2016 AOTY

Thanks for that, Lauren.

I'm willing to help in any way that I can, maybe that didn't come across well in my original comment.

I might not be the right guy for actively soliciting vendors for prizes, but I do have a few contacts that might be willing to donate to HOW and AOTY.

Let me know how I can help.

I do pretty much all my DOTY entries (and verifying of other people's entries) on my phone...no problem!

Looking at NCKA's prize list for AOTY and DOTY makes me wonder "Why can't we do this?"
What does it take to get the same type of amazing donations? How can NWKA members help make this happen?

FWIW, I think anybody (or ideally a small group of people to share the work) can get some prizes donated relatively easily...

Each company is different though and some require you to submit your request for prizes by a certain deadline and in a certain format etc...

For example, if you want to solicit a Jackson kayak this is the form that needs to be completed by 02/28/16...even prostaff members like me need to do the form:

http://jacksonkayak.com/about-jackson-kayak/jk-support/event-or-fundraising-sponsor-application/

Whereas for Hobie and Kokatat, polepole made an email introduction between me and them and then I've just made requests via emails...

Local shops and dealers and artists and even online companies are all possible sources of prizes as well...

You can see the list of sponsors (and their logo and links to their websites) we have for our DOTY and AOTY comps in the left hand column of the pages here:

http://doty.norcalkayakanglers.com/leaderboard/list

http://aoty.norcalkayakanglers.com/leaderboard/list

One thing to keep in mind is that just because someone may be "sponsored" or "prostaff" for a company doesn't mean that they are the only people that can solicit a prize/donation...the person may WANT to to help support NWKA AOTY/HOW and showcase the company's product, but if they are not into it (or are already soliciting a prize for a different event etc), no biggie, anyone can do it...

Hope that helps and best of luck with your 2016 AOTY!!

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Really appreciate that information, BigJim!

Really appreciate that information, BigJim!

No problem.

If there's anything else you think I (or the NCKA AOTY/DOTY committee guys) can do to help just shoot me a PM.

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Hey Chris, thanks for volunteering! I think there needs to be one person working to solicit from vendors. I have no idea how to do this but maybe Alan can chime in on some advice.

I really get tired of how every time someone brings something like this up the response is "Thanks for volunteering!" as though the person shouldn't dare to bring up an idea without a concrete plan on how to contribute. This happens all the time on the tournament threads and I'm sick of it. This is supposed to be a discussion; ideas, thoughts, and civil critiques are welcome as far as I'm concerned.

I'm not going to speak for Chris, but he has already volunteered to help be an AOTY judge, and I would be willing to bet that as a Hobie Pro Staff for Waxer's he'd be open to a conversation about securing some prizes. Without some level of organization this will never happen.

I think much greater than the issue of not having man-power is the issue, as you pointed out, that most of us don't have a relationship with the various vendors or even know where to begin trying to track down sponsors. In an industry driven by relationships, I really doubt that cold-calling a bunch of kayak equipment manufacturers will get us very far.

I was mostly kidding. I know Chris has other responsibilities, in addition to a newborn at home, and it's very unlikely he would be able to take that on. The "thanks for volunteering" is in response to lots of people making suggestions but a very few being willing to actually step up and help. After a while it just feels like the same old story.

I was mostly kidding. I know Chris has other responsibilities, in addition to a newborn at home, and it's very unlikely he would be able to take that on. The "thanks for volunteering" is in response to lots of people making suggestions but a very few being willing to actually step up and help. After a while it just feels like the same old story.

I understand what you're saying. I think there are more people willing to help than we realize. For my part I'm going to get to work on some of this and see if we can make 2016 better.

I don't let things like newborn babies get in the way of fishing. 

Currently, the Bossman is out of the country. I'm going to bug him about prizes as soon as he's back on US soil.

 I want to help make AOTY exciting again. Bragging rights are great, but prizes are much better.

 I want to help make AOTY exciting again. Bragging rights are great, but prizes are much better.

Prizes are always cool!

For perspective for NCKA AOTY/DOTY this year we have four kayaks, in addition to a bunch of other shops etc that will be donating stuff.

Jackson Kayak Kraken 13.5 for the DOTY (I solicited it from JK)
Hobie Revo 13 for the AOTY (I solicited it from Hobie)
Wilderness Systems Thresher for the "participation raffle winner" (solicited from WS by a prostaffer who is on the AOTY committee)
Hobie Sport from CCK for junior raffle winner (solicited by a CCK prostaffer on committee)

If we were able to get four for this year I am sure if you wanted you guys could work together to get at least one kayak, or at the very least some cool gear from local shops etc...

 

Sincerely,

Jim

Is there a prize? If so, it I think it would help to say so on the AOTY page somewhere.

Also, if the $25 entry goes to Heroes on the Water, I think it would help to have a description of what HOTW is. Even a web link would be helpful for people that don't know.

