UNICON X GUIDELINES
by John Foss

The three most important things, in order of importance:

1. Communication, communication, communication. Keep an open
dialog, ask lots of questions, let us know what's happening
on UNICON preparations. Experienced IUF people may be able
to notice potential problems before they become real ones,
and offer helpful hints.

2. A UNICON is not just a bunch of competitive events. It is
where riders from around the world come to learn, share,
watch, experience, show off, and grow. In addition to our
own "mini-Olympics", we also get to learn about the world.
We get to see how unicycling can be approached very
differently then we may think of it, and to learn from that.
We get to learn that people are people, no matter what
country they're from. We get to find out that "unicycling"
is an international language, and you can share a tremendous
amount, even without a language in common.
To that end, the convention has to have space, and time,
for those things to take place. Don't cram the schedule with
competitions without leaving room for the "convention".

3. Make sure the hosts are aware of all the events that are
supposed to take place at a UNICON. Though the actual list
may change (in upcoming Rules Committee work which will
involve the UNICON 10 hosts), it's important that everyone
knows what is expected.


Since most of the Chinese officials have seen only one UNICON, they may
have missed a few things. It's easy to miss things when you don't know
what all you're looking for. Also since they haven't been to many, they
need to be advised of the common pitfalls we've had and ways to avoid
them. With good communication we can help them avoid falling into the
traps that have caused problems for conventions in the past.

If some of those guys could go to one or more Japanese meets, they might
learn a lot about how to organize the details. I assume the JUA can only
be better at running meets than they were in 1987, which was *very*
organized.

The list of events that are supposed to happen is in the IUF Rulebook.
Also the list of things the host is supposed to do, "Host's
Responsibilities":
http://www.unicycling.org/iuf/rulebook/iufrules/1general.html

The whole front section of the IUF rulebook is very important for hosts.

1.4 PUBLISHING RULES is very important. There are always new events, or
variations on traditional things that require additional rules.
Non-standard events should be described, so all riders have an equal
opportunity to arrive prepared. For example, if we're doing a Great Wall
Marathon, riders should be notified that it's 5k downhill followed by 5k
uphill, because they can then be better prepared, both physically and
mentally.

1.5 NAMES AND TERMINOLOGY is something I'm hoping to get straightened
out this year. Our event names are not always used properly or
consistently, but for best understanding, especially across wide
language barriers, we should stick to the event names in the book. Our
database software may need to be updated for this to work...

1.7 REGISTRATION FORMS: To sign up for events with all the available
options correctly communicated to riders, the way the registration form
is put together is of crucial importance. The hosts should have their
form proofed by someone from the Rules Committee before they publish!

1.13 TRAINING OFFICIALS: The more training you are able to before the
convention, the more successful you will be. Judges need experience. So
for China to have artistic judges, they must hold some competitions
previous to UNICON. Track officials must know the IUF rules, not rules
for other sports. Obstacle Course and Slow Race operators are usually a
problem, because they sometimes tend to just do what they please and
give us results that can't be compared to other conventions.

As for facilities, we can probably get the best results by asking for
everything we could want. Unless there are other big events going on,
the Asian Games Village sounds like a place that could supply it.

Four gyms would be nice:

1. Practice/convention/hangout gym. This is where much of the
"convention" will take place, and should be the largest. This gym
should be set up with floor markings for the artistic events, most
notably Standard Skill. At least two sets of Standard Skill
markings would be nice.
2. Artistic competition gym. Enough seating for a large audience.
This gym should have a warmup area (not in audience view) if it's
not close to the practice gym. There is the possibility of having
two competition floors side by side, or just one, depending on
the schedule.
3. Sports gym. The home of hockey, basketball and whatever other
sports there may be (Sumo?).
4. Workshop gym. You can't do workshops in a gym full of people
riding around, you need a separate space. This could be a large
room or classroom as well, as long as there's enough room to
fit all the people with some demo area.

- A nice tartan track with covered seating would be nice. Wasn't
that covered seating nice to have in Bottrop? Even without
rain, shade is important. Something we really could have
used in Monrovia.
- A hill for gliding.
- A mountain for MUni.
- A road for a Marathon.
- Tiannanmen Square for a giant group ride! :-)

Okay, maybe not Tiannanmen. But let's do a group tour if possible. Some
kind of big press event where all the riders can be seen. We don't have
to try to do a chain, unless there is sufficient space for it to work
like we did in Quebec. The thing at the park in Bottrop was great even
though the chain didn't work. Another possibility is to do free shows
for the public in high-traffic, downtown areas. The basketball "show"
game we did in Quebec was a nice event that brought UNICON to the people
of the city.

And last but not least, I'd like to do something new. Let the guys in
China think something up, and see what we get!