ARA Meeting 8/17/26

Board Members In Attendance

  • Dave Bresnick

  • Tamas Erdos

  • Laura King

  • Claire Hernandez

  • Nathanael Kozinski

  • Jai Srivasta

  • Bichen Wang

  • Harrison Corp

  • Jenn Barr

  • Luke Morgan

  • Steve Augustin


Updates for WRC 2028 via Dave Bresnick

  • WRPM is going to be building rankings and WRL

  • The ARA qualification system will be honored

  • My expectation is that there will be around 40 seats for the US

    • About 8 of those seats to the ARA qualification system

    • 8 reserved for WRPM

    • The rest is through WRL

  • Dave will detach from ARA in the future and resigning from ARA

    • Still available as WRC representative

    • Laura remains contact for WRL and future WRC contacts

  • The ARA system will be honored

    • If you wish to continue down this path, feel free. 

  • Laura has a 2027 schedule for WRL as the primary way to qualify for WRC

  • We will have some direct qualifier events, too

  • Claire: This is the new process for 2026? The website says we already created the qualification cycle

  • Nate: question around international qualification.

    • All of Europe is handled with EMA

    • Some other countries

    • USPML distributes WRC seats

    • There should be some WRPM seats for region locked

    • Not sure what EMA does 

  • Does WRC want to push towards pro only?

    • Dave is pushing towards no, but there are many people involved

  • Feels like changing the rules mid season.

  • Are other countries going through this? 

  • Was the seat allocation decided by Dave?

    • Yes

  • Folks might wanted to have known earlier

  • This entire group is a volunteer basis 

  • Why would you not tell us earlier?

  • Let’s make an american system that works for america


Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • See above

  • Community engagement

    • Send pics

    • Patience from Laura for family health issues

    • 2027 WRL finals to be the same day as Europe’s

  • Tech

    • Jai fixed the qualification points

    • Adding club flow is the next step

    • We added a bunch of new clubs!

  • Communications

    • The tournament qualifications spreadsheet updated up to Toronto 2026

  • Education

    • Guide for folks to play in Japan

  • Rules and judging

    • Steve moved and is getting still in a busy period

    • 2 Seats available for the September ARA board meeting

  • IORMC

    • 1st qualifier tournament not too long ago

    • Shoutout to Edwin who has run these tournaments (and max who did it last year)

    • It’s hard to run it on tenhou! But it went really well, and the play was fantastic

    • Next session is the 30th

    • You do need to join 3 of the qualifiers, and you need to play at least 3, so there’s still time to join

  • Professional Organizations

    • Saikouisen

      • Saikouisen leagues are ongoing, new East Coast league

      • Seiryusen (3 rulesets) tournament in October

      • Junhan is playing in the Saikouisen Shinjinousen (rookie cup) in japan in 3 weeks

    • WRPM

      • New website for World Riichi Pros

      • It’s live at worldriichi.pro and will have more stuff soon!

      • Applications for the pro exam will open in September with the test in October

    • ARML

      • Everything going well, upcoming Fall season

Open Discussion

Event Announcements/Reminders


Closed Session

  • Certified a tournament

  • Next meeting September 28th

  • Discussion about having extra checks and requirements for first time tournaments to be certified for ARAbux

  • Discussion about system to certify judges and potential timeline for it

  • Discussion about observer reports

  • Discussion about Transition Plan regarding Dave Bresnick

  • Discussion and statement regarding the news shared tonight regarding the 2028 USA seat allocation

ARA Meeting 7/20/26

Board Members In Attendance

  • David Bresnick

  • Harrison Corp

  • Nathanael Kozinski

  • Claire Hernandez

  • Jenn Barr

  • Jai Srivistav

  • Laura King

  • Tamas Erdos

  • Luke Morgan


Working Group Updates

  • Education

    • Tiles sent over to rules/judging and comms 

    • Asking Jenn to help with the text and formatting for publishing.

    • Red 5 differences planned next

  • Tech

    • A bunch of new features have been added! 

    • Quality Point scores updated but need DNF numbers and will have a reupload feature soon

    • Database is live with QP but slightly inaccurate so please hold while they get updated

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Discussions around NAO

    • May or may not have a seat associated with it

    • Multiple clubs could host it

    • Invitational is fairly similar to ERMC; we don’t seed in other countries’ players, but it is the pinnacle event

    • NAO also traditionally a 3 day tournament and the WRC seat helps it

    • Needs something to differentiate it from any other open

    • What is an incentive for a club to run an NAO? 

      • It’s just another open

      • It’s just a rebranding of an existing open effectively

    • There are so many other tournaments. 

    • Designed to grow the scene and to give the US a prestige tournament

    • Invitational basically has replaced what NAO used to be

    • Last Chance Qualifier to replace it?

  • Community engagement

    • Tag Laura in photos.

    • Basically a tournament every weekend at this point! 

    • Send Laura the details so she can promote it, even 1-day tournaments like the Colorado one day.

  • Communications

    • WRC rankings up to date.

    • Vancouver to submit soon, as they have 2 weeks to submit as they just finished yesterday

    • Running into a couple of bugs regarding the spreadsheet and website not matching, so we’re getting there

    • Agenda and minutes, etc. 

    • Need some assembly member updates

  • Rules and judging

    • Steve has no updates

    • Should we get an FAQ?

      • Here’s a guide on rulings in certain situations and why

  • Incorporation

    • No updates for now

  • Professional Organizations

    • Saikouisen

      • Shinjinousen (rookie tournament) happening

      • American League is happening

      • Pinfu Center is now open in NYC!

    • WRPM

      • WRL - rankings!!!

        • Based on your best consecutive 16 games

        • 27/189 current participants that have 16 games

        • A lot of people have 12+ games just, need a few more games!

      • M League event was successful!

      • We had a signing ceremony between WRPM and JPML, NPM, Rengo, and RMU as a reciprocal partner agreement

      • Sending Amy to play in Japan 

        • Expect your WRL ranking to have some impact on that selection

      • 2027 WRL cycle in planning 

      • Full pro title match (in planning)

      • JPML has a dispatch program

    • ARML

      • Corak 3x champion fo A1 (and taking a hiatus)

      • 176 active players (219 including hiatus) over 38 states

      • 500th player just got added, round of applause for ARML!!!

  • Election

    • 1 more spot open; nominate yourself!

    • Next meeting, all nominees will get a chance to speak

      • Steve will be running this election as he’s officially on the board now.

  • IORMC

    • 5 am eastern 

    • If you are interested in participating, you must be a citizen or permanent resident of the US. You can use your legal name or a nickname

    • Qualification system 

      • 4 qualifiers, must play in 3 out of 4

      • There’s a tournament every weekend in August

        • Apologies to toronto open. 

      • September dates are open

      • Noon start pacific (3pm eastern)

      • 4 hours ish as it’s 4 hanchan

      • Standard tenhou rules.

    • In the past it used to start 8 am pt / 11 am est

      • Wanted to make it easier for the highest number of people to participate.

    • Previous years may have been citizen only, but this year, PR is okay. 

    • Edwin has been compiling the entire history of previous IORMC

    • Your name could be on the roster for this year!

Event Announcements/Reminders

  • WROTL

    • Not too late to sign up! 

