[SBU Board] Sweetheart Post Mortem

Tue Feb 27 23:21:45 PST 2018

To make up for my guilt with having late meeting minutes, I did a little
project in Google Maps for us.

This is a link to a Google map where you can turn layers on and off to
compare attendees for the 2017 vs. 2018 Sweetheart Sectional. It's using
zip codes only, and the IDs are anonymized (based in part on ACBL number
but hashed with some other things so that a random onlooker couldn't get it
back to a name using ACBL postings).  But basically, I wanted to see if
there were any clear trends that might indicate location difference playing
a bigger factor.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1g15tqAbvBv9RqBKjzcg1S7gTDtaBFUkz&usp=sharing

The net is that it's not super-clear. I don't think you can conclude that
we lost just one area for 2018, but I'm curious for others' reading of the
data.  There's 4 layers you can click through: total attendees for 2017,
total attendees for 2018, people who attended 2017 but not 2018, and then
people who attended 2018 but not 2017.  The total attendees ones are color
coded by lowest eligible bracket based on their total masterpoints at the
time of the event.

It's possible this would get more meaningful if I had the data per-session,
but considering that our biggest loss was on Sunday, I don't think the data
suggests that we lost faraway-folks because of Friday's early start, which
is the main hypothesis I'd be testing.

Some other reads from the retention/overlap data:

   - 54% of the 2017 attendees came to 2018
   - Of people we retained from the 2017 tournament, they're split pretty
   evenly versus the population in each bracket. That is, we didn't retain one
   bracket better or worse than another.

Also, because I did this data request from the ACBL (and actually got it
this year! vs. last year when it got ignored...thank Bryan for that next
time you see him), we could do an email survey to attendees for feedback.
We can discuss interest in that at the meeting, if Ann will be so kind as
to add it to the agenda in the postmortem section.

JC

--
JC Chupack
* Find me on Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, or Twitter: jcchupack

On Mon, Feb 26, 2018 at 4:50 PM, mlgrayjr <mlgrayjr at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks for making the fixes, Eric. I should have checked it before sending
> it out.
>
> I agree that we should budget conservatively, especially as to the Suntan
> in July, where we're going from three days to two.
>
> Monty Gray
> (206) 757-8054
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Eric Sieg <easieg at gmail.com>
> Date: 2/26/18 5:14 PM (GMT-07:00)
> To: Seattle ACBL Unit Board <sbuboard at mailman.celestial.com>
> Subject: Re: [SBU Board] Sweetheart Post Mortem
>
> Really cool spreadsheet, although I think there was a slight error. Fri
> Afternoon 0-200 was 7.5 tables not 12. There were also a few cells getting
> added incorrectly for Saturday.
>
> I pulled it into sheets and fixed the things that I saw, link to shared
> version here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10JK-j_
> 0S2VBRFyaVpSsYaAN-t4zYePPPEAFQb60-ESU/edit?usp=sharing
>
> I really liked how you put it together which made it easier to see how the
> last 3 years compare which makes it easier to see trends related to Vasa
> and related to Fri vs Sat vs Sun and see how they are going. It was a much
> better approach than my method as well which was less accurate.
>
> Given the fact that tournament attendance has started dropping
> significantly across the ACBL for everything except destination regionals,
> I think it might make sense to budget with that in mind. The Portland
> regional was down 13% from last year. The Lynnwood regional was down 8.4%
> from the year previous. The Halloween and Sweetheart sectional have been
> down. I don't think this is an issue that is specific to the PNW. Vegas was
> down 9% last year and isn't even happening this year. Atlanta was down
> 12.5% last year. Even Gatlinburg was down 5% last year.
>
> Not sure what good solutions are. That's probably a subject for a longer
> email. However, (given the budgeting discussions in other threads) I do
> think it might be appropriate to budget for an assumption of a 10% decline
> in attendance this year at our tournaments. If it ends up being higher then
> we can be pleasantly surprised.
>
> Eric
>
> Monty Gray wrote:
>
> Here’s a spreadsheet comparing this year’s participation with that from
> the three prior years.  By far the majority of the fall-off, particularly
> compared with previous years at Vasa Park, was on Sunday.  I don’t have a
> clue why that might have been.  Lots of ice dancing fans?
>
>
>
> As far as the Friday schedule is concerned, my sense was that those
> present were about equally divided between those liking morning/afternoon
> and those preferring afternoon/evening scheduling, with few if any that I
> spoke to feeling particularly strongly about it.  Of course that was a
> biased sample, as I didn’t hear from those who couldn’t take the full day
> off from work.  I do agree that the time allowed for lunch (on both Friday
> and Saturday) was too short, given the absence of restaurants in the
> vicinity.
>
>
>
> For me, Sunday Swiss makes for a really long day.  I’d prefer playing 48
> or 49 boards, not 56.  I realize that others may feel differently, but I
> thought I’d raise the issue for consideration.
>
>
>
> Monty Gray
>
>
>
> *From: *Eric Sieg <easieg at gmail.com>
> *Sent: *Saturday, February 24, 2018 10:26 AM
> *To: *Seattle ACBL Unit Board <sbuboard at mailman.celestial.com>
> *Subject: *[SBU Board] Sweetheart Post Mortem
>
>
>
> 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)
>
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