SFFNZ - AGM Minutes - 20 March 2004 (revised and corrected)
Present
Ms Jill Mandeno, President, Mr Strato Cotsilinis V.P., Mr Don Short, Treasurer, Mr John Murphy and about 35 members.
Apologies were received from Pam Williams, Paul Dell and Colin Shepherd & Patrick Hegarty
Previous Minutes
The previous minutes were accepted as distributed.
President's Report
The President reported on activities for the year.
She attended, on behalf of the society, the bi-annual CIPS congress in Locarno, Switzerland. This was less of a disaster than usual as the CIPS President left chairing the meeting to the able secretary.
Despite much opposition, the meeting by a narrow margin voted to increase the FIPS/CIPS fees.
Somewhat tongue in cheek, she offered to host the next meeting in NZ. The offer was greeted with shock as they all contemplated the cost of travel!!! and the offer was swiftly dismissed.
CIPS has joined, as a probationary member, an organisation called AGFIS which is the world body representing all sports. Such organisations as the World Rugby Board, FIFA and the Olympic Committee are all members. In two years time if the other members agree we will be a full member and the only organisation entitled to hold official world and regional championships. SFFNZ by delegation will be the controlling body for NZ National FF Champs.
The FIPS Mouche meeting was largely a disaster. Rather than vote on the motion put up by Australia to go to a bi-annual World Champs, the Board proposed changing the rules so that they could achieve the same result without being committed to do so. This was not understood and was soundly rejected along with other motions to increase tournament fees and changes to regulations controlling the financing of World Championships.
The World Fishing Games are still on target for 2006 in either South Africa or Portugal. There being no other offers, the next World Champs will again be in Sweden in the same area of Lapland as last time, although the organisers promise better fishing next time. I have been asked if we would consider putting in a bid to host the 2008 games.
World Championships
Spain was very hot, high up in the mountains and very hard fishing. Once again the team started very strongly but was overtaken by a number of other countries more used to the local conditions. The individual medals were taken by France, Belgium and the US with Jeff Courier being a hugely popular winner of the Bronze Medal. The team trophy was won by France with Belgium runners up and Spain, the host, third.
New Zealand finished a creditable 10th (out of 21 countries entered) with Australia in 12th. Aaron West was our best angler finishing 25th in the world, followed by Ian Gibbs at 35th, Don Short, Des Armstrong and Chris Shadbolt.
Paul Dewar’s (accepted) offer to take over from Strato as Team Captain in Slovakia in August 2004 and the Commonwealth in Scotland in Sept 2004, was announced. Aaron and Ian retain their team places for these events.
Oceania Championships
This will be held in the Waikato in March 2005. There will be four teams fishing for the Oceania trophy (2 each NZ & Australia) but there are expected to be two further invitational teams from Canada and South Africa who will eligible to win medals in both team and individual events. The Sub-Committee organising this event includes Ian Gibbs, Steve Brown, John Pellew and Peter Scott. They reported that the organisation of the event is well under way.
The President concluded by thanking all the Board for their hard work over the last three years and particularly Strato for the amazing job he has done in organising the National Championships and acting as Team Captain in the international competitions. The members unanimously showed their appreciation for all his hard work.
Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer presented the accounts for the Y/E 31 March 2003. The report is extremely complete and shows a good surplus as of the account date. However the Treasurer explained that this was not still the present case as much of the funding had been spent on activities during the year. The meeting voted to accept the accounts and thanked Don Short for his excellent work in getting the accounts in such good order. The society has been very fortunate to have had some one of Don’s calibre who has been able to finish with the accounts in such good form. The President expressed the society’s gratitude to Don who has done such a sterling job in keeping the accounts. It is with deep regret we accept that his other committments do not permit him to continue in this role for another full term.
Election of Officers
The following slate of Officers and Board Members for the period March 2004 - March 2007 were elected. There were no contested positions and the position of Treasurer is only being filled temporarily by the retiring treasurer pending someone volunteering to take over this position.
