Supporting the IFPA

[Jeremy]

As he does every year, Steve Goldberg just donated $2000 to the IFPA and the company he works for matches all charity donations so they also gave $2000 - meaning the IFPA just got $4000 from Steve's efforts. Last year when this happened I tried very unsuccessfully to use this to inspire people to donate or help out more with the ifpa and apart from my own donation - which was much less than Steve's but as much as I could afford, I don't think I achieved any kind of actual results (just a few empty promises).

Despite my various issues with the IFPA, I believe that it's vital to the development of footbag. Without the IFPA footbag certainly would not be a sport or anywhere near what it is today. I found footbag through the IFPA website and there's a very good chance I wouldn't play today had I not found that site. The IFPA exists and works only because of the support of footbaggers. You can be support the IFPA at a number of levels: you can pay your $10 yearly membership. More significantly you can donate extra money and you can become physically invovled with the various committees - the last step is the best one

If you do want to donate money you can do it here:

http://www.justgive.org/giving/donate.j ... tyId=14026

or you can send cheques/money orders etc. by contacting Julie Symons - julie at footbag dot org


Of course it's really up to you. Clearly from the current IFPA membership and especially the involvement of freestylers in the IFPA most of you are very busy and very poor so that's cool. Personally considering what footbag has done for me - I don't feel it's asking very much to give a little back to the sport. Actions speak louder than words...

[BalinorNZ]

Hey J, great idea! I think that the IFPA is a bit of a fuzzy idea for a lot of footbag players, i mean, we know they host http://www.footbag.org, and pump out a lot of bandwidth in video hosting and the site is a great resource, but what else do they do for footbag?

Maybe you could give a brief summary of all the different ways they affect footbag so we know exactly where the money we donate is going? What is it pushing and how important are the things footbag.org does for the sport?

[Jeremy]

Well giving footbag any kind of validity as a sport would be a start. You should go to http://www.footbag.org/ifpa to find out what the ifpa does.

[Allan]

The majority of money received by IFPA goes to support the World Footbag Championships which, annually, costs thousands of dollars to put on.

As already pointed out, IFPA also hosts http://www.footbag.org which requires over $100/month at current rates.

IFPA money also goes to the production of the Rule Book--granted that effort has been limited in recent years for a variety of reasons.

IFPA would spend the money taken in by players to support various other tournaments and initatives put forth by people involved with the various committee's--if more people would actually get (and stay) involved and propose such initiatives.

While all Board (and committee) Members, at this point, are volunteers, we have discussed actually hiring someone to act as a coordinator between the general public, the community and the Directors. So, theoretically, a portion of the money would go to paying such a person's (part-time) salary.

More than anything, however, IFPA provides a professional, public face to the sport of Footbag and acts as a representative body for the community at large.

The Board of Directors is in the middle of discussing a restructuring of membership fees to make it easier for people to join, but besides the rather massive re-working of the current web-based system we have that doing so would require, this is rather beside the point. In an ideal world, there wouldn't be any fee at all for membership.

The primary issue with "the fee" is that we are interested in maintaining a membership roster of real people who are truly interested in supporting footbag, who are actually seriously involved in footbag and are willing provide us with their real names and contact information. Not only is that (I believe) required under US tax law as a non-profit corporation, but it is also a logistical issue in maintaining a meaningful database.

Having free membership creates a whole world of issues with random people signing up under false names with false information. Take the free Footbag Worldwide memberships for example. Footbag.org currently has 10,000++ members signed up. Many of these accounts are one-off's--people who are trivially interested in "hacky sack" and who have joined footbag.org with no real interest in footbag other than checking the service out. While there isn't really anything wrong with that on the face of it, these are not the type of individuals whom IFPA should represent as an organization. It's the International Footbag Players' Association. It's supposed to be by the players', FOR the players.

Another good example would be the membership roster of this very forum. 1719 users? How many of you have two accounts? Three? How many people created accounts and have never posted? The point is that this number is very inflated. Probably by 100%. If this forum was truly trying to do something serious, artificial membership inflation would become an issue--a big one.

So, by introducing (what I see as) a trivial financial transaction into the equation, we effectively eliminate them. Unfortunately, it seems we are have eliminated many of you who are those that we want to represent--those of you who are effectively already members, but who haven't be able to or don't see the rationale involved in having a membership fee and so opt-out as a form of protest or just plain confusion.

It certainly wasn't the intention to create a barrier to membership for those of you who are already legitimate members, but I can honestly say that I've given this issue a lot of thought and I can't really figure out why it's such a big deal for everyone to just pay a simple $10 fee to help support a cause to which we all have a vested interest in promoting. If you're interested in how the money gets spent, join a committee or two and have a hand in deciding how it gets spent! If you join your local sports team, the dues are certainly more substantial that an annual $10 and most teams (in team sports) still require corporate sponsorship to pay for things like uniforms.

