That was Our Bonspiel Thaw!
Saturday Jan 21 2012It used to be the bane of drawmasters – the bonspiel thaw. Ice went soft, water flowed – games got delayed. Drawmasters worked overtime to finish the bonspiel on schedule. In the old days, often that meant a midnight draw or a 2 AM draw when there had been a chance for the ice to harden again.
The 21st century version, now that we play the game on artificial ice, is a computer problem. We had it yesterday – hopefully the problems are resolved.
In the end, the draws started an hour or hour and a half late. No big deal really. Imagine the problem of communicating with people in the old days. Yesterday websites, email, text messaging all contributed to people knowing exactly what was going on – when they would play and the fact the games would be delayed.
As someone I respect a lot says, it’s curling – nobody died.
We’ve dealt with bonspiel thaws. We’ve also dealt with blizzards when somebody could have died. A computer problem is pretty insignificant in the big picture.
One thing I do know – yesterday’s experience reminded me of the two kinds of people in the world, including our curling world.
** There are those who have lost track of the fact this is supposed to be fun & those who can see the fun in dealing with the unexpected (evidence those guys who asked for an added extension so they could have another drink)
** There are those who looked mainly at how the situation affected them & those who asked, how are those folks at headquarters holding up-how is it affecting them?
** There are those who will say (usually quite loudly) – you guys have to fix this & those who will say – what can I do to help you fix this?
Overall, I’m way more interesting in talking with the second group than I am in listening to the first group, because they don’t seem to want to talk about the situation near as much as they want to express their opinion – quite often loud enough for their nearby cronies to know they are ripping on the association again.
Another thing I learned yesterday. Our drawmasters can do it the old way – manually – and darn efficiently, I’d suggest. The question, of course, is why you would do it that way any more.
Yes, the computer system failed and yes, it is an old system that needs to be replaced. The good news, as pointed out by Executive Director Shane Ray in last night’s (12:34AM) email to all teams, some of those ‘how can we help’ people have stepped forward.
** A final note, I sincerely commend our draw staff and our CurlManitoba staff for their efforts in getting this thing back on track, for clear, concise and timely messaging, and for a very professional approach through the whole thing.
I have never been prouder than I am today of having been asked to serve as President of CurlManitoba. It is not in good times, but in adversity, when we are tested. Our people passed yesterday’s test with flying colours.
And if you want to know where I was through it all – I was doing exactly what I believe the President should do in this situation. I was staying the heck out of the way so the people I trusted to do the job could do the job.
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