[2009] What do you want the ISSA to do or be like?

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Donald Campbell
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[2009] What do you want the ISSA to do or be like?

Post by Donald Campbell » Thu Nov 26, 2009 10:31 am

ALL RIGHT FOLKS

i honestly expect eager prticipation on this subject.
also i only want to see inquiries from ladis and gents which are participating at contests.

what are your issues and concerns?
feed the board!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ricardo Damborenea
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Post by Ricardo Damborenea » Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:19 am

Let me paste what I wrote in a "ISSA members only" thread

"I still still think ISSA has to move towards the model that has proved succesful to drive most sports, which is a "federal" one. Most sports organizations are organized "federally" in a pyramidal way (grassroots clubs or associations/ national associations / international associations).

I think ISSA has too broad goals (organization and geographical wise) and to scarce and dispersed resources to achieve them, specially as this sport grows in riders and reach. Try to picture soccer ruled & managed by a central body of 7-10 guys in the 5 corners of the world elected by only 1% of those that play the game and with no organization layers between that BOD and the actual players.

Today, ISSA is an international organization which BOD is elected by those paying members. I will propose changing this to a BOD elected by national associations. # of BOD members could be assigned depending on paying members of national associations. National associations would act as franchises for ISSA re: rules, sanctioning of certain events, etc. This is a major change and will require a lot of organization work at local level, but...wouldn't all that association movement be positive for the sport?

What this would bring:

1. Improved real representatitivity of ISSA: what % of active slalomers are part of ISSA today?
2. More executive power to the BOD, derived from the previous point
3. Easier access to financing (most public help is local or national), sponsors ("show me the money: how many are you?"), insurance, event organization and support, etc
4. Move decission making closer to riders and event organizators, making it faster
5. Improve both feedback and execution of rules and policies, as "organized tentacles" will exist in many countries, states and/or cities
6. Improved financing of ISSA, as national associations should contribute to that.I do think that is far more likely that somebody will pay $20 to an active local association than to a distant international body. If just $2 of those $20 go to ISSA...."
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Aivars Karklins
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Post by Aivars Karklins » Sun Nov 29, 2009 1:18 pm

Hi Donald!

I, personally would want to see all of the production that there is for slalom in the board,wheel,bearing,bushing sections, because you have to be pretty damn good at searching for stuff like that! There is a lot more of boards most of us haven't seen or heard of anywhere!

And also I think that the members of the board of ISSA should give the race statuses to the races, and not the race organisers them selfes with just the approval of the board of directors!
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Post by Cat Young » Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:47 pm

I have not been in this sport as long as most. I see a lot of good ideas being thrown out, but nobody can make a decision..... maybe for fear of ridicule or unpopularity?????

I am also tired of logging on & seeing Wesley Tucker make a mockery out of the ISSA, I'm tired of logging on to serious threads & seeing him make smart ass comments.
I don't see how this is productive. I'm sure he is a very nice person, but pointing out everyone's so-called short-comings is not leadership.

I don't agree with 100% of what people say all the time, nobody does. I want to see real leadership & all the bullshit cut out.
I'm going to admit, I don't agree with everything Donald says & how he says it, but I do think he has a great vision & wants to genuinely help the ISSA better the sport of slalom racing.

I'm not into sugar-coating & we can agree to disagree, but out with the dead-weight & in with the producers.

LET'S GET SOME LEADERSHIP IN THE ISSA.
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Post by Cat Young » Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:50 pm

I just saw, there aere 100 views on this thread & only 3 replies so far.... 4 with this one. That's really sad.
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Steve Pederson
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Post by Steve Pederson » Sun Nov 29, 2009 10:37 pm

:-)
Last edited by Steve Pederson on Fri Feb 12, 2010 3:41 am, edited 2 times in total.

Robert Gaisek
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Post by Robert Gaisek » Sun Nov 29, 2009 11:26 pm

Cat Young wrote:I just saw, there aere 100 views on this thread & only 3 replies so far.... 4 with this one. That's really sad.
Maybe there is a reason for that.
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Post by Cat Young » Sun Nov 29, 2009 11:29 pm

What is the reason, Robert?
Everyone has a thought on the subject.
Blast me, blast Donald, blast Wesley Tucker, blast Sweden, blast the ISSA.

