SFFNZ – AGM Minutes – 15 October 2011

Present

Jill Mandeno (Patron), Strato Cotsilinis (President), Paul Dewar (Vice President), board members and approximately 30 other SFFNZ members

Apologies

N. Hawes, G. Evans

Certificates

Strato presented Nationals (top 5) and Regionals (winners) certificates.

Minutes

The previous minutes were presented to the meeting by Strato and accepted without any matters. (Moved Tim McClew, Seconded Paul Dewar)

Financials

The Treasurer, Brendon Lyon, presented the 30 June 2011 Financial statements (attached). No issues were raised for follow up, and were accepted (moved Tony Houpt, seconded Paul Dewar).

President’s Report

Strato presented his report on 2011 (attached). Notable items included the new points system, Regionals and National Championship format. Teams for the Oceania (NSW), Commonwealths (Tasmania) and Worlds (Slovenia) were outlined. Changes to the President’s Report noted were Tim McClewand, Tony Houpt added to Oceania teams, and Sam Bourne in Peter Scott’s place for the Commonwealths. The possibility of sending a team to Norway in 2013 for the Worlds was discussed and agreed to be investigated for interest by the Board. Jill Mandeno noted there were no changes at the International level, and the possibility for changes to be trialed in Slovenia. Thanks was given to John Dibley for advancement of a sponsorship programme for the organisation so far. Notably, Manic Tackle was in discussion with SFFNZ for Nationals sponsorship. 

Team Sponsorship

There was a healthy debate around the levels of sponsorship support each of the three representative teams will receive from SFFNZ in the forthcoming year. Primarily Neil Hirtzel campaigned for more money for the Oceania team due to the proportionately high cost relative to recent events, and the fact that few teams participate and therefore a greater number of the costs are spread over less competitors. Neil’s disagreement was noted. However, it was passed that the representative teams would receive the following support: 

  • World Team (Slovenia) = $6,000 (team of 5 plus captain = $1000 each)
  • Oceania Team (NSW Aus.) = $3000 ($300 per team member x 10)
  • Commonwealth Team (Tas.)= $3000 (($300 per team member x 10)

Team Selection Criteria

Paul Dewar led a discussion around team selection. Currently there is an auto-qualification of the top performing Kiwi at the most recent World Championships. Paul suggested to drop this model in favour of a ‘wild card’ selection for a 5th place team member decided by 3 people: the team’s Captain, an appointed Board member, and an appointed Selector. The first 4 positions on the team would be made up of the top 4 finishers of the Nationals points standing at the end of the season. The selection model is similar to those employed by French and the Czech teams. There was much interest in this model but no complete agreement was met and it was deferred to the Board to consider amendments to the selection process further.

Elections

No nominations for necessary for the bi-annual appointments.

General Business

No notable issues were raised.

Meeting Closed.