Dear Tournament Scrabble Players,

As many of you know, the National Scrabble Association (NSA) is abandoning its
support of the Scrabble tournament scene. Chris Cree has formed an organization,
North American Scrabble Players Association (NASPA), to assume the
tournament-related duties that were previously under the jurisdiction of the NSA
and to take over the National Scrabble Championship.

NASPA, which will receive only a minor stipend for the NSC from Hasbro, has
decreed that tournament-playing members must pay an annual $30 fee and that
tournaments must submit $1 per game played (as much as $23 per player for our
summer Reno event and what would have amounted to about $2500 out of last year's
prize fund), effective July 1st, which coincidentally is the start of our Reno
event. This mandate was not made with the consultation of the Reno tournament
organizers (Jeff Widergren and I), nor were we even notified directly. Instead,
we had to discover this information when it was uncovered by other tournament
directors on a website set up by NASPA.

In 2007, Chris Cree started a tournament called the Players Championship to be
held during the summer on "off years" from the NSC. Many voices on cgp, Jeff,
and I had asked that Reno be the venue for such a tournament, and Chris decided
and announced here on cgp that he would run one in Dayton in 2007 and allow us
to run one in Reno in 2009. The Dayton tournament did, of course, negatively
affect our Reno attendance in 2007. Immediately after Dayton, Chris Cree emailed
Jeff and me and stated that he had changed his mind, and that the tournament
would again be held in Dayton in 2009. We were quite disappointed with this
news, of course. NASPA has now apparently decided to make that tournament the
permanent NSC, not too surprisingly, as the Board of NASPA and much of its
Steering Committee is comprised of Dayton tournament organizers. Furthermore,
NASPA's decision to engage its new pricing to start with the Reno tournament
just seem to be further efforts to drive down the attendance at Reno. NASPA
still has not specified how it will allocate spending of the funds it collects,
nor does it have any intention of allowing the Scrabble players to elect its
Board or Steering Committee members.

So, after many difficult discussions, and repeated efforts to work out various
compromises with Chris, Jeff and I have decided that we are not willing to
accept the current terms of running a NASPA-sanctioned event. After holding our
own "town hall" meeting after the Campbell event this weekend, we believe that
many others agree with us that the players of the West Coast are
underrepresented in the decision-making processes of the new organization and
that NASPA's business plan or proposed budget should be made available before it
starts to collect money from the players. After nearly two years, Jeff and I
cannot continue to pretend to have faith that Chris Cree is working in the best
interests of the Reno tournament.

It is unfortunate that I have to announce at this time that the 2009 Reno West
Coast Championship will not be a NASPA-sanctioned event.

We will continue to make the Reno experience as fun, innovative, and exciting as
you have come to expect. We have moved back to the Grand Sierra Resort and
negotiated awesome room rates, substantially lower than last year. We have made
our entry fees more affordable in this challenging economy, yet we will continue
to pay out considerable prizes and as long as we are still able make our hotel
attendance goals, we will pay out 100% of the entry fees back to the players. We
will implement the new NSA ratings system and will do our best to encourage
other directors and cross-tables.com to accept post-Reno ratings, though we
understand that those people will likely be pressured by NASPA management to do
otherwise.

I do still have hope that we will soon figure out some compromises that will
make us one big happy family in the future, but I feel that we have to take this
step to let Chris Cree and NASPA know that we do not feel that our grievances
and issues are insignificant and should just be ignored.

Chris Cree mentioned to me that taking $2500 out of the prize fund is
insignificant, that the difference between a $3000 first prize and a $1500 first
prize is essentially meaningless. That is probably true for Chris and may well
be the truth in the future for this Scrabble tournament, but I hope that you
will come to Reno this summer and enjoy the big prize money and fun at least one
last time.

Sincerely,
Rick Wong
Director and co-organizer, 2009 Reno West Coast Championship

You can email Jeff Widergren at certs25_scrab@..., and he will be happy to
provide you with the full details of the email history of the 2007 Players
Championship.