SFFNZ - AGM Minutes - 22 March 2003
Present
Ms Jill Mandeno, President, Mr Strato Cotsilinis, Vice President, Mr Don Short, Treasurer, Mr John Murphy, Membership Secretary, and about 22 ordinary Members
Apologies
Apologies were received from Mr Mike Stent, Competition Co-ordinator, Dave Pirrit, Patrick Hegarty, Sponsorship Co-ordinator, Peter Casserly, South Island Representative, Pat Williams, Chris Shadbolt, and Dave McLellan
Previous Minutes
The previous minutes had been distributed and were unanimously accepted as read.
Presidents Report
President Jill Mandeno reported on the activities of the Society for the past year.
SFFNZ did not, in the end, send a team to the World Championships, which were held in France due to the high cost of attending. In consequence NZ also missed the Commonwealth Championship in Wales.
The Commonwealth was a great success with a team from the Isle of Man competing for the first time together with Scotland, (back into international competition after an absence of several years for financial reasons) England, Wales and Australia. The Commonwealth was won by the Australian team under the captaincy of Craig Coltman.
2002 was an Oceania year and this year Fly Fish Australia hosted the championship in Tasmania. After initially expecting to hold the competition in the Highlands, it was decided to base the championship nearer Launceston so as to take advantage of the local river.
Notwithstanding the valiant efforts of our two teams, Australia swept the board coming first and second and winning the individual angling medal. For the first time we had an invitational team from Canada who acquitted themselves very well. Although not able to fish for the Oceania trophy, they were eligible to win individual medals.
In consolation, it was realised that if we had swapped our best “B” angler for our worst “A”angler we would have won. Even if Australia had done the same we would have still won so the competition could be said to have been very close. The next Oceania will be in NZ in 2004/2005.
The next CIPS congress will be in Locarno in Switzerland in April and the President will attend on behalf of the society.
This year Scotland had again proposed to limit world competitions to bi-annual events starting after 2004 in Slovakia. Canada also submitted a similar resolution. However FIPS have decided that in view of the support attracted at the last Congress for the similar resolution put forward that time by Australia, that they will propose, with Board approval, to change the statutes to simply require that the World Champs be held at least every two years with no particular start date for this arrangement. Scotland, NZ and Australia are all supporting this resolution and will be canvassing for support amongst other countries. We need 2/3 of members present to support the resolution. There is also a proposal to increase CIPS fees with a counter proposal being circulated to reduce the size of the Praesidium by eliminating the two Vice Presidential positions. I propose to vote against the fee increase and look to have costs reduced as we do not see any real value to NZ in the work being undertaken which is largely designed to benefit the European countries.
Postscript: After the AGM word was received that Sweden had applied to host the 2005 World Champs. After talking with Iain Earle who is the Scottish President, he informed me that they would not submit an application until they see the outcome of the FIPS meeting vote to change the championship’s frequency. So the location of the next Commonwealth champs is in doubt at this time.
The President thanked the Board for all their hard work and in particular, Strato and Don for all the efforts put in to making the National Championships such a success. Thanks are also due to the regional co-ordinators for all their efforts. As this meeting was held prior to the end of the championships, the results are shown on the web site and not as part of these minutes.
John Pellow and Don Short were thanked for their work in organising the now popular pairs competition. Members were reminded that they had been asked to commit themselves to increasing the membership role to 300 by the recruitment of 2 new members for each existing one. So far we are not achieving our goals. The idea of sponsor members is still under consideration and after discussions with Mr Doug Rankin we are planning to try to get this idea off the ground.
The President thanked Patrick Hegarty, Strato and others who have actively pursued sponsorship money so that the cost of attending the World competitions this year will be more reasonable even with the higher cost of the tournament this year.
Postscript: Due to a change in meeting date, Patrick Hegarty’s report was not received until after the meeting. Patrick has spent an enormous amount of time pursuing sponsorship deals and the society owes him heartfelt thanks for all his hard work. It is to be hoped that this wonderful ground work will produce some ongoing sponsorship arrangements which will benefit the next Oceania Championships as well as the next team to go the world champs.
Similarly, a note was also received from Peter Casserly announcing that there will be a South Island regional competition. The date will be posted on the club web site when confirmed.
The SFFNZ website continues to be updated regularly and our thanks to Don Short for this. In Tasmania I was told many Aussie fishermen visit the site as being better than the home grown version. It can only get better and every member is encouraged to direct potential members to it for information. Do make sure also that you supply Don with your e-mail addresses for up-to-date information bulletins. Since the AGM I have received confirmation from Mario Podmanik, the Secretary of FIPS, that a link to our site will be added to the CIPS/FIPS site. A cross link from our site will be added also.
The team for Spain have been practicing hard which is really good news. Des Armstrong and Strato have ensured good turnouts for these practices which should stand us in good stead in June. Our thanks to them and in particular to Des for his great e-mails wittily summarising the practice sessions.