    • A 1 year or 6 months ron2 account, check your spam folder

    • Marimo has been having a lot of fun on ron2

Open Discussion

  • Recertification is done

    • Arizona submitted the cert form, not recert, but for the most part everyone’s recert is done

Closed Session

  • Discussion about process to streamline putting clubs on the database map

    • Need to change or streamline email and approval process

  • Certified several tournaments

  • Discussed reaching out to a certified tournament about a potential issue that might occur to them

  • Discussion about if Thurs/Fri tournaments would be able to be eligible for certification

  • Next meeting August 17th

ARA Meeting 6/15/2026

Board Members In Attendance

  • Laura King

  • Harrison Corp

  • Tamas Erdos

  • Nathanael Kozinski

  • Steve Augistin

  • Jai Srivastav

  • Bichen Wang

  • David Bresnick

  • Jenn Barr


Elections Update

  • Three incumbents that applied for election, Steve, Bichen, and Claire, automatically repeat their seats

  • One special seat up for election coming July

    • Going to talk to the assembly about whether to delay the election or not


Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Nobody else has signed up for hosting the 2028 ARA invitational 

    • It’s been 6 months, so we are going to do an up/down vote to host the invitational at PML in 2028

  • Community engagement

    • Send pics of your events!

    • Congrats to Kaden for winning the Saikouisen Shinkisen tournament!

  • Tech

    • Tech still working on things, going to iron out small features over the coming months

    • Merged Claude for the coding side of things

  • Communications

    • Discord roles updated

    • Consider giving some boosts to the ARA discord server!

  • Education

    • Education got images in for the tile set, thank you for submissions!

    • Expected to be submitted by next meeting

    • Made handshuffle writeup and handed over to the rules and judging group

  • Rules and judging

    • Still working on ruleset tweaks and standardized penalties for an ARA guidelines

  • Incorporation

    • Kyle put together some pros and cons for options, expect more updates in the future!

  • Professional Organizations

    • Saikouisen

      • Pro exam - 21 new members. 

      • Shinkansen last weekend (Saikouisen pro only tournament). Congrats to Kaden for winning it!

      • Pro AMA won by Kristy. Going to japan to compete among all the Pro AMA winners

    • WRPM

      • Huge event at the end of June is coming up!

      • New pros rolling around the world right now

      • Lots of engagement with WRL

      • Quincy won WRL 2025!!!

    • ARML

Open Discussion

  • Scoring software released by Kyle from BAMS

    • Recommended to talk to Rules and Judging as well as Tech on its ability to be used at certified tournaments, as technology at the table is a tricky issue

  • Assembly Recertification

    • Done first pass. Got responses from everyone basically. Probably be done shortly. A couple of assembly members who are switching. Making sure everyone filled out the form, etc.

Event Announcements/Reminders

  • World Riichi Online Champions League week 3 coming up 

    • Of the US teams, DC, Riichi Nomi, and MARs (Boston) are all still in the tournament 

    • Next round this Saturday!

  • WROTL sign ups are now open!

  • Airi has finished the Extra Life Open charity stream. Reached over double the goal!

  • IORMC happening at the end of the year. We are eligible and will be beginning the process for a team selection

  • DC’s Mega Mahjong Tournament 2nd Saturday of August (8th)

    • American, Hong Kong, and Riichi Mahjong for one big super tournament

  • Philly June monthly tournament is Sunday June 28th

  • Seattle happening end of September


Closed Session

  • Discussed certification of several tournaments

  • Discussed a complaint about a non-ARA related event

  • Charm City applied for Assembly

  • Next meeting voted on to be July 20th post meeting

ARA Meeting 5/18/26


Board Members In Attendance

  • Dave Bresnick

  • Luke Morgan

  • Laura King

  • Harrison Corp

  • Jenn Barr

  • Steve Augustin

  • Claire Hernandez

  • Nate Kozinski

  • Bichen Wang


Annual Board Meeting Presentations

  • [*These largely replaced normal working group updates]

  • Jai

    • Saikouisen Liason

    • Helped out with website

    • Recertification document and running the club recertification process

    • Will be participating in Incorporation WG

  • Jenn

    • Helping around to various groups and updates from Japan

    • Writing seminars

    • Will take over/help out with US Rankings WG

  • Luke

    • Heads Education WG

    • Information about new clubs and how to run tournaments and such

    • Gathering info about various mahjong topics

    • Code of conduct, pairing analyzer, tile identification, pro org rules translation and conversion from auto tables to hand shuffle, tournament rules shorthand, and how to visit a parlor in Japan

    • Also backup for Jai for Saikouisen

  • Claire and Harrison

    • Comms

    • Keeping the ARAbux up to date

      • Special thanks to Ember for making this spreadsheet

    • Certification and following tournament organizing

    • Discord revamp!

    • Getting people signed up on the ARA website and support for the website

    • 60 clubs! Make sure you get 4 people in the discord to get your custom icon! Post your logo!

    • ARA printout, newsletter, blog posts, and better calendar

    • 400 people registered to tournaments!

    • More assembly members from large clubs

    • More frequent updates on the website/instagram/discord etc.

    • Getting more clubs registered to ARA

  • Dave

    • WRC 2028 - want this to be the biggest and best riichi tournament

    • The US has a great community and probably is the biggest outside Japan at this point

    • WRPM and WRL with Laura

    • Exchange program for players from Japan and the US

  • Tamas

    • Tech WG & ARA portal

    • Pro orgs, tournament results upload, calendar, and APIs

    • Tech WG people need more people!!!

  • Laura

    • Community Engagement

    • Spent 6 months on medical leave 🙁

    • Documented WRC 2025 and the ARA invitational

    • Posting images from your meetup

    • Office hours with Nate

      • Great example is ‘how to run your first tournament’

    • Running the next election

  • Steve

    • Observer reports are all in the database

    • Rules WG

    • ARA Open Tournaments Penalties Project

    • Mini guides, short-form content, and judging expertise

    • Tahai and shouhai chombos are extremely unpopular

    • Maybe consider some sho-chombo penalties

    • Keep competitive integrity but also not be too harsh for new players

  • Bichen

    • 2028 cycle and tournament certification

    • Prepping for the 2028 ARA Invitational

    • Gathering info about the 2031 cycle

  • Nate

    • Tech WG Bug Hunter

    • US Rankings - on hiatus

    • Advocate for players who do not have a home club

    • ARAbux audit and updating all past tournaments and to update upcoming in person and online events

    • Some kind of championship that involves all clubs in the area

    • Create written materials for player development

    • If anyone is interested in teaching or localization, ping nate

    • Defense, building towards value, efficiency, etc

  • Max

    • IORMC

    • Hosted the qualifying tournaments for IORMC and managed the team

    • Consultant for Nate for running tournaments

  • [Link to copy of presentation: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/14haEoMOpUXzHjHSkzDhbPmvVZAFYAhrv2cry3cnjijY/edit?usp=sharing ]

Additional Updates and Discussion

  • Elections coming up for Claire, Steve, Bichen, and Max

    • Please nominate yourself

    • If you want to nominate someone, talk to them so they can nominate themself

    • June meeting will be election pitches

      • Why do you want to be on the board, what do you hope to accomplish, etc.

    • It’s a ranked choice ballot led by Laura

    • Ross volunteers to be the player at large to certify the election

  • Education

    • Modification of pro org rules from auto tables to hand shuffle

    • https://mahjong-ny.com/news/converting-pro-rules-to-handshuffle-events/ 

    • DM luke for discussion

    • Need photos for weird tile sets

  • Pro orgs

    • WRPM update

      • M league event in Vegas and New York at the end of June!

        • Absolutely incredible line up and meet all your m league celebrities and Jenn!

      • WRL in Vegas next weekend

        • ‘Riichi’ out to Laura if you want to come to vegas!

        • Jenn is working on this tournament. WRL passport - prizes. 4th-6th for free entry into all WRL events (worldwide)! (also auto tables available as prizes!!!)

