N A S P NASPA Bulletin® The monthly news bulletin of the North American SCRABBLE Players Association A November 2011: Vol. 3, No. 11 Your Committees at Work by Chris Cree On Wednesday evening, November 30, NASPA held a conference call for a portion of its committee chairs. Each gave an over- view of what they have done and what they are currently working on. The highlights were: Membership Committee — Committee Member Tony Leah, in attendance to give the update for Chair Mad Palazzo, reported that the committee had just made their first proposal for the possibility of a NASPA Life- time Membership. NASPA has had the ben- efit of meeting and being able to speak with a few MENSA America officers about this and other facets of their organization. The com- mittee also looked at the United States Chess Federation’s model. NASPA is considering this possibility and will try to come to a decision during the first quarter of 2012. The Recognition portion of the Ratings and Recognition Committee — Cochair Dave Johnson (Portland, OR) presents a SCRABBLE Flash set to Seth Lipkin is working on a quantifiable Maggie Morley (Kensington, CA), the Most Improved Player at his tournament. method to determine a NASPA Expert, Master and Grandmaster. These terms are 2012 NSC Update 27-Year Friendly Rivalry bestowed upon people in bridge and chess, by the Championship Committee by John Chew amongst other endeavors. The Association Registration for the 2012 National Tournament SCRABBLE players start of British SCRABBLE Players (ABSP) also SCRABBLE Championship (NSC) is now playing because they’re competitive and like does this and was kind enough to share their open! As we go to press, there are 19 players the game, but what keeps everyone coming formula. Seth is taking the idiosyncrasies of already registered, led by 2002-rated former year after year is the personal relationships not only our current rating system, but the champion Joel Wapnick (Montreal, QC). that are formed when we see each other at history of our rating system into account to The NSC will take place on August 11–15, our home club, favorite tournaments or come up with something that identifies and 2012, at the Royal Pacific Resort in Orlando, championships. After all, which is more fun: honors our players who have accomplished FL, returning to the popular venue of the trouncing an old friend who will remem- the most over the years. 2008 NSC and the 2011 National School ber your brilliant plays for years (and if not, Tournament Committee — Chair Dallas SCRABBLE Championship. be reminded of them), or a random player Johnson reports that his committee is sanc- Early registration is being driven by a new you’ve never met before? tioning tournaments that “come in waves”. offer this year, where entry fees are reduced My predecessor as director of the Toronto There are 153 tournaments, thus far, on the by $25 until the end of December 2011. SCRABBLE Club, Mike Wise, boiled this calendar for the coming year. Dallas was Also new this year will be an event T-shirt down to two words when he said that our pleased to report that we have no disciplinary designed by expert player and professional game is at its best when it is played in a spirit issues on the docket. NASPA feels that the artist Jeremy Hildebrand (Ottawa, ON), of friendly rivalry. At no event is this spirit enforcement of the Code of Conduct is hav- which will be available for pre-order on our more immanent than at the annual Kingston ing an impact on the overall comportment of website early in the new year. Cup interclub match between the Toronto the players. Division cutoffs remain unchanged from ON and Montreal QC clubs. The 27th in- Dictionary Committee — Chair Jim Pate, 2011 at 1700, 1400 and 1100, with unlim- stallation of this event took place on Novem- gave us an update on his newest committee ited play-up permitted. The guaranteed top ber 26–27, by tradition on neutral territory members, who are working on the Long List prize for Division 1 will be $10,000; further midway between these cities, in a ballroom at as well as the rest of the committee’s plans to details about the rest of the prize pool will be the Confederation Place Hotel in Kingston work with Merriam-Webster for the next up- announced as registration progresses. ON, with a beautiful view of the head of the date. To clarify, NASPA is beholden to Has- Entry fees have remained the same as last St. Lawrence River. bro. Merriam-Webster has the working rela- year: $175 in Division 1 and $150 in Divi- 42 players contested three divisional tro- tionship in regards to our word list with