It's been an interesting first two weeks of the Spring session. I've been training Maryssa to help me enter scores, and confusing the heck out of her. And I'm probably confusing all of you with penalty / bonus points. In the course of a few days, I've changed my mind about five times on how to handle this.

There is a rule in the rulebook which states:

"A team that allows a player to play without a current membership will receive zero points for the week(s) in which the individual plays. Their opponent will receive the points they won during the team match, plus all points available in any individual match involving an unpaid player."

I tried to implement this rule this session. I have not in the past. I had approximately 20 teams who played players without paying their membership in the first two weeks.

In reading this rule, it became a little confusing in it's interpretation, as well as how to handle it in the league software. Maryssa was ready to kill me I'm sure. I spoke with my consultant who had an interpretation I didn't consider, and she then checked with the official rule makers. This was not how I originally implemented it.

Then I tried to do it the correct way. But that was also difficult and weird. I was adding points to some teams and subtracting from others. It just didn't feel right.

Then I realized this rule could be overwritten by by-laws, which I sorta had been doing since I took over as league operator. I've reverted back to those ways, which is if a team is not up to date on league fees or memberships, they lose bonus points. This made life much simpler on myself and Maryssa for entering scores, and is much easier to explain. Plus it is what you're used to.

I will be re-writing the rule for more clarification in my upcoming bylaws, but for now, just know that your point totals may have changed for the past two weeks. If you think they are in error, please let me know and I can review to explain why points are as they are.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Steve