Regular Sessions – Keeping It At 10, And Priority

Given the game dynamic, we need exactly 10 players for each of our regular sessions.

Although I haven’t ruled out going to 6 v 6 at Sports Planet @ East Coast or The Premier Pitch when necessary, we haven’t really had a need to do so since September.

Arranging the sessions and maintaining the blog are the easy parts of what I do. What is most time consuming is ensuring that there are 10 players for each session, not more, not less.

If a session is short of players, or there are withdrawals, we need to find more players to make 10. If a session is oversubscribed, I try to adjust the week’s schedule so that everyone who wants to play gets to play.

So far it’s worked alright. If at all we don’t have exactly 10, it’s because we are 1 or 2 players short, and a bit of e-mail or SMS canvassing does find us the players we need.

A session being oversubscribed can be trickier. From quite early on, I’ve had a priority system to assist me. I’ve not had to apply it so far. Some of you may not like the way it works, but it’s meant to be transparent.

I’ve recently added the following proviso to the Current Schedule page:

Even if a session is full, places do sometimes become available on the day of the session itself, so if you’d like to play on that day, please add your name, and I’ll let you know if a place becomes available. You need to confirm by the day before the session to be entitled to any priority that may be available under the priority system.

It’s easier to summarize the effects of the priority system:

• If you would like to play during the week, there should be a place available for one or more of the sessions, Monday to Thursday.  However, if you want to play on a particular day, it’s best you confirm early.

• If you would like to play twice in a week, you should get at least one game, and very likely the second game as well.  If you have a preference between the two slots you pick, please indicate which.

• If you would like to play three or more times in a week, you should get at least one game, and are virtually guaranteed a second game as well.   Whether you get more than two depends on how many participants would like to play that week.  Again, if you have a preference between the slots you pick, please indicate which.

• If you’re down for two or more sessions, up to the day before the subsequent session, there is a small chance you could be “bumped” from the session.

If you do get “bumped” from a session, do bear with it.  One way to reduce the risk of being “bumped” is to confirm early.

We can be more flexible with numbers for mixed sessions and other non-regular sessions, so when they are introduced, there is no risk of being “bumped” from a mixed session.