What's Up at the PDGA?

Meet the Event Support Team

By: Grant Zellner #61914

Tuesday, April 5, 2022 - 15:44

This is the second article in a series that goes behind-the-scenes to highlight the structure and the people of the PDGA. Six department teams, each led by a director, make up the PDGA organizational structure: Operations, Event Support, Technology, Marketing & Media, Membership & Growth, and Competition. All report to the executive director. Above pictured: Mike "Sully" Sullivan, one of three event support & training managers on the Event Support Team.

Event Support Overview

With the explosive growth of disc golf, which includes increased courses, players, events, and event directors, the PDGA tour staff – Andrew Sweeton and Amber Schoch – experienced a dramatic increase in their workload. With nearly 7,000 sanctioned events in 2021, and likely over 8,000 in 2022, it was clear the team needed to reorganize and expand. In mid-2021 the PDGA instituted the Event Support Team (EST) with the hiring of three new staff positions to complement Andrew and Amber allowing for a higher level of support to our members and event directors.

The primary objective of the EST is to be the front-line point of contact for any and all inquiries from members, event directors, and the public. As such, the EST responds to all inquiries and where needed, forwards inquiries to other PDGA staff where additional resources are required.

A secondary objective of the EST is to develop training materials for event directors to include website documentation, help files for technical platforms, video training, and in-person training.

Overall, both of these main EST objectives will provide for better informed and better trained event directors, leading to higher quality events for our members.

The Event Support Team is available seven days a week from 9am-5pm Eastern time. Email is the recommended method of contact – [email protected]. This enables the team to research the issue and reply back with documentation or weblinks. Alternatively, the EST may be reached via phone at +1-762-253-2200 during those same hours.

The Team

The Event Support Team is composed of five extremely knowledgeable and experienced staff who have a passion for both the sport of disc golf and helping our members and event directors.

Andrew “Big Dog” Sweeton (#21582) is the director of event support. Big Dog started with the PDGA in 2011 as the PDGA tour manager responsible for all sanctioning, scheduling, and reporting of PDGA events as well as traveling to support PDGA Majors and National Tour events. Formerly a VP of IT infrastructure for one of the largest market research firms in the world, Big Dog has experience in creating help desks to provide customer support to a broad range of customers. So, ten years after joining the PDGA, the transition to his new role to build and lead the PDGA Event Support Team was a natural fit. Big Dog also currently serves on the PDGA Competition Committee and is the staff liaison to the PDGA Environmental Committee.

Amber Schoch (#60431) is the event support assistant, and started full time with the PDGA as the tour assistant in January of 2015. Prior to that, she worked part-time for the PDGA beginning in 2012, focusing on the data entry of paper TD Reports for the Historical Events Project. Amber primarily handles all sanctioning needs, event reporting, and event data correction requests from both event directors and members. She is also the staff liaison to Cliff Towne, helping him with data entry for the ever growing PDGA Course Directory.

Todd Lion (#35916) is the first of the three event support & training managers to join the team. Todd is an active event director, having run 37 events since 2015, and has been a PDGA marshal serving at Majors since 2018. Todd started with the PDGA as a contractor for the Operations & Logistics Team in early 2019, was hired full time in that role in January of 2020, and in May of 2021, he transitioned to the Event Support Team. Formerly an aerospace engineer, Todd is the “technical” member of the EST and has worked to create many of the online help resources available to event directors. Todd also serves as the staff liaison to the PDGA Rules Committee.

Mike “Sully” Sullivan (#68783) is the second event support & training manager on the EST. Sully is a very active event director, having run 86 events since 2016 with six more events already sanctioned for the remainder of 2022. Sully is a highly regarded past member of the PDGA Board of Directors, starting in that role in 2018 until he was lured away to join the EST in June of 2021. Formerly a lawyer, Sully is the primary policy writer for the team and the staff liaison to both the PDGA Competition and Disciplinary Committees as well as the Affiliated Club program.

Steve Boylan (#6542) is the most recent addition to the EST, having joined in early March as the team’s third event support and training manager. Steve replaces Rebecca Duffy on the team as Rebecca has recently transitioned over to the PDGA Operations & Logistics Team. Steve is an active event director having run 31 events since 2012. Steve recently served, and was highly regarded, as the PDGA state coordinator for the state of Indiana for eight years. That experience serves Steve well as the staff liaison to, and manager of, the state/provincial coordinators in North America. Steve also serves on the Competition Committee.

Event Support Team – Current and Future Projects

Besides the day-to-day work of responding to requests for support, the EST also maintains a roster of short term and long term special projects. Some of the recently completed projects include:

Updating language – for brevity and readability – and adding links to the library of automated emails that event directors receive from the PDGA regarding event sanctioning, event reporting, payment and other topics.
Creation and deployment of a simplified and automated web form for submission of applications for the Competition Endowment Program. This eliminates the need for event directors to download document forms which they then had to complete, save, and attach to an email to send to the EST.
Creation and deployment of a new Certified Rules Official exam which uses language that is more plain, removes confusing questions, and provides references to better facilitate the PDGA member becoming familiar with the Official Rules of Disc Golf and Competition Manual while completing the exam.
Assumption of responsibility for the large number of member reclassification requests received by the memberships manager each week to spread the load across the team to provide quicker turn around on the vetting and response to those requests.
Adoption of an automated help desk ticketing system that manages all event support emails, allowing the team to quickly handle requests, answer FAQs, and identify trends for communication or training needs. The system also prevents multiple staff from working on or responding to the same request, thereby avoiding duplication of effort.

Some current or future special projects for the EST include:

Examining the event mileage restriction policies – e.g. how many miles must separate disc golf tournaments of various tier levels – with possible recommendations to the Competition Committee.
Development of Emergency Preparedness Guidelines for event directors.
Reviewing of the Mid-Event Weather Suspension and Cancellation Policy with possible recommendations to the Competition Committee.
Creation of guidelines for event directors on standard course rules language to promote consistency and understanding of course rules by players across all events.
Development of an automated web form for rules waiver requests from event directors.
Documentation for event directors concerning standard tax reporting requirements.
Development of automated and timely pre-event reminders and tips for event directors.
Development of automated scheduling resources for event directors and state/provincial coordinators to make the process easier and standardized across all states and provinces.
Development of further event director training resources.