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

ARA Meeting 12/16/2024

ARA Meeting Agenda

December 16, 2024

Meeting Minutes

ARA General Meeting 16Dec2024

Board Members in Attendance: Dave, Steve, Harrison, Laura, Nathanael, Aldwin, Claire, Edwin, Bichen, Luke

Open Session

Executive Board News

  • Special Election Results: Welcome new board members Harrison, Laura, and Nathanael

  • Nima has resigned from the board, thank you for your service

  • We will have another special election to fill the vacancy

  • Nominations remain on the table until the January meeting in which the candidates may introduce themselves and give a short pitch

  • If you want to rerun, please use the form again and just put “See prior comments”

2028 Cycle Format

  • Question about having NAO every year

  • Discussion about regional invitationals

  • In person focus group meeting possibly to be held on Saturday night at the invitational, specifics TBD

ARA Dues Presentation by William

  • The presentation broke down the costs to travel versus the cost of tournament entry

  • Charging a few dollars, 5-10 more, for an ARA sanctioned event will not meaningfully change the cost as the bulk is due to travel and lodging

  • Over the course of a year this would give ARA a few thousand dollars to work with to do something, provided the open tournament schedule is maintained and all clubs opt in

  • Do we need a finance working group? Right now ARA is not set up to handle money.

2025 Invitational

  • Hotel block at venue

  • 4/3/1/0 Scramble Sets

  • Tentative Schedule is up

Working Group Updates

Tech

  • The database is in sandbox mode and can be used at staging.arariichi.org

  • Demonstration on setting up users, admin pages, club updates and events

  • Uploading events has to be done by superadmins

  • Can be as many admins per club as necessary to maintain the database

  • Call for volunteers to test

Outreach

  • Club outreach survey has 76 responses

  • Social media posting is increasing

  • Follow the ARA instagram!

Rules and Judging

  • No further comments on lower penalties mod

  • Steve and Tamas participated in the EMA referee seminar at ERMC, some lessons learned to apply to ARA

  • Need to develop an appeals process for when someone doesn’t agree with a ruling at an ARA event

Education and Resources

  • Tourney-in-a-box is submitted to be placed on the ARA website

  • Document on how to start/maintain a club is in the works.

Other Business

Professional Organizations

  • Saikouisen pros announced, congrats to all the new pros

  • WRC pro system to be announced shortly

  • WRC pro league details coming soon as well, in Marc

ARML

  • Formerly the IORMC WG

  • A1 has been getting stale with nothing to play for other than the win or avoiding relegation

  • A lot of new players from around the country, 152 players right now with around 20 on hiatus

Closed Session

  • Claire updated the website with new board members and assembly info

  • Discussion on tournament timing

    • 60+0? 65+0

    • Pace of play and calling clock on slow players

    • How enforceable is calling slow play?

    • Additional meeting for invitational minutiae scheduled for 12/23

Next General Meeting January 27, 2025


ARA Meeting 11/18/24

ARA Meeting Agenda

November 18, 2024

Meeting Minutes

  • ARA General Meeting 18NOV2024

    Board Members in Attendance: Dave, Steve, Bichen, Luke, Claire, Edwin, Nima, Max

    Open Session

    Board Special Elections begin with a short introduction from each of the candidates:

    • Harrison

    • William

    • Laura

    • Phil

    • Brendan

    • Stephanie

    • Nathanael

    2025 Invitational

    • Put together a plan and submit to WRC

    • Autotables, discussion on 5 or 6 hanchan per day

    • Google form to submit commentary and format design

    • Voting begins

    Working Group Updates

    Outreach

    • Many things in progress, nothing major to report

    • Shoutout to Laura for work with the ARA socials

    Rules and Judging

    • Steve had an online meeting with Gemma and Sylvain to iron out final draft of lower penalties mod

    • No changes to accidentally revealing tiles, being reviewed and revised higher up

