Open Session (38 in attendance)

Board Members in Attendance: Dave, Steve, Max, Claire, Luke, Edwin, Bichen, Zac, Nima, Aldwin (100% board attendance)

Rebranding: There will be a public ranked choice vote, including a feedback section so respondents can make the board aware if a name (or the associated acronym) is unintentionally offensive

List of proposed names:

· ARA (American Riichi Association)

· USRA (United States Riichi Association)

· NARMA (National American Riichi Mahjong Association)

· FARM (Federation of American Riichi Mahjong)

· USRMF (United States Riichi Mahjong Federation)

· USRMO (United States Riichi Mahjong Organization)

· RMA (Riichi Mahjong America)

Minimum Activity Levels and Board Turnover

The discussion included transparency about how one can work to be on the board and that board members should be more than just voting only. This can include being a public face and doing organizational work, or backend documentation or supporting of working groups. If a board member is doing neither of these, then they need some project that is for the greater good of the community, such as Edwin running ARML. No limits are yet in place.

Board members to review bios yearly and update as appropriate. Every board member without a picture should submit one for the website.

Mission and Vision Statement, Bylaws

There is currently a NARMA mission and vision statement. The board will have a special meeting to discuss any changes to the mission and vision statement that are out of sync with community goals and needs, and to work on drafting bylaws.

Working Group Updates:

Outreach – Harrison

Looking for a social media manager and other volunteers. The outreach group seeks to be the link between club leaders and the board and has projects such as a newsletter and social media in the works.

Tech – Tamas

The work is continuing with a goal of an end of June launch. The goal is an integrated system with NARMA point standings, club names and a backend where updates can be made. Only for reporting results for events, not event registration. The biggest need right now is volunteers for design work.

Rules and Judging – Steve

This is a new group looking for volunteers. The goals of the group are to close rules ambiguities in the WRC rules as a collaboration with Gemma and WRC, as well as to update the mods and reduced penalties in such a way that they are friendlier to US opens with a variety of skill levels while also maintaining competitive integrity. Long term goals include the creation of a US judging guidebook which may include a strike system for things that remain warnings only in reduced penalties, and the creation of judging seminars or workshops to improve the knowledge base of those interested in judging for club hosted opens.

Adoption of WRC Lower Penalties as the Standard for Opens

TOs may make their own choice on whether to use the competition rules or the lower penalties mod. There should be an update to the lower penalties to decouple a few items and make things a bit more a la carte for the TO. The primary request being a separation of the chombo amount from the penalty level so it can be adjusted for other factors such as uma and aka dora.

Observers at NARMA Events

There can be multiple observers, but there must be at least one that is not from the club hosting and must be publicly announced. Any discrepancies between multiple observer reports will be subject to an investigation by the board.

Making the Observer Reports Public

Observer reports can be made public with the names of the judges and staff present, but any participant names redacted. NARMA will provide a comment period for the TO and staff to respond to any items in the observer report that they think need clarification and both the Observer Report and Staff Response will be published simultaneously.

Invitational Format

This needs to be decided by the board, sooner rather than later and the information published on the discord and the website. Might need to be a special meeting.

Additional Public Discussion Items

· Mahjong convention

· What NARMA would like from club leaders

o Showing up to public meetings

o Outreach to their club members to be involved

· What club leaders would like from NARMA

o Basics on how to set up and grow clubs

o How to build a social media presence

o How to teach completely new players

o Tournament in a box (A wonderful resource provided by Luke)

o A general player ranking system

Closed Session

Making working groups public?

Board decision: each working group can decide. If a working group does not make their contents public, a progress report should be made public on a regular interval.

Tiebreaks for entry into invitational

Board decision: best placement at NAO is the tiebreak. In the case that 2 players tied both did not attend NAO, the top score from each event is compared. Example: the best placement for player A is 8th in a 68 person tournament for 20.6 points and the best placement for player B is 5th in a 65 person tournament, also for 20.6 points. In this case the 2nd best result is compared and player A got 100th in a 200 person tournament for 1.0 points, and player B got 80th in a 100 person tournament for 0.2 points. Player A wins the tiebreaker.

