Attendees
Kirk Krack, Mandy Cruickshank, Tom Lightfoot, Ken McCallum. Perry Gladstone joined the meeting via phone.
Call to Order
This meeting was held at the Watersports Exchange store in Vancouver. The meeting was called to order at 8:53 pm.
Meeting Minutes
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved unanimously by the board and will be posted to the web site.
Budget
Prior to the meeting, Mandy had updated her budget and cash flow spreadsheet and sent it to the board members. Some items still need to be finalized:
- Best and worst case numbers for the contingency – these will all be the same as the expected case.
- After the Western Regionals, the merchandise figures are already in excess of the best case projections and need to be updated.
- Final figures from 2001-2002 financial report for balance forward.
The budget will be presented for approval at the next meeting.
The budget will be reviewed on a quarterly basis. The budget will be initially presented for approval on September each year and then reviewed in December, March and June.
Western Regional Competition
Ken reported that the Western Regional competition held September 14-15 in Vancouver was very successful. It generated a small profit for the Freedive Vancouver club and resulted in some excellent performances. A total of three national records were broken. The incidence of sambas and blackouts was also much lower than in previous competitions, with only one samba in the pool.
Ken also warned that it is getting harder to find volunteers to help with the competitions. The main areas of difficulty are safety freedivers and timers.
Team Canada Selection Process
Perry expressed concern that the current selection process for Team Canada could be improved to insure that members are sufficiently dedicated, able, and represent Canada and CAFA in the best possible light. The ‘best team’ should be selected for the following aspects:
- Performance
- Team dynamics
- Appropriate representation
He also indicated that board member’s comments to the general community that this was an ‘off’ year may have been a factor in recent resignations from the team and in a lack of an effective sponsorship effort.
Perry proposed that a selection committee be formed to add a discretionary aspect to the selection process.
The motion to create a team selection committee was defeated by a vote of 4 to 1.
After further discussion it was agreed that Kirk will draft an amendment to the selection formula that will reduce the drop in ranking for an otherwise top competitor who has a poor performance at nationals.
Marketing Plan
Perry presented a document entitled CAFA Marketing and Positioning Outline to the board. Key points and action items from the discussion are as follows:
- CAFA needs a club creation manual
- CAFA needs to find out what are the minimum requirements to get a member that will stay with the Association and the sport of freediving. For instance, research has shown the snow sports industry that three times out and an avid buddy best creates new long-term participants. Tom will email out a survey to help find out CAFA’s requirements.
- Certification and courses will be key to retaining CAFA members
- It may be possible to get corporate sponsorship of the instructional program
- Our ‘front pages’ should be more compelling to attract new divers. A ‘brochure’ for new divers should be put on the web site, accessible from a new splash page at the very front of the site. The existing site well also be available from this splash page, as well as the French language site when it becomes available. Tom will develop the brochure
- Some ideas to improve perceived value would be:
- A newsletter
- Buddy finder
- Discount on Freediver Magazine via distribution
- Annual CAFA trip – Perry will look into this
- Membership cards
- Product discounts
Event Sponsorship
One of the long-term items in Perry’s marketing document was a high profile freediving competition. Such an event would require corporate sponsorship. Perry offered to see if a sponsorship agency could be contracted to raise sufficient funds.
“Big Picture”
A “Big Picture” review meeting will be held in February for the board to make long term plans. This will be an all day meeting where the board members can meet face to face.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 11:14 pm.