NCDGC Mission Statement

[storm_king]

Now that we've gotten the elections finished, and new officer's have been elected, we're getting off to a running start. One of the first things we want to establish is a mission statement to guide the overall direction of the club.

A mission statement is typically about a paragraph long, maybe a few sentences at most, and encompasses a broad, general description of why the club exists.

We'd like to know what the club means to you, what you feel our purposes are, and what kind of things we should be focusing on, as a club, to serve the community.

Please share your opinions and ideas by replying on this thread. To be clear, we're not asking you to compose one you like and post it, more to just give ideas and input that can be incorporated in the final version.

[originalcracker]

Tournament and Course design are two of the main things I'd love to see the club get more involved in. We're taking the necessary strides to having a course put in, but in terms of tournament hosting/sponsoring we don't do enough. I feel that tourneys will/would bring in a reasonable amount of money to go towards purchasing baskets for a new course.
I'd also like to see if we could get in with schools to promote the game to a younger group, for the sport to grow we need youth. Possibly creating teams at each of the high schools that play weekly/monthly and have a final match to decide the overall winner.
Public outreach via news broadcasts, news articles and maybe even something of a demo on FCPAN. Not a whole lot of folks watch public access, but if it were advertised well, it could be a hit. Ocho has done some great videos that I think could benefit not just the club but the sport in general.
Lastly, maybe have some demos and/or skills comps to get exposure for the sport.

[reknw]

I see the club as the only organized body in Fort Collins capable of expanding awareness of Disc Golf, promoting its benefits, lobbying for more attention to Disc Golfers' needs from city officials, and serving as a generator of Disc Golf events. One of the main goals of the club, in my opinion, should be to ensure that Disc Golf attains a level of legitimacy equal to or surpassing that of the more traditional sports such as softball, tennis, baseball, soccer, etc. To me, it was shocking to find out that Disc Golf in Fort Collins, once considered a mecca of the sport, had degenerated to the point where one anti-Disc Golf official nearly destroyed by fiat what was left of the only 18 hole course in the city. When officials in small cities like Cheyenne and Fort Morgan embrace the sport, seek additional courses, and spend thousands of dollars more on the sport than officials in Fort Collins do, it seems obvious that there is a serious communication problem between Disc Golfers and the powers that be. That has to be corrected.

[storm_king]

Thanks for the input, guys. This is exactly the type of stuff we're looking for. Keep em coming!

To summarize some points so far:

-Course Development and Maintenance
-Competitive Play (tourney's, leagues, etc)
-Involving youth in the game
-Facilitate local media coverage
-Outreach (via skills camps, demo's etc)
-Represent/legitimize sport with gov. officials

More, anyone?

[evanjabr]

After having a long talk with Rich today I feel like I have a better idea of what I would like to see the club focused on. There are vast numbers of disc golfers these days, and promoting the sport to the masses, that is, getting more people playing and building that base of players is no longer necessary. This has changed over the last decade or more. There are a ton of disc golfers out there! However, as Rich has suggested, they are poorly (or sometimes not at all) represented.

I believe that the main goals of the club should be primarily two-fold. First, they should provide A Voice to the city and powers that be, representing the concerns, opinions and desires of disc golf in this area. Ideally this should become a two-way avenue of communication: when the city has questions or concerns, they come to us, just as we should be able to come to them with our own issues. This should be a general function of the club and its leadership. To that end, we need to continue to develop a good working relationship with the city.

Second, I think the main thrust of the club should be to do all in our power to provide disc golfers with courses to play. This includes the protection and improvement of current courses like Edora park, as well as pushing for more courses. As we've seen this is not an easy process, but given the number of people who play disc golf in this town there is no reason we shouldn't have a handful of legitimate 18-hole courses in the immediate surrounding area. Nothing else matters, if people don't have a place to play!

In my opinion, all the other ideas and pursuits that have been suggested should be completely secondary to the primary goal of course development! Most of the members of our club are into the competitive disc golf scene (as I obviously am), but tournaments and leagues and things of this nature should not be the focus of the club. They are fun for us, but are less important in the grand scheme of things. Those things will only grow naturally as the sport continues to grow and mature. For those who want to see tournaments grow and get bigger sponsers and disc golf to become a real professional sport; the way to do that is to grow the number of courses and thus the base of casual golfers and the identity of the sport in the eyes of the mainstream. Likewise, action to involve schools and youth is a great concept, but that will come naturally as the game grows. The sport can't grow in Fort Collins if it is exclusively confined to the borders of Edora Park!

Everything that is done by the club, should be done with the greater goal of course development in mind. If a tournament or league is run to somehow promote that goal, then fine. I should acknowledge that most of what Rich mentioned (above) would be a necessary part of working to get more courses. If individuals want to work toward other things (like running tournaments/leagues or working with the youth, or educating or media, whatever) that is great, but there is no real need for the club to play a major role in that.

My concern (and frustration) with the club is that it is trying to do all this stuff and the result is that nothing significant gets done. I go to a club meeting and everybody there is talking about different things, which is why this mission statement is a good idea. I feel like everybody involved means well and all the different ideas are legitimate. Yet the result is that the club is not a singly entity working toward a clear goal, but is just a bunch of abstract ideas and individuals. There really haven't been that many replies to this thread yet, and already KC has 6 main themes layed out.

