We are all having to learn new skills at the moment, some turn out to be good and at the EDVA League (Devon & W. Somerset), we learnt a new one last week. The annual fixture meeting is where we normally lock everyone into a single room to fight it out in uncontrolled close combat, until we have a set of home & away fixtures for each team.
Most things get sorted but Universites normally can’t make it at this time of year so its not perfect, with Covid ruling out a small room with lots of people this year, a different solution was required.
Rob Young, our Fixture’s sec came up with the idea of using the Breakout Room feature which is available in MS Teams. All 22 teams took part, each of the three divisions were allocated a different time period, and with Rob acting as MC for the event, team contacts were placed into a Breakout Room (based on a random fixture generator to avoid preferences) to arrange their home & away fixtures with each other. Once done, you returned to the lobby for Rob to move you on to your next round.
Good points: No travel time, All Universities attended, majority of 2021/22 Fixtures agreed on the night, usual few awkward ones being sorted during the ratification period, plus we saved £20 in room booking fees.