    • Saikouisen

      • 3300 point diff for 1st/2nd for Ryuousen! Congrats to Danny

      • Pro Exam first weekend of June

      • M league event - shinkisen for pro members only for a seat in the tournament in December

    • ARML

      • Edwin flying back from Ryuousen

      • Going great

  • NAO

    • Likely to be September 2027 but not confirmed


Closed Session

  • Certified several tournaments

  • Next meeting June 15th, 2026

  • Nominations for Board members should go out tomorrow

ARA Meeting 4/27/26

Board Members In Attendance

  • David Bresnick

  • Bichen Wang

  • Max Suddendorf

  • Claire Hernandez

  • Laura King

  • Luke Morgan

  • Nathanael Kozinski 

  • Steve Augustin

  • Jai Srivastav

  • Jenn Barr

  • Harrison Corp (Towards End of Meeting)


Working Group Updates

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • Finals for 2025 WRL Cycle in June

      • Pro exams coming up!

      • Many WRLs coming up, both Majors and Minors!

      • M league event in June!!!

      • Early bird ends May 15th!

    • Saikouisen

      • Saikouisen pro exam June 6th

      • Shinkisen happening soon, for new people

      • Ryuousen mid May

    • ARML

      • 2028 WRC Cycle

        • Point totals based on A1

        • Beginning of 2026 until summer 2027 so there’s time to plan to go to the invitational

      • ARML numbers relatively the same as last seasons

      • 37/50 states represented

      • Roughly 50 different groups/clubs.

      • Third of members listed as unaffiliated

      • Sign up for summer now! (also looking for subs)

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • No current updates

  • Community engagement

    • Assembly reverification

      • Vote passed, form will go out

      • Give them a month or two, maybe coincide with the annual meeting

    • Please continue sending photos to #local-clubs

    • If your club is doing exciting things, please share!

    • Shot some content about tile shuffling in Mexico

  • Tech

    • Non-tournament events can now be added on the ARA database

  • Communications

    • ARA points updated

      • Please be patient when changes are happening as they could be temporarily inaccurate

    • Working on more accurate tracking with tournament deadlines for submitting whatever is necessary (observer report, tournament report, rankings, etc)

    • Some general website updates

    • Updating club contacts and ways to disseminate information

  • Education

    • Still working on tile image information

      • There is a thread to collect images on the discord, please feel free to contribute to it!

      • Especially if there are any non-standard tiles or weird stylized ones

  • Rules and judging

    • Filmed some videos about tile shuffling in Mexico

    • How to pay for hands (number of tenbo per person)

    • Ryukyouku being early/late and rules clarification about it

    • JPML rules - recently changed shouhai/taahai to be dead hand

      • Gives ARA other example of ruleset to be able to make it no longer a chombo with a hand reset

    • Observer reports uploaded

    • Have some blog post ideas

  • Incorporation

    • Starting now and moving forward with looking into different types of incorporation

      • Reach out for more info or if interested in providing support!

Open Discussion

  • Comms to push RFP for the ARA invitational to June

  • Discussion on multiple events being on the same weekend

    • More organizers are hosting events, so some events will be closer to each other and people will have to prioritize events

    • We encourage organizers to work with each other and to try and reserve weekends in the ARA DB for weekends they will host their event

    • ARA is not doing a schedule enforcement

  • Annual Meeting

    • Annual Meeting is May with the annual working group updates

    • Also will review who is up for re-election and how many seats there will be

      • This includes a call for nominations and applicants

      • Candidate introductions are June, elections for two weeks afterwards.

      • Board members installed in July

Event Announcements/Reminders

  • Riichi Nomi Open signups open at 9 pm eastern THIS WEDNESDAY!!!

    • Cap will be announced tomorrow!

  • 10 ish seats left for North Texas Open in August, sign up while you can!


Closed Session

  • Next meeting May 18th

    • It’s the annual meeting, have a recap ready!

  • Certified several events

  • Adding a checkbox to the event certification form for the event to also intend to be eligible for ARAbux

  • Planning to reach out to clubs that do not have an assembly member even though they have plenty of people to apply

  • Starting plan to reach out to club contacts to make sure they are active and still best point of contact for clubs

  • Starting to discuss plans for IORMC 2026 with frequency of events in normal qualifying time period

  • Discussed a complaint about a community member

  • Discussed penalties and what we can suggest for fair rulesets that align with community rule friction

ARA Meeting 3/23/26

Board Members In Attendance

  • Steve Augustin

  • David Bresnick

  • Harrison Corp

  • Tamas Erdos

  • Laura King

  • Nathanael Kozinski

  • Luke Morgan

  • Claire Pozniak

  • Jai Srivistav

  • Bichen Wang


Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • No responses currently for invitational hosting

      • There are several difficulties for this, including trying to price out an event two years in advance and committing to a venue that far down the line as well

    • Comms to circulate form for hosting trying to increase candidates by May meeting

    • Choosing the host can be later, e.g. Jan 2027

  • Tech

    • Pro Organizations now represented in the DB

    • Saikouisen has 9

    • WRPM only 3, make sure to sign up!

    • If people are asking where to play in person, point them to the website! (Props to Tamas!)

    • Are there any plans to unify the two halves of the website (webpage and DB)? If you go to one of them, it can be confusing to get to the other/what information can be found on what part

      • Pull requests are open. Please provide some feedback to streamline the user experience!

    • Confusing for certified tournaments that aren’t on website and/or DB yet

      • Check the discord! It should have been announced in the event announcements for ARAbux to count.

    • Action items: Accurate calendar, and getting this new tournament submission process streamlined

  • Communications

    • Oklahoma and Virginia Beach reportings completed!

    • Proposed Assembly recertification process: 

      • Assembly members will fill out a form once a year checking several things 

        • Does your club exist, have 12 people, etc.

    • Jai to run form

    • Discussion on what to do about assembly members who aren’t voting

      • Discussed idea of having minimum participation for voting

      • Discussed possibly emailing club to say that assembly member has been inactive

      • ARA wants it to be easier to have clubs be represented

    • Harrison missed the Newsletter for February, hopefully one out this month since DC will be done!

  • US Rankings

    • On hiatus, still looking for a new Working Group head!

  • Education

    • Player code of conduct done and ready for ratification 

    • If your club uses a nonstandard set (not Amos, ymi, or taobao), send pictures to Luke for reference please!

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • WRL schedule is basically full!

        • April is PML, Sparrows Nest, and NTML

        • May Vegas and Online majors

        • June minor Cincinnati NTML

        • July Major Philly, minors Vegas & Seattle

        • August DC minor, NTML major

        • Sept sparrow nest major, Seattle minor

      • Mleague events tickets starting Friday!

        • Details coming in the next 24 hours

    • Saikouisen

      • Ryuousen tournament registration is open! (deadline May 1st) and the event is two weeks after that

      • June 6th and 7th pro exam (registration deadline May 5th)

    • ARML

      • Season went pretty well but still some growing pains with scheduling

      • Not that far behind on games

      • Next season starts on April 6th!

  • Rules and judging

    • Lower penalties updates still pending

    • The Working Group will have guidance soon around this

  • Community engagement

    • Gonna make some content soon!

    • Differences between ladder and sks/wrc rulesets/environments 

  • Incorporation

    • On pause until May, if you’re interested in helping out you can reach out to Comms before then!

Open Discussion

  • N/A

Event Announcements/Reminders

  • DC Open this weekend!!!

  • PML Invitational and Team Tournament approaching soon!


Closed Session

  • Ratified and discussed several tournaments

  • Discussed swiss scramble specifics with DCO TO and Head Judge

  • Player code of conduct sent for review

  • Post OKC Open Riichi Discussion

    • Problem occurred where players could potentially manually try to deal in to a furiten wait, baiting player to chombo if they especially have a more complicated wait shape

    • Discussion around this topic, with potential problems and solutions

  • Next Meeting April 27th!

ARA Meeting 2/23/26

Meeting Minutes

Board Members In Attendance

  • Claire Pozniak

  • Jai Srivistav

  • Jenn Barr

  • Laura King

  • Nathanael Kozinski

  • Steve Augustin

  • Harrison Corp

  • Tamas Erdos

  • Bichen Wang


Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Get your RFPs in to host the 2028 US ARA Invitational! 

