good call, Kayla
Ladies Army mission statement proposal (new thread)
I would like to propose that we write a mission statement for the LA based on the general consensus.
For how long would you like to see the LA continue? Do you think that if the LA continues past our goal of gender equality that it would promote gender based leagues? Is that something you want? What do you think about the idea of the LA being coed, or women's majority as the numbers of women who play polo rise?
Currently women need the LA, not only for feminine empowerment, but for the recognition to be chosen to play on better teams. As of now the LA supports gender equality in polo, but I argue that if the LA continues past our goal of equality, then it will lead to male and female leagues. Gender segregation is the natural progression in sports through history, so given this pattern we can prevent this from happening by the choices we make now. Things that might be obvious to us, like gender equality, might not be so obvious for everyone else and the future generation of polo. So it would be easy for something like the LA to be the seed of gender based leagues. We all know what the LA means to us, but all people know is what they see, and the fact is that the LA is a segregation of the sport. Where will people stand in 5-10 years from now based on what we have planted? This is why I think we should have a mission statement.
encourage, strengthen, build.
unfortunately... in 10 years, we very well could see non coed polo. once this sport explodes and its played in high schools and college campuses all over the world and Quidditch is a long forgotten memory, polo could very easily be taken over as a male sport.
either way... up our numbers now, so if for some reason down the road... we will have enough ladies to survive the split.
and if it stays coed... then hell yeah. more players all around in the league.
Here's a question for every polo player out there: what conditions need to be met in order for you to think that there is gender equality in bike polo?
I dont necessarily think that "equal numbers" of women to men in polo are a) ever going to happen or b) going to automatically make for women getting treated equally once you get to the upper tier of tournaments. Thats an earned spot, and Im not saying that we as women should not, or could not earn it, but being given spots just for general inclusions sake doesnt sound like it would appeal to any bad ass lady playing polo.
As much as I love the idea of polo exploding, especially among females, (i believe) its highly unlikely to do so given the trajectory of almost every sport with as much physical play, knowledgeability, and grit (blood falls into this category) involved. Despite that, the possibility of a split is an unfortunate outcome of higher numbers of recreational female players, because for those who [will/do] come to polo to compete know that to be the best you have to play against the best, and that is always going to include men (and of course the less than occasional lady)
Thats why I dont think LA is a bad thing as a singular event during the tournament cycle. I agree with jinxy, "encourage, strengthen, build " its a great way to appeal to females who want to learn to compete and have an initial chance to test strengths, where many would never get past the first day or first couple rounds in a larger tournament when winning is everyones only (kinda, mostly) goal. However, LA has simultaneous goals, (not saying its not a serious tournament) and the fact that there is discussion of a mission statement for a tournament makes it a different breed.
This, ladies place in polo (etc), are great discussions to have and to keep talking about, again and again, to every one who wants to listen learn and play polo. That openness of discussion in and of itself has the potential to shape how future generations of female players decide to go about their group participation. However, I think the specific issue of concern placed on Ladies Army currently or in the near future straining the coed nature of polo is premature. We need more women to play and play often enough to reach the levels that the larger tournaments are played at, and LA is serving that purpose. Im newish, but I have yet to meet a lady polo player who is even talking about separating into gender specific leagues (I think theres only what, london who has enough ladies for one night a week?), nor for that matter any men who seem to have active designs against women not having a chance to compete. But I understand that invisible bias you speak of.
I personally dont think, at this moment, 2/3 majority would be good for LA. It still becomes a battle of the boys at times. However, having the smaller concurrent coed tourney sounds like a good plan to promote open mindedness until there are numbers that exceed the 20 to 1 ratio (really wild 11pm guess on those numbers) we have right now.
"Currently women need the LA, not only for feminine empowerment, but for the recognition to be chosen to play on better teams" .... I do NOT agree with this statement whatsoever. I understand where you are going with this Kayla, but I do not agree with a lot of the statements you are making. I will gather my thoughts and get back to you.
I will have more to say on this as the discussion grows.
A word on 'mission statements':
A mission statement is a very short declaration of who a person/organization will reach out to (i.e. serve) and how it will accomplish this.
An example, and one that initially came to mind when the few of us ladies started this tournament (though we never quite articulated it) was, "The Ladies Army will provide a place to encourage more women to join the sport of bike polo by hosting an all-women's tournament". This is a very basic example. Although, sometimes simple is best. We just wanted to have fun with all the women we knew who played bike polo, we wanted to encourage more women to play a sport we were all so in love with, and I don't think any of us thought it would get as big, or garner as much attention as it has.
I don't think the longevity of "Ladies Army" need be part of the mission statement. My gut feeling here is that the discussion of a mission statement that would presume Ladies Army will exist, is clouded with other issues that women playing bike polo experience.
I'm going to sit back with having thrown that out there and see how this discussion develops.
L.
x2
Question: if the teams start to exceed 24 teams would making it ladies majority exclude some lady polo players? Just thinking about whatever city hosts, they might have to cap registration at a certain number and throwing a male into the mix for every team will inevitably create a larger number of teams leaving some girls out, right? I definitely see the point of the 2/3 but I don't want LA to get to a point where its a race for the registration button like a lot of the NAH qualifiers were this past year.
*edit: apologies for getting off topic from the mission statement, just thought the 24 teams idea was an interesting point to bring up.
I agree with Lisa that perhaps the tournament mission statement is getting mixed up in some of the other issues that go along with being a female polo player.
I think having a mission statement for the tournament itself as simple as "The Ladies Army will provide a place to encourage more women to join the sport of bike polo by hosting an all-women's tournament" ... is perfect.
