[tennisbiz] Re: Tournament situation

We've had similar situations in our CTA-sponsored events, and as an amateur
association, have had to rely on participants to come up with a workable,
not always perfect, solution. The only standard policy I insist on is that
we be upfront with how and what we did wrong, and that we not impose a
penalty on other players for our mistake with one player. In the worst
case we say, "Well, we screwed one person but at least we didn't screw
everybody else" (which is something I have seen happen when tournament
officials try too hard to correct a mistake). Better to admit we made a
mistake and give the person a refund or free t-shirt or goody bag, etc.,
and have one unhappy player, than to try to compensate and force another
team to play when they're not ready, for example, thus passing the penalty
on to them.

But we do often ask the other players for a concession, such as playing at
a different time or place than they were originally scheduled, playing out
of order, etc. This may impose a small penalty on the other players but we
give them the chance to decline. Usually everyone is very gracious and
we're able to work it out so that everyone at least gets to play, even if
they have to play two matches in a row, or have to go home and come back in
the evening or something.

It's tough: mistakes happen and often there's no real good solution for
when they do, but I've found that as long as the atmosphere is open and
friendly, most people remember the experience as a lot better than I was
afraid they would.





 
Received on Thu Apr 24 2003 - 07:42:28 CDT