AWVP

I've altered my Spaiku to conform to the more traditional format referenced by Pants:

How do you measure
The summer pleasure that is
Water volleyball?

We tried to do that this Saturday. I'd have to say the results were not what I expected from popular voting...

There were 12 awards.

Matt got Summer Serve--and was the only recipient not present to accept his award.

Creepy won Rookie of the Year

As usual, Mikey won MVP, with the most dominant tally of all the voting results.

Pat and Beth tied for Best Defensive Player

I'm a little hazy on this one, but I think Beth and Jess won the Most Improved awards

Dito, of course, got Dirtiest Player

Panda of the Year, Best Serve, Best Point Guard, Drunkest Panda all went to yours truly, and I split the Sportsmanship Award with Jess!

In a popular vote, you have only yourselves to blame for this kind of lopsided distribution. Voting patters were basically schitzo--you people were all over the place--from what I could tell of the tallys, with ~15 people voting, people who received 3 votes were actually winning awards, and if you voted for yourself (which I didn't), you're talking about a really tiny "majority" here.

So, we've proven Rumsfeld was correct when he said that democracy is messy. What do we do to clean it up for next year?

Here are my suggestions:

The Council of Elders will reconvene prior to the event, for the purpose of discussing awards and offering a slate of potential candidates for each award, whose name will appear on ballot sheets. ESPN does it--why can't we.? There will also be a spot for you to do the "write in" candidate thing. So voting will still basically be democratic, but with some suggestion (or a firm kick in the ass) regarding who might be eligible and deserving peeps.

We might also want to consider having a comments/ideas section for next year--helpful panda hints--exchange of ideas is good.

I offered to step down next year as MC to whoever won panda of the year. Since that didn't happen, please indulge me on some thoughts on how to structure things:

I need my 5-10 minutes as MC and hopefully the attention of all assembled pandas for that period. We simply cannot be passing out ballots while I'm doing the year in review--what's next thing. It throws me off my game. Two years experience has now taught me that anarchy quickly ensues. I'm thinking we even need to hold them until all awards have been explained. Otherwise some people are finished voting, some start voting and become confused at some stage in the process, while others remain confused throughout. Maybe the butterfly ballot itself was also an issue.

I'm thinking it might be best to get the presentation off the ground a bit earlier next year. Although we certainly had a long way to go in terms of partying, technology and structure, nay, reality itself, was well on its way to breaking down by the time we got the show on the road. I realize this is a delicate balance--get started too early and the pandas are belligerent and disinterested due to insufficient lubrication. Get started too late and they will be belligerent and at stage fuckus rather than focus.

Game film went over great. Good job, Creepy! There was a cost overrun on copies, and Beth was suggesting we pass the hat...

A good time was also had by all. Thanks to all participating pandas for their participation and their support. I had to clear of a shelf for the 05 trophy case!

_________________
Chief

Death from above! Fire down below!

Good times were had by all. I would agree with you on the awards, I find it rather silly that Chief wins 5 awards.

For the future I think the elders get together for nominations and this will be put on the ballots. Also, after the tallying, maybe the elders can review the ballots before the announcements are made to ensure that one individual does not win five awards. The fact that Jess was on the Sportsmanship award really validates the mess we created. There were other desrving pandas who did not get an award, Jim Back, Navy, etc.

Other than that, it was a great time had by all. It was one LONG evening to say the least. I'm glad we all survived.

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My favorite color is baby blue.. I’m 6’2 and I like water cause it taste good. - Jim Back

I'm proud of everyone that got an award.

But I'm even prouder of the turn out this year. Thanks to everyone who came! Thanks to everyone that helped set up! It was kick ass to get a bit of a AWVP break --- see game film and all the pandas, hear the baffoonary. Amazing, it happened in the middle of the GD winter off season.

With 20 more beers I might have felt I was at the pool. And that's what I won.

FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT!

Navy

I also think that some of the "design issues" with the ballot contributed to the random chaos that was the voting. Viva la florida!

And a big fat than you to P&B for letting us party at the compound. A great time was had by all.

Thanks yo!

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My favorite color is baby blue.. I’m 6’2 and I like water cause it taste good. - Jim Back

This is Steve. I had a good time last weekend, and think the idea of having a few choices for each award with a write in area is the way to go!

So why wasn't there a Ronin of the Year? and I nominate Pat and Myself for best twos comeback in a single game, and myself for best use of face to score a point on the Greek.

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Why Yes, I did create this avatar using MSPaint! Thanks for noticing!
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I Ph33r natural phe-no-me-na...
...do-dooo-do-do-do

I'm impressed with Ronin Steve & Zponge's input.

The Ronin of the Year award will definitely be included next year.

Unfortunately, we didn't get around to a 2 on 2 challenge at year's end this time around. I thought last year's event worked pretty well. But we need to talk more about it.

Problem 1--there is a lot of down time in 2's challenge, but peeps were pretty good with that last year. I recommend we keep the double elimination format if we do it again.

Problem 2--how to choose teams. There was a lot of lobbying last year to let people pick their own teams. Easier said than done. Being a member of a pretty unstoppable dynamic duo, I can understand the predilection of Team Wild Boys to want to play together in a tournament. But it just ain't fair. I still think you take the draw of the hat and like it. After all, Age overcame Beauty last year for 2nd place, when Chief-Benz-no overcame Cully-Ken to face Dammit-Dito in the finals. Random selection emphasizes that you need to learn to play with everyone who shows up. Not to mention the amusing mayhem--Imagine a Tree-Lloyd or Doc-Llyod team!

Now that the awards are done and gone, and we've pretty much figured out that our crew is not ready for democracy yet, let's get to the next point of order:

PIMP DAT WEBSITE!

We've got 3-4 months before the next pre-season starts, a bit longer before it starts for real. That leaves us a window of opportunity to get this thing up and running in a big way, with all the bells and whistles we've been looking for. I'm betting we could arrange a meeting at the Fun Room involving Ronin Steve, Summer Serve Matt, Chris the Turk, and Creepy, that could be quite productive.

I'll emphasize again, this is important! With the Argosy under siege and my intelligence indicating the Riata will be in a rebuilding year, there are certain lurking dangers about having a safe venue for our maximum capacity of 20-30 pandas. Let's make a concerted effort to spread the AWVP Word next year. I still have 10 pools on my list we haven't scouted, and this type of reconnaissance could be very useful should we need a place to lay low and still play ball...

I was thinking of an interesting suggestion to deal with the music issue at the Argosy Obstacle--let's get an extension cord and put the boom box in the bushes--close to the pool means it doesn't need to be as loud, and makes it more difficult for our standard drunkards to turn it up. We'll probably still need to hold off on playing tunes on Saturdays until after 5, since the last 2 remaining residents were specifically told the new rule is no tunes. I love you guys, but I don't see how our collective agenda will be advanced by my eviction due to your love of fresh rhymes.

And on that note, let's make sure we try not to piss management off in 06. Most people are already following these rules, but make sure if you're a non-resident, you park on the fences after unloading, and don't piss in the corner. This awards ceremony indicates we have something special. Let's keep it that way and keep expanding!

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Chief

Death from above! Fire down below!

Hey, don't blame me. I was driving out there trying to find it but no one was sober enough (Mikey!) to tell me exactly where to go.

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Prepare to feel the power of the BatKoozie!