Should Delegates travel more?

[abunickabhi]

Note:

I understand delegates are overworked and doing a good job already with no suggestions for improvement in their role. This thread is just a thought experiment. I may be completely wrong about this idea and I understand that there may be a direct refutation/reply which will close this thread. This thread also assumes that delegates get paid.


Discussion:

The delegates have to ensure fairness and abide by the Code of Ethics to delegate WCA competitions. They try their best to cover competitions in their region or state. They can be more effective if they delegate regional competitions as they have to travel less and have a good rappo with the local cubing community. Delegates also read reports of other countries to understand the process of competing and fairness and scale.

In an ideal world (where money, effort and time are a lesser constraint), we can have delegates travelling to other regions more. This can make cubing more interconnected and global than it currently is. This activity may be considered as outreach and is already being done on a small scale now with full delegates travelling to new regions and delegating a competition.

One idea would be delegate exchanges, where delegates switch places with delegate from another region and delegate comps and critic, help and communicate with each other with feedback. This makes the travelling component higher but in the long run it may be beneficial as cubing community will be more connected and learn a lot from each other.

Disclaimer:

The message above is my personal opinion. Some statements may not be communicated well due to lack of exactness and exaggeration. My nature is to poke, go into tangents and ask a lot of questions. Please forgive me if this creates misinformation and a confused image of my opinion. The opinion was expressed independent of the WCA responsibilities I currently hold. I love the WCA a lot and wish amazing things for the future of competitive speedcubing.

Happy cubing!

 

[Tabe]

Given that we do not live in an ideal world, how would you propose to make your idea actually happen?

 

[Exmestify]

Delegates get paid for hosting competitions don't they???

 

[ProStar]

This sounds nice in theory, and in a world where the WCA is a many-million dollar organization that can afford to pay good salaries to all its delegates and have them as full time employees, then it would be nice to have delegates travel and interact with other areas of the community. But not only is that unrealistic, it also is pretty much opposite to what my understanding of the WCA’s vision is. It’s a fun thought experiment, but it’s so far outside the realm of possibility to have hundreds of full-time delegates, and as you pointed out in your note at the start, it’s completely impossible without the delegates being full-time employees.

To me the more interesting discussion is if delegates could/should be paid at all, since that’s a bit more realistic of a thing to happen in the near future. If the WCA were to theoretically become an extremely profitable entity (even while remaining as a non-profit), and delegates were paid full-time salaries, then this travel discussion would be far more relevant. As it stands today however, it seems too far fetched to be particularity interesting, especially since none of these prerequisites seem to line up with the WCA’s goals.

Delegates get paid for hosting competitions don't they???

The amount a delegate makes off a competition is usually barely more than their expenses, and sometimes not even that. When you consider the amount of time and effort they put in, it’s a tremendously unprofitable venture. It’s done purely for the good of the community and because they love the cubing world.

 

[abunickabhi]

Given that we do not live in an ideal world, how would you propose to make your idea actually happen?

First think of all the possibilities of this thought experiment.

Plan on steps to see how many years it will take to reach near ideal world.

 

[ProStar]

First think of all the possibilities of this thought experiment.

Plan on steps to see how many years it will take to reach near ideal world.

The issue is that I don’t think any of the required prerequisites for this ideal world are things that the WCA is actively trying to achieve or even wants to achieve. The WCA doesn’t seem to have aspirations or opportunities to make cubing a profitable space, and the resources and infrastructure the WCA currently has is nowhere near the required amount to bring on 100+ full-time employees.

 

[Tabe]

Delegates get paid for hosting competitions don't they???

No.