Appended are my own notes taken at the 'Global Meeting' this evening,
attended by a few dozen WSC participants.

John
--
John Chew (poslfit on MD/WD/PD)
jjchew@math.utoronto.ca * http://www.math.utoronto.ca/~jjchew
--
Unofficial WSC 'Global Meeting' minutes

- Introductory address by John Williams, describing Hasbro's position,
  essentially that they would like to see a larger number of countries
  represented, with increases based on past merit, but no significant
  increase in the sizes of the teams of the major countries.

- Discussion chaired by Joe Edley
  - NSA's proposed system: division of world into
    - A teams (currently 6 or more on team)
      * get extra player if half in top 25% and no more than one in bottom 25%
    - B teams (currently 3, 4 or 5 on team)
      * get extra player if three in top 27 and none in bottom 20
    - C teams (currently 1 or 2 on team)
      * all of players in top half -> get extra player
    - new teams (Philip Nelkon's guideline as currently used)
      - country must have a national committee and championship
      - possibly new at 1999: Mexico Jamaica India Zambia China
    - Chief Gbade Sanda: what about regional champions (Gulf? African?)
      - Gulf champion is invited for historical reasons, since originally
        Gulf Area players were invited solely on the basis of their
        performance at the Gulf Championship; there were complaints from
        the organisers of that event when selection was changed to be based
        on nationality.
  - challenge rule
    - free?  5 pt?  10 pt?  dingle?  loss of turn?  rook?
    - dingle and point penalty: favoured by those who want a compromise
    - free: favoured by those who are averse to phonies, and by those who
      don't like the element of bluff, opposed by those who like the
      element of bluff.
    - Sherman: wants free challenges until everyone uses same dictionary
    - Chew: suggests formation of International Rules committee to
      discuss this and other issues
    - idea of International WSC organising committee not politically acceptable
    - Williams endorses IRC proposal
  - other matters
    - request by Chief Sanda for more corporate sponsorship of regional tournaments,
      specifically in Africa, generally favorable response from Nelkon.
    - request by J. J. Jonah for financial assistance for WSC competitors,
      reply by Nelkon explaining relation between national product sales and
      marketing budgets.
    - Patrick Nderitu asks if the WSC will ever be held outside of UK/USA
      - Williams says it will eventually happen, and hopes soon, says that
        there have been as yet unproductive discussions
    - Sherman asks why there can't be other corporate sponsors; Williams
      replies for Hasbro that Hasbro does not want their product to be
      associated with any other companies, adds that in general cosponsors
      want advertising visibility, and that Scrabble doesn't yet have
      enough of an audience to attract them; expresses wish that decades
      from now, their current efforts will build up such an audience.