If we want to accomplish something, then we need to all focus on the same thing. Course development is essential. All else should be left to individuals and placed on the periphery of the club. I understand that there are many different aspects to this one goal, but it is still one goal. A long list of goals is the same as no focus at all! Am I wrong? Is this not by far the most important thing when it comes to the growth of the sport here? And isn't that the goal? Or are we just a social club? If we could succeed in getting more and better places to play, that would be by far the greatest accomplishment that the disc golf community here in Fort Collins has achieved in the last 11 years that I've been playing here. - Evan Brummet

[originalcracker]

I agree that course developement is a great route for the club to lead the way on. The one bonus to putting a reasonable amount of focus on the younger kids is that they will bring the excitement home to mommy and daddy and hopefully they(mom and dad) will join in, in all the excitement. With a bunch of moms and dads pushing for a course for their kids, they will be a group to be reckoned with. However, kids don't have to be the primary goal to get a new course, but if several families are involved, then the city has no choice but to listen. I guess there are many little pieces that should be put together to bring a solid reason/argument to the city. I just think it would be good to get Joe Schmoe and Jane Doe interested and let the word spread, ultimately, strong advertising. The more voices, the more progress.

[storm_king]

Good points, everyone.

Anyone else have input?

[jmart]

thanks guys,
so far we have had really good comments that guided us well in our meeting. to re-cap on the mission statement this is the "genetic code" for the club to follow. we see the statement as three "bullets"
ncdgc misssion is to:
promote a better community through disc golf education by youth and family clinics,volunteer and charity fundraising events.etc.

to maintain existing courses and install new courses through working with local municipalities through mulching,tee and pin instalation.etc.

to maintain a "calender of events" that members can participate in and enjoy etc.

now obviosly the wording would be rather elloquente(sp?) to make us sound a little softer around the edges than we can be
so i would like to open the floor to the members and get some ideas so we can wrap this up before the end of the year.
thanks guys

[Michael-Tuohy]

I think this dialogue looks to be one of the most productive I've seen on the forums.

Here are my thoughts. They largely mirror those of Jeff Martin, Evan and Rich, though I haven't seen much on here that I don't agree with. The first sentence is each mission statement, the remainder of the parragraphs are explanations, examples and not "statements".

Three main mission objectives:
1. Represent the Northern Colorado disc golfing community. As Rich said, they don't all need to be paying, competing or contributing members of the club. However, they are the vast majority, and therefore the city is interested in them and a group which confidently represent their interests. I think we should continue twice annual surveys of players, find out how much they know about the club, what their wishes are, and what a club could be doing for them. Compare this club to the school board or Parent Teacher Association. These people don't just represent the education of their own kids, they strive to represent all the kids in all the schools.

2. Course development and sustainability. All of our actions will effect disc golf courses unless we own the land and control access to it. In the event that someone else holds dominion over our courses, we must be the ambassadors of the game. If we organize events that look good to the community, then disc golf looks good and is sustained. If we hold events that look good, but the city sees that we are running out of space despite our well behaved members, they will see the benefit of creating another place for us to play. If we take care of what we have, AND promote this carring attitude to all other disc golfers, the city will be much more inclined to create more space for us. If we show the city how much we appreciate what we have, acknowledging the reality that maintaining a course is difficult, land is scarce and accepting that the occasional tree will be removed, they will be much more receptive to communication with us. If we fail in these things, the city will see us as a nuisance and liability. If we bother, harm or damage the property of other park users; if we hold events that aren't well organized, generate garbage and park damage, AND our participants are drinking and smoking pot; if we antagonize, whine to and otherwise claim to the city that they are in the wrong and we deserve their every effort and dollar; then they will wish that we would just go away. AND they have the means to give us just barely enough to make disc golfing suck in Fort Collins. Remember what happened at CSU. That was an amazing course, and bad attitudes among disc golfers lost it!

3. The club will serve as a liasan to the local governments and other participating entities. Both of the previous goals will bolster our ability to accomplish this third goal. If we can show that we represent the masses, we will be the legitemate group. If we can be respectful recreationists, and help other disc golfers be respectful recreationists, we will show the community a clear positive impact by the club. Rich and others have already made appeals to the local entities. Now we need to continue with consistency, patience and respect. Meanwhile, government officials will be thinking more frequently about disc golf. While they think, lets make sure that they get postive reports rather than negative reports about disc golfers and their impact in the town. However long this takes. In perpetuity actually.

I know it's long, but that's me. And I think I'm pretty clever!

[originalcracker]

Look forward to seeing the final decision(s) for the statement, I feel confident it will represent the club in whole. Thanks for the diligent effort from all those involved.

[Michael-Tuohy]

I'd like to see more people join in.

Even if you just say: "Michael sucks" or "I agree with Jeff" or "I'd like the mission statement to say something about ________". Anything counts.

I know there's not much disc golfing right now for most players out there, but if you're checking out the forums every so often, then add a quick post card style opinion.

The more people who speak up the more validity we have.