December 12, 2002
Attendees
Kirk Krack, Mandy Cruickshank, Tom Lightfoot. Perry Gladstone joined the meeting via phone.
Ken McCallum sent his regrets.
Call to Order
This meeting was held at the Watersports Exchange store in Vancouver. The meeting was called to order at 7:10 pm.
Meeting Minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved unanimously by the board.
Survey Form
Tom presented a draft survey form to the board. The following suggestions were made in the discussion that followed:
- Add the question, “Do you own your own equipment?”
- Add the question, “How did you learn to freedive?”
Perry also suggested that a trial survey be made at first with about five people that the executive do not know well. In that way the survey can be tested for effectiveness and some objective feedback can be obtained from the participants.
Tom will make the suggested changes, put a database back end on the survey, test it and then submit it for the trial survey.
Competition Software
John Nunes is back from his travels and had a chance to talk to Ken about the competition software. John does not want the software to be released in his current state. He intends to do another version and write up a manual himself.
Budget
Mandy reported that she still has not received anything from George Bryan-Orr about the budget.
In the mean time, Tom has approached Sandy Aird about taking over the books for CAFA. Sandy was enthusiastic about the job. At the request of the board, Tom will offer Sandy a $200 honorarium to:
- Finish the 2001-2002 financial records
- Set up a financial spreadsheet
- Create quarterly reports for the 2002-2003 fiscal year
Kirk will write George a letter thanking him for his past help and indicating that his services will no longer be required.
Lung Association Fundraiser
Mandy has approached the BC Lung Association about doing a fundraising event with them in January. They were oppen to the idea but there is insufficient time to get a link to freediving on their website and they already have events scheduled for January. Mandy had identified January 26th as the ideal time because it is between after the Christmas rush and the competition season.
It appears that January 2004 would be a much better time for a high profile event with the Lung Association. However, Mandy still proposed that CAFA still hold a low profile fun event in January 2003 as a ‘dry run’. The current concept is to hold a series of events across the country on January 26 where participants take part in some pool-based fun apnea events. Entry fees would go to the provincial Lung Association. Pools will be asked if they would provide time for free.
Sponsorship of Nationals and Team Canada
Perry has been in touch with Jason Billows about being CAFA’s ‘PR Guy’. Jason has seen the sponsorship proposals and had several comments and questions for Perry. Essentially the proposals need a new spin. Perry will work out a new set of sponsorship proposals with Jason and present those to the board.
It took some effort but Perry was able to get back in touch with Kevin Albrecht of IMG Canada. He said that he was still interested in doing two to three events in a year. Further contact will be made once the sponsorship proposals are updated.
Regional Competitions
Kirk has been working on the changes to the rules about Regional Competitions due to changes to the ranking formula agreed upon at the last meeting. From the CAFA Competition Program document:
Paragraph 1.2.4
Change the wording from
All regional competitions must include static apnea, dynamic apnea and constant ballast.
to
All regional competitions must include at least two of the following events: static apnea, dynamic apnea and constant ballast.
All agreed.
Paragraph 1.2.6
Change the wording from
A competitor’s point total is the sum of their performances in static apnea, dynamic apnea and constant ballast.
to
A competitor’s point total is the sum of their performances in the static, dynamic and constant ballast (but no other) events of the competition.
All agreed.
Paragraph 1.2.3
Remove this paragraph which states:
A maximum of four regional competitions are to be held per year per region.
A consensus could not be reached on this point. Kirk argued for removal of the four regional limit in order to promote more competitions in areas that could not support constant ballast events. Tom and Mandy were against removal of the limit, arguing that people would suffer from competition fatigue and that several regionals would result in the under-development of interclub competitions. The board will decide on this point at the next meeting.
Nationals
Kirk proposed that the dates for the National Championships be moved to the June 27-29 weekend. This delay would allow people in the colder parts of the country to get some constant ballast training in before the event. The delay would also allow Canadians to participate in the Freediver Open which is on the May 24 weekend in Cyprus.
In a vote, all aproved of the date change, including Ken, who submitted his vote via proxy.
Quebec
Yves Charland has been in touch with Kirk about improving cooperation between CAFA, FQAS and the Montreal freediving club. Kirk will offer to come out to do a Judge in Learning clinic and judge a competition at CAFA’s cost. There will be no price breaks for courses, however.
Competitive Membership Inquiry
A member has inquired if there is any recourse for paying a competitive membership and then not competing. This member had volunteered at a couple of competitions but had not participated as a competitor. The member last paid on July 2001. After some discussion, the board agreed to offer to waive fees for the next year’s membership (July 2002 to July 2003) on a one-time basis.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 8:48 pm. The next meeting will be held on January 9.