Strategies for division rounds

Can we do multiple rounds of each round type?

Yes, you can do more than one round of each type.

Repeating the AR round

The AR (Asset Review) round should be started when every divisee has accepted their invitation and ideally when the inventory is considered complete. Cases where it can be useful to repeat the AR round include:

  • if many assets were corrected, added or removed after the first AR round
  • if a divisee had not participated in the first one
  • there is a practical reason one needs to start dividing ahead of all things being entered. For example, all furniture to clear large items more quickly to get a house emptied.

Repeating the EV round

The EV (Emotional Value) round is usually limited to 7 to 15 assets per round, so sometimes a second EV round is done with different assets, depending on the inventory and the interests of the divisees.

Repeating the SO round

The SO (Selection Order) round can be done in one go for the remainder of the inventory, but in practice, the user interface, which is about dragging assets to order them, starts to become unwieldy and inconvenient at over 200 assets. (Note that typically this round is comprised of a mix of things all want, only X or more want and some only wanted by each, so individually, one is typically putting far less than 200 in order).

It is important to mix the assets of SO rounds so that there are many assets wanted by each divisee in each. Often, however, one divisee wants more things and some far fewer, so results will not be an even number distributed to each.

What about small rounds of special assets?

One may also want to create an SO round of a small number of similar assets (special art, ornaments, etc.) as a process to be sure each divisee receives a proportional number. Example: a round of 8 special water colors. Set all three divisees, random order, each is to put all 8 on the right column, and arrange in order of preference. Two divisees will get 3 and one will get 2, as long as all three follow the instruction.

Why include assets only one person wanted, vs just awarding those to the divisee after the Asset Review Round?

This is to be most fair to all divisees for three reasons:

  1. The divisee who is the only Yes will always win those assets in FairSplit, unless others, that had indicated No, change their mind, or the Yes selector changes their mind, both of which is allowed.
  2. To not allow changing one's mind can make the asset review round choices too rigid, versus the desired result of "if you think you may want it, put yes, but you may change your mind".
  3. Perhaps most importantly, it is fairer. Picture an SO round where one person wants many assets and the other person wants only a few. The latter will have a better chance (fairer) of getting them because the former will have some listed further down on their list. If this person had gotten those immediately after the AR round, these assets would not be in the SO round, so it could be less fair.