7. Closing Ceremony and Pack Up:

7.1 Closing Ceremony Preparation

Sign certificates

In a tournament with 130 players, you can expect to award 33 ertificates for 4 wins out of 7. These certificates should be signed before the last day by the TD. Then on the last day, as results become known you can start entering winners names on the certificates. Some players will want to leave early and take their prize with them!

Prepare cash prizes

Any cash prizes are placed in an envelope with the prize designation written on it. Use £20 notes, not £50 as players may have problems breaking £50.

Arrange prize table

It is nice if the prize table can be covered with a clean cloth - ISH usually have blue ones for this kind of display. You will be handing out prizes in this order: Side Events, Certificates, Trophies, Cash Prizes, and the London Open Cup (this stays in the UK). So the arrangement should conform to this ordering to avoid confusion during the ceremony.

A section of the prize table should be setup as a temporary office for entering final results and printing final rank and prize lists .

Set up demo board for analysis

The Pro teacher will comment on a game from the tournament of her or his choice and you need to make sure the lecturer has a printed copy of the game record. The comenatry has traditionnally been done on a large demo board and this will need to be set up in font of the fireplace in the Gulbenkian.

You are now ready for a the busy pack-up time!

7.2 Packup

It is required that we vacate all the downstairs rooms: Theatre, Portland, Nash, Foyer by 14:00 on 31st December. It helps if players are asked to bring their equipment to a designated table in the room at the end of their games.

Packup equipment and remove from ISH

Items supplied by the BGA should be packed in their original BGA crates and loaded into Tony's car. The GoBans, stones, and clocks are collected together and loaded into Keith's car. The slotted boards are moved to Gulbenkian for use in the Rengo side event and evening games. Any boards left in the bar must be collected and removed from ISH. These are roll-up boards and are currently looked after by Jenny Radcliffe.

Move all items to Gulbenkian

Any equipment which is not being immediately removed from ISH must be relocated upstairs in the Gulbenkian. All notices on the downstairs walls must be removed, bundled and placed in the temporary tournament office in the Gulbenkian (some of these are needed for reports: don't think just keep the lot!).

Entertain sponsor

If the sponsor is on the premises at the start of packing up, then arrangements must be made to take the sponsor to a pub or lunch during the packup process. This is a busy, chaotic period and no fun for anybody not directly involved.

7.3 Closing Ceremony

This starts at 14:00 in parallel with the final stages of packup. Players should be encouraged to migrate upstairs to Gulbenkian, after helping with moving equipment to cars of course!

Game lecture

The Game lecture is usually well attended sometimes exceding 80. This lecture entertains the players while final preparations are made regarding the prizes. Lecturer and players involved in the game can get caried away, so you may have to bring the lecture to a close with a gentle reminder to lecturer "we stop in five minutes" given at 14:25.

Prize-Giving

The prizes are disbursed by the sponsor (if present) helped by an organiser who reads out the names. Every effort should be made to pronounce foreign names correctly and it will help to peruse the prize list during the lecture to become a bit familiar with the names.

There will usually be someone around to take pictures, but this needs to be competently done so as not to hold up proceedings. If the sponsor is present it is essential to get a picture showing both sponsor and winner when getting the London Open Cup.

Rengo

Once the actual prize-giving is over, the chairs are rearranged for the afternoon fun Rengo event, using the slotted boards. The organiser for this must be someone different from the TD, who by now has collapsed into a babbling heap!

Meal

Players who are staying over on New Years Eve should gather in ISH reception at about 19:00 to walk to local restaurants for evening meals. There may be more than one group, and restaurants should have been booked as early as possible.

Party

After the meal, players can return to Gulbenkian just for fun friendly games. Any drinks consumed on the premises must be pre-ordered from the ISH bar, and this should be done during the afternoon.