Greetings FPA Members,

 

Here is an update regarding FPAW 2019:

 

Ryan Young (Seattle, WA; USA) submitted the only application for FPAW 2019 and presented many of his ideas for how he could host FPA Worlds in Seattle during his presentation in Udine. Ryan’s ideas for the event include a number of proposals for streamlining the tournament process to be more efficient, fair, and in an effort to maximize competitors’ experience. There are several ideas within this bid that the Board is currently discussing.

 

There are two major proposed ideas that the bid includes that differ from the more traditional FPA Worlds bids:

 

  • Shorter routines (3 minutes for Pairs, and 4 minutes for Co-op), and
  • Indoor competition, which may occur possibly in late October or early November

 

The FPA Board met with Ryan and discussed the pros/cons of the two major structural changes. Ryan’s explanations were sufficient to garner the Board’s support for his bid. We are in the process of working through our response to the other aspects of the Seattle 2019 FPAW bid:

 

1) Simplified Directors/Committee.

a) A single Committee for all purposes; no small international committees – but one international committee that would work with reviewing the all pools, judges. Fairness/balance.

b) If a Committee member is not immediately present for a meeting, they forfeit their input.

 

2) Not required to use Festival Judging if time allows.

 

3) The entire player registration will be used for tournament expenses. No prize money.

 

4) Have the right to penalize tardy competitors.

a) Including Execution deductions or Disqualification.

 

5) Reduce the 30 minutes score review after competition since there are no math errors in the electronic judging.

 

6) Late registration penalty.

a) Because this disrupts the seeding of pools, late teams can be placed at the bottom of a seeding pool without regard to their current ranking.

 

7) Judges late to the judging table can be selected to judge more frequently in the future.

 

8) All music must be played from a computer mp3.

a) People with only phones/iPods must come to the music desk beforehand and rip the music down through the 3.5mm cable.

 

As you can see, a number of these ideas are in the interest of time-efficiency and overall positive competitor experiences. We’ll be discussing with Ryan more about all of the above, and wanted to share with the FPA membership about the process that we’re involved in currently.

 

FPA Board