Minutes – Subject to final approval at March 2016 Meeting.
Australian Flyball Association Inc. – Minutes of Meeting held on 1st February 2016.
Present: Jenny Millar, Brian Lindsay, Julie Pamplin, Carolyn Shrives, Jennifer Crane, Anne Coleman. Shireen Pitt, Harold Kielly, Rodney Gooch, Pat Byrne, Jason McFarlane, Jo Grant, Karen Shields, Robyn Addie.
Apologies : Richard Mellon and Catherine Stroop,
Meeting Opened at 7.35 pm via Go to Meetings Conference.
ITEM 1. Starred Items.
The following Items were adopted without discussion:
1) Minutes of the January Meeting
2) Renewals of Memberships
3) Treasurers Report. End January Bank Balance $9293.87 plus Invested funds of $52985.87.
ITEM 3 Correspondence In.
- Email from member suggesting change in ring measuring process. The Committee noted the suggestion to alter the current process for measuring the length of the race lanes by requiring the measurement to be to the back of the box line rather than the front. The Committee decided that the current approach was well known to Judges and people who set up rings and a change might simply lead to confusion. Suggestion declined.
- Email from member re minimum ring size. The Committee noted the email from a member drawing attention to what he considered to be a very small ring set up at a recent competition and suggesting that members be reminded about the minimum ring size rule. It was confirmed that the ring in question was slightly larger than the minimum requirement. The racing lanes were however set at the maximum distance apart of 20 feet and that resulted in the lanes being close to the outside of the ring. The Committee agreed that where a minimum size ring was necessary competition organisers should be encouraged to not set lanes to the maximum spacing. Notice to be sent to Club coordinators and Judges.
- Email from ADAA approving use of their weather policy as template. Rules Sub Committee to review ADAA Policy with a view to adaption to suit flyball.
ITEM 4. Sanctioned Events.
Canberra Royal Show – Friday events ( Singles and Pairs) to be Demos.
Demo – Wollongong W.Ws – Sat 5th March – Moss Vale Show - Moss Vale Showground
Demo – Belinda O’shea 19/3/16 – Berwick Fields Primary School
Demo – Eastside Flyers – 16th and 17th April 2016 – Como Gardens Open Weekend – The Basin Vic.
Comp – Orange Krush – 3/4/16 – April Krush, Elimbah Sports Grounds Rose Creek Elimbah ( Open Racing and Lunch Training in ring)
Comp – Hastings – 23rd and 24th April 2016 – Hastings Fl;yball Comp 2016 – High st Hastings. ( Open, Vets,Training in the Ring and Champion Trophy).
Comp – Awesome Pawsome – 30/4/16 – Awesome April Antics – Rob Akers Reserve Strathpine. ( Open Racing and Training in ring - and Comp may be Handicap if seed times show wide gaps.)
Comp – Belconnen – 11th and 12th June 16 – Winter Classic ACT State Titles – Belconnen Club Grounds Mitchell (Open format and Training in Ring at Lunch).
Comp – Orange Krush – 12/06/16 – June Krush, Elombah Sports Ground rose Creek Elimbah ( Open racing and Lunch Training in ring).
Comp – Awesome Pawsome – 23/07/16 – Christmas in July – Rob Akers Reserve Strathpine. ( Open Racing and Training in ring - and Comp may be Handicap if seed times show wide gaps.)
Comp – Orange Krush – 24/07/16 – Hot Dog Classic – Elimbah Sports Ground Rose Creek Elimbah.( Open racing and Training in Ring)
Comp – Southern Cross – 6/08/16 – S.C. Cool Runnings – Penrith Regatta Centre – Gate A Old Castlereagh Rd Castlereagh ( Open and Vet format).
ITEM 5 – Admin Matters.
i) New Members –
Belinda Wright, Christine Read, Katie Burt, Rita Farrugia, Brent Mulcahy, Joanne Neilson, Jenny Reid, Taylor Won
ii) - Stewards and Timekeepers Exams – Nil to report.
ITEM 6 – General Business
6(a) Report from Dog Incident Sub Committee.
Nil to Report.
6 (b) Report from Rules Sub Committee.
Carolyn advised that two matters had been finalised – the Guidelines for Competition Organisers running handicap racing where a gap in excess of 10 seconds or more exists and Guidelines for use by Regional reps when approving a running order. After discussion it was agreed that minor changes should be made to both docs and then they were ready to go up on web and be circulated to Regional Reps, Club co-ordinators and Judges.
Rules Sub Committee had several matters on its Agenda ( Declared seed time issue and Extreme weather Policy) and would meet before March Meeting.
6(c) Suggested Paid Advertising – web home page.
Idea put forward that there was potential to get paid advertising on AFA Home page.
In discussion suggestion made that a scroll format across bottom of page might be appropriate. Pat to investigate and get quotes for design which would also assist in establishing a charge for advertising.
6(d)Request for Use of Tassie Lights for club training and Demos.
