, though.   Appreciated.   Can't wait!
-RWMc-

[Chris_Wilson]

So...I guess my question got overlooked in the heat of the hoopla. What is the cost of the 6th pass/bag? While it may not be a shitty decision, I'm sure you can understand when I say the timing of releasing the information is a little in the undesired category. The information is pertinent to teams budgets and fundraising to say the least. Also, when a decision like this has been made, the other considerations should such the cost of an additional pass and bag should be made. In light of the tardiness of providing the info and the lack of alternative planning for teams bringing 6 official participants, I think the EC should suspend that policy until next year. Also, as I recall, we now have to purchase the NPS T-shirts.

Just my thoughts!

[jesster]

. In light of the tardiness of providing the info and the lack of alternative planning for teams bringing 6 official participants, I think the EC should suspend that policy until next year.

This was in place last year

-Jesster

[Dahled]

Also, as I recall, we now have to purchase the NPS T-shirts.

no - we _get_ to purchase t-shirts (or not, as the case may be)

[Scott Woods]

So...I guess my question got overlooked in the heat of the hoopla. What is the cost of the 6th pass/bag? While it may not be a shitty decision, I'm sure you can understand when I say the timing of releasing the information is a little in the undesired category. The information is pertinent to teams budgets and fundraising to say the least. Also, when a decision like this has been made, the other considerations should such the cost of an additional pass and bag should be made. In light of the tardiness of providing the info and the lack of alternative planning for teams bringing 6 official participants, I think the EC should suspend that policy until next year. Also, as I recall, we now have to purchase the NPS T-shirts.

Just my thoughts!

Chris,

There is no secret or tardiness...as far as I recall, this was done last year.

[johnmiller37]

 Last year I got 6 passes....this year there seems to be a issue. ..... By what ever means that there are if I have to Purchase another pass/bag will I be able to do that at registration and what will it cost.

[Chris_Wilson]

Scott...last year we got 6 passes and 6 bags. According to Steve and Inkera the decision was discussed and made "last fall," in the EC forum. "Last fall" (2009) seems to indicate that it would have been after NPS.

While I don't think passes are free, I do think that the cost of passes for teams is covered in the registration fee. If a team knows they can have 6 people covered through the registration fee and opt to bring only 5, that does not mean that I am cheating or taking unfair advantage of the system because I use all 6 slots alloted for my team. I am not bringing extra people. I am bringing 5 team members and a slammaster/coach, all of which are officially recognized by PSI as a team. Therefore, in my mind, team registration should cover the entire team.

Please understand that I am not attempting to undermine the decisions made by the EC. I am only suggesting that those decisions should be made public sooner than later. It appears someone dropped the ball and the teams should not be responsible for picking up that "ball" in this case.

[The_Colonel]

I am a bit upset about this whole turn of events as well.  My feeling is that coaches and slammasters are MAJOR contributing members of the teams they put together and have a significant impact on the quality of the show presented at Nationals, not to mention promoting poetry slam before during and after nationals.  Making them pay for a festival pass, whether intended or not, is basically sending the message that they are no different then a normal audience member (who puts in no effort other than showing up), which I think we can all agree, is just not the case.  The general feeling people are getting from this decision seems to be "Wow... being a slammaster/coach is already a pretty thankless job, and now that I finally get to a place and time that I should be trully enjoying myself and revelling in the thing I am most passionate about and work so hard for, I have to pay $75 out of my own pocket to do it."

Can everyone at least agree, whether they agree with that last statement or not, that it doesn't feel too good and people have a right to be a little pissed about it?

This is my first year as just a coach.  All previous years, I have been on the team as well as coaching.  I am also the slammaster for my venue.  I work very hard all year to make sure all the forms are filled out, fees paid, and things kept generally organized to allow my team to participate in this event.  I look forward to it all year.  My team and I have worked very hard to raise the necessary funds for travel and lodging.  Our budget does not allow me to allocate the funding to cover a pass for myself without shorting us somewhere else, which means I will end up paying out of pocket.  I do not get paid vacation time (as I'm sure is the case for a lot of people) so even taking the time off work to go to Nationals causes me to lose money right off the bat, and thats not even counting the money I spend while I'm there.  To add the cost of a pass on top of that leaves a really bad taste in my mouth.

