WTFL Wpg. Touch Football League - WTFL

5 Posts

This is ridiculous. Our team captain receives word this afternoon that all games are on regardless of the weather, so we drive across town only to find out from the ref at 6pm that the games are actually cancelled. Don't give teams the idea that we're going to play regardless of weather and then cancel at 5pm. I live in the east end of the city and to get to Christine Lesperance at that time of day I have to leave a full hour before game time to make it through traffic and have some time to warm up. For a 6:15 game, that is not enough notice.
In this sort of weather, the decision to cancel should have been obvious, and it should have been made by about 2pm at the latest, in order to provide adequate notice to everyone. I totally agree with the guy who referred to the possibility of turning your ankle (or worse) on a field that wet. This was a no-brainer that the league completely bungled, in my opinion.

3 Posts

As the team Captain of the Badgers . I checked my e-mail at 500 pm and there was nothing from anyone in the exec stating that the our game that was moved from Maple Grove to
Christine Lesperance was cancelled . My team showed up at the field and was then informed by the ref at 615 pm that there would be no game. When i got home there was an e-mail from Wendy Shupira at 5 10 pm telling me the game was cancelled . Teams need more than an hours notice if you are cancelling a game . I had guys coming straight from work and could not have gotten a hold of them with only an hours notice .

76 Posts

One more time

1.) If games are cancelled because of rainouts they will be aired on CJOB at 4:25, 5:25 weekdays and 8:25am weekends.
2.) Team reps will all be notified by the website "contact all team reps" email, time permitting
3.) A message will be posted on the home page.
4.) A message will be posted on the forum
5.) Time and volunteer availability will see each team rep contacted by personal email with a request for confirmation.
6.) Non- responses will be phoned time permitting and volunteer availability.
7.) No notification = games are not cancelled.
8.) Refs have the responsibility to cancell games due to excessive water on fields or unsafe playing conditions.

76 Posts

Check your junk mail. I contacted teams around 4:30

1155 Posts

Maybe have your team listen to the radio in conditions where it is extreme weather like today.

We all have jobs also, and do the best we can to notify you. We did try 4 different ways. I am not sure what else we can do. Today's call was a l;ittle late, I certainly admit to that.

It's pretty funny. The guy above you doesn't wnat to play because he might get injured.
So we send are ref out to tell anyone who missed the announcement, that it's too dangerous to play, and youre pissed at us for that.

We don't want to cancel the games. However, you know when tornado warnings are just south of us,and it's been raining for 12 hours, we relented and gave in to the Nordic God Zeus, and cancelld the games for everyones benefit.

231 Posts

Darrell: You as president should phone each player. I'm sure you have work and home phone numbers.The back up should be for the paid refs to phone. Give them a commission on each person they contact.
Glen

134 Posts

Wow...2 days in a row.

Someone's on a roll!

20 Posts

1) "Check your junk mail. I contacted teams around 4:30" - The first e-mail came at 4:50. For those that need to leave around 5, that's cutting it REAL close.

2) "Maybe have your team listen to the radio in conditions where it is extreme weather like today." - Funny, I purposely listened to CJOB at 4:25 to see if the games were canceled. I learned that all about canceled soccer games and track meets, and that the Goldeyes game has been postponed. There was NO mention of the WTFL.

Maybe you guys could follow your own policy and have it on the radio at the time your policy states, instead of blaming it on other people for "not listening to the radio" or "not checking their e-mails on time"?

5 Posts

OK, let's not be silly here. First, the "guy above you" who supposedly didn't want to play was one of the few who showed up at the field. Second, I agree that posting cancellations on the league's web site is an acceptable way to notify everyone -- as long as the call is made and posted early enough. Most of us have internet access so this should be an easy enough solution. The reason this has become an issue is because we were told the game was on regardless of the weather, and then the story changed at 5pm with insufficient notice for a 6:15 game. The decision to cancel has to be made and posted early enough to save people from driving across the city for nothing. If it's a sudden shower, that's a different situation and a snap call is understandable. But today it was pretty obvious all day long that the fields would be sodden. You've admitted that the call was late, so we can move on -- without sarcastic comments, since we ARE paying customers after all -- and hope that the mechanism works more smoothly next time.