Jo raised the issue of potential use of the Tassie EJS lights in Demonstrations and also for Club training, especially for members wishing to travel to Nationals as they currently get no experience running with Lights due to no competitions occurring in Tassie at present. She indicated that membership was growing in Tassie and competitions may soon be possible.
The Committee agreed that the EJS was always available for use in Sanctioned Demos and no levy applied. Approval was also given for the EJS use at Club Training on understanding that both Clubs in Tassie should have access if they wished – either via joint training with the lights or by both clubs having access – arrangements to be left to local level.
It was suggested that given the AFA now had two “reserve” sets of Signature lights and Tassie members were growing that one of these sets be transferred to Tassie for use in that State. Lights could be transferred when Tassie travelled for Nationals and that would allow training in Lights set up. AGREED.
6(e)Clarification of the 4 PR Club Status.
Rodney questioned why the December Minutes recorded that 4PR “ would in future function as a single non Branch structured Victorian based club”. He indicated that whilst 4PR members in NSW and Queensland had formed and joined new Clubs they also remained members of 4 PR and hence 4 PR remained an Australian wide club.
It was agreed that members could if they so wished be members of more than one Club however dogs could only belong to and race for one Club – with the exception of Open format racing.
It was noted that 4PR members in NSW and Queensland had advised the AFA that they and their dogs were moving from 4PR to nominated new clubs – Orange Krush in Queensland and Star Paws in NSW. (Two 4 PR members had transferred to Belconnen). No indication had been given in these transfer requests that the members also wished to retain 4PR membership. The Committee agreed that if this was the case then the members could indeed belong to both clubs however their dogs would continue to be affiliated with the nominated new clubs for application of the 90 day Rule.
6(f)Calamvale Competition Paperwork issues.
Rodney advised that he had reviewed the Paperwork received for the Calamvale competition and had found a number of discrepancies and also some errors in the points calculations. He questioned why the errors had not been picked up in the checking process and whether this raised the question of the need to check other competition paperwork for similar errors.
It was pointed out that the Calamvale paperwork had been outstanding for approx. 6 months and had not been submitted in hard copy format but rather had only been received in digital format as a result of Rodney’s good efforts in dealing with the competition organisers. This was not a normal situation and given the time lapse the view was expressed that little could be done re clarifying apparent timesheet errors that should have been dealt with on the day of the competition. Points had been allocated to the members dogs that took part in this competition.
It was also indicated that despite numerous contacts the Lights levy (together with the $100 fine for late lodgment of paperwork) remained outstanding. The view was expressed that in these circumstances no more effort should be expended on this competition until all fees due to the AFA had been received.
Rodney offered to follow up the Lights levy that was outstanding but did not want to get involved in the matter of the fine for late submission of the paperwork.
An associated issue was raised in that it was noted that the Competition Organiser for the Calamvale competition in July 2015 was recently nominated to be the AFA Rep at a number of competitions. Some concern was expressed as to the appropriateness of this given the problems that had arisen re the Calamvale competition. The person had actually just undertaken the AFA Rep role at the Summer Daze competition. It was agreed that matter would be followed up to confirm the persons performance at Summer Daze.
6(g)Limited Entry Competition – Club responses.
Robyn had circulated a spreadsheet showing the responses received to date from Clubs as to their views on the preferred option/s for dealing with selection of teams to take part in Limited entry competitions.
The Committee also noted correspondence from the Orange Krush club indicating that the Queensland Regional rep had not circulated the Queensland clubs for their views – and attached the vies of Orange Krush. Robyn indicated that these had been included in her summary. The Committee noted that it appeared that confusion had arisen as to the coordination of requests to club co-ordinators – whether Robyn and Caroline or all Regional Reps were to undertake the contact. In the circumstances it was agreed that the time for input by Clubs would be extended to end February and that Robyn would circulate responses to date to all Club co-ordinators and an invite would be issued to all clubs who had not been contacted in the original survey to express views – and if they wished to consider suggestions already put forward.
Matter to be further considered at March Meeting.
6(h) Purina Sponsorship Termination – rebranding of Purina donated equipment.
Deferred to March Meeting in absence of President.
7. Other business.
i). Pat raised the matter of some further Web upgrades designed to automate common processes that currently involve multiple entries to the data base and web and to show these in “Whats New” when an update was processed. Cost was $600 and this had been supported by Web team. Committee approved the new changes at a budget of $600.
ii) Rodney raised issue of more frequent updating of the AFA Facebook page. Suggestion made that Facebook would benefit from a Calender of Events style of presentation. Matter referred to Web Team for consideration. Web team is also looking into cost of having a calendar display on the AFA webpage with hyperlinks to open events found in the calendar.
iii) Robyn raised issue of whether other Regional Reps were faced with late receipt of Running Orders for approval – ie less than 7 days before the competition. Other reps indicated that they normally were given the running order for review between 7 and 14 days out. Issue seemed to be one for NSW Rep to remind competition organisers of timeline.
Next ordinary meeting set for 7th March 2016 at 7.30 pm.
There being no other business the Meeting was closed at 9.10 pm.
Signed as a true record.
President.