      • No Current responses

  • Tech

    • Implemented support for joining multiple clubs as well as pro organizations

      • Sign up!

  • Communications

    • Claire going to be out until late April

    • Harrison made a monthly newsletter, let him know what you think about it!

      • Piggybacking off the newsletter, planning to take another look at email system for ARA to add that in information circulation

  • US Rankings

    • Need a new head for this working group. Kathy will help out from now on, if interested message her!

  • Education

    • Etiquette Guideline in final stages

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • Dave is in Japan finalizing the big m league event in June

        • Vegas June 26th-28th -> NY June 29th-30th, save the dates!

      • Date for 2025 WRL finals TBA! 

      • WRL 2026 starts in April

    • Saikouisen

      • Pro Exam last weekend, the results are out

        • 9 new pros all on the east coast!

    • ARML

      • Things are running smoothly for Winter 2026 season, signup before Spring 2026!

  • Rules and judging

    • Having a talk with OKC this weekend about open riichi

      • Couple of weird interactions with lower penalties and open riichi, making sure they are aware

      • Deliberate deal ins are part of the rules, so dealing in is legal with open riichi

    • Short form content about etiquette and rules will hopefully be started up soon 

      • If you have any ideas for it, let Steve or Laura know!

  • Community engagement

    • If you’re looking at doing some content for Laura, let her know!

      • It would be a loose script on what to do; if you aren’t great at improv, your project is the wall building challenge!

  • Incorporation

    • On pause until May, if you’re interested in helping out you can reach out to Comms before then!

Open Discussion

  • Online Tournament Certification

    • Need a different set of standards for online tournaments 

    • There hasn’t been much of a push for this since there isn’t a way for it to be worth points, will be visited in the future 

  • Pro Taco Night

    • Rochester has a tradition of having a taco night for the new saikouisen pros, feel free to join them and host your own!

Event Announcements/Reminders

  • Check the Newsletter!


Closed Session

  • Discussed Riichi Rising Tournament post event

  • Certified several tournaments (be looking out for the announcements)

  • Adding a checkmark for the certification form that has applying events mark if they want to also be eligible for qualifying for ARABux

ARA Meeting 1/26/26

Meeting Minutes


Board Members In Attendance

  • David Bresnick

  • Steve Augustin

  • Laura King

  • Claire Pozniak

  • Max Suddendorf

  • Nathanael Kozinski

  • Harrison Corp

  • Bichen Wang

  • Jenn Barr


Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Assembly will receive the RFP form for hosting the 2028 ARA invitational

    • Presentations for proposals will happen at the March Meeting (if there are a reasonable number of proposals)

  • Tech

    • Caught up for the 2025 Observer Reports

    • Future Observer Reports will be uploaded in the database

    • Going forward, TO responses will be kept to clarifications to the Observer Report 

  • Communications

    • Claire made a tracker in google sheets for all the upcoming tournaments

    • Harrison is looking to make a monthly newsletter

      • If you are interested in helping please reach out to him!

  • US Rankings

    • No current updates

  • Education

    • Board finalizing etiquette guidelines

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • Laura is Administrative Pro - North American director for World Riichi League

      • 6 month schedule of minor and major events starting in April, with opportunities for clubs to host across the US and Canada

      • Best streak of 16 hanchan

      • Top 4 non-WRPM participants receive a coupon for the WRPM Test

      • One WRC seat given to the winner of the finals

      • Top placed non WRPM participant at each major gets a 1-hour mentoring session with one of our US pros

      • Clubs don’t need to pay fees to World Riichi Organization to host

      • Generally OK to give normal discounts to events to members

      • WRL will help promote the event. A major problem last year was the timing issues which the sixth month season hopes to address

      • Straight WRC aka nashi for the ruleset

      • Comms are going out for the Feb finals at the end of the month.

      • Minimum attendance is 12 for Minors, 20 for Majors with no maximum for either

      • WRPM Pros are not required to be part of the event but it is nice to attend them

    • Saikouisen

      • Register for the Saikouisen pro exam if you’re interested!

    • ARML

      • Finished 2025 championships, Corak won!

      • Sign ups are open for Spring 2026 that should start in April

  • Rules and judging

    • Poking WRC people for lower penalties

  • Community engagement

    • Send Laura social media content! 

      • Look at Riichi Nomi content. How quickly can you build a wall @ other clubs?

    • Club Recaps!

  • Incorporation

    • No current updates

Open Discussion

  • No Open Discussion

Event Announcements/Reminders

  • Check the Newsletter!

Closed Session

  • Discussed Riichi Rising Tournament for Virginia Beach with the TO and Head Judge

    • Gave them an official warning for breaking certification guidelines for the announcement and signups of event

    • Discussed their tournament gameplan and other certification requirements to ensure they are in compliance for their event

  • Discussed recertification for assembly clubs and clubs in general

    • Making some initial proposals then sending to assembly for final decisions

ARA Meeting 12/15/25

Meeting Minutes

Board Members In Attendance

  • Dave Bresnick

  • Laura King

  • Steve Augusten

  • Claire Pozniak

  • Tamas Erdos

  • Nathanael Kozinksi

  • Max Suddendorf

  • Jai Srivastav

  • Harrison Corp

  • Jenn Barr

  • Luke Morgan


Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Vote for 32+ seats passed so if we do get more than 32 seats for the US amateur circuit, the top QP getters will get automatic seats to WRC 2028. This is still relatively unlikely due to how seats will likely be allocated

    • We are making the form for the Proposals to host the ARA invitational for Jan 2028, be looking out for it

  • Tech

    • Jai implemented a quality of life feature for uploading tournament results, almost ready for release

  • Communications

    • All info is up to date

    • Got accurate info from some GLRO attendees to make sure tournament tracking was correct

    • Jenn to post blog updates regularly, check them out on the website!

    • Harrison had minutes out a bit late this month, be expecting them sooner in the future

  • US Rankings

    • Kathy built an ELO spreadsheet and website tracker demo, will help with data visualization and input

  • Education

    • Etiquette list - everyone’s stuff has been collated in the education channel

      • If you have anything else, DM Luke!

    • Short discussion about potentially making a document that players see and agree to before participating in ARA ratified tournaments

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • Working on schedule for 2026

      • Finished up final Majors for 2025. 

        • WRL Finals info is getting assembled. It’s in February, more info TBA

      • Next test date is in March, and applications are opening soon for that.

    • Saikouisen

      • Here’s our new website! https://www.saikouisen-usa.com/

      • East Coast Pro Exam coming up

      • Bay Area, Seattle, LA, and Philly having Pro Amas tournaments

      • Schedule is out for 2026, give it a look!

    • ARML

      • If you sign up, please commit to playing the full season

      • Next season will have all full divisions

  • Rules and judging

    • Been compiling the reports and judge oddities from 2025’s tournaments

      • We need a lot of data to make this valuable

    • Will hopefully get caught up on observer reports by January

    • TO responses to observer reports are optional, you can say thanks or respond to anything in the observer report and will be given a chance to do so before it is published, but you are not required to

  • Community engagement

    • Send your content to Laura or the ARA Riichi account for fun holiday events, yakuman, or anything else!

    • ARA Assembly Clubs - Year in review

      • Submit some kind of recap for each assembly member

      • Text dump of activity, slide show of photos, music video, you can make a broadway production if you want 

      • Post in the assembly when finished! 

      • Hopefully project ready by January meeting

  • Incorporation

    • No current updates

  • IORMC

    • The event happened, we did not place particularly well. A few good individual results. 

    • There was an instance of accused collusion not involving US players, but after an investigation by IORMC they did not find conclusive proof of collusion

Open Discussion

  • No Open Discussion

Event Announcements/Reminders

  • Oklahoma Riichi Open with Open Riichi March 14th! Sign up now!

