Mind you the ideas that are to be expressed, are merely that - IDEAS. Our intent is not persuade anybody that what we suggest is any better than any other solution, but rather a foundation for further ideas and/or refinements of the original ideas.
BBO Active Ethics Committee -
1 - An "owner" or "champion" would assume responsibility for the project from an overall perspective. This person would be a BBO appointed or approved individual. This person/position would NEVER be able to actively participate in committee regarding ethics proceedings, he/she may be aware of problems but his/her advice and/or suggestion is NEVER to be part of a committee recommendation.
2 - Upon electing a an owner/champion of project, this person would be responsible for following a predefined PROCESS for electing committee members. The committee would have X number of members, and each member would serve for Y period of time (X and Y to be determined). Each member must be approved by a governing body (BBO/Tourney Hosts/Club Managers ???).
3 - The committee is to avail its services to ANY tournament (host/director/club) and potentially organized team matches (??). Each club has the right to enroll or reject this service.
4 - Upon enrolling in this service, any club that participates can advertise its tourney as member of the active BBO Ethics Committee (kind of serve the same purpose as the ADT home burglar alarm sticker on front window). Enrolled tourneys may have the ability to advertise that they are BBO Ethics Certified (see additional ideas @ bottom).
5 - Any player, director, or host from a participating tournament that is confronted with a potential infraction, can forward the deal in question to the committee. The deal or potential infraction is to be submitted such that NO NAMES are associated with the analysis or review, it will be a complete anonymous review. In all cases, the tourney director/host MUST be aware that a potential infraction has occurred.
6 - The committee will review and analyze the deal and come to a group conclusion and make a recommendation based upon that conclusion.
7 - The committee's recommendation will be according to a standardized and documented scale. This scale would need some work, but below is illustration of concept;
Scale, levels 1-5
Recommendation 1 - No infraction occured - No action recommended
Recommendation 2 - Suspicious - No action, place violator on watch list
Recommendation 3 - Suspicious - Action recommended, discuss with violator
Recommendation 4 - Suspcious w/reasonable doubt - Action recommended, warning
Recommendation 5 - Suspicious and conclusive - Suggest ban from tourney, forward to BBO
8 - The suggestion is to be delivered to the tournament host/director in which the infraction occurred. The host/director has the option of following recommendation or not, it is simply recommendation.
9 - Upon a conclusion and recommendation of level 5, a default mechanism is built in to forward the matter to BBO for review.
10 - A process or mechanism for sharing data, conclusions, cases could be considered for participating tournaments to use on an as needed basis.
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Additional idea;
1 - Upon a tournament enrolling in this service, the committee has the ability to review tournament rules/regulations/conditions of contest/conv charts and make recommendations to the tournament such as that the tournament can become "BBO Ethics Committee" certified. The committee will have the resources to provide standardized documentaton for rules/regulations/conditions of contest/conv charts.
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The ideas suggested above serve many purposes. First of all, tournaments that wish to enroll can have a sense of legitimacy such that they will be "certified" as per a documented standard. Second, the tournaments that do not participate are free from any constraints and/or conditions and can run a tournament how they please. Third, BBO players can have a comfort factor built in to be able to select which tournaments are actively involved in ethics considerations.
For those that argue that a committee's rights should be extrapolated across not only tournaments, but to all parts of BBO, I suggest that what is started here is the means to an end. To go from not having ANYTHING at all, to having EVERYTHING is perhaps not practical or reasonable. A process such as the one above could be the foundation for a more robust and inclusive set of controls, but in the meantime BBO players will at least have comfort knowing that someone is active in creating a fair and comfortable environment.
Personally, I think a committe similar to the one proposed, not only has merit in terms of creating an active ethics envrironment, but also lends itself to creating a foundation or structure for creating a body that can help maintain tournament and/or bridge standards with respect to tournaments (rules/regulations/cond of contest/conv charts).
Well, that is all for now, please dont beat on our ideas too much.
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Regards,
Michael A Lucy