UK Cube Association

[Cubic]

Nice idea. I wold be interested, but my times are SOOOOOO s l o w that I really don't feel like a speed solver!

 

[PeelingStickers]

sounds great, I cube in the UK and would love a site like this

 

[stoic]

Nice idea. Good to see the community developing.

 

[MalusDB]

Awesome.

 

[Godmil]

I was worried from the title that there could be a split from WCA, but this sounds good. As soon as you've got the site up, I'll contribute (despite the fact I'll probably never get to go to a comp).

 

[CubeRoots]

I think a national organisation is definitely a good step towards developing our sport, I like all the features proposed for the website and I think dismissing having a forum and/or shop is a good call especially for the start of things. My only concerns are financial ones.

I think that maintaining a good relationship with seventowns by letting them in on what we do is important, as they can help out an awful lot when it comes to finance and lending equipment etc. Instead of having them fund the uk open and whatever else they do in a typical year, could they fund the UKCA as a whole, and then you could use their finance for a variety of events/competitions over the year?

What other finance could you get? Maybe support from government, sport England, etc. is available and worth pursuing.

I also think that the first rule mentioned is a pretty bold one, what would competitions finances running through the UKCA entail? It kinda feels like red tape to organizing a competition. I think that maybe the rule could be restated to say something along the lines of: if you want help with funding, equipment and getting a WCA delegate (from UKCA & seventowns) for your competition, then you have to run some/all of your finances through the UKCA and allow a compulsory £1 donation per competitor to be taken. I think maybe you could have staircase criteria such as

Allow compulsory donations => UKCA will provide a WCA delegate
Run some of your finances through UKCA => UKCA will lend equipment out
Run all of your finances through UKCA => UKCA will absorb any losses

Inkeeping with that, I think the UKCA should have a team of delegates, maybe 3, so competitions can be held more frequently and ran more smoothly.

Would be cool if we saw more societies too, and then they could be on the map

I think there are loads more cool things something like the UKCA could do too. Things like the depaul UK maths/cubing festival. For example.

 

[MaeLSTRoM]

I'm just going to discuss some of these points made. I have been in on some of the discussion about this, so I'm not just speculating.

I think a national organisation is definitely a good step towards developing our sport, I like all the features proposed for the website and I think dismissing having a forum and/or shop is a good call especially for the start of things. My only concerns are financial ones.

I agree here. I think that the main point of the UKCA would just be to centralise organisation and announcement of competitions, so that it is easier for people to go to them, register for them and have them run smoothly.

I think that maintaining a good relationship with seventowns by letting them in on what we do is important, as they can help out an awful lot when it comes to finance and lending equipment etc. Instead of having them fund the uk open and whatever else they do in a typical year, could they fund the UKCA as a whole, and then you could use their finance for a variety of events/competitions over the year?

I'm not so sure about this though. I think if anything that UKCA should move away from 7towns a bit more, just so that we don't become reliant on them as much, because if they decide to stop helping with competitions, things could get a bit messy for a while. Also. I think they would prefer to sponsor UKO only, because it is mainly for the publicity of the brand that they sponsor it anyway (afaik, not so sure on that last bit)

What other finance could you get? Maybe support from government, sport England, etc. is available and worth pursuing.

I doubt that the government/organisations would give us finance, just because the cubing community in the UK is much smaller than some other sports/activities which also aren't sponsored at all (e.g. chess)

I also think that the first rule mentioned is a pretty bold one, what would competitions finances running through the UKCA entail? It kinda feels like red tape to organizing a competition. I think that maybe the rule could be restated to say something along the lines of: if you want help with funding, equipment and getting a WCA delegate (from UKCA & seventowns) for your competition, then you have to run some/all of your finances through the UKCA and allow a compulsory £1 donation per competitor to be taken. I think maybe you could have staircase criteria such as