  • DC Open 2026 is March 28th (87/152 cap) - Early registration ends at the end of January!!!

  • Kansas City Riichi Mahjong hosting Heart of America Riichi Tournament May 30th! Stay tuned for more info!

  • Multiple clubs are hosting holiday parties, check in with your local club about them!

Closed Session

  • Discussed Riichi Rising Tournament for Virginia Beach

    • [Ratified post meeting, coming up on February 21st]

  • Some discussion on the etiquette guide list

  • Revisiting Discussion related to a banned player by Canadian Council

    • ARA was waiting for more information by the Canadian Council before next steps, now that it has been considerable time we are revisiting the topic

    • Statement to be released by ARA for assembly and public, be looking out for it soon

ARA Meeting 11/17/2025

Meeting Minutes

Board Members In Attendance

  • David Bresnick

  • Nathanael Kozinksi

  • Tamas Erdos

  • Claire Pozniak

  • Harrison Corp

  • Jai Srivastav

  • Laura King

  • Steve Augustin


Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Board voted to send vote out to assembly

  • Tech

    • Presentation about Database future as well as the website

    • WG is under-resourced 

      • One coder, zero designers, limited input from board, no regular meeting schedule

      • Please reach out to Tamas if interested in helping!

    • Progress on several new features for DB

      • Let Tamas of Comms know what features you want to see!

    • Claire interested in picking up tournament lifecycle management

  • Communications

    • WRC USA rankings up to date on the website, several new tournaments added: https://www.nariichi.org/wrc-2028-qualification

    • Blog posts to go up soon!

    • If you know the dates for tournaments/events for your club, put them into the DB calendar!

      • Events don’t have to be ARA ratified to be on the calendar

  • US Rankings

    • Need help with data entry, if interested reach out to Kathy or Comms!

  • Education

    • Collating peoples etiquette points and moments for next month release

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • Testing is done, next month we will announce new pros!

      • Dec. Sparrows nest open is both WRL and ARA event

      • Wait list is being ground through, may still have a chance to sign up!

    • Saikouisen

      • East Coast Pro Exam late February, stay tuned for more details!

    • ARML

      • Get your games scheduled! New playoffs in a month!

  • Rules and judging

    • Waiting to meet with WRC about rules stuff

    • Strike system - technical strikes not really worth using

    • Announcing behavior strikes caused people to not disturb others

  • Community engagement

    • Make sure you are putting events in the DB calendar!!!

  • Incorporation

    • Our first working group meeting will be 11/25 Tuesday at 10pm ET / 7pm PT

    • Assigning research on different incorporation models pros and cons with goal of presenting to December board meeting

  • IORMC

    • Survey going out in the next week or two for IORMC cycle and communications will circulate it

    • Focus on making next year’s more accessible to more participants

Open Discussion

  • Discussion around Open Riichi

    • Currently an allowable mod, you must show your whole hand, and judge marks any deal-ins

    • OK will run at their tournament, will be a good data point to gather more info

Event Announcements/Reminders

  • DCO 2026 

    • 10 guaranteed hanchan!!! Aka nashi!!! In the mid 60s atm. Early bird pricing until Feb 1st, $115 afterwards


Closed Session

  • Discussion around organizations being able to use database without being a club

    • Ok to do as long as Board has discretion with it

  • Tournament Certifications

    • Several tournaments to update tournament info and check back in for certification

    • Oklahoma Riichi Open 2026 approved!

  • Discussion on various rules topics

  • Community Engagement End of Year Check-in

    • Nate and Laura to host round table to engage assembly members

      • Will discuss what clubs did, what challenges they face, what they are looking forward to

  • Next meeting will be on December 15th

ARA Meeting 10/20/25

Meeting Minutes

Board Members In Attendance

  • Steve Augusten

  • Jenn Barr

  • Dave Bresnick

  • Harrison Corp

  • Laura King

  • Nathanael Kozinski

  • Luke Morgan

  • Claire Pozniak

  • Jai Srivasta

  • Max Suddendorf

  • Bichen Wang


Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

  • Tech

    • Presentation planned for November with future of Tech group and 2026 goals

    • Adding more people to the Database

    • Tournament scores accurate and entered in Database

  • Communications

    • Added some new clubs on the map

    • Putting together a working group on potential incorporation of the ARA. If interested message Claire!

  • US Rankings

    • About 60% done with data entry

    • Looking for more volunteers to help with this!

  • Education

    • Planning on an etiquette document next

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • Pro Test happening and results TBA

      • 2026 WRL Season will feature some changes, stay tuned!

    • Saikouisen

      • Pairs tournament happened this past weekend

      • We will be hosting a Ryuousen Tour, and we are already sending 2 players to the January 17th Ryuousen!

      • Next Pro Test to be held on February 21st 2022 at the Philly Maw-Jawn clubhouse! $200 per person, sign up now!

    • ARML

      • Winter season underway!

  • Rules and judging

    • Had a meeting with Harrison about the Strike System

      • Mainly on how to handle behavioral strikes like keeping tables quiet and respectful, etc.

  • Community engagement

    • If you are hosting a tournament and have pictures, please tag Laura!

    • Kansas City has offered to help and would love to have representation from other parts of the country for engagement videos

    • 2026 Development session occurred, looking at redoing core values and mission statement

  • Charity

    • No current updates

  • IORMC

    • Qualifiers successfully concluded! Our 4 competitors and 2 alternates are:

      • Matthew M

      • Jerry H

      • Brian W

      • Junhan C

      • Alternates: Kaysen L, Zelong L

    • Cheer them on during the tournament in November!


Closed Session

  • Sparrow’s Nest Open 2025 Certified!

  • DC Riichi Open 2026 Certified!

ARA Meeting 9/22/25

Meeting Minutes

Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Still debating what to do with excess of 32 WRC seats for 2028

    • Will have a vote for pushing to Quality Point system, as well as for a bucket swiss potentially for qualifier

  • Tech

    • Had a bunch of updates for Quality Points, as well as bug fixes

    • Planning to add non-club organizations (Professional Organizations)

    • Getting a template made for all things a TO would need to submit post tourney

  • Communications

    • Updated the 2028 qualification cycle results with several tournaments

    • One Page Printout for conventions was made! Working on getting it on Website

  • US Rankings

    • Starting weekly meetings for organized discussion, stay tuned for more updates!

  • Education

    • Still working on tile set educational document. Stay tuned!

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • Pro Exam signups are closing soon (in two weeks!)

      • Practice test for the pro exam is up!

    • Saikouisen

      • Shinki-sen tournament starts in October

      • Saikouisen Festa will be early next year

      • For any Saikouisen pros on the east coast, message Luke about a future league!

    • ARML

      • Summer season is wrapping up with Fall season welcoming 21 new people!

      • Reminder that ARML will be giving out 4 seats to the 2028 ARA invitational!

  • Rules and judging

    • We are in the planning stages of a joint project for short form content for rules and judging based on etiquette and penalties

  • Community engagement

    • Working with rules and judging on short form content

    • Reminder about our office hours for open conversations!

  • Charity

    • No current updates

  • IORMC

    • About to start the qualifiers for the US team, sign up now!

General Updates and Events/Shoutouts

  • Planning calendar for 2026 On the ARA website. Also in the event-planning channel especially if you have a target weekend in mind and want to check if other weekends are close before committing to it

  • Notre Dame University now has a club, check it out if you’re in the area!

