Mind-boggling report on doin's in Salt City

[swag]

http://www.examiner.com/roller-derby-in ... open-wound

It's a pretty bizarre story, but I think this allegation takes the cake:

“The head ref for last season taught the girls illegal hitting tactics that would be hard for refs to detect. They included how to throw a punch or elbow.” Pushy says. “ It also included how to hide a nail or a shiv in a wrist guard so that it would be undetected during safety inspection and used later on the track.”

[Uff-da]

Nails? Shivs? What the hell?!?! I seriously hope that's not true!

[JeLLyPiG]

I'm looking forward to hearing DeeDs chatter about this one tomorrow. I hear they were smart enough to grab copies of the FB content before the site got yanked and I have been assured they will be chiming in on the controversy. Perhaps they will start a charity DVD Drive "Donate your copy of Hell on Wheels to the Salt City crowd".

[swag]

Nails and shivs. Yeah, gotta hope it's not true.

Maybe it was just a misunderstood bad joke.

Dunno. Too weird.

[sharkey]

Why would you need to hide a nail or shiv through inspection when I would imagine once properly trained it would be trivial to add/subtract from your equipment at any time.

I got to know a few of the SLC girls at Spudtown and while they had a passionate hate-on for Wasatch the remainder of the time they seemed like good people.

Very startling and oh so fills my drama quota for the day.

[Dr. Snark N. Stein]

WFTDA had contacted [a skater] and requested that she remove the [“Boycott Salt City Derby Girls”] page from Facebook because [WFTDA] felt it would reflect poorly on the sport. WFTDA also told [her] that they would be doing an internal investigation.

Based on how WFTDA simply deleted Cincinnati's Sadistic Sadie skater profile, I sort of understand why WFTDA would "request" that someone take down a Facebook page they thought looked bad. But I trust that the page's admins took it down only because they wanted to politely accommodate that request. :/


And how is WFTDA going to "investigate" a league? Especially one that's privately owned?

(And aren't all of the derby leagues independent of WFTDA anyway?)

[Dr. Snark N. Stein]

Truly one of the benefits of RCR being a 501c3 organization rather than a privately owned LLC. Lots of leagues have split or folded due to poor management by those claiming "ownership." It's hard to establish and accept private ownership in a grassroots culture.

Honestly, I don't see what difference being a 501c3 makes here. 501c3 status just requires that the organization doesn't exist to influence legislation, doesn't politically campaign, and doesn't make money for someone or some group.

I mean, churches are 501c3 organizations! That status certainly doesn't keep them from splitting, folding, or being poorly managed. :)

[sharkey]

I'm looking forward to hearing DeeDs chatter about this one tomorrow. I hear they were smart enough to grab copies of the FB content before the site got yanked and I have been assured they will be chiming in on the controversy. Perhaps they will start a charity DVD Drive "Donate your copy of Hell on Wheels to the Salt City crowd".

Insane. Smack n Deck Her was one of the players I got to know. She has some talent and her attitude at Spudtown was pure positive - it totally came out in the pictures.

[Smack Ya Sideways]

I am friends with the 3 girls that got this letter. I have talked to Smack and they all 3 have no clue why they got this letter.

[CynicalGuy]

If it's proven that this head ref taught skaters dangerous illegal tactics as well as how to hide dangerous objects in wrist guards, then this person IMO should be permanently banned from WFTDA bout competition.

[sharkey]

Honestly, I don't see what difference being a 501c3 makes here.

You're right, being a 501c3 doesn't necessarily mean being a better organization, but it does require an organization structure and clearly stated mission, management structure, membership, and bylaws and has to be open to the public. Basically- RCR can't be run by an individual or individuals with ever-changing motivations/private interests.

All WFTDA can do is revoke the league's membership in WFTDA (which only means exclusion from the Big 5 and WFTDA insurace). But they'll probably try to work with the league to get things sorted out.

But what can other leagues do?
For example could they just politely refuse bouts with this team right? Leagues have to play a # of other teams to keep there status, no?
Could someone like the people running Wild West Showdown pass them other for an invite?

I suspect there will be undocumented consequences ahead and for the league leadership who did this not to think it would happen speaks volumes.

[JeLLyPiG]

... (outstanding contracts notwithstanding)...

Outstanding like the scheduled May 13th AoA/Salt City Derby Girls @ the Hanger, outstanding?

[Buddha Ref]

Outstanding like the scheduled May 13th AoA/Salt City Derby Girls @ the Hanger, outstanding?

Uh huh. I wonder if the papers are signed for that one...

Or we could just switch it to Derby Daze '11 and add a couple of extra training session topics for refs...or not.

[Kill Nye]

An interesting quote:

I contacted League President Brew HaHa, and asked her about what had been said. “I started the Salt City Derby Girls, I run it, and I own it.”