the question is should we officially select a team or teams for aussie nats
in april, or leave it to clubs to sort teams out.

the twin goals of international representation (whether selected by
selectors or chosen by clubs) are to boost the skills of domestic ultimate
players and encourage people to stay in/take up the game.

so how do we do that best here?

rick, your views seem to come down to two things:

* club selection of teams is better for boosting domestic ultimate. nz open
is a mens/womens event, so club teams may well be interested in sending
those teams to aussie nats.
* we can't expect to get teams keen to travel to both aussie nats and
asia/oceania champs. and we should leave this choice up to clubs (who will
decide by committing players to aussie nats who then will not be able to go
to japan).

i agree with you on the first point. club selection for an overseas or
international club event is best made by clubs. this is why we have the
process in the international selection policy to allow club teams to go to
world clubs.

let's extend the application of the international selection policy to more
than just the mixed division at world clubs. that is, for aussie nats (mens
and womens, and presumably mixed) clubs would pick their teams, and the upc
would approve the roster by reference to the principles for selection that
it would have used to pick the team.

on the second point, i am more optimistic than you. i think we could get
teams to both japan and australia. we took teams to both hawaii and
australia this year, after all.

the key questions are:

* will clubs send teams to aussie nats after the nz open?
* is there significant player interest in japan? and
* if we can not go to both, which should we choose (which is the bigger
boost for domestic ultimate)? my feeling is that you are right, rick, and
that aussie nats for club teams is a better bet.

why don't we:

* agree that we will encourage clubs to send mens and womens teams to aussie
nats in accordance with the club selection process in the policy (which
might need some wording changes).
* agree that we will select an international rep team for asia/oceania in
accordance with the individual selection process in the policy.
* announce both events to the ultimate community, and
* invite the international coordinator to ask clubs about the level of
interest in both aussie nats and japan from club players.


h