In early December the USA-South Leadership Conference took place at the home of our Sheriff, David Hibbs. While we munched on delicious brisket and homemade cobbler, we discussed the state of the region and made some plans for moving forward.

This is where YOU come in! We are excited to announce some old projects, some new projects, and some opportunities to get involved. Take a look at the items below. Then feel free to contact the person in charge of each one if you have questions or ideas, need more information, or want to volunteer to help.

First off: this blog! While it has existed for a while, we are planning to transition to it as a more frequent source of news and information. Slack is great for conversations, but it does not offer the easy ability access information later. Additionally the blog provides a way to share a message with a larger audience by including those who are not on Slack. Feel free to bookmark or follow to stay up to date on regional happenings. If you have ideas for content you would like to see or are interested in writing for the blog, please contact Amanda Coots.

Next up, in addition to welcoming you to this blog, we’d also like to re-welcome our Welcome Wagon. The welcome wagon project will be an onboarding process to provide new judges or new to the region judges the resources they need to get connected to our infrastructure. Sydney Townley has offered to take point on this project, but they will need some help, so reach out if you’d like to get involved.

A few other things we discussed may not need immediate assistance, but we want to let you know that they’re on our minds. The Organized Play changes coming will impact everyone, but at this time we are all waiting and learning together as we navigate the new path to the pro tour. While that is going on, we will keep working together and supporting one another through the changes. Our current Area Captain system is due for an update. Kyle Evans has offered to work with Sheriff Hibbs on this project. We’re also taking a closer look at the L2 advancement process in our region to ensure that every judge who wants to reach L2 can get there. Gage Robelen will be handling that endeavor. Nate Hurley also provided a wealth of information about the L3 advancement process. Talk to Nate if more details are of interest to you.

And last, but never least: Conferences! For 2019 we will be offering our traditional two large conferences as well as a host of new opportunities for mini-conferences including a mock tournaments and a senior judge conference. Our large conferences will be held in Round Rock (spring) and Texarkana (fall). More details will be announced here on the blog as they become available.

So in conclusion, we have a lot of exciting things coming in 2019 and we’d love to help you find your place on a regional project. We’d love to hear from you about how you are interested in serving the region and you’ll certainly be hearing more from us here on the blog!