112 Posts

Luckily I waited until about 5 pm and checked the e-mail and the site beforeheading out the door. My notice never got into my mailbox until 4:45pm. From a logical perspective the games could have been cancelled earlier given the amount of rainfall yesterday. The League can hold the teams responsible and penalize them financially for failure to show at a game or field a team. Yet the Teams have no recourse when A) Refs fail to show up and B) a situation like this happens where teams waste time an gas getting to a game they think is on.

3 Posts

To the guy throwing the shots "One more time " Our team was listening to CJOB and and as another player stated nothing was mentioned about WTFL CANCELLATIONS, just every other soccer, football league in the city . More than an hours notice is not unreasonable to ask for .

1155 Posts

CJOB had the notice on a 5:25.

76 Posts

Billy boy. "Avengers" posted at 4:34, and Brad changed the home page at 430. I started emailing teams at 430 and was done around 450. Brad waited so long to cancel because the forcast called for a clear night, and he wanted to give it his best shot to get all games in for Monday. Do you think we should be fired from our high paying jobs at the WTFL? Do you want mine? From what I understand Brad Kelm went out to the field to let anyone know who did not get the word. I don't see anyone thanking him for doing that, but hey I guess I just see things from a perspective knowing how much time the exec spends to keep this W going. My question to you is this, did you or did you not have an email before 5pm in the junk area, and did you not see the other posts that were made before 5pm?

I'm done with this topic

55 Posts

Since this issue about not getting a call or the emails early enough about game cancelations (which I agree does happen, especially when somebody has to leave work at 4:30 to make a game), how about texting the team captain(s). Another idea is for those people with cell phones, every service provider allows each cell phone to have an email, it sends like a text, but the sender uses email to send it. Thus, the captains, get there game cancellation email at the earliest possible moment, and the league does not have to do anything different, except setup and new email list. Sounds easy and quick either way, with not a lot of work involved.

1155 Posts

Trust a guy with a monicker like canadian climate to come up with a better idea! We currently do have a "mail to all reps" function. Our communication person used it in the past.

That wasn't the problem. Some guys don't have access to a "communications" device, outside their home or office. Obviously they left for their game shortly after 5:00pm and did not receive the communication.

The league waited till the last possible moment to try and get the games in. We are criticizd for cancelling games when at game time it has stopped raining. This time we had an alternate sight arranged, to prevent re-schedules (again at which members complain about) and tried to get the game in. We took a look at the weather at 4:14, and went out to the fields to determine if they were playable. Our ref in Chief thought safety maybe an issue and advised for cancellation. Again, the league trying to provide a service for its members and their safety, and we are criticized.

If the guy could have got to the field in one minute and called CJOB before 4:25 he would have. However the league hasn't purchased a teleportation device and the guy had to hop in his car and make the 10 minute drive over to the site. He reported back to us at 4:35, and we had the posts up 5 minutes later.

I mean really, to receive this kind of criticism, when our exec members did everything physically possible to provide the membership with as much "leed" time as possible, is unfathomable.

Sending via a cell phone if they all have the capacity to receive text messages, would be a good idea.

Perhaps if that is the main method of receiving communication for a team rep, he should have gave that address to the league when registering. Otherwise it's going to that original address.

I guess if you all have a different address for your text messages, maybe send that to the league and if our tec person has the time and the site has the capability we could try and set up another or modified list. I do know our exec people are busy at this time, with work, playing and personal business, as well as their routine WTFL responsibilities. I understand that developing another list is work intensive, however, once time permits it could be something to be worked on.

Thanks for the excellent suggestion. Definitely something to get started on, and have in place asap.

Other than that, our policy has been in place for many years, and works for most people. We'll just make the decision to "cancel" games sooner and re-schedule at the league's convenience.

Or better yet just cancel the games entirely, and issue a small refund to those teams.Playoff ranking would be based on percentage rather than games played wins and losses, should teams have different numbers of games played.

How would that go over? You pay for 12 games...play 8 we refund you some cash and call it even?

