Fellow cubers, It is with great pleasure that I announce that we have a new WCA board member: Mr. Masayuki Akimoto from Japan. Masayuki is the reigning world champion for 4x4x4 and 5x5x5. He was responsible for two Asian competitions (Kyoto and Tokyo) and has plans for more in the future. He has a very informative website and is always working hard to make our hobby more fun with his ideas and initiatives. There were two people who wrote a recommendation letter for Masayuki. Currently the WCA board consists of 4 members: Tyson Mao (co-founder), Americas Ron van Bruchem (co-founder), Europe Gilles Roux, Europe Masayuki Akimoto, Asia We are looking forward to 2006, with more competitions in more places and more competitors. One of our other goals for 2006 is to finalise the establishment of WCA. After that we are ready for elections for a new board. If anyone has plans for a competition, please let us know, because we may be able to help you. Especially if you are in a country where there hasn't been a competition before. You could start with an informal small competition, just to see how it works. If you want to start a national organisation in your country, then also let us know. Currently we have 3 national organisations within WCA: in Japan, Poland and Sweden. Keep on cubing, Ron van Bruchem

Its okay, but not perfect maybe needs a bit more work.

What defines a national organization? What do they do? etc...

This is awesome. Um, I have a small idea, and that's to maybe have reginonal competitions, where the rules are slightly cut down. EX: The cube club at my HS is currently planning a competition between ourselves, which adds up to about 7-10 people. It woulld be awesome if we could make it official, seeing as how the rules state atleast 110 need to be able to cube, and a WCA member makes it official. It would be easier for people, specially like those in different states to organize cube contests and have them in a local area. Think, most cubers who travel state to state can cube in sub 20's. Many who can't cube that well choose to stay home and miss out on the cool competting fun. Maybe localizing it would help bring more cubers from the woodworks, and it might evolve moreso. Just a side note, Maybe the competition could raise money by selling tickets and stuff, and then more people COULD travel to others sates to cube. Just a thought

Hi Drei, As much as we'd like to encourage the participation of novice and beginning cubers, we can't compromised the integrity of records and competitions. Allowing cube competitions to be held under different regulations based on the attending population makes it unfair to the elite cubers who have to compete in more rigorously regulated competitions. I think the solution will gradually solve itself as the WCA grows and our capacity to host competitions increases. -Tyson