Maybe you could give a brief summary of all the different ways they affect footbag so we know exactly where the money we donate is going? What is it pushing and how important are the things footbag.org does for the sport?

First of all, we're not talking about a lot of money here. Even if everyone on this board suddenly paid the $10, $17,000 (assuming the registry is even close to correct) is small change compared to even the smallest of non-profit organizations. If we were really serious about promoting footbag internationally, we could easily spend that amount in a month. So where is your money going? The important question is: where isn't your money going? All the things that other sports have that we don't ...

What are we pushing and how important is that? We are promoting footbag as a serious athletic endeavor. We are promoting organized competitive events and we are promoting footbag as a healthy, cooperative game that has a multitude of benefits to individuals (boys and girls) and communities. How important is that? You guys tell me.

How many threads have there been in this forum and on footbag.org of young kids telling stories about not being allowed to play in school--footbags confiscated, suspensions, derision from teachers and fellow students about "wasting time" on "hacky sack" and parents who won't let their kids go to tournaments because "hacky sackers are all lazy do-nothing stoners"--bad influences. How important is it to you to change that image? How important is it to you to have footbag continue to grow? How many more Vaclav Klouda's are there out there who don't have a clue what they can do because all they see is hippy hack slackers on the Simpsons?

If you don't think the goals are legitimate or the money is being spent wisely, join up and change how it works! We are desperate for people who are willing to take part in the process and inspire some action.

I could go on here, but I don't have time right now and I'm sure that y'all don't really want to read my rant about the community and why I think we're having these issues. Did I answer the questions satisfactorily? Are there any other questions?

[shredzilla]

You can be support the IFPA at a number of levels: you can pay your $10 yearly membership. More significantly you can donate extra money and you can become physically invovled with the various committees

Thanks for that explanation Allen. Although I really don't think that anyone was questioning the 10 dollar/month fee. It seems like Nic was just really wanting to know what http://www.footbag.org and the IFPA do, before donating MORE than that, as Jeremy had suggested we could do in his post. Gosh, with inflation the way it is, 10 dollars per Year is a TINY sum of money. By comparison, my bills every Month are more than 1700 dollars.

I appreciate all that the IFPA has done for footbag thus far. The footbag.org site is an amazing one with seemingly endless pages of data. Everyone knows that this forum is inflated with hackysackers, people that have registered once and never posted, and people with multiple accounts. But right now, it has become a good outlet for young people in the sport to share their ideas, opinions, and daily footbag activities. When we do get one of those free new members, who just discovered footbag, everyone here(usually) tries to rally and help the new guy with whatever info we can. Whether it be learning new moves, or finding someone in their area to play with. I for one, have benefited TREMENDOUSLY from this forum. Had we charged membership for Modified, it would probably have weeded out that new guy. I guess that was an explanation for a small point you had mentioned in your post, but I thought it was at least worth mentioning.

I think the IFPA is a great organization, however I believe that if they wish to revolutionize the way the mass public thinks of hackysack, and educate them on a sport most have never heard of called footbag, then they need to take a more aggressive marketing approach. Sure the IFPA is a non-profit, as it should be. But somewhere along the lines we have to attract more money and more fans to the sport if we want it to go anywhere. I mean, to think that footbag has been competitive for over 20 years? Almost ALL of the people that you find on the street would say, "Wow, I wonder why I've never heard of it." This is one of the issues we're curerently discussing on Modified, and you may have already read the topic 'The Growth of Footbag'.

The great thing about Modified, is that we can openly discuss issues like this one with Jorden Moir, easily one of the best in the game. Or with Allan Haggett, a member of the IFPA board. Peter Irish is a legend in the sport. He's literally the Tony Hawk of our sport. Yet he doesn't play footbag for a living. I just think there's something to be said about that.

Thanks,

J. Chris Miller

[C-Fan]

[. Peter Irish is a legend in the sport. He's literally the Tony Hawk of our sport.

Sorry to go completely off topic here, but as much as I love Pete, his impact on footbag isn't comparable or even similar to Tony Hawk's on Footbag, much less "literally" the same. In terms of promoting and spreading the sport, the only person close to Hawk in footbag would be Steve Goldberg. As for somebody who invented all the basic tricks, and continued competing and shredding at the highest levels for years, Kenny and Rippin' are much closer to Hawk in those respects as well. Pete is an inspiration, and with 5 singles World titles under his belt, he's unquestionably one of the all time greats. But he didn't invent basics like stepping sets, whirls, torques, etc. in the same way Kenny and Rippin did, or Tony Hawk's equivalents in skateboarding. Pete is a badass shredder, and has been at the top of the game for an inspiring amount of time (as was Rippin and Kenny), but he is definitely not "literally the Tony Hawk of our sport."

