It’s that time of year again.

I’ve been to a couple of local fencing tournaments in the past month, but as far as I’m concerned, the new season isn’t truly underway until the first NAC rolls around in October. This year’s version starts next Friday in Cincinnati, which will be a new airport, a new city, and a new convention center for me.

As bout committee chair for NAC A, I’ve received emails and files from the USA Fencing national office intermittently for the last month or so—a tentative strip map, entry numbers, proposed check-in times, travel itineraries for the rest of the BC staff. This week, though is when the updates and changes start flying in—a new strip map (better), officials’ rooming list (yes, all my staff are on it), arrival and departure lists (cool! the Greater Cincinnati Sports Commission is providing airport transportation for officials). And this week is when I start obsessing about getting all this information organized and figuring out what else I need.

It’s not that I really need to get it all taken care of quite this early. I think, though, that the same detail-oriented aspect of my personality that makes me reasonably good at working BC also makes me obsess slightly too much slightly too soon.

This should be an interesting season, though. We’ve a somewhat different mix of events this year, which will make for a few . . .  interesting . . . schedules, to put it kindly. With all the people who keep telling me how much they liked my diary posts from this year’s Summer Nationals, I think I’ll try to keep at it through this whole season—there should be plenty of material.