Dog Tag Details

We are excited to announce and explain our unique, multi-functional incentive and records system. You probably know them as dog tags but we think they will need a new name to represent what they mean to us.  Leave us a note on Facebook if you have an idea of what we should call them.

Every Ultimate for All member will receive one embossed metal name tag.  Year One participants’ name tags are golden (ok, I think they’re bronze) signifying their founding role in our organization, all future name tags will be standard silver.  It includes their name, UFA Member #, and the UFA values: Community, Sustainability, and Spirit of the Game.  The name tag is the foundation of the player’s chain and is also a useful ID for their gear bag.  The chain is the empty trophy case just waiting to be filled with your accomplishments.  

The first tag/chip/badge/charm/medal(?) that many of you will receive is one for participation on your Club Summer Academy team.  At minimum, every year you will receive a new participation award corresponding to your team.  Tags will be made for teams that wish to give season awards such as MVPs, Most Improved, Spirit, etc.  Teams will also receive tournament-specific awards to distribute as they wish.  

As long as you stay within our system your accomplishments accrue, no matter your team.  This will create a tangible sense of continuity to your playing career.

We are pondering many other uses for this system as well.  Mark personal achievements with special tags: Catch a Callahan, Win a Party, Your First Layout D.  Further uses could include integration with our planned Player Development Track and/or UFA-wide records, you could hold the Fastest Woman or Farthest Flick tag (until someone challenges you for it).

Our hope is that these little tags will incentivize commitment and personal improvement as well as uniting us all as clubmates.  If 2014 was your only year with us then keep it as a reminder of a particularly nice California summer.  But stick with us and after a few years your chain will start to truly represent the player that you are.  One quick glance will remind you of all the hot tournament days, long practices, team hotels, carpools, soreness, sweat, and blood that went into making your ultimate career worth remembering.

Thank You's, 2014

Whatever success UFA had in 2014 would not have been possible without the volunteer efforts of many fine, forward-thinking community members.  I would like to mention some of them in thanks for their work on your and my behalf.  Hopefully I don’t forget anyone.

Hy Carrel is a non-stop, selfless, social, volunteer machine.  In the beginning he agreed to be our Volunteer Coordinator and in the end he did so much more than that.  Astris* would not have had the success it had without Hy.  And I probably would have gone crazy along the way without his wise and kind reassurances.

Beckie Menten and David Morley were the first two people to commit to helping me with this.  They are visionaries in their own rights and they nurtured this idea into a reality.  The bay area ultimate scene would not be the same without these two.  Beckie’s love for this sport and all those who play it inspires me.  I’m lucky to have her as a friend and you’re lucky I have her with me in important meetings raising questions and negotiating on your behalf.  Morley’s passion for teaching ultimate and his ability to connect with people made him incredibly useful at our practices.  Under his coaching on Alchemy, I benefitted directly from his knowledge as did all Mini Campers.  It was his commitment to the vision of UFA that allowed me to integrate my own playing experience with the organization we were starting.  Another great friendship spawned on the ultimate field.

Rusty May was our first benefactor.  He donated discs and cones before we’d ever stepped onto a field so that we could have a successful Mini Camp.  His efforts on our behalf came entirely of support for our vision, we had never met until introduced by a mutual friend.  He found time to scout fields for us during his preparation for his position as Volunteer Coordinator at the World Championship in Italy.  His support meant a lot to me even though he never stepped out from behind the curtain.

Much credit must be given to the leadership of each individual team.  Thank you Eli Menaker, Beckie Menten and Jacky Lee for bringing Barbary Coast Dance Hall together.  Anarchy captains Panda, Tweak, and Skippy all did fantastic jobs.  The many-faced Alchemy army of David Morley, Cathleen Hamel-Hartge, Colyn Flynn, Jesse White, Ginger Wong, and Tiffany Fields led our team to a Regionals berth in our first year of existence, no small task in this area.  Hy Carrel, Jessica Smith, and Jannon Frank helped Astris* through the tough times and towards the promised land.  

We also had help from our friends at the Bay Area Disc Association, without which we could not have dreamed nearly so big for Year One.  Jesse White was instrumental in bringing our idea to BADA and garnering the support that led to their supporting UFA as a BADA program with the multitude of benefits included in that arrangement.  Thanks to everyone on the BADA Board for seeing the value in what we are offering and especially to Jim Berry, treasurer extraordinaire.  Jim was always available to help with our budget, software problems, and other things that nobody wants to deal with.  He was the real unsung hero of 2014.

Many thanks also to everyone who helped run drills at Mini Camp or practice.  Colin “Money” Morgan, Bill Liu, Jeffro Valeros, An-Chi Tsou, Greg Marliave, Drew Kim, Evan Brydon, and anyone escaping my mind at the moment.

