Ice Skating Queensland Council Report for the Year 2016

It was with enormous pleasure that we witnessed another great year for our sport in Queensland.

The 2016 ISQ Council President Don Nicholls Secretary Beverley Donaghey Treasurer Peter Marcovich Councilors Liz Alexandre Margie Bartlett Allie Flack Susan Lynch Duncan Unwin

The Rinks continue to be profitable and Council is aware of the challenges it faces in the form of building and plant maintenance, and particularly the cost and availability of R22 gas for the Boondall Rink. The rink electricity costs continue to rise and we have identified a number of items for attention. The Acacia Ridge facility consumes relatively more electricity than should be expected due to cycle time and inefficiency of the dehumidification and refrigeration plant. We have continued investigation of the feasibility of commercial solar use and whilst on first visit it appears economically unjustifiable, we continue to examine alternative commercial solar possibilities with the advantage of improvements in panels and other solar technology over time.

The Boondall Rink continues to be problematic with its roof leaks which require attention. Implementation of a formal maintenance system at both rinks is planned. We will implement further changes in 2017 to progress planned upgrades to Acacia Ridge and Boondall to better position them as desirable recreational destinations.

To that end whilst this is a 2016 report written in 2017, at time of this report, Council has planned and implemented major changes to its management team in order to meet those desired outcomes.

After a recruitment process, Council has appointed Keith Fullerton as General Manager of Iceworld. Keith was selected from a strong field of applicants, having been GM of a leading golf club in New Zealand, CEO of Bowls Queensland and spent many years in sports development. Immediately on his appointment, Council asked him to conduct his own review of the operations of Iceworld. The result has been a restructure of the facilities management function.

The revitalisation of Iceworld is a strategic imperative to ISQ and to achieve this will require the dedication of a full-time member of staff who can drive the upgrading of facilities and to support the General Manager with maintenance of the rinks. After consultation with Don Nicholls and Keith, the role of Project & Maintenance Manager was offered to Don and he accepted this offer.

Council has set Keith and his team the challenge of upgrading the Boondall facilities in time for upcoming major competition and as we stated last year, Council and Rink Management are planning for the “Olympic Cycle” where patronage increases dramatically in the lead up to and post the Winter Olympics.

In short, we will fix the Boondall Roof, paint the inside of Boondall Rink, replace the Acacia Ridge Condenser, upgrade the entrance facilities at both rinks to decrease the entry wait time and improve the customer experience and upgrade the coffee shops and toilet facilities. These should be exciting times for all.

Athlete & Official Support. ISQ continues to fund its athletes and officials to events both locally and internationally and this matter is well covered in the Treasurer’s Report.

Aussie Skate™ has continued successfully with record enrollments once again thanks to our staff and coaching support. ISA will roll out a dedicated Aussie Skate™ website, thanks mainly to ISQ Councillor Duncan Unwin who has donated his company time and expertise to the project. The new website should further assist us to have more people become active in the sport.

The ISQ Stars program has supported many young athletes to move from Aussie Skate™ towards the Novice divisions and in 2016 our Stars Program had a record number of participants.

The Competitive Year:-

Olympic Winter Games (OWG) 2018. Queensland skaters continued to strive towards the 2018 Olympics and at time of writing Brooklee Han (Qld) and (NSW) will vie for a selection to a spot at the Olympic qualifier Oberstdorf. Brendan Kerry (NSW) has gained the Men’s nomination to the OWG and Andrew Dodds should gain the Senior Men’s substitute nomination barring unforeseen developments. Our officials will whilst not guaranteed to represent at PyeongChang, will hopefully make it into the draw and gain an officials spot. We trust the inspiration that these events provide to our skaters & officials will drive them towards fulfillment of their dreams.

Wintersun. 2016 was once again utilized as an ISA benchmark event for Skaters from across Australia seeking a national ranking or to improve on their existing ranking. The resultant numbers ensured another successful event. These events need support from more volunteers if they are to continue.

The Queensland Championships and Queensland Competitions were successfully held at Iceworld™ Olympic Ice Rink, Boondall during 2016 ISQ thanks the Affiliated Clubs and officials for their support to help make these events possible for our skaters.

The Australian Championships 2016 The Australian Figure Skating Championships were held at OBGA Docklands Melbourne and ISQ sent a large contingent. Whilst our 1st, 2nd & 3rd placed skaters secured nomination to the Australian Figure Skating Championships, ISQ nominated additional skaters to nationals again ensuring that its members were able to take part in the Australian Championships and nominated the maximum number of additional skaters that ISV, the local organizing committee allowed. Our individual skaters and couples did quite well and our synch teams continued to bring home medals. The results are on the ISQ website! Well done everyone!