Closed Session

  • Discussion on certification related items

  • Discussion on various other topics


ARA Meeting 8/18/25

ARA Meeting Minutes

Board Members In Attendance

  • Steve Augusten

  • Jenn Barr

  • Dave Bresnick

  • Harrison Corp

  • Laura King

  • Nathanael Kozinski

  • Luke Morgan

  • Claire Pozniak

  • Jai Srivastav

  • Bichen Wang

Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Survey is out for suggestions on what to do in the event we are given more than 32 seats to the 2028 WRC, form can be found here: https://forms.gle/3t95wPVVgq29jPQW7

    • Invitational is designed for 32 or fewer seats, and we will not know until ~Nov 2027 how many seats are given

      • With the invitational Jan 2028, we would need to settle what to do about additional seats no later than Feb 2028

  • Tech

    • Adjustments to the 2028 Qualifying Points results coming very soon!

    • Upgrading to a bigger server to address sight slowdown soon

    • If you have any questions direct them to Tech Working Group!

  • Communications

    • Making a one page printout clubs can use at events to direct people to the ARA Database map to find their local club

    • Update to Tournament Policies after Assembly vote

    • If you notice communication problems or points of friction, please put them in the communications working group channel in discord, or reach out to Claire/Harrison!

  • US Rankings

    • No current updates

  • Education

    • Complaints about Manzu and hard to read/different tiles at tables

      • Working on potential solutions to address this/what TO’s can do to help players

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • Next World Riichi Pro test will be Oct 4-5th. Registration deadline is Sep 20th

    • Saikouisen

      • USA Pro Leagues B and C started last month and were streamed

    • ARML

      • ARML is the biggest it has ever been!

      • Registration deadline for next season is September 8th

  • Rules and judging

    • Strike System will be used at GLRO 2025

      • Steve going to work with Harrison to refine and get additional data at GLRO

  • Community engagement

    • First office hours were last Monday! Super great time meeting everyone and talking about mahjong, many good topics discussed and ideas exchanged

  • Charity

    • No current updates

  • IORMC

    • No current updates, announcement soon!

Assembly Updates

  • Two new clubs added to the Assembly!

    • Kansas City Riichi Mahjong Club, represented by Justin Nguyen

    • North Star Riichi Mahjong, represented by Calvin Chang

Event Announcements and Updates

  • North Texas Riichi Open just finished this past weekend!

  • Seattle Riichi Open September 13th! Currently at 38/80, signups until September ~8th!

  • Chicago Area Riichi Tournament (September 20th) has a few extra spots due to drops!

    • Contact Takahiro Sakurai if interested

  • Vegas Dragons Open is August 30th! Currently at 23/32, signups until day of!

  • Great Lakes Riichi Open is October 25th! Currently at 32/64

  • Berkeley Open is November 1st! Sign up now!

  • Philly Riichi Open is November 8th! Join the waitlist now!

  • Intercollegiate Riichi Mahjong Open will be held this Fall Semester! If you are an enrolled student by October 2025 you are eligible to play! Sign up now!


Closed Session

  • Discussion on player drops from tournaments

  • GLRO and Philly Certified, Berkeley needs to resubmit with additional information

  • Discussion on tournament certification process and how to improve going forward

  • Discussion on swiss pairing system and certification ability when chance of duplicates is present (mainly at smaller events)

ARA Meeting 7/21/25

ARA Meeting Minutes

Big Updates

  • Board Member Updates

    • The elected Board Members for the most recent election are:

      • Luke Morgan

      • Dave Bresnick

      • Jai Srivastav

      • Jenn Barr

    • Thank you Edwin and Al for all of your service as board members!

  • WRC 2028 Announced to be in NYC!

Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

    • Qualification cycle approved by ARA assembly, submitted to the WRC committee

  • Tech

    • 2028 cycle points are reflected in the Database

    • Plans to get pro organizations seen, as well as redoing tournament entry for better user experience 

    • Plan to add better Search Engine Optimization to help 1-day tournaments and events get more visibility

    • Doublecheck your state on your profile and make sure it is accurate

    • Coding meeting times changing, stay tuned

  • Communications

    • Made an etiquette guide to WRC players on how to be a decent person at events. Got it all in a document and emailed it to all 2025 ARA participants. 2028 cycle information is posted.

    • Made a temporary ranking system to give the Tech WG some time to get it on the website. Full system will be added in the future, stay tuned.

    • Making privacy policy to put on website

  • US Rankings

    • US rankings is currently discussing what we can borrow from other existing reaching systems, but we didn't have anything to report yet to the assembly!

  • Education

    • Etiquette guide for USA. Compiling etiquette guide atm. Send positive and negative experiences to Luke!

    • After we can adapt it to ARA Opens

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • WPM officially released its class 1 professionals. Hard opening soon! Sign up now!

      • Does being a WPM pro have any restrictions?

        • Some limitations occur where you officially represent yourself with WPM pro status. Does not limit you from using any online client, and is an official agreement

    • Saikouisen

      • June 14th was the 50th season Saikouisen Pro Exam. There are now 34 Saikouisen pros in the US! Some of those include Saikouisen Trainees who still need to pass the written exam next year.

      • The Saikouisen league started last Sunday and VODs for the event will come out shortly

      • List of Saikouisen US pros: https://www.saikouisen-usa.com/members/

    • ARML

      • Season is going on, you can still sign up for future seasons!

      • Reminder that ARML gives 4 seats to the invitational that are not already part of the top 60.

    • Rules and judging

      • Will start handling observer reports

    • Community engagement

      • How to get more people registered for the ARA website?

      • 3 weeks in Japan! So many photos!

      • Talk about US players’s experience with WRC.

      • Mahjong podcast? People would be interested in hearing a podcast about riichi. If you would be interested in being interviewed, send Laura a DM!

      • Round table discussions, hopefully by the end of august

      • 5 seats left for the North Texas Tournament! Registration close[d]s in 48 hours

    • Charity

      • Pride month open was a huge success. $3300 raised and 264 sign ups. Thanks ARA for the support!

Other Business

  • Registration for the Seattle Open 2025 is open!

  • 2028 cycle will likely get us more seats. Discussion on how to handle a huge increase in seats at a later date


Closed Session

  • Post WRC Discussion

    • US players left great impressions

    • After some debate, ARA will be requesting WRC to have an official alternate procedure for extra seats that pop up

  • Tournaments to Certify

    • Seattle needs small changes then can be approved

    • Toronto approved after changes were made

  • Two clubs applied to Assembly, votes going out

  • Goals and Objectives meeting to be held for board members at later date

  • National Tournament WG to be put on hold for the moment

  • Optional ‘Office Hours’ to be held for board members for discussion with US players

    • Aiming for first one to be August 11th!

  • People can think of what we can do if we get more than 32 seats to WRC 2028 (unlikely). Will do more with suggestions in August meeting


ARA Meeting 6/16/2025

Meeting Minutes

Candidate Speeches

  • Jai: SPM rep and to promote more competitive events and balance growth and competitiveness

  • Aldwin: Annual championships

  • Dave: USPML and Sparrow’s Nest head. WRC NA head. Instructor certification, expanding wrc pro orgs to the US

  • Jenn: Pro ama meets like comic con and sparrow’s nest and collab between pros and amateurs

  • Luke: Riichi out website during pandemic. Catfood bowl runner. Educational materials to be able to pass a pro exam

  • William (Whale): Whale cup. ARA independence

Voting Open Until July 2nd

Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Qualification Cycle

  • Tech

    • Join our weekly coding meetings!

  • Communications

    • Had an introductory meeting with Canadian Leadership

  • US Rankings

    • We are restructuring data into spreadsheet

    • Extracting seating charts and their round scores

    • Asking Gemini mostly, first name last initial as well as results are fed into AI. not super personally identifiable.

    • Should we just switch to player number?

    • The data source is 2024 tournaments

  • Education

    • Pairing fairness in next couple of weeks?