111 Posts

If nothing is broken there is nothing to fix here. We have an excellent web site that is accessible to practically everyone. If there is a cancellation the executive posts this on the home page as soon as they know the situation. This is also conveyed in an entry on the forum and emails are sent to each team rep. As an added feature the exec even make an attempt to phone team reps concerning cancellations.The CJOB communication is also available for those team reps without internet access. From what I see this past Monday was an exception that is not likely to repeat itself. The misunderstanding occured only because an earlier posting proclaimed that all games were on with a change of venue. Personally considering the rain we were experiencing on Monday I would have checked the website one last time prior to driving out to the game. The cancellations were posted on the home page by 4.30 pm . As an assistant team rep I share the sentiment that the sooner a proclamation of game cancellations is posted on the website the better. Many of the posts have been critical of executive members. Just a reminder that executive members have full time jobs and families to look after like everyone else and they are volunteering their services so all of us can benefit. Lets be appreciative of all the unpaid work they put into our league and think twice before we criticize. By the way this is "our" league and we must all work together to make it stronger.

112 Posts

I concurr with canadianclimate's idea for txting. It could be built into the site in the future. Anyone who wants the updates on their mobile devices can sign up for it. On your end you can issue notices to everyone at once. Of course I have no idea what a running app like that would cost to run.

679 Posts

TXT message sending from the website has been looked into, but it isn't free to do so.

However, as noted above, most cell phones now a days also can receive email. For example, on rogers your email address is your phone number like 2045555555@pcs.roger.com. If you want to get updates on that, why not set your email address in your profile for now to that? Then when the league sends emails using the site, you'll get them on your phone.

55 Posts

I agree with the above post, but it would be better to have an alternate email address box, that way people could still receive the emails in their normal account and at another email (be it on a cell phone).

Jason

14 Posts

as a FYI I set a rule on the email address I gave the site for updates - when I receive a email that has mailer in the from field it forwards a message to my cell

works really well.

eg from gmail

Matches: from:mailer
Do this: Forward to 2045555555@text.mts.net

3 Posts

scotty boy

no one from our team was throwing shots until you . Junk mail was checked and there was no e-mail until 510 pm . I'll glady take your job next year .

134 Posts

Done.

Darrell mark him in for next year.

112 Posts

Wouldn't recomment the email to text option for everyone. It may be a free service MTS provides, but that service I know for sure costs $5/month for Rogers or Fido.

231 Posts

Jyuen: Are you from this planet or from Pluto. $5?
Glen

136 Posts

Wild Bill is in for a wake up call if he thinks he can do Scott's (volunteer) job even close to as good as Scott does. Be prepared for alot of free time being tied up free of charge. All the power to you Bill, but your word is your word right???

Jon

24 Posts

All I can say is that the wtfl is doing a much better job this year as far as being organized,alternative fields....etc. keep on making improvments boys one day this will be a fine oiled machine!

112 Posts

Earth.
http://your.rogers.com/business/products/wireless/services/textmessaging/emailtotext.asp

Service is $5/month to receive a forwarded e-mail as a text as the user had suggested in an above post. As I said that is Rogers/Fido, dunno bout other providers.

231 Posts

Earth: I wasn't questioning your facts. Just the fact that you or anyone is worried about $5 a month is a joke.
Glen

112 Posts

On top of all the other fees they charge yes it would be a joke. Like I'd waste $60 a year in fees just to get a couple of email to text notifications. Can I afford it yeah, I can but I'm not gunna waste money on it. I have other more important things to spend on.

231 Posts

Like What?
Glen

25 Posts

As I browse the forums, there are a few things that stand out.

1)The exec. is trying to do the best they can and putting up with a lot of questions from those that would not do the job themselves. Scott, Darrell, keep up the good work. I think the text idea is a great one. One person on each team must have free text messaging and I know we use it in business all the time for when people are in meetings, etc.

2)nomads never says anything nice. Every criticism has a nasty insulting tone to it. Now I understand why nobody questioned who I had my differences with when I quit The Legends. They only question they had was "Why did it take 4 games?"