    • ARA and WG free to begin implementing strike system based on new draft

    Tech

    • Update from Nathanael as Tamas is away

    • Trello board made with major action items

    • Import data looks good, see additional updates from Tamas on discord

    IORMC

    • Tournament has concluded

    • USA made a valiant effort, but variance was not on our side

    Education

    • Tourney-in-a-box is ready to share

    • Luke requests more input for the event hosting document on different types of paid event spaces

    • Club-in-a-box is a new resource being worked on

    Charity

    • Nothing to report at this time for the WG

    • $4k raised for the Extra Life Open

    2028 Cycle

    • Presentation about the plan for the 2028 qualification cycle

    • Discussion ongoing

    Open Floor

    • Request for something in the Bylaws about discrimination – already in the works, the Code of Conduct was removed from the Bylaws to make it more agile in editing and will need ratification by the Assembly

    • Reminder to register and pay for the ARA Invitational

    • There is a vote in the assembly to approve a new club

    Closed Session

    • The new Saikouisen pros are technically double dipping on WRC qualification, but this is a Saikouisen issue, and they need to finalize a solution (e.g. get a letter from Saikouisen to have relinquished their ability to qualify for WRC 2025 via the pro org)

    • Autotable in repair for the invitational

    Next Meeting December 16th, 2024



ARA Meeting 10/22/2024

ARA Meeting Agenda

October 22, 2024

ARA Monthly Meeting

October 22, 2024

Board Attendance: Claire, Aldwin, Edwin, Steve, Max, Bichen, Dave

Open Session

  • 2028 election form/survey being sent out

  • Suggestion for a list of working groups available publicly so the community can identify what categories of work are being done and join if desired

Working group updates

Tech

  • Close but not quite finished

  • Current name “ARA Community Portal”

  • Demo including player spotlight and other features

  • Tournament placement form

Outreach

  • Content featuring players in the invitational, including player profiles

  • End of year surveys for tournament preferences

  • Harrison is currently just pinging/DMing each club contact, could add a club liaison ping or a club chat channel

  • More work is needed on socials, Laura volunteers to work on them

Rules/Judging

  • Meetings mainly between Steve, Gemma, and Sylvain

  • Lower penalties adjusted to needs of US opens, plan to go live Jan. 1, 2025.

  • An empty call is now a dead hand, which solves the community complaint about bad calls being warnings and wasting time

  • Warning/Strike system can be developed now that it is clear what infractions are warnings

  • Work on changing the mentality on dead hands in the US - a judge doesn’t need to call it

Resources

  • Tournament in a box is ready

  • Used at GLRO with customization and it was useful

  • The spreadsheet could use entry by table with a table checksum

IORMC

  • Coming up on 11/2. All players have confirmed they can play.

Other business

Board Elections

  • 3 vacancies. The new bylaws increase the size from 10 to 12

  • Zac (Oklahoma Mahjong) is stepping down from the board. Thank you Zac for your service!

  • Nomination form to be sent out, currently can only self nominate because of required questions.

Pro Orgs - no additional news

Open Floor

  • Email advertising the working group for the 2028 cycle

  • This meeting was the first some assembly members had heard of specific working groups. Suggested making a public facing informal list of WGs

Closed Session

  • Discussion on nominating new board members

  • Audit of 2025 numbers, and registration process for the invitational

  • Creation of a temporary working group for the invitational - discuss what work needs to be done and create timeline.

Next meeting November 18, 2024, 9pm ET / 6pm PT

ARA Meeting 9/30/24

ARA Meeting Agenda

September 30, 2024

Agenda Items

  • Welcoming our First ARA General Assembly Members!

    • Process moving forward for Assembly to approve future Assembly Members

    • Recruitment of Assembly Members for Various Working Groups

  • Bylaws Updates and Feedback

  • EMA Recognition and Partnership

  • 2025 WRC Cycle Planning

  • Moving time of meetings later for West Coast attendees

  • Working Group Updates

    • Tech Working Group:

    • Outreach Working Group:

    • Rules and Judging Working Group:

    • Education and Resources Working Group:

    • Professional Organizations:

    • IORMC:

ARA Meeting 8/19/24

ARA Meeting Minutes

August 19th, 2024

Open Session

Board Members in Attendance: Luke, Bichen, Dave, Nima, Edwin, Claire, Max, Steve, Aldwin

Working Groups Updates

Tech Working Group:

  • Tamas just got back from Europe. Nothing to report at this time but the WG hopes to have another demo ready for the next meeting.

