New Year's Resolutions

Now that Fight in the Dog has been around for a year and a half, it's not a bad idea to reconnect with the purpose of this blog through the vehicle of New Year's resolutions. So here, in no particular order, are "JW Burk's" resolutions for 2007:

- FITD's mission will continue to be the support of the growth of collegiate lightweight women's rowing. FITD will cover the teams, races, and issues important to the sport and will be unapologetically biased in favor of lightweight women rowers.

- FITD will studiously try to avoid any bias in favor of particular teams. FITD has connections with several teams covered on these pages but an official relationship with none. FITD has been accused of bias in the past, but frequently for and against the same team, suggesting some measure of balance.

- FITD will be honest at all times. You'll never see a statement here that was known to be false when published. Statements later shown to be wrong will be corrected. Opinions will not be presented as facts. FITD will not shy away from expressing controversial opinions. Lightweight coaches face political pressure to moderate their opinions and the media faces loss of access if they buck the establishment. FITD has no rowing job to protect and no access to lose.

- FITD welcomes comments and suggestions. Every comment is read and many corrections and posts have resulted from comments. Discussions in the comments section of FITD have opened the eyes of coaches and officials and have an impact beyond the participants.

- FITD will get a design tweak. It may be only the colors, but this design has been in use for almost a year and the colors since inception. I don't have the time or the talent to do anything too radical, but it would be nice to see a little change. I've also been trying to add a mapping mashup that would contain sites important to lightweight rowing (race courses, boathouses, and schools) and be edited by you. I'm close, but haven't quite found the right application. Importantly, I'm trying to avoid registration since we've all enjoyed the fruits of anonymity. (Let me know if you have any suggestions.)