Australian Flying Disc Association Inc
Australian Flying Disc Association Inc.
Annual Report 2002
President's Report
Well, the past year has been a very successful one for the AFDA!
We have a new website that is providing a great resource for frisbee players around Australia (and the world). We have moved the database from an excel spreadsheet to an on-line MySQL database with a web front-end so that administrators from around Australia can access and update information about their players.
We oversaw the running the largest-to-date Nationals and Mixed Nationals, and are about to see the largest tournament ever run in Australia, with 20 men's teams and 14 women's teams. We instituted the AFDA Awards which attracted a bit of controversy as only these events can, but also a lot of support so we hope it will be an ongoing event.
In the interests of providing better quality services, we have an ongoing commitment of writing down our processes and policies so that we can perform tasks in a predictable manner and continue to improve our processes. We have broadly consulted the ultimate community on all new policies.
This past season has also seen an unprecedented number of warmup tournaments for Nationals, and the launch of the inaugural Australian Ultimate Tour - the "Walkabout". This year's men's and women's divisions promise to be fought at the highest level yet with at least 8 teams in both division with a real chance at the title, as shown by the results at warmup tourneys, and teams with more depth than ever before.
2002 saw the reintroduction of the AFDA Newsletter, rebranded as Australian Ultimate, with very enthusiastic and punctual editors it has proven a great success. Some more thought needs to go into distribution but we have some good ideas on that front.
Universities have continued to be a very strong growth area. We were included in Australian University Games for the first time in 2002 with greatly increased exposure for our sport and in 2003 we will be part of various Conference Games as well as AUG in Newcastle.
We have formed a partnership with Budget Rent-a-car which offers members cheap rates on rentals and also brings money in to the AFDA for each rental. We are looking for similar opportunities in the future.
We are trialling a member survey which will be launched in 2003 and will provide us with comprehensive demographics on our players and form a basis for future marketing and sponsorship campaigns.
Ultimate was quite successful in getting media exposure in 2002 and with more resources being built around this, we can promise only more. It is planned to officially film the 2003 nationals finals and they will be made available to members, hopefully in a DVD format.
In August, we sent seven teams to the WFDF World Ultimate Club Championships in Hawaii, eclipsing the number of Australian teams at any previous worlds. All teams performed extremely well, but the women were exceptional, with Freya and Seven Green Bottles finishing in 7th and 9th place respectively behind the US teams. King Brown won the Spirit of the Game award in the Open division for the third time in a row (after 1997 & 1999), a record which is unlikely to ever be equalled.
Preparations are already underway for 2004 Worlds in Finland, with steering committees set up for the various teams and we are intent on 2004 being the most successful worlds year yet for Australia with the carrot of participation in World Games 2005 if we finish highly enough.
We have also had a coup, being approached by the WA government to jointly bid for the 2006 WUCC with Perth as the host city. WA Eventscorp is strongly behind the bid and we are confident of success with the venture once we go through the formalities of each committing to the cause. Hosting WUCC 2006 will be a huge boost to Australian ultimate and in particular Western Australia and I urge all players to support this venture.
Membership is strong, and has grown from something like 800 members to around 1100 members just prior to 2003 nationals. With growth and greater inclusion of all frisbee players in Australia we hope to grow this to at least the 1500 mark by year end. The database allows us to manage our membership a lot more easily and to ensure that we are collecting our revenue which gives us greater financial security and as our membership base grows we are able to provide existing services more efficiently and therefore expand our member services.
We are also undergoing an organisational restructure at the moment, aiming to give us a more effective leadership structure and really drive the sport forward from the top. Increased effectiveness and leadership from the AFDA will positively impact all state associations and clubs.
We have expanded into the Northern Territory in the past year, with a strong pickup game regularly happening which we hope will expand into a league with more support from the AFDA. The TUA has formed and become incorporated which will give greater stability to the ultimate scene in Hobart. The AFDA will be committing resources in the next year to getting a South Australian association up and running and before too long we will truly be a national sport with unlimited opportunities for growth.
We are bracing ourselves for an explosion in the juniors scene. Along with preparations for worlds 2004 boys and girls teams, we are developing a national network of juniors development officers and increasing resources to provide to schools to get juniors programmes started. The next year may see this rapidly expand in a number of regions.
In closing I would like to thank all who have put so much into ultimate at every level in the past year and I encourage you all to return something to the sport we love in the coming year.
Jonathan Potts
AFDA President
Treasurer's Report
2002 was a relatively successful year from a financial perspective. The main improvement over previous years was the number of state associations enforcing AFDA membership, which resulted in signficant increases in the collection of AFDA fees. On first glance the numbers only show an increase of around $1,000, however, previous years' AFDA fees were inflated by the delay of some payments, and the increase is more like $6,000.
The amount of work involved in collecting and administering AFDA fees has also decreased with the implementation of the AFDA member database, thanks to Jonathan Potts. Previously this took a a significant amount of time for both state and national bodies, in particular the treasurers. The database has already reduced the workload significantly. As we move into the first full year of its operation, the speed of entry and confirmation of payments should improve, and simplify the membership process further.
On the down side, we underspent our budget in a number of key areas. These were generally due to lack of progress, rather than savings versus the budgeted amounts. The newsletter was only relaunched in October, and as a result only one issue was released, at a cost of around $1,400. In the areas of coaching, development of new associations and a national executive meeting, we had very little progress, at least not requiring association funds.
