The Divisional Tour Newsgroup is soliciting new members this month. The major purpose of the Newsgroup is to identify, promote and support exciting PDGA events that appeal to players 40 and older. Newsgroup members nominate and select our Tour events; most of the support comes from the Senior Foundation Grant Program. Newsgroup members receive periodic e-mails with a spreadsheet listing the Tour events and key items of information about them. The spreadsheets are typically accompanied by announcements and discussions of particular interest to older players.

You would probably benefit from our Newsgroup if most of the following statements describe you:

1) You will be 40 or older in 2012.
2) You would much rather play disc golf competitively than watch somebody else play it.
3) You do not believe that your major purpose as a PDGA member is to provide galleries and/or financial support for Open players.
4) You enjoy a challenge, and don't want to be babied.
4) You would occasionally travel regionally, perhaps nationally, or possibly even internationally to play in an event that offered good value to your division.
5) You wish that there were some way to identify such events well in advance.

If you would like to try this, please send an e-mail to me ([email protected]), and I will add you to our mailing list. I respect confidentiality, and will not provide your contact information to any third party without your express permission. Also, I will remove you from the newsgroup at any time upon your request.

You might wonder if there may be a conflict of interest between the Divisional Tour and my duties as a PDGA Board member. The following post shows my PDGA "potential conflict of interest" disclosure statement, which discusses this and my other disc-golf-related activities.

Potential COI Information
Peter Shive
I am involved in four activities that might, in some members' minds, constitute a potential conflict of interest:
1) I'm a pro, so I play disc golf for money. The last two years I made about $3500 in purses, and I might reach that level again this year.
2) I'm sponsored by Innova. I receive free discs and apparel, and compensation for major event entry fees.
3) I coordinate the Divisional Tour Newsgroup. Our purpose is to identify, promote and support exciting PDGA events that offer good value to older (40 and over) touring players. Anyone may join, there are no fees, and we currently have over 450 members. We have no official connection with the PDGA, and there is no way I profit financially from this activity.
4) I administer the Senior Foundation Grant Program, which makes cash awards to certain Divisional Tour events. I've awarded a total of about $10,000 over the last three years. The grants have supported purses of all pro divisions (including Female and Open) on a per capita basis. The money I allocate is all my own, and comes from my winnings plus the dollar value of everything I receive from Innova and other "in-kind" contributions. I do not solicit or accept cash donations, but I do encourage Newsgroup members who want to support events to donate in the name of the Senior Foundation. Some do.

The inaugural tournament of the 2012 Divisional Tour will be the Gentlemen's Club Challenge in Las Vegas. We have kicked off our tour with this event for the last several years because it is one of the most senior-friendly tournaments on the calendar. This year the GCC is a three-day event, February 24-26.

The PDGA Spring Summit meeting will be in Las Vegas from February 21-23, just prior to the GCC. I will be there for sure (assuming Laramie is not snowbound), so it should be a good time to meet with newsgroup members and chat about our 2012 tour.

The Divisional Tour Newsgroup is a member-driven effort to "identify, promote and support important PDGA-sanctioned events that offer good value to older (40 and over) touring players". If you would like to be part of that effort, just send me ([email protected]) an e-mail message and I'll add you to our mailing list.