Lower Penalties:

Board decision: TOs may run their events at the penalty level they deem appropriate.

Chicago Open approved by the board. Announcement of event and signups to follow.

Board Attendance: Dave, Edwin, Claire, Max, Steve, Aldwin, Nima, Luke, Bichen

Open Session Minutes

Scoring Applications

Public discussion on scoring applications, continued from the previous open session. The general decision is that scoring applications WILL NOT be used for NAO or any other national events without additional discussion. For regional, club hosted opens the use of a scoring application is left to the discretion of the tournament organizer, however to be considered as a NARMA qualifier, the usage of the application must be all or nothing to ensure consistent competitive experience per the WRC rules. A table may not opt out.

Canadian Events

The current structure was unclear. Some players assumed that Canadian events would be counted based on the current organization name, as they are North American events. Others assumed they would not be counted because the application process says that US organizations may apply. However, it does not say that Canadian events may not. There is an east/west divide where many players in the east consider inclusion of Canadian tournaments as a nice to have, where the west coast player base sees this as further increasing the geographical imbalance of open tournaments for qualification purposes.

WRC Rules Ambiguities

The documents are up for board interaction, and shared with Gemma. A suggestion is being made to make the lower penalties the default and make the current harsher penalties something like a championship level. There was public opinion that some items, such as an empty call only being a dead hand in the harsher rules, should be a dead hand throughout. There’s some desire to mix and match a few of the elements and we can further discuss this with Gemma. Gemma has requested a meeting with the board to discuss.

Tournament Observers

At least one dedicated NARMA observer must be present, but any number of people may be an observer if they choose. There was a suggestion to modify the feedback form for electronic entry, and to add the opportunity for anonymous feedback to the website.

Prize Structure for Events

Legality varies from state to state, and TOs are strongly encouraged to review the local laws and/or receive legal advice to protect themselves. Regarding the prizes themselves, it is encouraged to provide an entry fee breakdown to show where the money is going and how much of it is covering operational costs versus going into the prize pool. For example, the $1500 prize pool may seem large for RNO 2024, but at 180 people, which is the cap and the number required to trigger that prize tier, it amounts to less than 10 dollars per person from the total entry fee being used for the cash prizes.

Closed Session Minutes

Due to the length of the open session, many points of discussion were tabled until the next board meeting:

Rebranding and name suggestions
Minimum activity, attendance and service requirements for NARMA board members
Additional discussion and a written guidance for cash prizes in events

Application for Eligibility

A player originally filled out the form as ineligible due to attempting to qualify in another country.
That player is living in the US and has re-entered the information and intends to qualify here.
The board has no determined no reason to reject this request. Points from placement in qualifiers were reinstated.

Scoring Applications

Usage allowed at TO discretion.
“Opt out” is not allowed. All tables must use it in order to maintain a consistent competitive environment.
If using a personal device it should be placed flat on the table, in do not disturb mode, so the whole table can see it.
The board has suggested a sandbox mode or demo version be created so players may familiarize themselves with the interface prior to the event.

Canadian Events

For this cycle they will not be allowed as qualifiers.
For the next cycle we will revisit.
Additional discussion surrounding the lack of events in some West Coast areas and how to grow the tournament scene there to provide a better geographic balance.

NAO Announcement

To be announced ASAP.
Using Discord and various club social media outlets to advertise.
Dave to work on additional graphics and logo.

Penalty Levels

At TOs discretion.
Currently the mods and rules as written do not allow a mix-and-match approach to rules levels.
Additional discussion needed with WRC around the rules and documents drafted, meeting to be scheduled with Gemma.

Action Items:

Board meeting decision summary to discord - Max
Announcement of NAO to discord and socials - General, board members to share with their own clubs, discord spaces and social media outlets
Graphic Design for NAO - Dave
Update of Observer Form for Entry - Unassigned
Schedule meeting with WRC for penalty and other rules discussion - Steve

Next Meeting Scheduled for April 15, 8PM ET/5PM PT