The American Diplomacy Travel Fund

For sometime there has been a long on-again and off-again discussion between Larry Peery and myself on the issue of an Americans going overseas to play in tournaments. We both felt that there was an unfortunate lack of representation overseas and there was a need for an American hobby fund to help assist players travel overseas. It initially was called the 911 (as in the Emergency number) and was put on the drawing board for the Summer of 2001. Rather than contribute a chunk of money to help fund some trophies at various conventions around the world, I placed the money in what was called the 911 Travel Fund. Between Larry and I, we had stashed $700 for the fund with the idea being to take 10 tournaments in the U.S. and use the funds as matching funds to help people get overseas for the first time. The first Con designated was to be Tempest in October with the hope that maybe by the time WDC in Canberra came around in addition to the 20 or so committed people to attend we could also pick up some more new comers.

Then September 11th hit. Suddenly the numbers planning and able to go to the WDC dropped from 20 to less than 7. To me, the need for the fund was ever so much more obvious both as a matter of financial matters as well as the attempt to get the American hobby thinking going overseas at a time when travel was less attractive.

The original name of the 911 Travel Fund seemed to confuse some people as to the relationship with the events of 9-11, a matter that would be changed in May of this year with the renaming of the fund to the American Diplomacy Travel Fund. No doubt this confusion hurt the funding collections at Tempest, the first event. However, now the fund is working well and has collected some funds which are very much looking to be spent to help people go overseas.

So how does it work again?

• There are 10 designated events in the U.S. each year.

• There is an initial seed amount of at least $70 set aside for each event as a matching fund.

• Whatever money is collected for the Fund at the site is allied to the fund and is matched one for one up to amount of the matching amount.

• The event amount is available to any American Citizen who played in the Diplomacy tournament at the event regardless of their achievement.

• The event amount is only awarded to the player who has never played overseas in a Diplomacy tournament even though you may have traveled overseas before.

• To get the award you apply in advance of the overseas event and then after completing the event you can get a check for your sponsorship…cleverly designed to arrive when the credit card bills arrive.

• One award event per person.

• The overseas events include: Any DAANZ event Downunder, any non-North American national Dip Tournament such as the San Marino Event, the Brazilian CoBraCon, the EDA events, and any European tournament listed in the Diplomatic Corps' world wide events.

• Initially it is administrated by Edi Birsan and this will be turned over to the Diplomatic Corps at the end of this Summer (2003).

• Any amounts not used in the one year from each event to the following year will be rolled over for that event.

• If the event collapses after a year the funds will be rolled into the general matching fund for the next year.

Base contributions:
Edi Birsan $500
Larry Peery $200
Yann Clouet 14 (given in March and spread out over remaining events of the tournament year.)

Total of Fund:
Base: $714
Collected: $602
Total: $1316 (as of 8/28, $150 owed by BPA)
 

Start your own National Fund

We urge all of the various national and continental groups to see if it is appropriate for them to start a similar travel fund.
 

For more information please contact,
Edi Birsan
(edi@mgames.com)