Officers
President: Ms Jill Mandeno
Vice President and Team Captain: Mr Paul Dewar
Company Secretary: Mr Strato Cotsilinis
Treasurer (temporarily): Mr Don Short
Board
Events Co-ordinator: Mr Dave Pirrit
Membership Secretary: Mr Peter Scott
Sponsorship Manager: Mr Patrick Hegarty
Newsletter Editor: Mr John Pellew
Publicity Manger: Vacant
In addition Ian Gibbs, Steve Brown, Peter Scott & John Pellew will form the events sub-committee organising both the 2004/2005 National Championships and the Oceania Championships in 2005 under the Chairmanship of Dave Pirrit
John Pellew agreed to continue as organiser of the CD Rods Pairs Competition.
Other members were invited to offer to serve on the Sponsorship, Events and Membership sub-committees and if their names do not appear here should contact the appropriate Board member to offer their services.
Auditor
Proposed Dave Pirrit, seconded Ian Gibbs
That Gillingham Horne and Co. be re-appointed as auditors to the Society
Passed unanimously
General Business
Constitution
Strato reported on progress in formalising the society after irregularities were found with the Articles of Association a while ago.
In pursuit of sorting out the matters arising from this problem, the meeting unanimously passed the following resolutions, which were proposed by the Secretary and President.
1. To change the name of the present society back to:
The New Zealand Fly Fishing Championship Society Incorporated
2. To form a new society called:
Sport Fly Fishing NZ (Inc)
3. To elect as Life Members the surviving life members of the NZCFF Soc Inc viz:
Terry Duvall
David McLellan
Tony Entwistle
Mike Oliver
Strato Cotsilinis
In addition the following was proposed and elected a Life Member of the new society:
Mr Doug Rankin
Doug is a former Board member and acted as Team Captain to international championships for several years and has supported the teams with both his time and financial support and is a worthy new Life Member.
4. To authorise the Secretary to circulate a signature sheet to get signatures to enable him to establish and register the new society (Note: This was done after the meeting and the requisite number of signatures obtained.)
5. To write, with the President, a new set of Articles of Association and for these to be approved by the incoming Board.
Sponsorship
In the absence of the Sponsorship Manager, Pat Hegarty, the President reported on progress to date with finding sponsors. It is a pleasure to record that Patrick’s hard work has paid off and that CD Sports has signed up as the naming rights sponsor for our teams and events for the next three years. Hence forth, the National Champs will be known as The CD Rods NZ Fly Fishing Championships and our international team as the CD Rods NZ Silver Flies.
More sponsorship is urgently needed and all members are encouraged to contact Patrick if they have any suggestions on: pchegarty@paradise.co.nz
Nationals - Qualification Criteria
In calling the meeting, correspondence with the Board from Neil Hertzel regarding what he perceived as a presently unfair system in selecting members to go through to the National Champs had been circulated with the meeting notice.
There followed a lively and extensively discussion covering the pre-qualification for the Nationals of the top anglers and team members from the previous year. At issue was the rule which requires a minimum number of anglers in each regional for each place in the Nationals but which excludes any angler who is pre-qualified as an entrant who counts towards this total.
After lengthy discussion, the following rules were proposed by Neil Hertzel and seconded by Dave Alexander and agreed by a majority of the members. They will apply from 2005/2006 National Championships
The following will retain pre-qualification for the National Championships:
- The anglers who finished in the top ten in the previous year
- Any angler who fished in an international team in the preceding 12 months
Other anglers who enter regional competitions will qualify for the Nationals as follows:
- Minimum number of non-(pre)qualified anglers in a competition: 5
Number to go through:
5 - 7 non-(pre)qualified anglers: 1 place
8 - 11 anglers as above: 2 places
12 - 15 anglers inc. as above: 3 places
For each additional block of up to four anglers: 1 extra place
The meeting closed with a vote of thanks to Strato who is retiring from organising our competitions, although he has offered to help Dave Pirrit in the transition to the new organisation of events.
The President thanked everyone for attending and once again reminded members that the club will only be any fun if people are pre-pared to help with the organisation and participate actively.