Outreach Working Group:

  • Lots of outreach initiatives going on but nothing specific to report.

Rules and Judging Working Group:

  • Still waiting for WRC to approve the lower penalties draft. Lots of additional WRC initiatives are slowing down the process.

  • Tamas passed the WRC ref exam while in Europe (congrats!) and shared some information about it. WRC is hoping to be able to provide this exam in the US and it has 3 sections:

    • General reffing questions

    • Scoring hands

    • Chinitsu hands

  • The WG has had some discussion on certain outlying cases and is working with WRC to get answers.

  • Some discussion on active vs. passive ref for events.

Education and Resources Working Group:

  • Luke has a google doc style guide for the tournament-in-a-box that follows a basic checklist for running a tournament including pairing using a Good Enough Golfers style system so others can run their events using it.

  • Request for additional information added from board members and community members about venues and hotels as part of the overall package (Claire and Dave offered to help edit)

Other Business

Professional Organizations

  • WRC pro test announcement soon and looking for an option for an online test thereafter

  • Nothing new from Saikouisen

IORMC

  • 2nd qualifying round has been completed

  • Next two sessions aren’t until mid-September due to competing events

  • A rules clarification is needed from IORMC about kiriage mangan

Community conversation about positive tournament experience - summary of points

  • Unnecessary actions at the table may worsen the experience, like revealing someone’s waits at ryuukyoku

  • Players often do not know how to challenge a ruling or appeal to the head judge

  • Assurance that time will be given back for judge calls should be clearly announced

  • How do we address chronic slow play?

  • Some people when having issues, will not call a judge, nor will they give feedback to the observer or TO, but they will tell their friends and then gossiping starts

  • Actively judging behavior, introducing a table strike tables that are too loud, giving a strike to noticeable bad behavior which will include individuals acting out and tables that might happen to be too familiar with each other that banter too much

  • Suggestion for an open and reserve division as the tournament scene grows

  • When your game is done, go to the waiting area and do not linger and make conversation in the play area!

Bylaws Proposal

  • A two-tiered structure consisting of:

    • A council with a single voting representative from every eligible club that serves to ratify measures from the board.

    • An executive board that leads working groups and other projects. These board members do not get votes on the council unless they are also serving as club representative.

  • Yearly elections are held with 4 seats up for reelection each year. A term is 3 years in length.

Questions from the community about bylaws:

  • What constitutes a club? Some guidelines are being discussed:

    • At least 12 people affiliated with the club inside the ARA database

    • Meetings at least once per month in a public location

    • Some sort of public facing available information such as a website

  • Can two people in the same club be members of the board?

    • Yes, the executive board has no voting power, but they get to direct the organization through the closed session and working groups.

    • The board may internally decide on initiatives and how to carry them out, but all final proposals are ratified by the club council.

  • Accelerated election cycle to allow people to get on the board?

    • A special election is planned for seats as we expand the board

    • Our WRC qualification cycle has worked well this year and too much turnover may hurt that continuity

    • 4 seats/year should be sufficient

  • Votes of no confidence?

    • Suggestion that a 75% vote of no confidence can remove a board member

Closed Session

Sparrows Nest tournament on Oct. 26-27 approved. Needs to be announced soon or it will not count for qualification. Registration will open at a time that is not overlapping with NAO or travel periods surrounding it.

Etiquette data to be sent to the rules & judging WG for recording and adding to the pertinent sections of the tourney-in-a-box documents.