Allow compulsory donations => UKCA will provide a WCA delegate
Run some of your finances through UKCA => UKCA will lend equipment out
Run all of your finances through UKCA => UKCA will absorb any losses

If the finances of competitions are run through the UKCA, they can be managed in a way which helps to lower costs for everyone. It does seem like a bit of a 'red tape' scenario, but I think that it also makes is a bit easier to organize competitions, because you can handle everything better with someone keeping an eye on everything. Also, I think that the compulsory donation should just be included in the registration fee, otherwise it seems a bit obfuscated from the actual competition. Also, I didn't think that the UKCA would be sending delegates, but more of a hub of information, and a place to get help for competitions. As for absorbing any losses, that could become troublesome if the loss margin becomes overly high (e.g. expensive venue in an obscure place would proboably lose quite a bit).

Inkeeping with that, I think the UKCA should have a team of delegates, maybe 3, so competitions can be held more frequently and ran more smoothly.

The UKCA has no power to appoint delegates, and because of the size of the UK community, I doubt that any new delegates will be considered in the near future by the WCA. But we never know though.

Would be cool if we saw more societies too, and then they could be on the map

Yeah, this could be good, because then it a society organizes a competition it would be pretty easy to see where it is, and it would be easy for people to meetup with/join societies and do some cubing with other people.

I think there are loads more cool things something like the UKCA could do too. Things like the depaul UK maths/cubing festival. For example.

Again, yes it would be cool, but probably not feasible in the near future, maybe after the community has expanded a bit and we have a bit more financial freedom.


I will just say that all of this post is my own ideas/opinions and may not reflect what is actually happening/going to happen.

 

[ben1996123]

Nice idea. I wold be interested, but my times are SOOOOOO s l o w that I really don't feel like a speed solver!

Not really...

 

[CubeRoots]

I'm just going to discuss some of these points made. I have been in on some of the discussion about this, so I'm not just speculating.

You make some good points. The thing about 7towns though... I think it is important to be independent and self-reliant financially like you said, but there is no reason this cannot be achieved whilst still receiving their help and support. the more funding the UKCA can recieve the better, even if we don't need it at a certain point in time you could just let them fund the uk open and stuff like that and save the UKCA's money for the future.

You are right about it being easier to organize competitions too having finances through UKCA, but I still think it should be optional. Say for example if my society wanted to organize a small competition (not the uk open) using our own equipment. We would want to use it as a fundraiser and take a small registration fee of £3 or so from maybe 40 competitors, and put it towards the society... I think this kind of activity should be permitted.

I guess the delegates thing is out of our control too, oh well

 

[joey]

You realise you can host a competition without the support of the UKCA..

 

[Kirjava]

You are right about it being easier to organize competitions too having finances through UKCA, but I still think it should be optional.

it is

Say for example if my society wanted to organize a small competition (not the uk open) using our own equipment. We would want to use it as a fundraiser and take a small registration fee of £3 or so from maybe 40 competitors, and put it towards the society... I think this kind of activity should be permitted.

it is

 

[CubeRoots]

it is

Okay well that's good! I have no objections if this is the case. Just got the wrong impression from the way the rule was written

 

[Mollerz]

You are right about it being easier to organize competitions too having finances through UKCA, but I still think it should be optional. Say for example if my society wanted to organize a small competition (not the uk open) using our own equipment. We would want to use it as a fundraiser and take a small registration fee of £3 or so from maybe 40 competitors, and put it towards the society... I think this kind of activity should be permitted.

I think you are focussing too much on the financial side of things. The main aim with the UKCA as mentioned before is a hub of information for the UK cubing community. The financial side of things is just a benefit that comes with all of this. Ideally we would have all competitions held in the UK organised through the website so people can find venues, events, schedules etc. If you wanted to host a competition for the society's benefit without using UKCA finance you could do that with no problem.

 

[Kirjava]

Just got the wrong impression from the way the rule was written

what rule?

 

[CubeRoots]

You realise you can host a competition without the support of the UKCA..