Ice Skating Australia Inc. Queensland again was proud to be actively involved with the National Federation with the following members being elected to or remaining in, positions within Ice Skating Australia in April 2016

Peter Lynch ISA Board Member Don Nicholls ISA Board Member 2 years Peter Marcovich ISA Board Member 1 year Susan Lynch Operational Director – Judging Robyn Burley Operational Director – High Performance Allie Flack Chair, ISA Disciplinary Committee

International Assignments

Judges and Officials ISQ continues to fund its athletes and officials to events both locally and internationally and we were pleased to see a number of officials achieve ISU and International qualifications for the first time and others achieve successful ISU renewals overseas. In 2016 we saw more ISQ judges at Nationals, unfortunately they have to work too, making it difficult all round. Our judges and officials also attended numerous international events.

Susan Lynch was re-elected to the ISU Singles and Pairs Technical Committee at ISU Congress in June 2016 and we congratulate Susan on her reelection to this prestigious position.

Skaters Team Nova was nominated as Team Australia to the 2016 World Synchronized Championships in Budapest, Hungary skating quite well into 20/26 In April 2017, we had a Member’s update of our skater’s recent achievements and this report should be dealing with 2016, nevertheless, from 2016 AFSC nominations Iceskateers Elite (Junior) & Ice Storm (Senior) participated in Zagreb Snowflakes Trophy and Spring Cup, Milan achieving their PB’s.

Our singles, ice dance and pairs skaters competed at numerous international events with those events providing much needed competition experience and achieving some commendable results. A number of our skaters achieved ISU world rankings and 2017 Four Continents nominations.

ISQ Affiliated Clubs Ice Skating Queensland continued to support its affiliated clubs

Affiliated Clubs as at 31st December 2016 Boondall Figure Ice Skating Club Inc. Boondall Synchronized Ice Skating Club Inc. Iceland Gold Coast Figure Skating Club Inc. Iceworld Figure Skating Club Inc. Paradice Amateur Ice Figure Skating Club of Townsville Inc.(suspended) Queensland Synchronized Ice Skating Club Inc.

ISQ will continue to support Townsville Paradice Amateur Ice Figure Skating Club in any efforts to resurrect figure skating in Townsville.

The Pairs Development program continued in 2016 2 new pairs formed up and at year’s end Queensland was proud to acknowledge our Primary, Junior and Senior Pairs Champions although we have been unable to arrange suitable Pairs ice time.

The Ice Dancers continued to improve their numbers and they too deserve more recognition.

The Athlete Development Committee, chaired by Matt Dodds has performed very well arranging seminars along with international coaches for our skaters and Matt deserves recognition for his efforts and organization. Matt has moved to recruit more people to the committee, which will become more proactive in 2017.

Memberships We were blessed to receive continued support from Qld Sport and Rec and to further our objectives to increase the grass roots numbers of our skating members. This has been achieved through the support of the ISA Aussie Skate™ program which has been successful with 2016 seeing an unprecedented number of Aussie Skate™ memberships which will only improve in the pre Olympic year.

The ISQ Stars program has continued to assist with the transition of skaters from skate school to their chosen branch of our sport within Ice Skating Queensland in order to: 1. Provide identifiable pathways for all skaters of all levels of ability from Aussie Skate™ into various disciplines and retain the skaters in the sport. 2. To identify talented skaters from within the ISQ Stars Group to fast track their progress.

The numbers of our Cadet memberships has continued to climb since the introduction of this program.

ISQ Membership numbers

Total Membership 2016 - 682 Members 2014 2015 2016 Honorary 1 1 1 Associate Male 7 3 2 Associate Female 20 14 13 Cadet Male 27 31 31 Cadet Female 149 183 202 Junior Male 13 13 12 Junior Female 137 135 157 Senior Male 59 57 51 Senior Female 178 178 178 Social Non-Skating Male 1 2 1 Social Non-Skating Female 0 3 3 Social Skating Male 5 8 10 Social Skating Female 14 24 22 Total Members 2016 611 652 682 Affiliated Clubs at Dec 2016 6 6 6

ISQ Support Classes ISQ continues to provide subsidised classes whereby our skaters can participate in:-  Power Stroking  Spin Classes  Edge Classes  Strength & Conditioning Classes  Ballet Classes  Jump Classes

The classes are subsidised by Ice Skating Queensland Inc. and are open to all competitive members.

2017 ISU Brisbane JGP of Figure Skating, Iceworld™ Boondall, 23 to 26 August 2017 ISQ will host the 2017 Brisbane JGP on behalf of ISA and we will need your support to make this another truly first class event and a memorable occasion. ISQ has formed a Local Organising Committee chaired by Liz Alexandre and you will hear a lot more of the JGP before August 2017.

Queensland Government We acknowledge the backing provided by the Queensland Government which continues to support Ice Skating Queensland through its grants and we remain indebted and grateful to the Government for their support and guidance.

We look forward to and wish everyone a successful 2017. Your Council.

Ice Skating Queensland is financially assisted by the Queensland Government through its State Sport and Recreation Development Program to get more Queenslanders active through sport and recreation.