Establishing the Club Council and developing a system for asynchronous voting:

  • Need club info: discord information, club name, number of people, location, frequency of public meetups

  • Outreach WG responsible for initial list of clubs, to be registered by the Tech WG when the application goes live

  • When the council is formed, they can be responsible for approving additional clubs

  • Google forms will work for voting, especially for ranked-choice

Next Meetings Sept. 16 (bylaws special meeting), Sept. 30 (general meeting)

Possibly no meeting held in October because there is a tournament every weekend, if so the general meeting will be held as early in November as possible.


ARA Meeting 7/29/24

ARA Meeting Minutes

July 29th, 2024

Open Session

Board Members in Attendance: Luke, Bichen, Dave, Nima, Edwin, Claire, Max, Steve, Aldwin

Working Groups Updates

Tech Working Group:

  • Demo of the player interface

  • Questions about audit trail and admin/superadmin status

  • Question about club leaders having to enter their own members, or if members may sign up and affiliate themselves

Outreach Working Group:

  • Socials are live!

  • Next outreach meeting August 12th 9 pm EDT / 6 pm PDT

  • The outreach group is discussing balancing fun vs. informative for its social posts

  • Discussion of the badge system for the club map, clubs earn badges for having e.g. regular meetups, educational classes, presence at a local convention, a ranked league, etc.

Rules and Judging Working Group:

  • The proposed WRC Lower Penalties Mod changes are drafted and in review, but at the whims of the WRC schedule, which is very busy with the new WRC pro system, online league, and other league initiatives

  • There was a European refereeing seminar that the WG will share when the video goes up

  • There are plans for an additional WRC hosted seminar for refereeing targeted at North American time zones and will be shared when the information is available

  • WG to work on guidebook and strike system in the meantime

Education and Resources Working Group:

  • Currently writing up documents on running tournaments, including tournament software and pairing systems

Other Business

Professional Organizations

  • No updates from Saikouisen nor WRC

  • Suggested to have information available for ARA to share for both of these to better direct players

  • Currently must be in the relevant discord servers to be able to access information, can we partner with Saikouisen USA and WRC to make basic information accessible outside of these discord channels?

IORMC

  • Organization handed off to Max

  • Roughly the same format as prior years, qualifiers on Sundays now as to not compete with WRC Online Team League

  • Signups posted ASAP

NAO Announcement: August 9th cutoff date, hotels will also go up in price if you do not book the block by then

 

Closed Session

Michigan Open Tournament Proposal and Top Cut Discussion

  • Option 1 – Top cut 4, everyone plays all hanchan, if ARA points go to 8th place with over 50 people, it makes the final 2 hanchan meaningful for all competitors

  • Option 2 – Lock the top 8 as 1 – 4 and 5 – 8 and have them play in their brackets

  • Option 3 – Lock the top 8 and seed them as 1458 and 2367 and have a two-game final

Board approved the tournament proposal and decided that SEMI may choose between any of the three cut options as they are all acceptable ways of doing a cut.

Other events: Last day to announce is September 1. Any remaining events would need to be the first or last weekends in October.

Special Bylaws Meeting scheduled for August 12th 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET

Next ARA Board Meeting scheduled for August 19th 5 pm PT / 8 pm ET


ARA Meeting 6/17/24

ARA Meeting Minutes - June 17, 2024 8PM ET/5PM PT

Attendance – 16 in open session. Board members in attendance: Edwin, Claire, Luke, Dave, Max, Steve, Nima, Bichen

Open Session

Working Groups Updates

Tech

  • Tamas has had a lot of personal stuff going on this month so there has not been significant progress. Possibility of a presentation by next board meeting.

Outreach

  • Club survey distributed for top 3 desirables for ARA initiatives, awaiting responses.

  • Badge system for clubs where milestones such as membership, events, etc. are shown.

  • Fixed Kansas City club location on the club map.

Rules and Judging

  • Final draft of the lower penalties in review.

  • With the announcement of the WRC pro system and the online team league, Gemma is very busy and it may take some time to get responses.

Education and Resources

  • Luke identified that a lot of the documents from NARMA are gone, but the outline of tournament-in-a-box survived.

  • Recreation of these resources to be done later.

Other Business

Professional Organizations

  •  Interest gathering phase for the WRC Pro org.

