My Final Director’s Corner and Summary of the 2008 SF Golden Gate Classic

Well, we are all into the dog days of summer! It is the 6th of August and for many of you it is very hot and humid right now! For those of us in San Francisco, it is foggy, windy, sunny, cool, warm, and hot – just depends on which part of the Bay Area that one calls home! I live in Diamond Heights near Twin Peaks and it is usually cool and foggy many days this month – I love it!

Anyway, this column marks my tenure as a Co-Director for the SFGGC as it has been part of my duties for the last two years, and in accordance to our by-laws, it’s time for me to step down! Before I get into the pros and cons of this year’s tournament, I want to say thank you to everyone who has worked with me – Doug, Leslie, Ishmael, Tino, and Rolando! You guys are something else – I am not sure what, but definitely something else! To all the volunteers the past two years, thanks for doing your best to help carry some of the weight for me! Being a Co-Director is a hard job and took up a lot of my time and energy, but it was worth it! Yeah, I have heard and read a lot of complaints, but for every complaint, there was a compliment on a good job, a fun time, and a thank you! So, I just want to say “Thank You” to all of you that bowled in the last two tournaments!

I don't know if we will be publishing the survey results on the web site, so I am just going to hit on a few points that have stuck in my head this past several weeks.

• The heat! Yes, it was hot on Saturday! However, it was not our fault! Temperatures in the upper 90’s are rare for San Francisco in the month of June! Many businesses and houses in San Francisco do not have air conditioning as it is very expensive for the few days that you need it! So, all I can say is I am sorry if the heat caused anyone to bowl poorly, but it was just one of those freaky things!
• The new dates, the new location, the new format! Well, we had a lot of complaints in 2007 about people not having a good time, about problems with service at our last location (both bar and maintenance), and many other such things. So, we tried to make things different, and hopefully, better! Well, as a smart man once said “You can please some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time!” Smart man! Several of you praised us for the changes and several of you chastised us for the same changes. So, the new Co-Directors will need to sit down and figure out which way to go for the 25^th SFGGC! Good luck to them – they are going to need it. I want to thank everyone at Classic Bowl for making us feel welcome and providing us with what I think was pretty damn good service!
• The Ultimate Mega Bracket is a new “OPTIONAL” event the past two years! We have sold it out both years and given away a lot of money! To those of you that found it difficult to understand the rules, I am sorry that I didn't have time to explain them to everyone, but I only want to say one thing – it was an optional event!
• Ratio of gay bowlers – well, what can I say! We tried to stick with our plans, but the best laid plans! We didn't fill up the tournament this year and unfortunately heard from many people that they weren't going to bowl because we changed houses and we changed the dates! Well, a lot of those people who didn't bowl this year are gay bowlers! Without their support, we were close to not having a tournament at all! I am sorry for anyone who had a bad time due to issues with other bowlers on their lanes for any of the squads. Lane assignments were truly random and no changes were made for any reason other than conflicts of bowlers being put on the same pair for different squads. We always hope that everyone will try to have a good time while bowling, but some people are more competitive than others! Once again, I am sorry for any problems that anyone had to deal with!

So, I could continue ad infinitum with things from the survey, but I need to stop and put things into perspective! Please check out the rest of the results on our web site. To all of you who filled out the survey (65 of you), thank you very much! I read every one of them, tallied the responses, and typed out all of the comments for the members of the board to read. I truly appreciate the time and effort that many of you took to write out your comments – both good and bad! I do not hold grudges or feel upset about any of the comments, as long as they were put down as constructive criticism. For those that were written as outright insults, well I still read them, but they sit a little differently with me!

I know that the new Co-Directors are going to do the best the can to make the 25^th Anniversary of the SFGGC a tremendous event! I will be there to help them in any way that I can. Thank you for the privilege and opportunity of being one of many Directors of the San Francisco Golden Gate Classic Invitational Tournament and Scratch Masters! It has been a wonderful experience!

Marc Gottschall
Co-Director, 2008 SFGGC