Official statement by WFDF regarding its Director of Global Communications and New Media
22 July 2017
In light of recent posts and exchanges made on his personal twitter account by WFDF’s Director of Global Communications and New Media, Rob McLeod, on gender issues, the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) would like to clarify our position on the topic and the personal comments that were made.
Gender Equity and Equality is a core value of our federation and sport and WFDF believes strongly in ensuring opportunities for girls and women are equal to that of boys and men both on and off the field. It is important for WFDF to make very clear that we do not agree with, nor endorse, the content of the tweets made by Rob McLeod over the past 48 hours. These comments were inappropriate and do not reflect WFDF’s values or stated priorities.
Rob has worked diligently for WFDF over the past year and his never ending effort and passion for and promotion of the sport of Flying Disc has been beneficial in many ways. Rob nonetheless has acknowledged that any social media comments expressed by any WFDF official, either on the official WFDF Social Media Channels or through use of their own private accounts, reflect directly on the perception of WFDF and what it stands for. He realizes that he can no longer be effective as a spokesperson for WFDF due to the loss of trust in his judgment and therefore has resigned from the position of WFDF Director of Global Communications effective immediately.
“Rob has made many valuable contributions to WFDF and the global disc sports community through his work over the last year for which we thank him but, notwithstanding that, we at WFDF cannot tolerate comments by a staff member that conflict so jarringly with one of our core values, whether inadvertent or not,” stated Robert “Nob” Rauch, WFDF President. “Especially on this first day of The World Games, where we feature mixed gender Ultimate comprised of teams with athlete rosters with equal numbers of men and women, such comments are discordant with our innate beliefs. At our most recent board meeting we had approved the new membership of the WFDF Women in Sport Commission and we will task them with a complete review of this situation to see what more we should be doing both inside our organization and throughout the community to do a better job on this.”
Regarding the issue of commentating on the television and livestream broadcasts, which precipitated the discussion, we must note that WFDF only has limited input into the structure of the event, as this is a multi-sports event that is not run by WFDF. The Olympic Channel is handling all the broadcasting, and decided that all commentating would be done in their headquarters in Madrid. We had decided to put together a team with Tom Styles, who has significant experience with WFDF and UK Ultimate events, to commentate from the studio in Madrid. For local color coverage and interviews in Wroclaw, we selected Caroline “Caz” Malone, a WFDF board member and professional broadcast journalist, to lead the team at the venue. After the discussion yesterday, we got the approval to bring in a second commentator to the studio. Hannah Pendlebury, a British Ultimate player and organizer and writer with commentary experience in Basketball, Cricket, and Ultimate, will join Tom for the broadcasting on the final two days of action this Saturday and Sunday.
Latest WFDF Communiques
10 April 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation is pleased to announce the core commentary team for the WFDF 2018 World Ultimate and Club Championships (WUCC) in Cincinnati, Ohio this summer.
WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch noted that “for the first time at perhaps any World Championship event — in any sport involving both men and women — the on-air commentators and the production and technical staff will be comprised of more than 50 percent female professionals. Stay tuned for more important announcements about our additional coverage and distribution partners.”
03 April 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation is now accepting applications for grants to support Beach Ultimate development projects. With a total budget of US,000, the maximum amount that will be awarded for any one project is US,500, and smaller grant applications are encouraged to allow us to provide support to as many projects as possible. Applications will be accepted until April 30, 2018.
26 March 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) Board of Directors and Overall Committee are seeking bids from potential host organizers for the upcoming WFDF 2019 World Overall Championships (WOC). Intentions to bid are due by 15 April and final bids are due by 15 May.
The tournament will feature competitions in seven flying disc disciplines — Freestyle, Double Disc Court, Discathon, Accuracy, Disc Golf, Distance and Self-Caught Flight and Champions will be crowned for each individual discipline.
14 March 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation is pleased to announce that Fulcrum Media Group has been named the official production coverage provider for this summer’s WFDF 2018 World Ultimate Club Championships (WUCC), to be held in Cincinnati, Ohio. Fulcrum Media is an accomplished production company known for their high-quality Ultimate highlights videos and impressive coverage of USA Ultimate tournament events, including 2017’s US National Championships.
07 February 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), in cooperation with the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA), is releasing the world rankings for disc golf by country for the first time. World Rankings are expected to become an increasingly important tool in deciding on the inclusion of countries in multi-game sports formats in the future, as events sanctioned by the International World Games Association, World Masters Games and International Olympic Committee demand a critical and objective means for selecting teams. The WFDF Disc Golf Committee worked extensively with the PDGA in developing the ratings system.
07 February 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), in cooperation with the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA), is releasing the world rankings for disc golf by country for the first time. World Rankings are expected to become an increasingly important tool in deciding on the inclusion of countries in multi-game sports formats in the future, as events sanctioned by the International World Games Association, World Masters Games and International Olympic Committee demand a critical and objective means for selecting teams. The WFDF Disc Golf Committee worked extensively with the PDGA in developing the ratings system.
30 January 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation today released the updated World Ultimate Rankings. These world country rankings are based on the finishing positions of teams at the most recent major World Ultimate Events:
• World Ultimate Club Championships (2014)
• World Junior Ultimate Championships (2016)
• World Ultimate and Guts Championships (2016)
• World Championship of Beach Ultimate/World Great Grandmasters Beach Ultimate Championships (2017)
• World Under 24 Championships (2018)
Read the full Press Release including ranking here.
29 January 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation (“WFDF”) is pleased to announce that its Congress has approved the Flying Disc Association of the Islamic Republic of Iran (FDAI) as its newest Member association, increasing WFDF’s membership to 77 national member associations.
“We wholeheartedly welcome FDAI to the WFDF Flying Disc family as a new member from the Persian Gulf region,” commented WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “We are pleased to expand our membership within the growing MENA region for disc sports, and we continue to work with several additional candidates from the region, acknowledging the importance of the sporting activities there. The Islamic Republic of Iran has a tremendous sporting culture and history and it is an important milestone to add Flying Disc sports to the portfolio of sports recognized in that country.”
19 January 2018 - Official Communication 
The United States’ teams swept the WFDF World Under 24 Ultimate Championships (WU24), winning gold in the Women’s, Men’s and Mixed divisions at the week-long event, which wrapped up in Perth on January 13. New Zealand added to its impressive streak of Spirit awards by winning top honors in the Spirit category in all three divisions. WU24 was the first WFDF World Championship event held in Australia since 2006 and welcomed 41 teams from 20 countries. More than 900 athletes were joined by 200 supporters, more than 100 volunteers, and 20 senior staff at the facilities at the UWA Sports Park in Western Australia.
04 January 2018 - Official Communication 
The World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF) has announced the results of its 2017 elections. The WFDF Member Associations voted on open positions on the Board of Directors and on the Ultimate Committee to serve from 1 January 2018 to 31 December 2019.
“WFDF is fortunate to be able to rely on a Board comprised of individuals with significant experience and varied expertise in order to respond to the opportunities and challenges we face as a fast-growing international sports federation,” commented WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “We are pleased to have increased the number of women on the Board to five out of the fourteen members. I would like to thank outgoing Board member Michael Hu for his tremendous support during many years of service as a board member and in his ongoing work in Chinese Taipei and in the Asian region, and to also acknowledge outgoing Events Sub-Committee chair Elizabeth Houthrow for her contributions during her tenure. We also thank Rena Kawabata and Wolfgang Maehr for their interest in supporting WFDF at the top governance level.”
Please read the full Press Release including biographies here.
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