Representing a country
Comments about this discussion:
Started
@Connie: This would probably have to be discussed further up instead of in a subcommittee but I still wanted to bring it up.
The current UDA software forces registrants to choose a country they represent.
This for many people (including me) is something they don't want since they don't identify with the country they live in but instead have a broader understanding of community above nations.
I understand that the country people live in might be necessary to know to organize an event and I'm not asking for that to be removed, but I would really like to see the choice of country represented to be optional.
This even led to problems during last Unicon's registration because people chose oppressed countries or regions (like Taiwan, Hongkong or Ukraine) as their represented ones rather than the region they actually lived in. (which made things complicated for the organizers I can imagine)
I know that Germany has a very special relation to patriotism in that it is almost considered a negative thing to be patriotic about Germany (So my opinion here might be affected by this) but that's why I'm asking if other people feel the need of having a chosen represented country or if this could or should be changed to an optional choice in the UDA software.
Comment
I think this is a massive problem from an organiser perspective as it messes with country limits which are in place for nearly all disciplines these days.
It would make it really hard for organisers to see whether the rider has reached the necessary qualifications within the country that they're living in to be allowed to participate in their chosen discipline.
Unless they were still required to name the country and then check a tick box to not have it shown on results sheets, but then you would potentially be messing with the national unicycle foundations that can only send a certain number of riders to the event.
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Is qualifications and limits of riders per nation tied to the country which people live in or can people represent other countries too?
Comment
Tied to residency or nationality (your choice). However, you need to attend qualification events for the country you choose to represent.
So in theory, I would have two options, because I am a permanent resident in UK and have a German passport. However, I can't represent Germany anymore, unless I flew over to all their qualification events and achieved the necessary results (which in freestyle, for example, would involve 3 different events).
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I have made two proposals, five days ago. Who is responsible for approving them? Could we go forward with them?
Comment
I remember conversations about this topic before Unicon 20 in Urban Unicycle Chat. As a person living in a country that I feel ashamed of our government, I totally understand your point Ian. From an organizer point of view though, it is very important to have a clear view on the participants' home countries / residency, not only because of the country limits, but for other purposes too (sponsors, communication, insurance, services, etc.).
I am no expert in sports bureaucracy / international law in sports, but can you actually choose to represent a country freely? For instance, can you choose to represent the countries you said as an example (Taiwan, Hong Kong, Ukraine) or any other country without having any connection to the country or its sports associations?
This might be a compromise, but what if we change the wording? Instead of asking for the country representing, we would ask for the home country or residency?