    • Etiquette at WRC

    • Rate play in Japan? Info is value

    • Maybe have a clean guide in ARA and can link to an informational blog by Luke blog

    • We have to be real about expectations, reduces harm

    • If you’ve been to belbird, shibuton, janyuu club, or m league stadium please DM Luke

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi Pros

      • US WRL event June 28th, September WRL event.

      • Let Dave know about WRL minors

      • Can take applications post WRC

      • Sample test coming soon, Erik K with more info

    • Saikouisen

      • 51st test just happened. Cannot officially say how many passed, but can be proud for US pros

      • Rookie championships. Root for all the americans in the rookie cup!

      • Main pro league is starting.

      • Eric Chen accepted the invitation to Ryuousen in Japan for winning the US Ryuousen qualifiers!!!

      • Do you need to go to Japan to play? 

        • You are not required to go to Japan. You have opportunities to do so but are not expected to go

      • Hoping to do some east coast events, Pros are not expected to come to California.

    • ARML

      • Going strong! Spring season is almost over, C1 to be split into two leagues

    • Rules and judging

      • Mods have been reposted (they were erroneously archived)

    • Community engagement

      • Office hours to be held probably monday nights after WRC

      • Round tables for discussion topics from community

      • WRC player bios on instagram

      • Laura to be filming at WRC!!!

    • Charity

      • Airi: 122 sign ups for Pride Open 6/28

      • Ember and Hana also helping out

  • Reminder if you’re a club admin, please accept people to your ARA portal clubs!


Closed Session

  • National tournament discussion

    • Lot of steps before real plans can get made

    • Working group can be created down the line to start to address what a ‘US National Tournament’ to crown a ‘US Champion’ might look like

  • Tournaments to Certify

    • Chicago approved after changes

    • Toronto needs small changes then can be approved

    • Dallas approved

    • PML Open approved

  • Rochester and DC uploaded results

    • Reach out for DC observer report

  • Changes and release of Invitational Observer Report

  • Next Meeting is July 21st

  • ARA should have a privacy policy

ARA Meeting 5/19/2025

ARA Meeting Minutes

Board Summaries

  • Edwin/ARML

    • Represented ARML and is planning to step down from the board

  • Luke/Education Working Group

    • Collate, research, and create Mahjong information for clubs and assembly

    • Spreading of the info to be done by Comms

  • Claire/Harrison/Communications

    • Formally Outreach Working Group, rebranded to Communications

    • Claire handles website updates and postings

    • Harrison working on reaching out and getting info from clubs

    • Rebranded from NARMA to the ARA, made a new website, and did an invitational booklet

    • With the ARA Database we have over 50 clubs listed, and even more players

    • 2024 Survey Launched

      • Responses weren’t as spread out as initially wanted, still working through the graphs and data

    • Plan to do more frequent shorter surveys, FAQ page for the database, increase club awareness, and blog post frequency

  • Dave

    • NARMA had a lot of issues then became the ARA with all its goodies

    • Partnering with WRC and EMA and the contributions to WRC via NAO and rules updates culminated in the US getting 16 seats to the 2025 WRC

    • Hopeful to get WRC to the US for 2028

    • Accounting and information availability/management, including player and event lists, was our biggest triumph for the 2025 cycle

  • Tamas/Tech

    • Created the ARA Database Portal

    • ARA ID’s, use them when registering for tournaments

    • You can set a handle or profile picture, if there are privacy concerns you can manage what is displayed. Also fill out your 2028 eligibility form!

    • Upcoming Features: Pro Orgs, tournament result uploads, calendar, APIs

    • Tech needs your help! If you are interested in volunteering, please reach out!

  • Laura/Community Engagement

    • Focused on social media and long/short form content, roundtables, and discussions

    • Activities to date are help with the Tech WG ARA database, Instagram and X accounts, ARA invitational content

    • Plan to do Youtube and maybe TikTok content, document journeys for WRC competitors

    • Have ‘Board member office hours’ for open conversations and discussion

    • Roundtable to help content organization, maybe do a podcast

  • Steve/Rules WG

    • WRC Competition Penalty Level Rules for WRC and invitational events and can be used for leagues/opens

      • WRC Open Level for most other opens as the replacement for “lower penalties”

    • Building ARA Rules Guidebook, relying on judges for tricky situations - codifying this when finished

    • Strike System (Piloted at DC Riichi Open)

      • Lots of things are warnings, but if someone does it repeatedly, there was no incentive to call a judge over without strike system

      • Adapt the penalty level to how many repeated infractions

      • From the judging side, this was great

      • Track all strikes and penalties

      • Google form that had a drop down of every WRC penalty and if it was a dead hand, warning, or chombo (plus notes)

      • Very easy to collect data on

      • 60-70% were new people for those that gave feedback, and people thought it was a nice slap on the wrist without it being too punishing.

  • Bichen/2028 WRC Cycle

    • Lots decided already.

    • Next surveys are coming soon: Curves- WRC 2028 Qualification - Phase 2 QP Functions

  • Kyuu

    • National Championship Tournament project

    • Special presentation May 29th 2025 at 8pm central

    • Projected 2026 at Twitch: KyuuMJ

  • Nathanael

    • Audit of Invitational qualification standings

    • Member of Tech, Outreach, and US Rankings WG

  • Max

    • IORMC - ran US qualifier and acted as a representative of IORMC


Other Working Group Updates

  • Charity

    • We had 2 volunteers to staff with the one project - extra life open; Working with ARA we could have more outreach.

    • Help raise more awareness to these causes. Eg. winter clothing or clothes. 

      • Maybe hosting another online charity tournament? 

        • Can make ARA more inclusive and approachable.

    • Is extra life open is going to be part of ARA in the future?

      • 467 players played in Extra Live (up from 200 something) - and had team incentives

  • USA Rankings

    • Still doing a lot of brainstorming 

    • We got hanchan results for 2024 so now it’s time to format them and testing


  • Professional Organizations

    • Saikouisen

      • USA Pro Test - Registration deadline has passed

      • If you are interested in next year’s Pro Test, talk to Luke.

      • Ryuousen USA Qualifiers - seeds into Ryuousen; Reg is still open! May 30th, 31st, and June 1st.

      • Ryuousen seeded qualifier seats; if you are a club with autotables, contact Saikouisen USA

    • WRC Pros:

      • May WRL. June nationwide WRL: OK, Vegas, NY; US rankings are available.

      • Prizing structure year over year; if you’re interested in 2028, Application and testing dates are pending and probably after WRC.

  • ARML

    • Sign ups are a bit lower; probably getting close to saturation

    • Still going on strong

Other News

  • Elections

    • Submit nominations by June; Steve & Laura & one community member for training will be running it

    • Application is between now and June. Elections two weeks after.

    • If you are a current board member whose term is expiring, please submit your nomination

  • Tournaments

    • Lots of tournaments coming up including Dallas, check them out on ARA database and enter in tournaments you are running!

Closed Session

  • Discussion about Basengo (Big Honba) and whether it is eligible for ARA certification

    • Determined rule was fair, and NYC could run it in their ruleset and be ARA certified still

  • June meeting scheduled for 16th at 6:00 pm pacific

  • Discussion on meeting with Canada’s governing Riichi body for ARA board

  • Vegas ARA certification submission lacking enough information, will reach out to resubmit

ARA Meeting 4/21/2025

ARA Meeting Agenda

April 21, 2025

Working Group Updates

  • WRC 2028 Cycle

  • Tech

    • Qualification points reset for players

    • Tournaments ready to be integrated into website

  • Communications

    • All socials are posting content, please check them out and give them a follow!