Lastly, THANK YOU for participating in our crazy experiment.  Some things worked. Some things didn’t. We have much to learn as we build the most fun, high-yield, sustainable, player-centric ultimate experience we can imagine.  We have a long way to go before my vision for UFA is realized and we’re going to need a lot of help along the way.  There will always be a place for you on our fields, on our volunteer list, and in our ranks of leadership.  Stay tuned for a look ahead at Year Two.

UFA Player Feedback Survey, Year One

Internal Review, Year One

This is a review of our services and programs of 2014.  Another publication contains goals and ideas for improvements for 2015. Below is a review of UFA’s founding principles and a report card for the services we provided in 2014.  These are opinions and conclusions of UFA and are not based on feedback provided by players.  The pronoun “we” is used to attribute credit to UFA as an organization including all our volunteer staff while “I” is used to signify the responsibilities of myself, Tyler Walker, as the Executive Director.  We are grateful for your thoughts and feedback. Please fill out our Player Feedback Survey here and we will incorporate your feedback into our plans for 2015.

1. Mission - To build a bridge between recreational and competitive ultimate for anyone willing to commit to their own player development.  To provide members with services that ease and improve their ultimate experience. And to sustain a strong sense of community and spirit of the game throughout our ranks and beyond.
2. Values - These are what guide us.
1. Community
2. Sustainability
3. Spirit of the Game
3. Interests - These are what we all have in common.
1. Ultimate
2. Socializing
3. Competition
4. Services - These are what we all get.
1. Playing opportunities: B-
2. Player development: B-
1. Leadership development: C-
3. Conditioning and training: B+
4. Photo, video, newsletter: N/A
5. Social Events: D
6. Team administration: C+

Detailed Review

1. Playing Opportunities
1. Good - We committed most of our Year One energy to playing opportunities because they are our primary and most important service.  We can positively state that UFA enabled more people to play ultimate in 2014 than would have in its absence.  Two new USAU sanctioned teams (Anarchy and Barbary Coast Dance Hall) were born that probably (we can’t say this for certain) would not have been without UFA.  These two teams served approx 50 players, practiced regularly and attended local tournaments. Additionally, the team Astris* was created to serve beginners and anyone else who wanted a team experience beyond simply league games.  Astris*, under the guidance and supervision of Hy Carrel, practiced regularly and participated in the Monday night Club Summer League.  Astris*'s practices were open to all and over the summer served approx 30 players whom otherwise would not have had access to coaching. Having practices and games that were open to anyone meant that players could join at any point in the season.  Our open door policy allowed us to serve players who moved to the area after the spring tryouts and those who would move away before the end of the season.  We had several college players join us for their summer-at-home before returning to school in August.  These are committed, talented players whose life calendars would have excluded them from the current club system but from whom the community has much to gain. Pre-Season Mini Camp was one of our greatest successes.  The program sold out and across the four sessions served approx 75 players.  For players averse to the spring tryout process, Mini Camp was a low-pressure, development-based, player-first opportunity to meet and play.  This is a model that we will continue to pursue as an alternative to the current, super stressful, outdated, spring tryout season. Players from across the experience spectrum were able to compete together as the Ultimate for All-Stars in two local tournaments: Memorial Day in San Rafael and Bay Area Bash. On the final Thursday night of the club season, UFA hosted an All-Team Pre-Sectionals practice which was attended by 50 players representing 10 teams.  Together we drilled and scrimmaged in celebration of our season of hard work before battling it out in the USAU Championship Series.  This event came about when Bay Area Disc Association offered us the Gilman fields left vacant after the last week of Club Summer League.  This was a positive example of the cooperation and support between the two organizations.  

2. Bad - One important element of this service was poorly executed in 2014, our promise to provide a tournament experience for all players.  Originally, we planned to hold a tournament in August to represent the end of the Summer League season.  All of our teams were able to participate in outside tournaments except Astris* and it was in their service that I was so desperate to arrange a local tournament. There were several reasons why the original plan didn't work but I will summarize them in two short explanations.  First, my leadership fell short in this task.  I was unable to muster the help and find the necessary time to plan a whole tournament.  While the event did not happen as planned, the hours I spent in preparation were a valuable learning experience for me.  I intend to organize tournaments in the future and now I know better what to expect. Second, the timing was all wrong.  August is just not a good time to hold a non-sanctioned tournament.  Teams are gearing up the series and the calendar is already packed with events (Kleinman, Chico, Labor Day, Outside Lands).   What ended up happening was the Bay Area Spirit Championships, a one-day tournament held in October in Dublin.  It was Daniel “Panda” Brooks, founder and captain of Anarchy, that was the impetus for this event from the UFA POV.  His vision of a post-season, low-pressure, high-spirit, “celebration of all the reasons we play” (Panda’s words) was the guiding force.  With Panda’s vision in mind, we teamed up with (or latched ourselves to) Adrian Wolff’s existing plan to host a Regionaughts tournament.  We are very grateful for Adrian’s openness and acknowledge that he did the important work to make the event happen. Unfortunately, the delay and confusion regarding the event meant that not all of Astris* could participate and some Astris* players did not receive their promised tournament.  UFA created a combo team with players from Alchemy, Barbary, and Astris* to compete.  Anarchy participated as itself. The Bay Area Spirit Championship is a great idea and we’ll stick with it.  Unfortunately we left a lot on the table in terms of our vision for the player experience.  We see this as an area where huge gains can be made in 2015.

