I agree. Something in the line of some Income Tax booklets that list in the beginning "What's New" for this year. And likening the Dallas committees/panjandrum(s) to the IRS is perhaps not a bad comparison!

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Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Point taken, dcden. No, it probably wouldn't have hurt to make it more visible, but I dunno ... I'm coming from a point of view in which I read everything cover to cover. Some people don't do that. I don't think it has anything to do with being "used" to anything -- as you know, I've been to every AN since the beginning, yet I still read it. But that's just me. I'm an anal Virgo, what can I say?

Actually I've been to all nationals competing in pairs and fs and not had any major problems with any of the pairs practice . They have always been offered and available. There are rules and the LOC's do make a great effort to follow them. This year the scheduling has been a mess, no doubt about that,but then I don't know the whole story yet either!

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Most folks have seen the updated sked on the Dallas FSC website, but the one on USFS lists how many competitors are in each event:
http://www.usfigureskating.org/conte...s/schedule.pdf

*4* silver I/II men. I know of 3 (me, Frank, and Jeremy--who were all there last year), but who is this interloper?
Anyway, it's nice to know that this group has grown 33% in one year!

And whoa, 3 bronze, 7 silver, 9 gold, and 3 masters pairs teams?! Excellent!

__________________
Doubt whom you will, but never yourself.
"Do what you love, and you'll never have to work a day in your life."
-Haha, I've *arrived*! I am listed as a reference on Wikipedia.

Good point that someone made about not being able to sign up for practice ice on the website. I signed up for the event on the website, and then forgot about it for a while, then as we were getting closer I realized that we didn't sign up for practice ice. I looked on the website, again, but it wasn't there. Then I looked at the hard copy of the application, and guess what, I was past the deadline for practice ice. So, I tried contacting Colleen, but no response back, so I just thought I'd play it safe and I mailed in a check for 3 days of practice ice. Again, I tried to contact her to confirm, at the very least, that she received the practice ice application and my check, but, again, no response. So, the practice ice situation was like falling into a black hole from the getgo--still don't know if we have practice ice. Maybe in the future one should be able to register for all facets of the competition on the USFSA website--so, it's all in one place and no one will miss anything. Just a suggestion.

I skated today, and really tried to breath, but I was so wound up from all of this stuff. Okay, I'm going to say goodbye to everyone for now, sign off, get into "competition head" and practice. Love you all, and can't wait to see you all at AN. Even thought it was a very bad experience, in a way it brought us all closer together--don't you think?

It would be really cool if we could sign up for practice ice online, but it probably wouldn't happen via the USFS site. While USFS handles the entries, the LOC is responsible for practice ice. So maybe future LOCs could set something up. As of now, though, even the kids who do Regionals have to send their practice ice requests separately, by mail, just like we do.

I think its silly that you have to sign up for practice ice without knowing your schedule and then have to attempt to switch or not attend it if it conflicts with your event. There must be some other way of doing it.

Some of us don't sign up for practice ice until we get there. Works better that way

The best run practice ice was in Lake Placid several years ago. We all paid for the desired number of slots in advance. When we arrived we snaked in and out of a large room with 6 to 8 people working behind a long table to take your specific requests. It was pretty fast and smooth.

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FYI about official warm up. In the past, this was included with your entry fee. However, the new trend is that the local club hosting the event can now charge for it. My club hosted SE Regionals this year, and that is what we did. Apparently, another club last season at Regionals set the precedent, got away with it, and now everyone is doing it.

I paid for ONE official warm up time. However, there are two qualifiers in my division, which means that if I make final round, I will have to add into offical warm up for finals.

On official warm up, they typically throw all the skaters in your qualifier on the ice together, and yes, it is terrifying and unproductive. So that being the case, I would think that it should be no problem to add into the official warm up. However, no clarification was made in the annoucement about paying for a second warm up when you have to go through qualifying. So it's just one of those issues I will deal with if I make it thru to finals.

Well thank god for this forum! I didn't know we had to pay for the official warm-up either. So now I know not to wake up at 6am Wed. for the warm-up. I'm better off sleeping in. With the new change in schedule, I could've left earlier and saved on 1-2 extra nights at the hotel. *sigh* Is anyone staying at the Sleep Inn in Irving Tues. night? That's where I'll be for that night. I hope there will be cabs around to take me to the rink the next morning. I found it on discounthotels.com . If it weren't for priceline.com, I prob. wouldn't be going b/c the flights on the other sites were over $500 round-trip.

sorry daisey, i let them know of the conflict and they don't care and won't change it ...i say we wear black arm bands if you have been screwed for money or forced to withdraw from an event!!!

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Q:If landing an axle is 3 times your body weight, then how many times your body weight is the landing of a throw axle
A: depends on whos throwing you and how much you lied about your weight on your pairs profile


a can of stickum : $5.95
the email asking "how do you get this sticky stuff off " ...priceless

those are great ideas...now what lift were we doing again?

hey Tim...i finally figured out how to get the sticky stuff off!

Missing: east coast stunt doubles poster

iceskatepairs,

SURELY they are going to refund you the money for the second event that you can't skate because of THEIR scheduling conflict, right?????

Wow!!

I replied to you in the other thread, but I will say it here too: THIS IS TOTALLY UNACCEPTABLE! You have paid to be in the event, and, more important, you have TRAINED to be in the event. That is money wasted, and I would scream my lungs out about that fact. Do not take no for an answer. Call/e-mail everyone you can. I will even e-mail Tony Conte for you.

Out of curiosity, how is the Chief Referee for a National Championship selected? Is there some committee of US Figure Skating who makes this decision, and do they monitor the decisions of the individual to make sure that major problems don't arise, or that major deviations from established guidelines are not breached? Who has the ultimate responsibility for ensuring that a National Championship is handled correctly?

icecatepairs, I responded in the other thread, so sorry for the duplication, but after reading of your plight I went to look at the schedule to see your conflict .... and I don't see it.

You're in Masters Interp 2 Comedy, right? And Ch. Gold Ladies? The Interp ends at 7:10, and the FS starts 30 mins. after that. When you said they conflicted, I thought you meant they overlapped. Am I looking at the wrong thing?

It is a close call, but not so much that it's not do-able. Sorry.

I hope it all works out for you, whatever happens!