There are 3 key areas when it comes to international representation which I
want to address
1. Individual Selection
2. Club Selection
3. Funding from UPC

This email deals primarily with the first area: (more to come on the other two)

The first area has been an issue since NZ started sending teams to
international tournaments. How do we select a team with a process which is
defensible and keeps people happy, even if they don’t get selected?

I think this is the most important issue to get sorted out, I would love to
have by the end of this year a process established which outlines, amongst
other things;
- Which tournaments we would select for
- Who is eligible for selections
- How selectors are chosen
- What criteria is used for selections

I could sit down and write a policy that I thought was great and would solve
all the problems of the past but then next year someone else could come in and
change it. So my goal with any procedures which are put in place is that they
have the support of the community so people do not want or need to change them
every five minutes. There is little point to developing procedures if people
don’t want to work within them.

This is definitely the biggest and most controversial of the areas I want to
address and will take the longest to get sorted out. Please remember this is a
discussion list and while it’s great people want to sit in on conversations it
is very difficult to know what people are thinking unless they tell us. So I’ll
throw some of my thoughts regarding this issue out over the next few days, and
hope to get some comments & criticisms flowing. I’d also like to remind people
that Shane has written some thoughts surrounding this, you can read them here
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/upc-
international/files/intl_thoughts_by_shanev.doc

Stay tuned..

Rachel

UPC International Coordinator