Just start talking.
What do you want to see?
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Gustavs Gailitis
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Post by Gustavs Gailitis » Sun Nov 29, 2009 11:59 pm

ISSA should promote National championships/ local race series, because without them, it will be hard to get any new racers and popularity of slalom won’t increase.
Also there must be World cup races worldwide and continental championships (who will organize Euros 2010?!).
All those races could give points for racers and then understandable and regulary updated (every month) ISSA World ranking could be made. The top riders of the ranking would qualify for the World championships (+ wild cards, of course), so there finally could be a race with the best of the best slalomers.

It would be nice to have ISSA calendar asap and also the statuses (at least for big races, because it is hard to plan the dates for local ones).

About members of ISSA – maybe there could be a new list every 4 years (like ISSA BOD elections), because it is quite sad to see a list with a lot of riders who haven’t ever posted a thing or are not in any connection with slalom anymore.

I would love to see that ISSA would make attractive, clear and up-to-date homepage with news from recent events, results, rules explained, history, ranking, calendar etc. (something similar as IGSA has) because right now the only thing about ISSA and slalom scene on the internet is this forum (I know that there is also ncdsa) with comments like ‘’this board looks porn’’, ‘’I will sue you’’, ‘’sexxxy’’ , ‘’ISSA is doing nothing’’, ‘’slalom is dead’’, ‘’I have not done shit this year’’, ‘’they haven’t got paid their prize money’’ etc. Not so attracting comments for those who are slalom rookies, media or sponsors and just want to understand this discipline of skateboarding, right?

It would be great to see more races following ISSA rules and also ISSA making sanctions for those who don’t do that. For example why not make displaced cone limit to 10% of cones on course (50cone – 5 can be hit)? I would like to suggest this rule, but I just don’t see a point for doing that, because it’s almost impossible to get a suggestion as a real rule and only few race organizers fallow those rules…

If I compare all the ‘’SLALOM!’’ mags I’ve got (almost all) and this forum, it just looks like that slalom haven’t moved forward by an inch – OK, there is evolution in equipment, more riders (number of countries haven’t really grown), but again discussions on cone spacings, races not following ISSA rules, huge organizing mistakes during races, bad conejudging etc.

Last week I made statutes for Latvian slalom competitions (based on ISSA rules). Now we will improve them so we will have an official document on whom all the slalom competitions in Latvia will be based on – we need strong national associations (right now they are only few) and also international – ISSA!

There are a lot of guys willing ISSA to develop and slalom becoming more visible for others not only slalomers, their families and friends.

I really hope that 2010 will be a big step for slalom to become more organized and well-known all around the World ;)
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Joe Iacovelli
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Post by Joe Iacovelli » Mon Nov 30, 2009 5:14 am

Please keep your thoughts coming. I believe they are very valuable to me or anyone that might get elected to the ISSA BOD.

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Post by Jonathan Harms » Mon Nov 30, 2009 6:29 am

I see a lot of frustration in these posts--people who seem to feel that nothing is being done to move slalom, or maybe just the ISSA, forward.

I also see a lot of energy, from the same people--offering their opinion and their best suggestions for how they'd like to see the organization improved.

I would like to ask that, wherever possible, people dial back the frustration a little bit. I can only speak for myself, but I think it's pretty obvious that after the current election is done and the updated Board has had a chance to meet and discuss a few things, we will all see some action. Your complaints, and your suggestions, have been and are being heard.

We may not be able to address every single complaint or suggestion. But we will try our best to show that 1) we are paying attention and 2) we are making progress. If some of you have a specific complaint, or feel that a particular issue is being ignored or not addressed, don't be discouraged. Some things will probably happen faster than others. Some may take a lot of time. If at all possible, talk to one of the Board members, by PM, e-mail, phone, whatever. Give things a little time. If in a month or two, if you still feel the same way, then bring it up again.

We cannot possibly please everyone all the time. I just hope that all of you will feel that, overall, the ISSA is heading in the right direction.