[shredzilla]

Fine, <insert name here> is a legend in the sport. I was mearly making a point of how professional footbaggers don't make a living playing footbag, and used Pete as an example. Kids that look toward trying other sports have at least the knowledge that if they become the best, then their life's struggle will pay off. It was somewhat off topic Ken, but I understand why you'd want to correct me on that. Pete's competed in the last 15 World Championships, and won 5 times. In any other sport, that would make him a legend.

[Jeremy]

Ken that has to be about the most pedantic posts in the history of this forum. This is a serious topic, can we please stay on topic. If you want debate which footbaggers compare to which skaters please make your own topic about it else where.

Chris thanks for your support. I think as Allan said - it's all very well to say what the IFPA should be doing but there are what - 5 active freestylers who are also active participants in the IFPA? Maybe less? The IFPA can only do as much for freestyle as the freestyle community puts into it. Right now that's hardly anything...

[Allan]

I think the IFPA is a great organization, however I believe that if they wish to revolutionize the way the mass public thinks of hackysack, and educate them on a sport most have never heard of called footbag, then they need to take a more aggressive marketing approach.

Again, there is no "they" here. It's a players organization and that includes you. We absolutely need to take on a more aggressive marketing approach, but marketing campaigns take money. Money is what we don't have.


In closing, Tony Hawk is over-rated in skateboarding. Rodney Mullen invented all the cool street tricks and made skateboarding what it is today. Tony Hawk innovated on vert, sure, but vert skating isn't anywhere nearly as big as street skating and Tony didn't really do much innovating on the street.

Don't get me wrong, Tony's a badass street skater, but he ain't shit compared to the innovations and creations of Rodney Mullen. The only reason Tony is so popular is because A) He is the best vert skater of all time and B) he sold out and continues to pimp himself as hard as he can. This may sound like I'm being harsh on Tony--really I'm just sick of reading how's he's the most influential skater of all time and no one even mentions Rodney.

[slapdash21]

i watched the mountain dew games tour or whatever its called earlier on tv. i listened to the play-by-play guys calling out the names of the tricks that bikers and skaters were doing as they did them in strings, their voices awed. then i started replacing the (goofy) trick names of the biking with footbag moves, and i pictured it SO cool in my mind. the commentators for footbag comps, when broadcasted on tv and stuff, would have to be all the big name footbaggers...no one outside of the sport would be able to recognize them for many years, so i imagined all the current big-name competitors doing commentary when they finally get too old to compete (assuming it ever happens for some of these guys ).
i want to be a footbag commentator someday. i swear, footbag could be huge SO easily. everytime someone hears about 'extreme hacky-sack,' they scoff, but everytime someone watches it for 10 seconds...they realize the effort, skill, and dedication required, in what is a really cool sport.

who gives a shit about tony hawk.

[shredzilla]

As we discuss the topic, I gain further insight into what goes on in the IFPA, and what we may need to do to further our sport. I think Allan's making a very good point here. WE are the ones who need to do something to make footbag big. That is why I registered http://www.usfootbag.com, and http://www.usafootbag.com which will be 2 links to the same website. This website will represent footbag in the United States, as I've seen other countries do. IFPA and footbag.org are an International Hub for other countries to link to, but it is up to each country, and each footbagger to do their part, and represent footbag in their respective cities and countries.

If we want to make footbag big here in the US, each footbagger- David Clavens in Pennsylvania, Emily Kulczyk in California, Peter Bowler in Boston, all of us in each of our cities need to do our part on a volunteer basis if we wish to make our sport more widely known. I don't know about you, but seeing a new person start getting into footbag, and really enjoying it is really cool and exciting to me. But just as we need to do our part individually, I feel it is also necessary to relay information back to the group, and work as a team, sharing ideas and keeping each other posted about all the cool new things being done.

One example of how we can work as a team with individual efforts, is by marketing footbag dvds and merchandise through our local skate shops. As much as footbag has it's own identity, it would be extremely difficult for us to open up our own footbag stores all over the country. Therefore, using the current infrastructure in place, we can simply market the sport through currently established outlets. Now, the best way to do this would probably be just to give them a free dvd to watch, mail it to them, or deliver it in person and have them watch it. If they like what they see, they will call or email us for our products. Funtastik Skate/Snow/Footbag shop in Harrisburg and Mechanicsburg PA seem to be on board, let's see how many of the other thousands of shops nationwide would be interested in footbag products as well.

When skateboarding started getting big, I remember seeing all these cool skate videos. They looked raw, and not really edited at all. But it was extreme, and exciting. They always had some really cool music in the background. We all know how to make cool shred vids. Let's make some really good compilation vids and just burn them to dvd, and mail them out. That's a start, and it's relatively cheap to execute.