  • Kenji is the main point of contact for the Saikouisen USA and there is a confirmed October exam

PML Open Venue format: Split venue should be okay if needed.

Bylaws meeting has been rescheduled.

IORMC

  • Desire to get IORMC quals set up between now and NAO due to the break in the event schedule.

  • Saturday mornings no longer work for quals due to the WRC team league.

  • Plan to discuss keeping the current qualification system or making changes.

Invitational Tournament Structure

  • 12-hanchan scramble then 6 hanchan playoffs in set play of 2 hanchan sets.

  • Everyone plays all 18 games.

  • The event will be all autotables!

Closed Session

No pressing business. Short discussion about encouraging clubs to utilize local universities and collegiate clubs to access cheaper event space, however this varies greatly from location to location. Helping club leaders recognize all the options available to them makes events easier to host.

Next meeting: July 29th, 8pm ET / 5pm PT

ARA Meeting 5/20/24

ARA Board Meeting Minutes - May 20, 2024

Board Members in Attendance: Claire, Dave, Bichen, Steve, Nima, Max, Edwin, Luke, Zac

Open Session

ARA Invitational community vote

  • Jan 18 – 20, 2025 won out of the provided options

  • The invitational will be all autotables with scoring

  • Since we do not have the WRC seat quota, everyone will need a precise placement

  • 12 hanchan scramble into 6 hanchan set play

Working Group Updates

  • Tech

    • Looking at a bulk import feature to import clubs and people

    • Web app has some time before it is ready, NAO is a potential release timeframe

  • Outreach

    • Discussion on club affiliation and getting a list of all clubs

    • How big does a club need to be for ARA recognition? Discussion about club tiers based on size and accessibility of meetups

    • Logo discussion: 2 options, the circle one is currently more favored. There is an opening for more submissions by the next meeting

  • Rules/Judging

    • The US has been given leeway to build the lower penalties to suit open tournament culture here as we are the main ones using it

    • Based on community and working group discussion, we have suggested all empty calls to be dead hands

    • Due to use of red fives and commensurate uma, the WG has suggested to decouple the chombo of -20 from lower penalties so it can be adjusted

    • The draft lower penalties are complete and will be sent to WRC pending final review

    • After the WRC rules mods get updated with WG suggestions, work will begin on the strike system for warnings and a judging pamphlet

Riichi Nomi Open Pairing Format

  • Presentation of modified swiss system by Mike (Good Enough Jongers)

  • A few options proposed for how to deal with final rounds

Bylaws and Structure

  • Board is working on a draft bylaws to determine structure, how votes are held, who can vote, and classes of clubs and members

Closed Session

Proposal of PML Open 2024

  • Potential for split venue with some specifics on how the dual bucket system must be carried out to follow the WRC guidelines. More details to follow when venue is determined

RNO Pairing

  • As there are no issues with any of the proposed methods to deal with the final rounds or the system itself, the board leaves it to RNO staff to pick their preferred method

Pro Group Certification

  • MJStars is working with Saikouisen to bring the pro test to the US

  • WRC has partnered with JPML and NPM to do the same

  • The board and ARA will not align with one or the other, and all players are free to choose if interested

International Online Riichi Mahjong Championship (IORMC)

  • In the past, IORMC qualifiers were brought under the ARML umbrella and Edwin managed the setup

  • Edwin does not currently have the bandwidth for this, so IORMC is becoming an ARA initiative with a new working group. Edwin will continue to provide support as able, Max volunteered to assist

Education Working Group

  • Channel was created for this working group, members and initiatives TBD

Next Board Meeting: June 17, 2024 8PM ET / 5PM PT

NARMA Meeting Minutes 4/15/2024

Open Session (38 in attendance)

Board Members in Attendance: Dave, Steve, Max, Claire, Luke, Edwin, Bichen, Zac, Nima, Aldwin (100% board attendance)

Rebranding: There will be a public ranked choice vote, including a feedback section so respondents can make the board aware if a name (or the associated acronym) is unintentionally offensive