I think you are focussing too much on the financial side of things. The main aim with the UKCA as mentioned before is a hub of information for the UK cubing community. The financial side of things is just a benefit that comes with all of this. Ideally we would have all competitions held in the UK organised through the website so people can find venues, events, schedules etc. If you wanted to host a competition for the society's benefit without using UKCA finance you could do that with no problem.

I think you're right, i've misunderstood a few things about the whole idea

what rule?

just the bit in the OP that Daniel did, I thought it was kinda saying you couldn't organise a competition without having your finances running through UKCA. Just misinterpretted what was written. I understand now.

 

[kelseymckenna]

Sorry; I will read through the full thread later. I just wanted to show my interest in the idea

 

[kinch2002]

Thanks for your detailed input Laurence.
I know other people have responded to this and probably with similar points too but I can't be bothered to trawl through them all multi-quoting the entire thread. I've just put my comments in bold

I think a national organisation is definitely a good step towards developing our sport, I like all the features proposed for the website and I think dismissing having a forum and/or shop is a good call especially for the start of things. My only concerns are financial ones.

I think that maintaining a good relationship with seventowns by letting them in on what we do is important, as they can help out an awful lot when it comes to finance and lending equipment etc. Instead of having them fund the uk open and whatever else they do in a typical year, could they fund the UKCA as a whole, and then you could use their finance for a variety of events/competitions over the year? We will certainly be maintaining a good relationship with Seventowns. Due to reasons I will not go into, they will only fund the UK Open. We want to carry on like we are, but also ensure that UK cubing doesn't crash and burn should that relationship be severed at any point (I'm sure you've all seen reasons why that could happen)

What other finance could you get? Maybe support from government, sport England, etc. is available and worth pursuing. Sure I'll have a think but I doubt large bodies like that would have much interest

I also think that the first rule mentioned is a pretty bold one, what would competitions finances running through the UKCA entail? It kinda feels like red tape to organizing a competition. I think that maybe the rule could be restated to say something along the lines of: if you want help with funding, equipment and getting a WCA delegate (from UKCA & seventowns) for your competition, then you have to run some/all of your finances through the UKCA and allow a compulsory £1 donation per competitor to be taken. I think maybe you could have staircase criteria such as

Allow compulsory donations => UKCA will provide a WCA delegate I don't see my delegating duties as being linked to the UKCA in any way and it should stay that way. I will go and delegate whenever I am wanted as long as it is logistically feasible
Run some of your finances through UKCA => UKCA will lend equipment out UKCA doesn't own much equipment at all so this doesn't come into play in the short/medium term
Run all of your finances through UKCA => UKCA will absorb any losses Bad idea. The organiser has no motivation to balance the finances and the UKCA would leave itself vulnerable. Hopefully the UKCA can be a place where you can receive financial reassurance but an incentive must be offered to ensure that organisers are trying not to lose money e.g. Projected finances must be approved by the UKCA and then half of all profits/losses are absorped by UKCA

Inkeeping with that, I think the UKCA should have a team of delegates, maybe 3, so competitions can be held more frequently and ran more smoothly. There will only be as many delegates as are needed. I'm nowhere near my absorption point yet considering we've got 3 UK comps this year so I doubt the WCA would listen.

Would be cool if we saw more societies too, and then they could be on the map

I think there are loads more cool things something like the UKCA could do too. Things like the depaul UK maths/cubing festival. For example.

 

[spyr0th3dr4g0n]

Who will be managing and updating the website with competition information and such? Will it be automated or manual?

 

[Mollerz]

Who will be managing and updating the website with competition information and such? Will it be automated or manual?

It would be impossible to automate. There will be a few people who will run the website and be in charge of updating all necessary information on there.

 

[cubernya]

"Sketch" of a possible logo:

Or with text off the flag

Obviously I can change things about it, but it's just a simple change from the current SS logo (with text added)