OK, on to a couple of specific points:

Gustavs, I agree with your website suggestions. I also think the ISSA website should be less forum-focused and more information-focused and more, um, interesting (for lack of a better word)--especially for newcomers, potential sponsors, media, etc. One big problem right now (IMO) is we don't have enough content to draw attention away from the forums. This is partly because no one is regularly submitting photos or words to post on the non-forum pages, and partly because the structure of the website only allows one or two things to show up at a time, instead of offering multiple pathways for people to follow. If at all possible, I would like to see this change. More than one other person has said they'd like to see it change, too. I think this is one of many areas we can and will work on.

Edit: I just realized that Joe said in about 20 words what I said in a few hundred. That's one of the reasons I like him so much. :-)

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Post by Robert Gaisek » Mon Nov 30, 2009 7:55 am

One reason, I think, is that some people seems to have a hard time to keep personal issues out of the forum. You don´t want to get in the crossfire when that happends.
I´m sure there are many issues between riders, we are only human, but we can´t have them ventilated in every thread, this scare people off.
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Donald Campbell
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Post by Donald Campbell » Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:15 am

i will try to stick to the homepage and a plan to get things started here...
if a professional restructures the homepage(for reference go here:www.carhartt.streetwear.com) it could be filled with several types of content:contests,results videos.
a homepage should be meant to be an interactive link to combine efforts made by organizers throughout the season and finally be the portfolio they might need in order to attract sponsors.

say we do it like this with races leading to a world-championship all parties would benefit from the promotion effect and ultimatively this page would look interesting enough for any potential sponsor.delegates of countries could also be listed as contact persons for those interested.

any sponsor will want to look at things,it will e mostly a fast overlook of what the package offers,before the decision comes.no sponsor wants to look at a forum or results on a spreadsheet.
there is not one single company i know which doesn't think the way i described before.

professional pages such as the carhartt homepage are done in a very simple and understandable way even for non-computer geeks.
we need to pay somebody to create the structure we need and then feed the page.
race organizers need to interact with the folks who feed the page then-very important.

at the end of the season we do have a very interesting summary of the year to show to people.

the homepage is the most important part of the whole deal.
what you could see on a homepage would be as follows:
race calendar
rider profiles
current world ranking
upcoming races
featured races from the weekend incl.report,pic,videos
product reviews

just some elements that would make the start page worth visiting.
advertising should also be allowed,but not too much,still it would also be good for sponsors to see there are companies that produce goods,some might be known too.

food for thought

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Post by Guillaume Saint-Criq » Mon Nov 30, 2009 9:54 am

i really want to follow Gustav and Ricardo on importance National Association must have.
For me, ISSA must be, like in other sports, a federation of national structures.
Each national must sent their top riders to the ISSA main and major events.
I also expect that ISSA could be a great help for us to organise local events : i don't think (only) about material or financial help, but i want that having the ISSA as an official partner could be a "plus" when talking to local autorities.
ISSA must be an official structure.

We also need an updated world ranking. I am sure that's what can motivate newcomers. I remember few years ago when some of us start slaloming in Paris. We were happy to look in the ranking, see each other, and see where we were comparing to top riders. that was really motivating.
It was also the place we can look all results from current or past years.
I saw a thread on forum trying to write who's was past world/US/euro champ...
It s slalom history and thismust not be loose

I also want to see end of AM/PRO split : it make no sense for me... when i explain people about slalom and say "you can go pro if you want, it s just a individual choice"... i feel something wrong.
Make only one group, and take best riders for best events.
The issue some often raise that without Am/Pro split, there will not be really hard/technical races anymore can be easily solved : hard/technical courses are for main/major events with best riders, more open courses are for prime...

Donald Campbell
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Post by Donald Campbell » Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:55 am

going back to what you said guillaume,i agree on most of your concerns.

once the election is over things should get started best yesterday to build up a good structure representing those ideas.
on courses:
speed is the key to everything.
a good fast start will make the easiest of courses technical enough.
brixlegg will be like this.
you will see seemingly open courses,but with the right speed invovled they won't be too open anymore.i guess it's just the way how you set a course according to speed involved.i have my own visons on this and i will try to ring those to the track when i throw the race.

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