There was a beginner footbagger on the site that had mentioned he was going to host a inter-scholastic footbag jam in his home town! And several local reporters will attend. Let's keep up with that kid and see how it goes. Let's get involved in each other's footbag promo activities as a group. Obviously most of us have busy lives, and this stuff is going to be done in whatever spare time we have. But if we make a commitment, over time we will see some change.

Matt Cross is contacting Red Bull to see if they want to sponsor his jam. Who knows if they'll say yes or not, but it's worth the call. I agree sponsorship is completely key, but we need to get more and more players into the sport, so that sponsors will realize the potential market. That starts with getting kids involved. Maybe Matt can make promo flyers for his jam, and distribute them at college campuses and high schools.

These are just some ideas for the promotion of footbag. If this is what we truly want to do, then we need to get organized and support one another in our efforts. I will do my best to get the http://www.usfootbag.com site up and running, along with promoting the sport the best I can in the Washington DC/MD/VA area.

Thank you for taking the time to read this rather lengthy post.

-Chris

[C-Fan]

Yeah, Tony Hawk is completely overrated, but I just wanted to point out the flawed analogy. Ultimately, all comparisons between players of different sports are bound to be flawed, so when Chris stuck in the word "literally" in there, I felt like I should comment.

It was kind of funny though, since Pete used to skate. I wonder who are the best freestylers in footbag who used to skate? Off the top of my head, Pete Irish, Allan Haggett, Andrew Grant, Jason Crook, Eric Windsor, Eli Piltz... who else?

Oh right, and to stay on topic, I could really go for a parfait right now. Those things are delicious (and they contain the letters IFPA, so I'm still kind of on-topic).

[brian relly]

Yeah, Tony Hawk is completely overrated, but I just wanted to point out the flawed analogy. Ultimately, all comparisons between players of different sports are bound to be flawed, so when Chris stuck in the word "literally" in there, I felt like I should comment.

It was kind of funny though, since Pete used to skate. I wonder who are the best freestylers in footbag who used to skate? Off the top of my head, Pete Irish, Allan Haggett, Andrew Grant, Jason Crook, Eric Windsor, Eli Piltz... who else?

Oh right, and to stay on topic, I could really go for a parfait right now. Those things are delicious (and they contain the letters IFPA, so I'm still kind of on-topic).

Dave Clavens, me...

[Allan]

I will do my best to get the http://www.usfootbag.com site up and running, along with promoting the sport the best I can in the Washington DC/MD/VA area.

If you need any help, I'm already stretched really thin, but drop me another email and I'll see how I can contribute. You also emailed a couple of weeks back--did I ask you send me your ideas? If not, I meant to. Please do

Ken ... parfait indeed.

[Allan]

Oh and MAJOR props to Steve for donating more cash to IFPA and Google is cool too for matching his donation

If you can't afford to donate money, then donate your time. Join a committee through .org and/or do something local (it's all about working locally)--start a club and make an arrangement with a local recreation center to do free drop-in lessons once a week or something. Throw a tournament. DO something--even if it means prohibiting yourself from posting for a couple of weeks

[sampotter]

Having spent a lot of my time over the past month or two helping out with the most recent SJFF, I can say that -each individuals enthusiasm- is what will make or break this sport. Each person, just by donating a couple of hours a week to some sort of promotional effort can make a big difference. Make posters, hunt for sponsorship, BE PROFESSIONAL. Make the sport appealing!

For example for the past couple of years our footbag club in Seattle has been playing every weekend in various places and putting out a jar with our club name on it while we shred. Each summer we make a small handful of cash (think $30). This isn't really the right kind of effort, which is reflected by the fact that what is our primary concern (shredding) when doing this always marginalizes the promotional aspect. We have ended up shredding indoors more and in more various places.

However, this coming summer, we are going to hype the sport. We will be doing actual demos each weekend. We will be attending street fairs and other popular public locales. Instead of being a loose conglomeration of freestylers, I'm going to propose we develop a managerial body for our club. This is where everyone needs to have their heads at if the sport is going to go anywhere.

Sponsorship is also fantastic. The Sole Purpose Footbag Club in Portland is starting to get a lot of sponsorship for things like Jerseys and their tournaments they have begun holding in the summer. Red is a very proactive person in this regard. I'm going to e-mail him and ask him for some advice on securing sponsors for both SJFF and Rain City Shred.

And now I'm going to get involved in the IFPA. Get involved, people!! Allan isn't kidding when he says that your involvement, time, and money are what counts.

[Anz]

I was thinking about joining as a life time member when my IFPA membership is about to end next summer.