Treasurer's Report
The accounts for the Y/E 31 March 2002 which have been approved by the auditors, Gillingham Horne, were presented and accepted unanimously. They show a modest surplus which can be used to support this year's team.
Auditor
Proposed: Don Short, Seconded John Murphy: That Gillingham Horne and Co be appointed as auditors for the next year. Passed Unanimously
NZ National Championships
The National Championships were not concluded at the date of the AGM. The results are included in the web site.
Strato actually resigned last year as Competition Co-ordinator and was replaced by Mike Stent who was unable to assist with this year’s tournament due to other business commitments. As Strato will not be available to help with either of next years Nationals or Oceania championships, volunteers were called for to take over this task.
Steve Brown, Peter Scott and John Pellew offered to replace Strato with additional help at getting the paper work done. An offer to co-ordinate this critical work has now been received from one of the controllers for this year's championships and this will be pursued by the Board. An announcement will be made as soon as arrangements are in place.
World Championships
The World Championships for 2003 will be held from July 11 - 18 in Jaca, Spain. The team will fly in on June 4th, for practice. The Team Captain will be Mr Strato Cotsilinis and Ms Jill Mandeno will be team manager. The team comprises Mr Aaron West, Des Armstrong, Don Short, Ian Gibbs and Chris Shadbolt. The team is seeking help in tying flies for the competition and anyone who can help should contact Don Short on fourshorts@xtra.co.nz or call on (025) 585 245.
It is believed that the UK team are favouring tungsten bead, brown nymphs and small dry flies. Members of the French team in Australia during the Oceania indicated to the Australian Captain that they would be using similar flies. Flies with are single small bead (max 4 mm) are now permitted under FIPS rules.
Strato reported that the approximate cost for both the World Championships will be $6000 with some (at present about $2000 per person) funding from sponsors to the Society.
Commonwealth Championships
There will also be an unofficial Commonwealth Championship this year on Pitsford reservoir in England organised by Bob Church. At this stage it does not look as though any NZ team or members of the team will participate. England (2 teams), Scotland (2 teams), and Australia are confirmed at this time.
Oceania Championships
There is no Oceania Championship this year (2003/2004) and the team selected from this year’s National Championship will be for the 2004 World Championship only. These are in Slovakia. Two Oceania teams will be chosen for 2004/2005 following next year’s championships.
Sponsorship
We continue to seek major sponsorship and have some possibility of securing sponsorship for a World event in Scotland. However a successful result in Spain would greatly improve our chances of securing more and better sponsors. We wish the team good luck.
General Business
A number of issues were discussed under the heading of general business relating to sponsorship and how to secure it, how to get more members and how to create more enthusiasm amongst the people who have preciously competed for places in the world team. John Rumpf of Australia, who had participated in the Nationals as the “dummy angler” pointed out that he had just qualified for the Australian team after an absence of 10 years from their team so people should never lose heart.
One idea which merits some further discussion was proposed by Ye Huang, viz. that we should have at least one competition during the year for which prizes are donated to encourage the participation of people who would not normally consider themselves to be in the running to join a NZ team. Strato pointed out that this would require negotiations with Fish and Game as such competitions are not normally allowed. The Board will pursue this idea along with the idea of recruiting sponsor members and making the annual pairs competition a sponsor/member competition - rather like pro-am golf tournaments.
However it is the membership itself who hold the key to the vitality of this club. More members and more local competitions throughout the year with members taking local responsibility for organising these is what will produce the best competition anglers and allow us to again win medals on an increasingly competitive world stage.
The meeting closed at 10.00pm and the next one will be held during the next National Championships which will be held 19-21 March 2004.
Postscript: The full results of the championships are posted on the website: www.sffnz.kiwiclub.com
Our congratulations to Rob Vaz (Hamilton) for winning this years championship and to Aaron West and Steve Brown (both from Palmerston North) for their second and third places respectively.
The club also wishes to record our thanks to John Rumpf (former Australian National Casting Champion) for the casting demonstration and lessons given at the conclusion of the Nationals and also the additional lessons later given to some team members.
The name of the game is, as always, to put the fly on the water under a trout’s nose for as much of the three hour competition period as possible. Anything which improves an angler’s ability to achieve this will help to achieve better results. We also need to take a leaf out of the French team’s books. They do not select anglers who cannot change leaders and/or flies in a specified time. Team practices include practice of the best techniques to achieve this.
Our thanks to all the Regional Organisers and Controllers who helped make the 2003 National Championships the success they were. Thanks also to the weather gods for great weather.
Following a run in with Fletcher Forest Security, I have been asked to pass on the following messages to all club members:
Anglers using the forests to access the Whao Canal and the Rangitiki River are reminded that there are two security rules which must be followed by all vehicles.
- They must get a permit from Fletcher Forest between Monday and Friday, even if they wish to fish at weekends - call before 4pm Friday to arrange for it to be issued.
- Headlights must be on at all times while on the forest roads.