SFFNZ - AGM Minutes - 28 October 2005

Present

President Ms Jill Mandeno, Vice President Mr Paul Dewar, Treasurer & Secretary Mr Strato Cotsilinis, Competition Co-ordinator Mr Dave Pirrit, Newletter Editor Mr John Pellew, Membership Secty, Mr Peter Scott

Previous Minutes

The previous minutes were read by the President, who apologised for the delay in making them available. They were accepted by the meeting.

Treasurer's Report

The Treasurer reported that the accounts for Y/E March 31, 2004 had been finalised subsequent to the last AGM, approved by the Board and filed.

He then presented the accounts for the Y/E 310305. The accounts showed a profit from Oceania of $12,294. Strato reported that all debtors with regard to Oceania and Nationals had now been collected and all creditors paid. The Society currently had funds of $21 611.33 in general funds including $3,251.80 in funds to purchase safety equipment.

Proposed Mr Cotsilinis, seconded Ms Mandeno:

“That the accounts for 2005 be accepted as tabled.”

Passed unanimously.

Mr Cotsilinis then reported that the Board had discussed the matter of subscriptions. These have not actually been set for the new society and those of the previous society had not been raised for a number of years.  Accordingly on behalf of the Board Mr Cotsilinis moved a motion (seconded Mr Paul Dewar):

“That the SFFNZ subscriptions be set as follows for the coming year:

Individual Competing Member: $35.00
Individual Non-competing Member: $20.00
Family Membership (2 Adults and their children): $50.00

After as short discussion, the motion was approved.

Note: Family membership carries with it the entitlement to 2 votes at any society meeting.

Matters Arising

President's Report

The President reported that she had attended the CIPS/FIPS Congress in Palermo, Italy in May 2005.

The main business of the CIPS congress was to elect a new Board. There were few actual elections for the various positions as it had been organised so that only one nomination was tabled for the more important positions. Several of the delegates called for a more open and transparent nominating process and the Board promised to take note of this. It was also announced that, sadly, our very able treasurer for the last four years had died shortly prior to the Congress. The new Treasurer is from the German delegation and seems to be a very able accountant.

The official report on the Congress and the details of the new Board are listed on the CIPS website: www.cips-fips.org

It was confirmed that Portugal will host the 2006 Mondial of Fishing. Note that we are no longer permitted to refer to it as the World Fishing Games. The Olympic Committee sent a letter objecting to CIPS using this term and saying that they hold the exclusive world rights to use the terms “World Games” in combination with any other words for a competitive event!!!!

The Portuguese Fishing Federation showed a video which briefly covered all the sites for the various events. The Sea Angling Federation (FIPS-Mer) will hold the largest number of events, followed those of the coarse fishing federation (FIPS-Ed).

Fly fishing will be based in a small village (very pretty) about 3 hrs NE of Lisbon, the capital. The opening ceremony will be held in Lisbon and the closing at the location of the fly fishing. Although videos were handed out at the conclusion of the presentation they turned out NOT to be about the venue we will visit and so we still do not have much information about this event. CIPS will make their final inspection to approve venues and timetables in December 2005. The competition will be held the second week in September, 2006.

The FIPS-Mouche AGM produce another new board and again objections about the way in which it was organised. Basically the Board just rotated jobs so that the new President is James Ferguson, former President Jurek Kowalski is now Vice President, Paul Veckman has taken James old job and Mario Podmanik remains as Secretary/Treasurer. Details are given on the web site.

All motions to change the statutes were defeated. Several related to enforcing the rule that a country may not use its own nationals to control its own team. The Board undertook to enforce the existing rules in lieu.

2007 World FF Champs were confirmed for Finland. Following last years AGM resolution, I had notified FIPS-Mouche Board that we wished to bid to host the 2008 championship.

We were competing with Scotland and Slovakia. I secured the proxies of Japan and Australia for hosting the tournament in NZ but was only able to exercise one of these after James Ferguson pointed out that a country can only hold one other proxy.

Scotland’s elegant, kilted delegate made a very slick presentation. However I explained that this would be the members' only chance to come to NZ until at least 2012 due to our commitments to the Oceania in odd numbered years and CIPS decision to host a World event every four years (2006, 2010 etc). Slovakia also offered to host the 2008 championship.

NZ won the voting 9:6 (Scotland) :2 (Slovakia).

The President explained that this meant we were now in a position to submit a formal proposal to FIPS for approval of hosting the event in NZ by the Board of FIPS-Mouche. On the assumption that this is a formality and that such an approval will be forthcoming, we need to start planning immediately to host this event.

Volunteers to help organise this event will be needed. Mr Dave Pirrit has offered to stay on as Competition Organiser and take charge or the controllers for this event. He has already received several offers to act as Sector Controllers/Judges (we will need five of these). The President explained that she had informed the FIPS delegates that we will allow members of the various overseas federations to nominate fishing members to participate in the NZ World Championships as controllers on the understanding that they will pay their own way at the same cost as other non-fishing delegates. This offer was well received and helped secure the votes for NZ. We have already been notified that we can expect controllers from Wales, England, and possibly France.

Since the President is also Chairman of the Commonwealth Fly Fishers, she also announced that there will be Commonwealth Championship in the week immediately following the World Champs. Australia have offered to host this if NZ does not wish to do so.

(Note: Subsequent to this meeting, expressions of interest were received from both Hawkes Bay and Tauranga clubs. As HB made the first offer, they have been granted the right of first refusal.)

The President reported that since the formalities of registering the new SFFNZ Inc. with the Registrar of Societies having been completed, this meeting was in fact the second AGM of the new, revised society.

Board Vacancies

Mr Patrick Hegarty had informed the Board that he was unable to continue with the position of Sponsorship Manager. It was proposed, seconded, that Mr Ian Gibbs be take over the position of Sponsorship Manager for the remainder of Patrick’s term. There being no other nominations, Mr Gibbs was duly elected unanimously.

NZ National Championships

A very successful National Championship was run in March 2005. A separate report was issued on this and the meeting congratulated Mr Pirrit and the team for all their hard work in making this event a success.

Oceania Championships

Mr Paul Dewar reported on the highly successful Oceania championship which was held in Rotorua in March 2005.

Two NZ and two Australian teams competed for the Oceania Trophy; we also had two invitational teams from Canada and Japan participating.

The competition was closely fought but after the last session the Oceania trophy was won back by the NZ Black Team under the captaincy of Mr Paul Dewar, comprising:

Steve Brown (who also won the individual Gold Medal)
Margaret Williams
Ian Gibbs
Rob Vaz
John Bell (who also won the individual Silver Medal)

Aaron West of the NZ Silver Team won the individual Bronze Medal.

World Championship

NZ did not participate in the World Championship in Sweden in line with our long standing policy of only funding teams every second year. Mr Cotsilinis reported that he was unable to find five members who wished to attend at their own expense and so we were not represented. The lakes again fished badly as in the previous Swedish championship. Australia sent a voluntary (unfunded) team and finished last of 20 countries.

The  meeting closed at 8.30pm and the next one will be held to co-incide with the Pairs Championship in 2006.