List of proposed names:

·         ARA (American Riichi Association)

·         USRA (United States Riichi Association)

·         NARMA (National American Riichi Mahjong Association)

·         FARM (Federation of American Riichi Mahjong)

·         USRMF (United States Riichi Mahjong Federation)

·         USRMO (United States Riichi Mahjong Organization)

·         RMA (Riichi Mahjong America)

Minimum Activity Levels and Board Turnover

The discussion included transparency about how one can work to be on the board and that board members should be more than just voting only. This can include being a public face and doing organizational work, or backend documentation or supporting of working groups. If a board member is doing neither of these, then they need some project that is for the greater good of the community, such as Edwin running ARML. No limits are yet in place.

Board members to review bios yearly and update as appropriate. Every board member without a picture should submit one for the website.

Mission and Vision Statement, Bylaws

There is currently a NARMA mission and vision statement. The board will have a special meeting to discuss any changes to the mission and vision statement that are out of sync with community goals and needs, and to work on drafting bylaws.

Working Group Updates:

Outreach – Harrison

Looking for a social media manager and other volunteers. The outreach group seeks to be the link between club leaders and the board and has projects such as a newsletter and social media in the works.

Tech – Tamas

The work is continuing with a goal of an end of June launch. The goal is an integrated system with NARMA point standings, club names and a backend where updates can be made. Only for reporting results for events, not event registration. The biggest need right now is volunteers for design work.

Rules and Judging – Steve

This is a new group looking for volunteers. The goals of the group are to close rules ambiguities in the WRC rules as a collaboration with Gemma and WRC, as well as to update the mods and reduced penalties in such a way that they are friendlier to US opens with a variety of skill levels while also maintaining competitive integrity. Long term goals include the creation of a US judging guidebook which may include a strike system for things that remain warnings only in reduced penalties, and the creation of judging seminars or workshops to improve the knowledge base of those interested in judging for club hosted opens.

Adoption of WRC Lower Penalties as the Standard for Opens

TOs may make their own choice on whether to use the competition rules or the lower penalties mod. There should be an update to the lower penalties to decouple a few items and make things a bit more a la carte for the TO. The primary request being a separation of the chombo amount from the penalty level so it can be adjusted for other factors such as uma and aka dora.

Observers at NARMA Events

There can be multiple observers, but there must be at least one that is not from the club hosting and must be publicly announced. Any discrepancies between multiple observer reports will be subject to an investigation by the board.

Making the Observer Reports Public

Observer reports can be made public with the names of the judges and staff present, but any participant names redacted. NARMA will provide a comment period for the TO and staff to respond to any items in the observer report that they think need clarification and both the Observer Report and Staff Response will be published simultaneously.

Invitational Format

This needs to be decided by the board, sooner rather than later and the information published on the discord and the website. Might need to be a special meeting.

Additional Public Discussion Items

·         Mahjong convention

·         What NARMA would like from club leaders

o   Showing up to public meetings

o   Outreach to their club members to be involved

·         What club leaders would like from NARMA

o   Basics on how to set up and grow clubs

o   How to build a social media presence

o   How to teach completely new players

o   Tournament in a box (A wonderful resource provided by Luke)

o   A general player ranking system

Closed Session

Making working groups public?

Board decision: each working group can decide. If a working group does not make their contents public, a progress report should be made public on a regular interval.

Tiebreaks for entry into invitational

Board decision: best placement at NAO is the tiebreak. In the case that 2 players tied both did not attend NAO, the top score from each event is compared. Example: the best placement for player A is 8th in a 68 person tournament for 20.6 points and the best placement for player B is 5th in a 65 person tournament, also for 20.6 points. In this case the 2nd best result is compared and player A got 100th in a 200 person tournament for 1.0 points, and player B got 80th in a 100 person tournament for 0.2 points. Player A wins the tiebreaker.

Lower Penalties:

Board decision: TOs may run their events at the penalty level they deem appropriate.

Chicago Open approved by the board. Announcement of event and signups to follow.