I'm sorry if these sentiments piss any of you off, but I've always been a supporter of PSI, the EC, and the slam community in general, and if we needed to make more money somewhere, I think we could have worked together to come up with a better way than this.

[puroshaggy]

I have to chime in and agree with the Colonel.  As a slammaster, every year I question whether or not paying $500 for Nationals plus another $120 to register my team AND myself as PSI members in order for us to compete at NPS is the best way to spend the hard earned money our slam makes.  Then to find out that the hardest working member of those 6- namely me, the guy who fills out the paperwork, promotes the slam on a weekly basis, makes sure we have all those ever changing ducks in a row- isn't considered worthy of a free pass?? Yeah, it's pretty discouraging.  I have already paid $620 and PSI still needs my money in order to survive.  Is that the case??

And I don't think it should matter how many members are on your team.  If I have 4 poets on my team, I am still paying $500 to compete, just like those 5 person teams.  And in past years here in SA, we have had 5 poets, 1 coach, and 1 slammaster, all working their asses off to make the Nationals experience work.  For the $640 we pay to compete (guaranteed to read only 2x in 5 days), couldn't we get 7 passes?

[Scott Woods]

All,

Here is what the EC has investigated, discussed, argued, motioned and voted on in the last week ro so since this issue came up:

We determined that the EC had, at one of our meetings during last year's NPS, had in fact agreed to limit passes for team to 5.
Problem?  We didn't publicize that decision and we certainly had bigger fish to fry at the time. 

We have since rectified that by doing the following:

1) Motion to limit teams to 5 passes for NPS was approved. 
2) Motion to start that limit next year, not this year (meaning teams this year get up to 6 passes just like the old system and with the old considerations) also passes.  This is the "my bad" motion.

So up to 6 this year, down to a flat 5 next year.

[puroshaggy]

All,

Here is what the EC has investigated, discussed, argued, motioned and voted on in the last week ro so since this issue came up:

We determined that the EC had, at one of our meetings during last year's NPS, had in fact agreed to limit passes for team to 5.
Problem?  We didn't publicize that decision and we certainly had bigger fish to fry at the time. 

We have since rectified that by doing the following:

1) Motion to limit teams to 5 passes for NPS was approved. 
2) Motion to start that limit next year, not this year (meaning teams this year get up to 6 passes just like the old system and with the old considerations) also passes.  This is the "my bad" motion.

So up to 6 this year, down to a flat 5 next year.

Thank you for the quick and clear response Scott.

Question: It is still possible for slams to send 5 person teams next year, right? If that is the case, what is the problem with giving each team 6 passes?  Not 6 goodie bags, or T-shirts, or anything of that sort- but passes.  Heck, not even passes. How about issuing some kind of Slammaster ID card that grants Slammasters admission into all NPS events at which their slam is competing?  Has that ever been discussed? Is that an option?

Poets will always be there, but without the work the Slammasters put in year round, Nationals would not happen, at least in any form that resembles organized and coherent.  How do people feel about creating some sort of All Access Pass (not backstage or anything, but into venues) for the backbone of the national PSI scene?

[Scott Woods]

This decision has no bearing on 4 or 5-poet teams.  You bring 4, you can get 5 is you register an SM.  You bring 5, you get 5, period.

FYI, when you're asking for an SM ID card, you're still asking for a pass.  Still costs one way or another.  Passes "cost" us paid seats in venues in significant numbers one you spread it out over the event, not just in the 8 teams that will be in a venue one night. If people - audience - can't get seats, they don't stay.  That's money out the door, and at five days of bouts plus day events and night events, that's not anything to sweep out the door.

It's a balancing act.  We've balanced it in such a way that's fair to many (maybe even most) teams and some of our audience. You want it to be fair for ALL of our teams and even less of our audience.

[inkera]

Point of clarification (this is not a change, I just wanted to clarify)~

For example: If a team registers 5 team members and has a coach or a slam master, they will receive 6 passes.
If a team registers four team members  and has a coach or a slam master, they receive 5 passes.
If a team registers, four team members, and the coach or slam master is included in that 4, they receive 4 passes.


Hope this helps!!

Inkera