[asa] yellow and red cards

This is the last on-list statement I will make concerning the ruling I handed down in the past couple of days. If anyone wants to say anything else about that decision, please communicate with me privately. I have been heavily involved with a lot of "day job" and "night job" (ASA) business this week; presently I'm in Minneapolis to represent us at a function to honor a prominent member and past president, Elving Anderson. I've had very little time to follow up, but now I will do so concerning one matter that I think has not been adequately spelled out.

I stated that I didn't use a "yellow" or "red card," but I should have explained my metaphor more fully. Some participants in the past have been suspended for specific periods of time (in the most recent case, one month), which I call a "yellow" card; others have been permanently banned (those who have been here awhile can probably fill in a specific name or two). In most cases, it's been for verbal abuse/belittling others, and usually we use the yellow and not the red for a first offense of that sort. I can't think of a case in which we've used the red card without any sort of warning, usually a private one but not always. In my own mind, I've associated my soccer terminology with language violations or with repeat offenders of something else (I've used this terminology in some specific instances, off list). Since that doesn't describe this recent ruling, I said that I didn't issue a card, but I said it in a manner that has led to some confusion on Bernie's part, conce!
 rning what he did, and I apologize for that confusion to Bernie and to others.

You did violate a rule, Bernie, and I thought I had alluded to it clearly enough in what I said about our mission and identity. Terry clarified this quite effectively for me, and I think him for that; he saw what I meant but had failed to spell out.

One reason I did not use a card (as described above), Bernie (and others), is b/c I think there was no ill intent on your part. I don't think you fully realized how far you were going from that rule, and so I didn't do anything beyond barring you from pursuing that particular conversation in the future. I won't rehash my reasons for that decision, which I believe I stated very clearly even if I did not clearly identify the relevant rule. Nevertheless I did want to send a strong and clear signal that the particular rule is important, and I wanted to send it on the list, b/c as ASA president I don't want casual inquirers to think that we aren't serious about our mission and identity -- given the particular way in which Bernie voiced his goals, I think it is important to state for the record that those goals are absolutely not ours, and we won't cooperate with them.

If anyone has any comments on this, you may send them to me, Terry, and/or Randy. But NOT to the list, please. It's time to move on.

Ted

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Received on Fri Sep 25 23:59:21 2009