Minutes – Subject to final approval at April 2018 Meeting. Australian Flyball Association Inc. – Minutes of Meeting held on 5th March 2018.

Present: Richard Mellon, Brian Lindsay, Jennifer Crane, Carolyn Shrives, Julie Pamplin, Leah Dutch, Louise Stephen, Martin Watt, Steve Pitt, Josh Ellen, Frank Lux, Candice Leighton and Shireen Pitt.

Apologies: Carolyn Shrives, Jenny Millar, Pat Byrne and Helen Strong.

Meeting Opened at 7.30 pm via Go to Meetings Conference.

ITEM 1. Starred Items.

The following Items were adopted without discussion: 1) Minutes of the February Meeting. 2) Renewals of Memberships 3) Treasurers Report. End Feb Bank Balance $5147.47 plus invested funds of $ 82568.21. 4) Correspondence Out

ITEM 2 Correspondences In.

Email – Frankston Dog Club – re Cancelled Day Comp (See New Business).

ITEM 3 Sanctioned Events Approved.

Comp – Para District – 24/03/18 – March Dust Off – Jenkins Reserve Saints Rd Salisbury. (Open, Open Handicap Option, Vets, Regular handicap option).

Comp – Frankston – 28/04/18 – Kingston Pet Expo – Corrigan Oval Marcus Rd Dingley (Open).

Comp – Dover Gardens – 05/05/18 – Autumn Fest – Mitchell Park Reserve S.A. (Regular Handicap).

Comp – ACT Dog Club – 12/05/18 – Awesome Autumn in – ACT Dog Club Jerraberra Lane Symonson ACT. (Open, Handicap option, Training in ring).

Comp – Wollongong – 19/05/18 – WWWFlyball – Gainsborough Oval 28A Meehan Drive Kiama Down (Vets, Open, Handicap Option, Handicap Option for Regular, Training in ring).

Comp – CDC – 20/05/18 – Million Paws Walk – Rond Terrace Lake Burley Griffin (Open, Open Handicap Option, Training in Ring)

Comp – Flyball Fanatics – 20/05/18 - MPW Qld – Limestone Park Salisbury Rd Ipswich Qld. ( Open, Handicap option, Champions Trophy, Training in ring.)

Comp – Belconnen – 9/-6/18 – ACT State Titles – Tuggeranong Archery Centre Soward Way Tuggeranong. (On mats, Open, Handicap option, Handicap in Regular, Champions Trophy, Training in ring).

Comp – Belconnen – 07/07/18 – Advanced Dog Extravaganza Saturday – Fitzroy Pavilion Exhibition Park Mitchell (On mats, Open, Open Handicap option, Regular Handicap, Training in ring).

Comp – Belconnen – 08/07/18 – Advance Dog Extravaganza Sunday - Fitzroy Pavilion Exhibition Park Mitchell (On mats, Open, Open Handicap option, Regular Handicap, Training in ring).

Comp – SX – 4/08/18 – SX Cool Runnings – Regatta Centre Penrith (Open, Handicap Option for Open , Champions Trophy, Training in Ring).

Demo – Awesome Pawsome – 20/05/18 – MPW Southbank – Southbank.

Demo – Norwest on behalf of AFA – Sat 16/06/18 – Erskine Park – Dogs NSW Open Show.

ITEM 4 – Admin Matters.

I) – New Members

Melissa Fisher Geoffrey Griffin David Gilmour Marie Riley Michelle O'Hare Madeline Nixon

ii) – Recommendation that Paul Newman CRN 2761 be approved for Judges Training – Carried.

iii) Request for exemption from 90 day rule – Melissa Ryan CRN 2703 – relocated from to and moving from Croydon Rockets to Dover Gardens. Carried

Item 5 General Business.

a) Report from Dog Incident Sub Committee. Committee had 2 new Black Cards (Chase and Lincoln) and had commenced to process.

b) –Report from Rules Sub Committee.

The sub committee recommended that in order to fully clarify the existing policy re abandoned round robin competitions the following wording be introduced under rule 9.2(r), Determining the winner of a Round Robin competition "Where a Race Meeting is abandoned under Policy 4, results may not be declared in any Division unless every Division has completed at least one Round Robin, in which case Division winners will be declared from standings as of the last completed Round Robin in that Division.” Carried.

c) Report from Sub Committee on Flyball Development.

The Job of the Development Sub Committee has been to look at ways to pick up the pace of growth in our sport and the subcommittee formed a view that the most inexpensive and effective path would be to look at the foundations or building blocks of other popular team sports with a view to adopting key initiatives to establish and enhance the Flyball Racing experience for our members and stakeholders.

