The Bout Committee - Keeping Records
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Title
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The Bout Committee - Keeping Records
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Date
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April 1941
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volume
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6
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issue
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2
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page start
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8
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page end
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8
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list of authors
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Richard F. Warren
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content
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en
THE BOUT COMMITTEE - KEEPING RECORDS
BY RICHARD F. WARREN
A major problem of the officers of young or inexperienced divisions is that of getting the routine duties of the bout committee working smoothly. Tasks such as keeping records of divisional members, classifications, and competitions are not particularly pleasant but are vitally necessary to the smooth functioning of the division. Reducing these duties to a few fundamentals should help to simplify them. Here are some suggestions for bout committees, gleaned from many years of experience, that should prove helpful:
First. Start a competitors' file. List every active contestant by name, club membership, and home and office (or college) address. Then classify him (or her) by his standing in each weapon, e.g.:
Parker, J. Brooks-Sword Club
Home—Strafford, Pa.
Office—1515 Walnut St., Philadelphia
Foil—Senior
Épée—Intermediate
Sabre—Novice
This will enable the bout committee to decide immediately any question of a fencer's eligibility to take part in any given meet. Frequently among the younger fencers there is a lack of understanding of these classifications, despite the full description in the rules, and barring a contestant from a meet for which he is ineligible saves the heartbreak of later disqualifications and return of a medal he may have won.
After every meet, check the contestants again and alter the rankings of those who have won a higher classification. List prep and novice in pencil.
Second. Start a meet file. List every meet and below the title of it each year record the winners of first, second, and third places, e.g.:
Novice Foil
1940—Henry Jones, Rapier Club, first; John Smith, Fencers Club, second; James Wright, unattached, third.
Third. Provide an overflow file for those who are inactive.
The writer used a small wooden desk file about 6" x 4" x 4" for the active file, indexed by letters for individual fencers with a card for each. Back of that section was the meet file containing place winners of past years in all meets. This was easily portable and was taken to all prep and novice competitions where eligibility was particularly important. It was felt that by the time a fencer became a junior, he should be responsible for entering only meets for which he was eligible and that the burden should be placed on him and not on the bout committee. But the final decision and disqualification, if necessary, was in their hands, and so was the record.
A larger metal file to hold the same size cards as the wooden model provides safe storage for records of fencers who have ceased competition, either temporarily or permanently, or have moved out of the vicinity.
Recently I started to write a short history of the Philadelphia division that included a tabulation of junior, intermediate, and divisional champions. The data had to be assembled from many sources for the earlier years, but for the last five it came from the bout committee files, which contained the place winners in prep and novice competitions as well.
Fencing history in any division is made each year, and if a careful, intelligent record is compiled annually, it becomes more valuable as time goes on.