2. Player Development
1. Good - This was another area in which we can safely say we made a positive impact.  Starting with Pre-Season Mini Camp we made clear that our goal was to teach and promote individual development, not to judge.  From the Mini Camp ranks several talented players were identified and matched with teams they otherwise would not have found.  We showed that there is a potential gold mine of untapped talent and desire to play in our community and we will continue to develop our home-grown talent not just selecting those players who arrive with complete skill sets. Perhaps the most improvement, both as individuals and as a team, came from Astris*. They started the Club Summer League with a long string of losses.  Through commitment to attending practices and to becoming a team, they eventually got their first (and second) win.  Seeing the result of our work manifested in the development of this team was one of the most rewarding outcomes of 2014.  The practices that UFA organized for this group were fun and productive.  At one practice, San Francisco Dogfish players Evan Brydon and Drew Kim ran the drills and provided individual coaching to Astris* players.  We see great potential in collaborations between UFA and elite teams/players towards developing our talent. I would like to commend the leadership of Anarchy (Panda, Stefan “Tweak” Hilman, and Laura “Skippy” Franco) for running highly organized practices the result of which was a clear improvement in many of their players.  Just a few Anarchy players that come to mind as UFA success stories: Muffin Man, Inbal, and Caleb.  

2. Bad - Our short-comings in this department may not have been apparent from the player’s perspective for whom practices and pods were available and the service could have been seen as adequate.  However, our success was achieved in vague, disparate bursts.  Our goal is to drive player development with focused effort within an organization-wide system.  In this sense, we did not even begin to touch on the potential for our vision in which players have access to resources allowing them to guide and measure their own growth.  
3. Leadership Development - We had one good program that supported this service, the presentation given at Mini Camp by Polar Bear captains An-Chi Tsou and Greg Marliave. The information they provided was very helpful to anyone interested in a team leadership role; topics included player management, game-day management, and practice planning. Identifying and developing leaders from within our ranks is a crucial element to the success of UFA.  One program per year is simply not enough to meet this goal so this is an area in which we need to improve.  We were able to identify several potential leaders, now it is on us to nurture them and provide opportunities for them to contribute to the community.

3. Conditioning/Training
1. Good - The leadership of Alchemy contributed greatly to our success in this area.  They organized weekly training pods in the east bay, San Francisco, and peninsula and maintained an open door policy throughout the season.  Players from any team were welcome and many attended consistently and enthusiastically.  The pods were high-yield in conditioning, fun, and sociability.  With an expected increase in demand we know we will need to expand our offerings in 2015.
2. Bad - We could have done more to promote attendance at these events.  They represent one of the best access-points to our services for the community and more could be done to promote their social aspect. Another challenge was finding reliable facilities for the pods.  In order to expand this service we will need to have formal arrangements with the facilities we intend to use or find other unrestricted space.

4. Photo, Video, Newsletter - Coming soon
5. Social Events
1. Good - On Sunday nights in spring after Mini Camp we gathered at Pyramid Brewery for food and drinks.  Pyramid donated their banquet room for our use.  This was the most consistent social event that we executed in 2014.  Teams generally did a great job organizing their own social events and would usually gather at Pyramid or Picante after league games.
2. Bad - We fell far short of people’s expectations and our own promise in this area.  All I can say is that I didn't take this aspect seriously enough.  I allowed social events to fall by the wayside as I focused entirely on the ultimate side of the program.  While teams did plan their own events and socialized well within their groups there simply were not enough UFA-wide events.  This is a critical service for UFA to provide as it builds the community beyond the teams.  We want everyone in UFA to feel included and connected.
6. Team Admin
1. Good - The main service that UFA provided to teams was the acquisition and scheduling of practice fields, namely the Gilman fields.  Aside from this, we served as a resource for teams in coaching and strategic matters as well as being able to handle some business between UFA and BADA behind-the-scenes.  Teams, being historically responsible for their own administration, were able to meet their own needs in regards to rostering and communications.
2. Bad - Finding practice fields is typically one of the largest barriers to entry for new teams but it certainly isn't the only one.  We envision a much more robust package of administrative services to offer teams.  Centralizing these tasks will free up team leadership to focus on coaching and team building.  The more efficiently we are able to handle the mundane details of team management the more we can focus on enhancing the player experience.