the sions 2, 3 and 4. Youths (under 18 years as phies, with the Toronto side under more game’s trademark holder in North America, of August 11, 2012) are eligible for a special pressure than usual to regain honor lost last COMMITTEES continued on p. 2012 NSC UPDATE continued on p. KINGSTON CUP continued on p. NASPA Bulletin, November 011, Vol. 3, No. 11 Working Committees from YOUR COMMITTEES AT WORK p. 1 Hasbro. NASPA has a very good relationship with Merriam-Webster and looks forward to continuing to do what the NSA’s Dictionary Committees did: work with them on updat- ing the dictionary. When might that be? The target date as I type is the latter part of 2014. That is subject to change. Not surprisingly, Jim had the most ques- tions to answer by the committee chairs who are, first and foremost, SCRABBLE Players! Rules Committee — Chair Jan Cardia, did such a great job last year in her first year as chair. She asked what kind of timetable we 2011 Kingston Cup Tournament Participants (Photo: Kate Doe) would like to see for the next update to the rules. I would think the same kind of sched- Kingston Cup point in holding any sort of competition for ule as this past year. She said she would get from 27-YEAR FRIENDLY RIVALRY p. 1 27 years without meticulously documenting on the 100 issues right away! Someone asked year, when Montreal swept the event. As it’s the statistics of the event; and in any large a rules related question and Jan responded, seldom possible to accommodate all play- group there are usually people willing to take “Make that 101!”. It was asked if the rules ers in both cities who want to play without on this task. I am pleased to report that a to- could be printed by NASPA for directors mismatched team sizes, several ringers were tal of 147 players have now participated in who wished it. We feel that any printing recruited by both teams from nearby Ontario 869 appearances at the Kingston Cup, play- would have to be budgeted for approximate- clubs in Brantford, Kingston and Ottawa. ing 5,177 rated games. Montreal leads To- ly 420 directors and each change to the rules In Division C, contesting the Midway ronto in Division A 15½–11½ and 9–7 in would make the previous printing obsolete. Cup, 7 Toronto players faced four Montre- Division B; Toronto leads Montreal 7½–2½ NASPA asks that directors who do not have alers, two Ottawans and one Kingstonian. in Division C. Internet access at their events download the While Diane Brown (Toronto ON) led the Lynda Wise (Toronto ON) is the only PDF or copy and paste it into a Word docu- field with an impressive 11–1 record, the player to have missed only one of the 27 ment and keep it available on a computer or next five places ended up going to Montreal: years. David Boys (Dorval QC) has the most handheld at their tournament site or print Lany Ramos (Montreal QC), Daria Pecht wins with a 208–93 record over 25 years. their own current copy. (Gananoque ON), Emilie Henkelman (Ne- Joel Wapnick (Montreal QC) holds the dis- International Committee — Cochairs pean ON), Patrick Niesink (Ottawa ON) tinction of being the only player ever to go Sam Kantimathi and Tony Leah announced and Akiva Gitelman (Montreal QC), giving undefeated at this event, a feat he has accom- that WESPA would continue to rate NASPA them a 47–37 win. plished twice, in the inaugural year of 1985 Collins events and thanked NASPA for rat- In Division B, the pairing officer faced un- (12–0) and then again in 1999 (13–0), the ing Collins Divisions at tournaments. usual challenges. A few days before the event, year he won the World SCRABBLE Cham- Director’s Manual Committee — Chair it looked like there were going to be eight pionship. Rebecca Slivka reported that no updates have players for Toronto and six for Montreal, I’m happy to have maintained my even gone into the DM at this time. Rebecca also for which a complicated schedule involving record, now 79½–79½ with a 6–6 record serves on the Technology and Web Commit- one Toronto–Toronto game each round was against a tough field this year, and looking tees. For the Technology Committee, she constructed. Then there was one emergency forward to many more year of competition brought up and reiterated that handheld de- medical cancellation on both sides, neces- to come. vices are inappropriate for tournament play, sitating the construction of a similar 7-on- be it for adjudication, time keeping or arith- 5 schedule. Toronto prevailed 39–21 over No Pointless Games! metic. Jan Cardia mentioned that reference twelve rounds, and swept the top five places by John Chew to that is in the rules.