The issues we experiences in the polo community are an expression of our culture at large. It can be frustrating because these problems manifest themselves in our community, yet there is no direct solution for them. It takes time to shift perceptions of gender roles which is what I think we are essentially concerned with.
"Encourage, strengthen, build" is a good underlying philosophy for the women of polo that goes beyond Ladies Army. If we are going to change minds about our place in the world, we need to believe in our collective power first (and I think we do).
I love Ladies Army/the ladies majority tournaments that have been happening and think we should keep that up, but Co-ed Polo Forever. One of the many reasons I love bike polo so much is because it is a co-ed sport currently. My whole life has been spent playing gender separated sports such as soccer, and I got so fed up with not being able to play with the boys just cause I was a girl. We are still as tough and fast as them, and I don't think we should ever be split up. Bike polo started as a co-ed sport and it should stay that way, and I think we should not have to worry about the threat that "the sport will become to big like all the other sports in the world that girls and boys need to be split up" for some reason. We were the ones who started playing polo and we are the ones that organize the sport so we should be able to officially call it a co-ed sport and keep it that way. I think people are so used to it by now cause we all start off playing Co-ed that it shouldn't really be a problem.
Officially, the split up of men and women in bike polo is not even on the radar for the tournament committee right now, and as the chair of that committee i don't see it registering with us for this year or next at all.
Ladies Army is a celebrated tournament for it's fun and it's encouragement for women to play. I think we push ourselves further into a separation category by continually bringing up that it's an all women's tournament and women in polo this and women in polo that. We have it, and the boys love it. And it's nice that cities are expanding the LA to have the friday be a coed. It's actually one of the only 3 day tournaments that are for fun and are totally awesome because of that. We also need the guys there, who else would cheer us on that hard, or volunteer to officiate our games?! Most guys LOVE that girls play, and they LOVE that we play hard. So let's play harder and play faster and give ourselves the opportunity to play more WITH them.
see you in lex ladies.
A couple of things:
Developing a mission statement and implementing it are two totally different things. I don't think a discussion forum on LoBP is going to help develop an implementation plan for whatever mission statement we develop for Ladies Army. I think that those kinds of discussions are much better to have in person.
I am just going to throw another observation in here that I think confuses the issue of developing a mission statement. LoBP is an on-line discussion forum, and it is not NAH. NAH is the competitive arm of hardcourt bike polo in North America. Ladies Army has nothing to do with NAH. It is not governed by NAH, it does not have to adhere to the rules developed by NAH, and it doesn't need permission from NAH to exist. I put this in here as I think it affects the discussion of the % of women playing capital "C" competitive bike polo.
I am 100% in favour of continuing the Ladies Army as is: as a fun, yet competitive weekend of polo filled with teams of fabulous women from all over the world. I am hopeful that it can remain that way and that everyone who plays polo, whether you are a woman or not, can see the value it has for this sport, and how much fun it is to support.
Kayla, I think your are complicating the issue of a mission statement. KISS: Keep It Simple Silly. We don't need to limit the number of tournaments we have or the % of women playing the sport.
Can you tell I am desperately trying to keep the bureaucracy out of the Ladies Army??
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I agree that a mission statement as simple as "The Ladies Army will provide a place to encourage more women to join the sport of bike polo by hosting an all-women's tournament" is what we need. I don't think there were ever many sports where there was "a healthy balance of women to men to begin with" like Kayla pointed out. And this especially goes for high contact sports, known to have far fewer women participants than men... So specifically recruiting women to play bike polo is necessary and will be a long-term struggle, and I think the men of polo can recognize this. Bottom line, I think this is setting a good example for other future coed sports.
I also agree that LA is supporting segregation to some extent... Some guys have already voiced that if we can have a women only tourny, why can't they have a all men only? Fair enough right? But I'm not sure that their mission statement for their all male tournament could ever be as positive or purposeful as ours. As long as LA has a clear statement that shows we are not out to particularly exclude guys (and I think having the coed tourny as the opener to the LA tourny helps prove this), but to create a more fun environment for any fresh lady competitors and more welcoming environment as a first impression to potential lady players, LA should continue to be supported by the polo community and NAH. However, increasing numbers of women only tournaments will lead to a greater divide and possibly female leagues and specific rules, because not all of them will be able to claim they actually benefit bike polo as a whole.
As for keeping bike polo coed, it will depend on how NAH chooses to lay the foundation for hardcourt bicycle polo. I think NAH should create some sort of founding document ("Polo constitution"?). It would include obvious things like the NAH sanctioned rules of play, standards of bikes, mallet, courts, etc., qualifier structure, but should also address this broader concern of whether we (as the grassroots/diy movement, founding community that created this new generation of bike polo who understands the closeness and importance of the current bike polo community) want bike polo to be structured into gendered leagues or not. If we don't want this to happen in the near future, maybe we just need to vote in some clause that for the next 5 years segregation into male and female leagues won't even come up as an issue and that tournaments on a regional and national level (at least) must allow both sexes.
Finally, I agree with what Chandel wrote:
I think we push ourselves further into a separation category by continually bringing up that it's an all women's tournament and women in polo this and women in polo that.
Yes, we are girls, we play polo, and we want to influence other ladies to play. As long as we play hard, have fun, and don't whine or expect special treatment at these coed tournies, then I'm sure the rest of the polo community won't complain if we want to have a few events specifically celebrating our success in the sport.
So I reposted this, because now that it is not tournament season I would really like to heard back from more people about this. Lisa, Chandel, Kiersten, Leslie, Cecily, Jazz, Mo... wheres my ladies at?