    • Action Item: Schedule meeting with Canadian overseeing Riichi organization to discuss collaboration to promote both scenes

  • US Rankings

    • Looking at ranking systems of other organizations

    • Discussion of what to do for varying skill levels and non-ARA tournaments

  • Education

    • Tournament metrics write-up

  • Professional Organizations

    • Next World Riichi League event is June 27th in Las Vegas, Oklahoma, and New York City

    • Saikouisen is going to have an online academy at TBD with Japanese and US instructors for a fee

    • Ryuousen qualifiers to be held May 30th during AMOS Fest with varying players sent based on numbers of entrants

    • Saikouisen USA Pro Test to be held on June 14-15th in Los Angeles at LAPOM, the fee is 250$ and the deadline to register is 5/18/25

  • ARML 

    • C1 division is split this season in case there is to be an expansion

    • Still doing Wednesday broadcasts, please check them out on Twitch!

  • Rules and Judging

    • Harrison will be enforcing a strike system for the DCO

    • 3 free strikes, then at 4th and up you will be eligible for a point penalty less than or equal to a chombo

  • Community Engagement

    • If you have a club, please share content with Community Engagement so we can repost it!

    • Plan to make short form videos after Mother’s Day

Board Updates

  • Elections

    • Four members serving the longest set to be up for reelection

    • Candidates will be eligible to apply at May meeting, and elections will happen at a later date

Closed Session

  • Request for a write-up for best practices

  • Discussion of how to handle cheating allegations and reporting for future tournaments


ARA Meeting 3/24/2025

ARA Meeting Agenda

March 24, 2025

Working Group Updates

  • WRC 2028 Cycle

    • Please complete the surveys we put out!

  • Tech

    • We have a meeting this Sunday at 9pm EST, please join it!

    • Domain name change

  • Communications

    • Updating clubs and getting new clubs in the database

    • Updating the 2028 qualification form

    • Added tournament guidelines and certification to the website

  • Community Engagement

    • Just social media content for the moment, more plans after Mother’s Day

  • US Ranking System

    • Organizational meeting next week

  • Education and Resources

    • Discussion and plans for ruleset document including pros and cons of each for player and TO experience

  • Professional Organizations

    • World Riichi League just had their first US events, expect more in the future

    • WRC is also working on their second round of pro tests as well as additional member benefits

    • Saikouisen is having weekly pro study sessions, and 33rd Ryuousen is May 30th-June 1st

      • Next Saikouisen pro test June 14th-15th

  • ARML

    • Winter season almost over, Spring set to have a lot of hiatuses with 23-25 people joining

    • Discussion on possible small fee for joining to discourage no shows

  • Rules and Judging

    • All proposed lower penalty changes went in and are toggleable, mods are going away

    • Strike system proposed, Harrison to test out at DCO in a better version than last year

    • Discussion on passive vs active judging and how it works into strike system

Closed Session

  • Should we have a way to limit time on discussion topics?

    • Various discussion on ways to implement and need

    • Trying to host ‘office hours’ between monthly meetings for further topic discussion possibly

  • Discussion of eligibility for WRC form and how it factors into tournaments hypothetically and realistically

  • Portal changed URL

  • Discussion of where to have tournament certification forms

  • Adding hygiene to behavioral warning

  • Discussion of more guidelines for clubs and judges on how to handle specific scenarios


ARA Meeting 2/24/2025

ARA Meeting Agenda

February 24, 2025

Board members in attendance: Laura, Harrison C, Steve A, Luke, Tamas E, Kyuu, Edwin D, Nathanael K, Max S, Claire P

Executive Board News

  • Results of special election for vacant seat: Welcome Tamas E. to the ARA Board!

  • Our regular annual meeting and elections are in May. Closed meeting will begin discussion on who is going up for re-election.

Working Group Updates

  • 2028 WRC Cycle Format

    • https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1LFvOgl9ZmFLHLaogT7tNg_yI5ouqlFswtnJrry5WDO4/edit?usp=sharing

    • Action items: up/down for whether to utilize the tournament results from 2025.

  • Tech

    • Making admins more visible, Seeking feedback and feature ideas. Please join the working group!

  • Outreach

    • Splitting into communication and community outreach / socials

      Claire and Harrison to head communication and Laura and Nathanael to head community / socials

  • USA Ranking System

    • Just started and branched off the 2028 cycle meeting two weeks ago. Kathy H is managing the WG. If you’re interested, please join the wg.

  • Education and Resources

    • Looking for someone to write up cost analysis for running a club and running tournaments

    • Looking for feedback on future education projects. Potential ideas:

      • How to play in a japanese mahjong parlor?

      • Term glossary? And other basic information around riichi

      • Tournament types

      • Conversion from other types of mahjong to riichi

  • Professional Organizations

    • Saikouisen pro org

      • Pro ama, online lectures, pro test June 14th & 15th at LAPOM

      • DM Luke for pricing

  • ARML

    • 11 Confirmed.

  • Rules and Judging

    • ARA Code of Conduct Ratified!

Closed Meeting

  • Discussion about WRC2028 proposals and the foundations. 8 assembly members did not vote - how can we increase their engagement?

  • Question on how to make conversations more productive and focused. Should we have stricter time limits?

  • Proposal for elections based on length of time on the board.

    • Dave, Kyuu, Luke, Edwin - up for election in 2025

    • Bichen, Claire, Steve, Max - up for election in 2026

    • Laura, Harrison, Nate, Tamas - up for election in 2027

  • Gauging interest in national championships?

  • Every wg should have a public counterpart for big updates for club contacts and the public to see.

Next Meeting March 24th 6PT/9ET


ARA Meeting 1/27/2025

ARA Meeting Agenda

January 27, 2025

Board members in attendance: Dave B, Edwin Dizon (ARML), Laura King, Steve A (MI/MA), Harrison Corp, Luke, Max Suddendorf, Nathanael Kozinski, Kyuu (CAM)

Open Session

Executive Board News

  • Presentations of the candidates for the open board seats

  • Whale: Prioritizing getting ARA organized into an entity

    Tamas: Rating system and goals. US Citizen but representing Hungary but also going to live in Japan for 6 months.

    Brendan (halorien): Founded the Yakumen from Chicago. Ran last time. Serving as an ambassador for the game.

    Jenn: Been playing mahjong professionally in Japan for 18 years. English content creation. Important for the US to have autonomous body. Would like to be in a central position to provide an advisory role. Visited Comic con twice and would like to expand such activities. Published a book this last year.

2028 WRC Cycle Format

  • Motion to create a system for the entire US that’s separate from WRC.

  • DC would like feedback on ARA approval

2025 Invitational

  • No observer report yet. Other next steps unknown at the moment.

Working Group Updates

Tech

  • arariichi.org all tournament results are in except invitational. Club details are not filled out. Now is a good time to look at it. Thanks to Laura, Tamas, Nathaniel and others who got the database online.

  • 251 unique profiles but 81 not accepted

Outreach

Rules and Judging

  • Unsure when modified ruleset is going live. 

  • All of the changes are getting put in. Mods document is going away. WRC ruleset is turning into WRC and WRC-R. Lower penalties is going straight into the ruleset as an option.

Education and Resources

  • Skeleton of creating your own club. Away 3 of the 4 weeks. Will be back soon. Will be ready to go by next meeting. Looking for helpers and still writing a bunch of copy, etc.

  • Tournament in a box is good to go

  • Pairings software is also good to go.

Professional Organizations

  • WRC pro: 3/1 & 3/2 in 3 locations - sign up today!

  • Luke - Saikouisen Fest two weeks ago. Plan on it every year. Next test is coming up next June in LA. Pro ama league which gives seeded spot into ryuousen USA.

ARML

  • First couple rounds went well of this season

Closed Session

Feedback on ARA Invitational:

  • ¼ of players mathematically eliminated day 3

  • People like the term swiss

  • People would be more okay having duplicate pairings

  • Enjoyed set play in general

  • What other way do we have to get feedback about this format?

  • We should send a tournament feedback form.

Next meeting 2/24 6 pm Pacific 9 pm Eastern