More Comings Than Goings

Boris returned from Jordan at the beginning of last week, before leaving for Dubai at the end of the week.  He pulled out of the session on Monday claiming to be in pain after playing at the weekend (the knock-on effect of which was he didn’t make Tuesday’s session either), but he did make Wednesday’s session.

Despite having left for Dubai, Boris still managed to comment on the 11-a-side game last night.

Wherever in the world you may be transferred to or settle, you can still comment on the blog.  No matter where you go, if you’re still commenting on the blog, you haven’t left FIOFAFI.  The same applies to anyone who stops playing.

As an online “clubhouse”, FIOFAFI is global, as are its “newsletters”, the weekly “Update” and the occasional “Extra”.

In order to keep at least three or four sessions going each week, with more irregular participation, our pool of participants needs to be constantly growing.

As I’ve said before, a simple way to introduce friends, colleagues and acquaintances to FIOFAFI is to forward an “Update” or an “Extra” to them by e-mail.

However, I expect that, increasingly, new participants will find us through the blog.  The first person to find us through the blog was Tristan.  However, as he played with us before the current system of adding names to the Participant List was introduced, and he was in any event under 21, he was not added to the Participant List.

Since then, Jujing, Dennis W and Hairuddin have found us through the blog.

It is easy to keep count of participants joining us.  It is much harder to keep count of participants leaving.   Other than a handful of participants who have informed me that they are leaving the country, or have to stop playing indefinitely due to injury or incapacity, everyone else who stops playing without commenting on the blog merely drop off the Participant List after a lapse of time of 6 months to a year, as provided in the system for updating the Participant List at the end of every quarter.

Like I said before

If anyone intends to stop playing indefinitely, it would be good if they could let me know, preferably on the blog, but by e-mail or SMS if need be. It would be useful for me to know why as well. However, I guess if someone is not interested enough to continue playing, they’re unlikely to be interested enough to let me know, let alone give a reason.

The Participant List is now up to 125.  A significant number have not played for a while.  Taking a long break is fine, but I’m not sure how many of those who haven’t played for a while will come back or have left for good.

FIOFAFI can’t be insular and static.  Growth is achieved by having more people joining us than leaving.