Tom Brennan,
AFDA Treasurer.
Tasmania - TUA
The big news in Tasmanian Ultimate is that the Tasmanian Ultimate Association was formally constituted and incorporated in March 2003. Since the Tasmanian Two-Hat Tournament was first held, AFDA membership in Tasmania has grown from 3 members in 1999, 24 in 2000, 44 in 2001, and to 83 in 2002. With this growth in membership, there has also been a growth in opportunities to play ultimate in Hobart. In addition to the long running twice weekly lunchtime pickup games at the University of Tasmania, since 2001 there have been regular weeknight league games, including indoor winter leagues. So far the league has been restricted to four teams.
This year also sees a Tasmanian team returning to the Australian Ultimate Championships, with the Tassie Tiggers following on from the success of Choice Cuts at Nationals in 2002. Unfortunately the
number of women playing Nationals from Tassie this year has halved, with those women playing with the men in the Open Division. It is hard to get a full team of Tasmanian women for Nationals - and trying to join a women's team from the north island proved too difficult for those women who were interested this year!
Jemery Day
TUA President
Queensland - QUDA - www.quda.org
President's Report
In the six months since the last QUDA AGM and annual report, it has been all go in the Smart and Sunshine (y) State. We are particularly pleased with our regional development efforts in Gladstone and Townsville.
Following an enquiry from former Sydney-sider Joanna Leake, QUDA has helped Jo and her fellow disc converts to establish an outpost in Gladstone, at a local touch association headquarters no less. They currently have enough for a full game once a week and are looking to grow steadily. Importantly, the profile of ultimate in Gladstone is quite high as a result of Jo’s sterling media efforts.
In Townsville, ultimate is based out of James Cook Uni and on the Strand. QUDA provided input to help JCU ultimate run a successful O-day campaign. There are now regularly 30 people playing ultimate on Tuesday and Thursday afternoon at JCU. QUDA also sent a coach (Ms Sandra Poon) to Townsville to assist the new players with the intricacies of the game.
The most pleasing thing is that QUDA was able to help these areas help themselves. To reinforce regional development and to provide an outlet for these new players, QUDA will be putting on a hat tournament in Yeppoon over the Queens Birthday long weekend. Players are expected from Townsville, Mackay, Rockhampton, Yeppoon, Gladstone and Brisbane.
Out notable achievements include running a weekend planning and strategy session with Townsville, Gladstone, Gold Coast and Brisbane representatives, assisting the development of higher level competition in Brisbane, and encouraging a second Queensland men’s team to the 2003 nationals. Our growth in player numbers has been solid and steady.
These things we know: we are Smart; we have Sunshine; we play ultimate in Queensland.
Juniors
QUDA has not been overly active in the Juniors area to date. That will change in the coming year. We intend to put some focus on juniors in the lead up to Worlds 2004, in combination with the efforts of Bruce McNaughton. We also intend to continue our slow and steady expansion into schools. We have had some success in the past in attending a Queensland PE teachers convention to demonstrate the game to teachers, and we will continue that this year.
Treasurer (if Jason doesn’t reply)
The main activities in the past 6 months have been contracting and reviewing the annual audit of our financial position, and the acquittal of our 2002 State Government funding. Needless to say we are spending our 2003 grant already, especially on regional development. Our cash position remains solid, and we are making an effort to diversify our income streams.
Roger Church
QUDA President
Victoria - VFDA
Ultimate is growing in leaps and bounds in Victoria and there are currently over 200 people regularly playing.
The last year has seen two new divisions established in the Melbourne Ultimate League. An intermediate division was started in autumn 2002, which has proved to be highly successful. This division currently has 7 teams and over a hundred players, most of who have been playing for two years or less. We also started a second social league in Parkville to accommodate the increasing numbers of people playing in the Albert Park social league so Ultimate is now regularly being played in two locations in Melbourne. These leagues are in addition to the established division 1 for experienced players, which now has 5 teams and the Albert Park social league, which has 7.
Following Ultimate’s entry into the Australian University Games, new clubs were also started at Monash and Latrobe Universities, in addition to the existing club at Melbourne University. This has raised the profile of the sport enormously and resulted in large numbers of students taking up the sport.
The increased number of people involved in Victorian Ultimate has resulted in more tournaments being played through the year. In addition to the established Melbourne Hat and the 2002 National Championships, the last year saw 21 teams travel to Albury for the first Border Classic. Melbourne Uni Ultimate Frisbee Club also organised the Cloud 9 and Ceiling 10 tournaments, Rising Salinity was held again in Bendigo after a two-year hiatus and the first Layzee Dayz beach tournament was held at Barwon Heads. There were also a number of intervarsity tournaments during the year and a women’s Hat series over summer, which attracted 40 women of all standards.
Much of the VFDA’s activities this year were funded by a Sports Development Grant of $8800 from Sport and Recreation Victoria. The achievements of the last year were also brought about through by the time and effort volunteered by a large number of people, especially Simon Gorr, Sam Waugh, Cath Bowker, Doug Liddicoat, Julie Ducharme, Gabrielle Hogan, Bart Watson, Andrew Olennick, Kate Sargeant, Anna Rogacki, Tom Rogacki, LB, Ash Scroggie, James Reynolds, Sarah Aitken and Johnny Hitti. Their continued efforts will make sure that the sport will continue to grow throughout 2003.
Paul Egan
VFDA President