Succession planning in the BDFL

Below is the interim policy related to succession planning for the current BDFL season. This covers the following issues:

1. What happens if an owner dies or is incapacitated during the year?

2. Who would get the franchise in the following year?

3. Are there documented procedures in place to manage all of the current BDFL functions?

During the season

All teams, even those with multiple partners, are encouraged to nominate someone to take over their franchise if they are not able to participate. Obviously teams that have multiple partners already have a designated “back-up”. But even those teams have the option of designating someone to represent them. A team could also add a new partner during the year if they so desire.

You can designate another active BDFL owner, a previous BDFL owner, a relative, friend or child who is 18 years of age or older to manage your team if you are not able to do so. Please provide the contact information (e-mail and phone). You could either provide the person with the password to the BDFL site or authorize Guy to release your password to the designee.

If an owner is no longer able to manage his team, and he doesn’t have a partner nor has he nominated a backup person, then the highest ranking BDFL officer (Commissioner, Vice-Commissioner, then the Web Master) will take over managing the team for the remainder of the year, except for any week(s) where his team would be playing against the absent owner’s team. In these cases, the responsibility would be transferred to the next highest BDFL officer.

The focus of this note is based on long-term implications, but owners can also designate an interim representative if they know that they will be unable to discharge their responsibilities for a temporary period – which could be because they are going on a vacation where they won’t have internet access, having surgery, etc.

How we would handle waiver drafts

a) Under current policy, owners always have the option to tell Tony or me that they will have a proxy representative, who is authorized to waive/select players for him at the waiver draft. This interim policy does not change that.

b) If there is a situation where the owner has died or is incapacitated and they previously have selected a representative who is not a current BDFL owner, then that person can represent the team at the waiver draft with full discretion about whom to waive or to draft. They would need to pay the normal fee for all waiver picks. c) If the owner has died or is incapacitated and his team is being managed by a current BDFL owner, then the designee has very limited discretion at the waiver draft.

a. The only persons that can be replaced are running backs or receivers (including tight ends) whose season has ended because they have been placed on season-ending Injured Reserve, have been suspended for the remainder of the season, or have died. Players that have been waived by an NFL team can not be replaced at the waiver because they may be selected by another team. Team positions (QB, K) can not be waived.

b. If the active BDFL owner designee is participating in the waiver draft, he must select the highest ranked player available utilizing the composite rankings from ESPN or another site which has been pre-approved by the Commissioner.

c. The league will pay for these limited waiver draft picks. Any winnings from this team would be used to offset the waiver costs.

Playoff draft

If any team is not present for the playoff draft and does not have a designee or proxy , then the league will draft for him/them in the following manner.

 The commissioner, using playing cards or something similar, will have the numbers from 1-12, which correspond to the order of the regular season draft selection, but will not include the draft order of the missing team.

 The Vice-Commissioner will select a random number before the start of every round and that team will select the player for that round, thus 8 different teams will select players for the missing team.

Awards banquet

If an owner has a designee, both the owner (if he is able to attend) and the designee would be invited to the awards banquet. Any winnings would be paid to the owner or owner’s family. If the designee had expended money for waiver picks, he would be reimbursed from any team winnings.

Toilet Seat

If this franchise “won” the toilet seat, and neither incapacitated former owner or his designee are associated with the team in the following year, the new franchise will not be “awarded” with the toilet bowl, but instead the Commissioner will store the toilet seat for the following year.

If a franchise “wins” the toilet seat, and leaves the league the following season for reasons other than incapacity, death, or no longer living in northern or central California, then from that year forward the toilet bowl will be named after that team. Trophy

If the franchise wins the trophy, but there is no partner or designated backup person, then the team name will be inscribed onto the perpetual trophy, but that trophy will be held by the Vice Commissioner for the upcoming year.

After the season

1. If the incapacitated/deceased owner has a partner, then that person will own the franchise.

2. If not and he has designated someone outside of the BDFL to take over his franchise, then that person will be offered the opportunity to manage the franchise in the following year.

3. If there was no designee or the designee does not wish to manage the franchise in the following year, then an owner from a team with two or more owners can put in a claim for the franchise.

4. If multiple owners put in a claim for the new franchise, then the tiebreaker is based on which owner has been in the league for the longest time. If multiple owners requesting that team have the same number of years in the BDFL, then we would use a coin flip.

5. If none of the multiple owners want to own a new team, the league would accept nominations from all remaining owners.

6. Under no circumstances may an individual own or be a partner in multiple BDFL franchises.

What are the next steps?

This policy is in place for the remainder of the current 2012-13 BDFL season.

Prior to the Rules Meeting in 2013, I will separate the administrative policy into logical pieces and request a formal vote on each at the next rules meeting if there are a minimum of seven teams present.

In the meantime, owners have the option of notifying Tony or me if they want to designate anyone to manage their franchise if they are not able to do so.

Tony will add another designee on the BDFL checking account and document the banking process.

Guy will document the procedures for setting up, maintaining and operating the BDFL web site.

Bill should document the procedures for developing the stats packages.