Lakewood Croquet Club

SEATTLE, WA – The first call went out at about 1:30pm. The 2008 Gary Coleman Memorial Team Challenge was scheduled for a 1pm start, and most of the expected players had assembled at Coleman Park, in Seattle’s Mt. Baker neighborhood, by that time. Save for two – “The Franchise” Jeff Gepner and his wife Nikki.

Lakewood Croquet Club (LCC) Director of Reminders and Phone Call Follow-Up Tom Carmony called Gepner for a status update, assuming he was having trouble finding the location, a park in which the LCC had never previously played.

Actually, Gepner had never left his house.

“I thought it was cancelled!”

Due to recent inclement weather in the Seattle area, the question of whether or not the 2008 Coleman Challenge might be rained out was up in the air until Saturday morning. At that time, based on the latest weather reports, LCC Officials emailed out a memo to competitors that the event was on as originally scheduled.

Gepner didn’t get the memo.

“It was ‘off’ unless it’s ‘on’, right?”

The Franchise’s confusion on the matter has led to the proposition of a second Gepmendment (Gepner-inspired amendment) to the Official LCC Rules:

Section 42, Paragraph 3: The Second Gepmendment
“It’s on, unless it’s off.”

Unless explicitly stated otherwise by Club Officials, any previously announced LCC event shall be assumed to be played as scheduled, on the date and time and at the location originally specified. In the event that date/time/location of an event is changed, or the event is cancelled, LCC Officials shall make reasonable efforts to notify competitors of said changes, including (but not limited to) by phone, email, the LCC website and Twitter.