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Letter to US Quidditch from the Midwest

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Updated: November 12, 2018

Credit: Savage Apparel Co.

Editor’s Note: The contents of this letter have not been edited and appear exactly as submitted to The Eighth Man and USQ Management. The Eighth Man welcomes letters to the editor and article submissions from the general public on our website. The views expressed in these letters and articles, and in personal editor responses, are the opinion of the authors and are not necessarily the views of The Eighth Man. Send your work to editors@eighthman.com.

Dear US Quidditch,

The dues-paying teams of the Midwest Region are writing to express major concerns about Midwest Regional Championships 2018. The concerns expressed in this letter are not comprehensive; they only reflect the most concerning of issues. As a region, our faith in US Quidditch to organize and facilitate tournaments was broken. It was clear to us that Midwest Regional Championships was poorly staffed and incompetently run. This resulted in:

1. The cancellation of the final bid game.
2. No Midwest collegiate champion being decided, nor were the semi-finals games completed.
3. The community team games being canceled at the start of day two.
4. A shortage of medals for community teams.
5. Use of a local team’s equipment on day 2 which caused extended travel for the local team.

The communication on site with team leadership, staff, and volunteers was also a major concern and resulted in major delays on day two. These egregious communication errors resulted in the following:

1. Multiple teams being told they were playing on the same field at the same time.
2. Teams waiting several hours in inclement conditions to play games, only to be told later that their games were moved or scheduled for a later time which resulted in injuries to players.
3. Referees were given incorrect information resulting in referees not showing up to the correct assignments.
4. An incomplete gameplay and referee schedule.
5. Games being suspended halfway through.

US Quidditch did not take responsibility for their role in the cancellation of games and egregious communication errors in their post-tournament communications with teams. While there was a 3-hour weather delay and concerns with the facilities this does not excuse US Quidditch from failing to react with urgency and effective communication. US Quidditch must take responsibility for the cancellation of these games. These cancellations would have been easily preventable by doing the following:

1. Securing locations for regional and national tournaments with turf fields and lighting.
2. Contingency plans written before every regional and national tournament that take inclement weather and other unforeseen circumstances into account.
3. A proper volunteer staff with clearly defined roles and hierarchies. This should include, but should not be limited to regional tournament directors, regional volunteer coordinators, regional gameplay coordinators.
4. Communication with the individual regional communities during the planning and running of regionals.

In order for US Quidditch to gain back the trust of the Midwest community, they must actively work to rectify the situation. The Midwest community demands that US Quidditch does the following to ensure regionals are competently run:

1. We demand that US Quidditch writes a formal apology to the Midwest Region for failing to competently facilitate Midwest Regional Championships 2018.
2. We demand that US Quidditch creates a plan of action, outlining tangible actions they will take in order to ensure regionals are facilitated competently in the future. Taking into account the suggestions outlined in this letter.
3. We demand that every regional and national bid location have turf fields and lighting.
4. We demand that US Quidditch creates a new policy that ensures any future canceled national bid game is rescheduled, rather than left up to a tie-breaker policy.

Respectfully from the dues-paying teams of the Midwest Region,
KT Quasarano, Midwest Regional Coordinator
Boom Train, Nathan Digmann
Brew City Warriors, Melissa Kurtzweil
Chicago United Quidditch Club, Devin Clark, Austin Pruyn
Creighton Quidditch, Kyle Chin, Curtis Taylor
Columbia College Chicago Quidditch, Ben Peachey
Illini Ridgebacks Quidditch, Harold Advincula, Tyler Piper
Illinois State University Firebirds, Kelly Kennedy
Iowa Quidditch, Lily Neuman
Kansas Quidditch, Mike Devine
Lumos Quidditch, Luke Yeager
Marquette University Quidditch, Jordan Amedio, Connor Curtin, Abby Klockow
Maryville University Quidditch, Samuel Slaughter
Minnesota Quidditch, Nadja D’ Rainah
Mizzou Quidditch, Brenna Duncan
SIUE Quidditch Club, Jared AuBuchon
Southern Illinois University, Taylor Butler
Twin Cities Quidditch Club, Terry Carlson, Max Meier, Cody Narveson, Mary Vollmar, Luke Zak, Taylor Zastrow
University of Northern Colorado, Connor Touchton