Yeah, perhaps we are spoiled. I won't argue that point. Thank you for your clarification, but let's put this in perspective. Just because we live in Canada doesn't mean that we are all in a position to go for a weekend across the country. I make a decent wage compared to some (though not quite to the average standard mentioned earlier), but I guarantee I couldn't afford even one person in my family to spend a weekend across the country let alone 4 of us. The average toilet cleaner (OOPS, sorry, janitorial worker) making minimum wage is making half of even what I make. And no, that doesn't give you enough to "make a living." That wouldn't be near enough to pay for rent let alone food and amenities. Your assumptions are false in that regard as well.
Do you have kids, falcom? Let's assume you do. As a father I've come to see that we don't always show fairness to each of our kids in the perfect sense of the word. It's pretty obvious that sometimes you give older kids and teenagers gifts that you would never dream of giving to an 8 or 4 year old. However you certainly do give appropriate gifts - age appropriate that is. A few years ago, (big brother) US got some pretty impressive gifts at Nationals - at least top 8 trips (it may even been much more, possibly even top 16 but my memory fails me), either $10000 or $7500 scholarships, and product. As one of the younger siblings, Canada obviously didn't get anywhere near the gifts but they were given top 4 trips, decent scholarships up to $5000, and about half the product that the same placed American champion got. It was age appropriate. Excessive? Ummmm, well, perhaps in the opinion of some, I suppose it's possible, but personally I didn't think so. Of course I know that as time goes on things change. Even prize support at other events have changed over the years, spreading the money out further as more markets emerge. Let's face it, we were told the OP budget stayed static over the years, and not only do things cost more today than they did 5 years ago, but TPCi has had to spread things out for more players to benefit from OP. Yes, I get that. And I'm sure that deep down, anyone who's posted on this thread must have thought about it in some way.
But let's take another tack here. What if you as a father (or mother since there's no way I can determine things from your screen name), you allowed your child to play with a really cool collection of toys, ones that really are fun, and capture the imagination of the child, and have accessories that only add to the fun. They play with those toys constantly, never growing tired of the interactions (of course these can't be real kids since believe me, most kids grow tired of any toys in a matter of minutes.... AM I RIGHT OR AM I RIGHT?) anyways I digress .... You told your child that for special occasions (like birthdays/Christmas) you promised you'd continue to allow them to play with these special toys. Some time passes, and money isn't quite so plentiful, but the collection of toys is still there. How do you think a child would feel if all of a sudden you took away 3/4 of their toys, and ALL of the exciting accessories to share with other children that they don't know? Not only that, but you had to tell them they would never see those toys or accessories ever again. Can you empathize more now with the original poster of this thread? Sure, deep down, it's nice to share. But instead of constantly taking away support, and blaming a budgetary problem, TPCi should be looking at ways to increase the budget, to allow for extra toys and accessories to share with new kids instead of taking away from anyone. Those kids will grow older, so instead of giving the equivalent of a 4 year old's prizes once they become a teenager, they should be looking at ways to increase the gifts as the players age. Taking away prize support should never be an option unless there is absolutely no other choice. Certainly an employer would never consider paying an employee less just because the employer gets more employees to cover a work shift. No, he learns to make wise use of his workforce and only gets more employees when he can safely employ more with appropriate wages. Perhaps that's what we need here - responsible management of materials and resources, instead of cuts to services. In any case, that's my opinion .... such as it is.
Even if I had no possibility to get a trip to the big show, if I loved it enough and valued it enough I would make the supreme effort to go. However with age and maturity, I've learned that life isn't exactly fair. This situation is no different. However that doesn't mean that I don't hold out hope that someday this situation is addressed wisely and properly.
Now, Ottawa, to be honest, what we did was ask some of the league leaders to run some charity events, encourage giving, and contribute to the fund. As people were willing, we pooled the resources into one bank account, where I contributed for the upkeep of the account. TDCanada Trust bank allowed me to open a fundraising account which was free of cost for a period of 3 months, thereafter I had to pay a bank fee to keep it open. During the "free" months I still contributed some, and held many league events on weekends which weren't used for premier events where any unused prize money went to the fund - not to profit my pocketbook. Anyone with the account info all across Canada could wire money into the account, or could deposit from their TDCanada Trust accounts with no transfer fees. Modest cheques from across the country were also deposited in the account. However I was the only one who could take the amount out. From month to month I kept track of anyone who offered to contribute, gave reports on where the money was coming from (without specifics to protect the privacy of individuals) to everyone involved and sent a monthly report on how much we made so far. We advertised here on pokegym that if we got enough support from across the country, we'd divvy the proceeds up evenly between the third and fourth place players from Nationals out of all age groups - but at least to 3rd place to the very least. Without corporate fundraising, all personal fundraising efforts in close to 6 months helped us to gather enough funds to only give out a few hundred dollars to each 3rd place finisher only - not enough to fully cover the cost of their trip. However everyone who benefitted from this was appreciative to receive the little extra help to defray their costs at Worlds. The money was kept until Worlds, the bank account closed a week or so beforehand, and handed out personally to the winners while there, to make sure it would be used by someone who attended - not by someone who said they'd go and didn't show up. I was approached to see if I would be willing to continue the program but due to other responsibilities I just couldn't afford the time, or the resources. To be honest, it's a big responsibility that you have to be willing to stake your reputation on, and advertise at every opportunity to make it work. I'm also sure that if more time was spent on this - like starting the fundraising push much earlier in the year ie. the start of the season would further help to gain even greater results. Coordination with Canadian PTO's is important too since they not only know their players but may be able to suggest even more ways to fundraise. Gathering info on successful events and giving out info when you send reports give some food for thought to aid others in their fundraising efforts. In any case if someone would be able to secure some corporate sponsorship it would make the job even easier. Just knowing the effort was 'for the kids' made quite a few pocketbooks loosen up. Good luck to anyone who takes up the job. It may be an effort, but the rewards are well worth it. Just remember: if you or someone else does end up taking up this idea, there is the added possibility that you are absolving TPCi of any responsibility to fairly reward Organized Play prizes. They might feel that since someone is taking care of the Canadian players, they have no need to award things as they should, and you can look to further cuts. There's always that danger. Tread lightly.
As for the PTO retirement, I have to be honest. I didn't say it was the reason that one or two retired, but that it played a part. In my case, it did play a minor part, but in another PTO, I'm told it played a much larger part.
I hope this post is informative.
