Overall Impression

This was probably the scariest portion of the survey for me! As shown in the chart, almost 39% of respondents told us their overall impression of the tournament was Good, Poor, or Very Poor. If I saw the check in the Poor or Very Poor box (due to some unknown brain mal-function, I made this the first question on the survey!!), I immediately began to hyperventilate wondering what terrible comments were going to be made! Well, maybe not hyperventilate, but it does play with your head a little bit. The reality of it was that even the bad comments were actually very good to read! It is the “bad” parts that we need to work on for 2008! “…very unorganized and disappointing”, and “If this is all about money and you feel you're successful based only on the prize fund…” were just a couple of the negative comments, but they were side by side with “I thought you had a nice tournament.”

To be honest, yes, we did fall short on certain aspects of the tournament and things didn’t go smoothly a lot of the time, but we still tried to make sure people were having a good time. Do we have to improve upon? Well, I guess the best answer would have to be “Duh!” Yes, there are definitely issues to be dealt with for the 2008 tournament.

New Rules

It was our hope that the changes in the rules for 2007 would work out to be very positive and would add to the enjoyment of the weekend. As many of you told us, we are a “Gay” tournament and it is important that we give all of you a weekend that makes you want “MORE”!! Did we succeed in this aspect by requiring half of each team be comprised of bowlers supporting the gay leagues in their community? I don’t have the answer to that question – I think the answer is made up of each and everyone of you, the bowlers, felt about your experiences. Responses were split with 49% rating the new rules as “Good”, “Poor”, or “very Poor”; and 51% saying “Very Good” or “Excellent”. While this may only be a 2% margin, it was a welcome sight for us! Making the change in the rule regarding the members of the team was easy to do; however, enforcing this rule meant telling people that they could not bowl together as a team. Not an easy task, but I personally think this change was needed!

Would the tournament be more fun if everyone who bowled was part of the LGBT community? Well, the real thing that matters here is that everyone who bowls in the tournament should be part of the LGBT bowling community – it doesn’t mean that you if you are straight that we are not going to allow you to bowl in our tournament, it just means that we want you to belong to a “LGBT” league. How do you know if a league is part of the LGBT community? Trust me, all you need to do is show up at the bowling alley on a league night, and you will know if the league is part of the LGBT community!!!!!

Planning to Bowl 2008

How do we ask this question without sweating? Good news was the 49% said “Definitely Yes” and another 23% said they “Might” bowl in 2008! We do want to have more than only 72% of you returning next year to bowl, and it is through this website that we will keep you posted on the changes going on for next year.

For those of you who are thinking about not bowling next year, please feel free to let us know what your feelings are and why you may be staying home next year. The sooner we know what problems are occurring, the quicker we can get them fixed so as many of you as possible can come back for 2008 and have a great time!

This short summary of what I consider to have been the 3 most important questions on the survey, is by no means, the only part of the survey we are going to be working on. We are already working on solving the (let’s see – how do I say it?) problems with the awards banquet and ceremony. For many bowlers, the lane conditions were definitely a pain in the ……….! It is the goal of the 2008 SFGGC tournament committee to convince all of you that coming back to San Francisco will be worth it! Just remember, we can’t promise that everyone will be happy with every aspect of the tournament, but “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn!” Wait, I think that isn’t the right movie quote I wanted to use. I guess you’ll just have to check out ‘The Director’s Corner’ next month to see what I was really thinking!

Marc Gottschall
Co-Director, 2008 SFGGC