I plan on participating in 2016 for sure. I think that if I had known more about it last year while I was just getting into kayak fishing, I would have participated.

I hope you participate in 2016! In order to address some of the issues brought up here (which are great, keep the feedback coming!) I will write a 2016 "kick off" post when we're closer to January 1 which will hopefully help new users and provide information in one central place.

Regarding the prize(s) that is one of the issues that I'm hoping starting this conversation now will address. In years past there have been prizes, but the people who got those things together are unfortunately no longer able to, so we need to figure that out or at least define that the only prize is bragging rights.

More recently the top participant(s) have received a part of the entry fee money as a cash prize, however because no one ever announced this or anything it's just tribal knowledge. I personally really hope to help increase the communication about AOTY this year.

Regarding Heroes on the Water (HOW), there is a lot of great information on their website: http://heroesonthewater.org/who-we-are/programs/

From that page:

Heroes on the Water helps our Nation’s warriors and veterans from all branches of the United States military unwind using the therapeutic qualities of fishing from kayaks. What looks like a day trip of paddling and fishing is in fact something much deeper and long-lasting.

Thanks for the information! I am familiar with HOTW but I thought it would be good to have an explanation like that one you stated on the AOTY page.

I personally think that if it is a fundraiser for HOTW then there should be no prize if it is a cash prize that is taken out of the money going to HOTW.... Just bragging rights is fine with me!

If there is fishing gear donated, that's different. I'd take that for sure haha

Thanks for getting back to me. I'll see if I can think of any more feedback!

I've got a question - Is there any interest in a sail-powered division? (cough, Ling Ling, cough IslandHoppa)

I noticed that NorCal Kayak Anglers has a sail division and I'm curious if there's enough folks up here that would be interested to make it worth doing.

I'd be up for a sail powered division now that there's a growing contingent. Of course it could start with just an asterisk rather than a separate division, kind of a "wind aided" catch.

I think a good goal for the committee would be to refresh the leaderboard at a certain predetermined interval and try really hard to stick to it.  It seemed like there were several stretches this year where it took a month or more to update and add fish to the leaderboard.  As a first time participant this year, I ain't gonna lie.... being in the top 2 or 3 for a short spell was fun and provided some nice positive reinforcement. More updates, gives more chances to move around on the leaderboard... I bet it increases interest.

I think a good goal for the committee would be to refresh the leaderboard at a certain predetermined interval and try really hard to stick to it.  It seemed like there were several stretches this year where it took a month or more to update and add fish to the leaderboard.  As a first time participant this year, I ain't gonna lie.... being in the top 2 or 3 for a short spell was fun and provided some nice positive reinforcement. More updates, gives more chances to move around on the leaderboard... I bet it increases interest.

It was nice when they used to put the first entrants on the leaderboard in alphabetical order. I think I was in the top ten for a week once before the first ten fish were entered.

Yes, sometimes the wait is very long and, since sometimes a fish is disqualified , frustrating.

I think a good goal for the committee would be to refresh the leaderboard at a certain predetermined interval and try really hard to stick to it.  It seemed like there were several stretches this year where it took a month or more to update and add fish to the leaderboard.  As a first time participant this year, I ain't gonna lie.... being in the top 2 or 3 for a short spell was fun and provided some nice positive reinforcement. More updates, gives more chances to move around on the leaderboard... I bet it increases interest.

It was nice when they used to put the first entrants on the leaderboard in alphabetical order. I think I was in the top ten for a week once before the first ten fish were entered.

Yes, sometimes the wait is very long and, since sometimes a fish is disqualified , frustrating.

It's a fair criticism we're not always timely with approvals. We'll continue to work on that but if you have fish that are pending you can always bump the AOTY thread and ask for them to be approved. We all get busy with work, life, etc and getting a reminder about pending fish would be helpful. 

I think a good goal for the committee would be to refresh the leaderboard at a certain predetermined interval and try really hard to stick to it.  It seemed like there were several stretches this year where it took a month or more to update and add fish to the leaderboard.  As a first time participant this year, I ain't gonna lie.... being in the top 2 or 3 for a short spell was fun and provided some nice positive reinforcement. More updates, gives more chances to move around on the leaderboard... I bet it increases interest.

As Noah mentioned this is a good point. Oregon-based participants hopefully noticed faster response this year because had more judges who know the OR regs without having to look at lot up. We are working on adding an active judge who knows the WA regs well to help, and this should help speed up response times.

I would like to be able to guarantee that we can have all entries updated on a weekly or monthly basis but as we are working with volunteer time I can't speak for the other judges. I believe that with an active, engaged WA judge we will see improvements.

There's a way for judges to get email alerts when catches are entered...bsteves helped me get it set up so I can jump into DOTY and verify ASAP so folks can see their scores updated...

But it can def clog up your email inbox!

 

Sincerely,

Jim