[SBU Board] Sweetheart Post Mortem

[Eric Sieg]

Hi all,

Just throwing out some feedback from the tournament before I forget it.

1) Friday time change: Some people (working crowd) were very unhappy 
with the time change. Others liked it. Hard to determine #s without a 
survey. Definitely a mixed bag.
2) I received a ton of negative feedback about the fast pairs execution 
on Friday. Both that night and then later on. Roughly 8 people mentioned 
how upset they were that the fast pairs weren't actually fast. I didn't 
realize it until a group of players were muttering and asked me what was 
going on after round 6. Instead of the 5.5 minutes per round that are 
normal, it was instead done at 19 minutes a round (3 boards) which made 
the event 24+ minutes longer than it should have been. One player 
mentioned that they were planning to write the board about it. My 
general thought here is that we should do whatever we can to have Nick 
run these as he does a good job. Or make sure that in the future we 
communicate that fast pairs should be run at national fast pairs speed, 
not "slightly faster". Overall, feedback about the event seemed pretty 
lukewarm with several participants mentioning that they would probably 
skip it next year.
3) Feedback about Saturday afternoon that 10:30 and 3:30 would have been 
better since there was no rush to cram in a 3rd session. This is 
especially true given the awards ceremony at the start.
4) Negative feedback about only 24 boards per session on Saturday, 
although it sounds like this was a result of the # of pairs that 
participated in the open event.
5) Directing quality Friday night seemed poor.

Some quick #s to cast light on the Friday issue:

Total attendance drop off:
Friday (w/o fast pairs): -9.7%
Friday (w/ fast pairs): +1.2%
Saturday: -22%
Sunday: -36.6%

BELOW ARE JUST NOTES I MADE WHEN CALCULATING ATTENDANCE CHANGES, FEEL 
FREE TO STOP READING NOW:

Those #s are just what I threw together looking at the results, here are 
the # I noted down while coming up with those figures. Jenni can 
probably provide a more accurate summary:

2017
Post Mortem Tables
48.5 + 34 Friday = 82.5
119(ish) Tables Saturday
52(x2 = 104ish) tables Sunday

Sat AM 750 14 tables
Sat AM 200 18 tables
Sat Aft 200 10 tables
Sat Aft 750 13 tables

Sat 2session open pairs 20 tables
Sat 2session 2500 12/11 tables

Total Saturday: 119


2018
Friday
Fast Pairs 9
AM 40.5
Afternoon 34

Fri Open 18.5/17
750 10/9.5
200 12/7

Saturday
AM 750 16 tables
AM 200 13 tables
aft 200 8 tables
aft 750 13 tables

2 session Open 17 tables
2 session 2500 9 tables

Total Saturday: 93

Sunday 33 tables (17/8/5/3)