All team sports popular with spectators, sponsors and the media have a Premiership or Championship Season but Flyball does not. Our Race Meetings are stand alone events. At the completion of each race meeting, who won or lost is quickly forgotten because the result has no bearing on the next event or season. Having investigated the viability and benefits, the Development sub committee believes Flyball Racing will benefit enormously by introducing State and Territory based Premierships Flyball Racing and is submitting the following for consideration by the Committee:

1. A Premiership is inexpensive and relatively easy to introduce and run but the benefit to all stakeholders has no limit. However, the Premiership must be simple to administer with points easy to calculate (possibly by automating the results spreadsheet) and a minimum of administrative work involved. 2. It’s proposed that a premiership season be set with Premiership points allocated at competitions run during the season. (Season yet to be determined). 3. The Premiership will only be open to teams racing in Regular Class. 4. Teams will accumulate points throughout the season. 5. Points Format proposed is: 4 Points for 1st Place 3 Points for 2nd Place 2 Points for 3rd Place 1 Point for every other team in the division.

6. The team accumulating the most points for the season will be declared the Minor Premiers. 7. The Premiership Table will not show in what division the points were earned. All points earned in each division throughout the season will be added to the one premiership table. a. EXAMPLE - If the team “Happy Howlers” wins the 1st division they will earn 4 points; if the team “Paw Blasters” wins the 4th division the team will also earn 4 points. On the Premiership table it will show the two teams on equal points. 8. Should teams end the season on equal points the winner should be decided by giving the win to the team with the highest number of placings through the season. a. EXAMPLE - Team “A” has attended 10 races and achieved 8 x second places and two single points as runners up giving a total of 26 points. b. Team “B” has attended 7 races and achieved 6 division wins and a third place giving a total of 26 points. c. Team “B” is placed higher than team “A” having achieved more higher finishing positions in their division than team “A” 9. Points accumulated by teams interstate will not be taken into account for State and Territory Premiership Tables. This includes the Nationals race meeting. 10. Points are not transferable from one team name to another. 11. Entry to the Premiership is automatic. Teams and Clubs do not have “sign up” to participate in the Premiership as points will be awarded automatically after each event. However, teams and Clubs may ask to not be included in the Premiership if they so wish. 12. At the end of the season States and Territories will have the option of running a Grand Final at the first available opportunity. a. The Minor Premier team and a number of the other top teams (number to be determined) can be invited to compete in the Grand Final. b. The Grand Final could be part of a normal race meeting where only the teams that qualified for the Grand Final race in a special Division under Handicap race format. c. States and Territories choosing to host a Grand Final would mean teams don’t have to win the minor Premiership to be the “Premiers” which would be another focus point to maintain enthusiasm.

The Committee, after discussion and consideration of the Report, agreed that the concept of a State/Territory Premiership should be adopted in principal with some details yet to be finalised (such as the dates for the Premiership season – one suggestion being to simply make it 1st July to 30th June) and that the members be informed of the proposal and be invited to comment on the concept. Discussion to also take place with the Web developer as to possible costs of automating the results and publication of all State/Territory premiership tables on the AFA Web and Facebook pages.

d) 2018 Nationals Update.

Frank reported that planning was proceeding well with invitations issued to Judges and AFA Reps. Arrangements were in hand to ensure that equipment was available for 3 rings.

(e) Report on new Lights development.

Frank reported that arrangements had been made to have Sheldon Wilson of SMW Electronics attend the Hounds in the Hills competition on Sunday the 11th March to see the AFA Lights in operation and to discuss his proposal for development of a replacement system.

Steve reported that the manufacturers he had contacted had not responded and he presumed that meant they had no real interest.

Brian Advised that Phil had submitted a report on his discussions with the European system manufacturer. Whilst Phil indicated he was impressed with the system the problem was that the manufacturer was only able to make 3 systems a year and he already had 15 requests for systems – so a 5 year wait. The Committee agreed that 5 years was too long to wait for delivery of a first system to trial and hence ruled out the European system from current consideration.

Report to be submitted to next Meeting on discussions with Sheldon at Hounds.

ITEM 6 – New Business.

Email from Frankston Club re the cancelled Australia Day competition and the issue of clarifying the Rule regarding completion of round robins in all Divisions. The Committee noted that the adopted recommendation from the Rules Sub Committee earlier in this Meeting did clarify the existing Policy that required all Divisions to have completed at least one Round robin before a result could be declared in any Division. Secretary to so reply to Frankston email.

Item 7 Other Business.

Shireen reported that the Qld lights had operated satisfactorily at the recent Pine Rivers competition.

Date of Next Meeting- Monday 2nd April 2018. There being no other business the Meeting was closed at 9.20 p.m.

Signed as a true record.

President.