Effective immediately, I am resigning as the Chair of the World Pente Players' Federation. I regret that I cannot put in the time and effort necessary to properly execute the duties of the office in addition to organizing all the tournaments and building the website. The reasons for my action today are varied. I will give you a few. The rest are personal.
First, I am tired of receiving emails from people telling me that I am not doing enough or that I am doing things wrong or that I don't know what I am doing, etc. It angers me to no end that most of these people telling me this never offer to help, give suggestions or generally do anything but complain to me. I have given countless hours and some of my own money to this community from no other motivation than I enjoyed the people and I loved the game. Whatever I may have done wrong was done out of ignorance or excitement and where I have done wrong and someone has pointed to me what has been wrong I have done whatever I could have done to make things right. I am not without bounds. I also am not evil, I am not lazy, I am not stupid, I am not greedy, I am not a liar. And I'm tired of being called these things.
Second, other than Vivian Horton and Patricia Fisher, I have received very little help from anyone. It especially pisses me off that I have a continual stream of people saying that they will do this or that for the WPPF or for a tournament and they don't do it. It is one thing to be without help, it is another to have people offer help, promise to do something and it never get done. I am not without bounds, I cannot do everything.
Lastly, I am tired of having to justify and defend the legitimacy of the Federation as well as my own position within the organization. I and the Federation are legitimate by sheer dint of will and immense, staggering effort.
So I am going to conclude with some advice and a timeline. Whether or not you have tournaments is up to you, the players of Pente. Whether or not the WPPF thrives and eventually represents the community in such a way that new players are helped, old players are supported and the game remains challenging is up to you, the players of Pente. I am no longer going to waste my time trying to elicit help, build a website that no one uses or form an organization that apparently very few could care whether or not exists. To those who have put up money to help seed the WPPF and to those who provided invaluable assistance to me, I am extremely grateful and apologetic. It is not because of you that I am resigning, it is because of the complete lack of general effort and goodwill of the rest of the community. Not a one of you can ever say that the game was never given a fair chance, a solid start or a boost in the arm that you complained was never going to happen before this all took place. You have no one to blame but yourselves. Now is the time to put your money where your mouth is and get off your asses and do the things you promised you would do. I have done what I said I would and now that no one cares I am resigning.
Finally, I will be glad to send all the materials and documentation I have along with all my notes and project milestones to whomever may be willing to take over my position. I will not be playing nor attending the World Championship in Las Vegas in August. I will, however, do what is necessary to ensure that there is a place to play. There are players whom are closer to Vegas than I am who can probably make better arrangements for the tourney. I suggest you contact them and put pressure on them to spend a Saturday looking at facilities there. Patricia (partica) has control of the monies and you should direct any questions concerning budget or cost to her. (She can be contacted through the site here. Her username is partica). I will also continue to host the WPPF website until the domain registration expires which is October 9th, 2004. I will not continue to add features or update the website. There is a wealth of information on that site and I would hope that someone would take the time to be a good custodian of it.
I wish everyone good luck in continuing what I have started. It is up to you.
Greg Strange, Former Chair, World Pente Players' Federation
Re: Effective Immediately
Posted:
Jun 9, 2004, 7:50 AM
Greg, I'd just like to express my personal appreciation to you for all of your efforts on behalf of the game of pente, and to say that I hope that the ball will manage to keep rolling. Personally, I think that without your efforts someone else would have had to start things in your stead in order for Pente to have a resurgence in America, so believe me, your work has been no small accomplishment. Thank you, Tom
Retired from TB Pente, but still playing live games & exploring variants like D, poof and boat
Re: Effective Immediately
Posted:
Jun 11, 2004, 9:37 PM
Greg, I would also like to add my voice of appreciation & thanks. You have done quite a lot for the game, & on a more personal note, always been very pleasant to talk to. Hope we won't be seeing the last of you. - Bodo Konze
Posts:
16
Registered:
May 15, 2002
From:
washington state Home page
Re: Effective Immediately
Posted:
Aug 3, 2004, 12:44 AM
Greg I am sorry to see your efforts go to waste...***** slap me also for not doing my part here in the great nw..You go very much appriciated by many ..Your a sarcastic punk but someone who is very much into playing and having fun...Your skills in pente and computer work are some things others dont see.. I have known and played you for years and will miss your attitude.. Mick/Eric
