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 The committee is now into the development part of the season as we relook at everything we do and want to achieve on behalf of the membership. As has been mentioned previously we did have a bit of a swap around of roles on the committee at a meeting in Kurrawa and Tony Benfield has now undertaken the role of Secretary with Alan Gibbons backfilling Tony’s Vice President position.
Attached to this report (click on "Read More" below) you will find the result of the recent Survey completed by over 300 members. We will be using the clear message provided within this Survey to structure our thinking going forward. To most questions you have been clear in your responses and this will make it a lot easier for us to set up policy.
We still have a few people who want to work on the negatives, like:
- We should never revisit any decision that was taken one or twenty
years ago – the facts are that decisions made at any meeting including
an AGM unless structured to be binding going forward can be revisited.
In many cases a decision is made to suit a specific circumstance and
will only have affect for that season. In other cases a decision may
have been made to be ongoing as it was seen as the correct decision at
that point in time. If the situations change the membership is then
entitled to revisit the original decision and have it overturned which
has happened on occasions at our AGM on issues like the rotation of Open
venues, location of AGM etc. If the membership wants to set something
in stone that is the realm of the Constitution but that type of fixed
policy should be handled with care. You elect a committee each year to
run the business of the ASRL and it is surely better to provide that
committee with some thoughts or direction but leave the committee the
space to position the League for the best outcomes for all.
- Location for holding the Open is another topic that has some
passionate followers. Again if it is travel for travel sake, those
people wanting to expose crews to other parts of the country will find a
carnival or event on most weekends somewhere in Australia. Remote
location clubs would welcome any visiting crew but would every crew make
the effort to visit the remote location? We have asked the question of
the membership in different ways over the years and without doubt the
greatest support always comes for a location that is easily accessible
in time, travel and ultimately cost. See the survey response to the
question asking “would you support an age competition to be held
Interstate” to see that again the message is that the majority say no
and this is from the specific age divisions we asked the question. The
Aussies are the Aussies and that is the one event where crews make the
effort to take extended time off work to attend. If we start adding
additional time off work to attend our Open we will lose the numbers we
now enjoy. Lose the numbers and we lost the attraction to a big sponsor
and with that the ability to support the States with the substantial
cash injection we have made to each of them in recent years.
We are currently working with SLSA on a range of items designed to
improve the way we do business in regard competition. It isn’t all about
the Aussies only but will certainly include our own Open and hopefully
can provide a blueprint for any other major boat event. One of the other
things we want to achieve is a comprehensive Sweeping DVD that can be
made available to every club in Australia. Some clubs are well served
with experienced Sweeps but a lot struggle to support the novice during
the crucial learning phase. What we aim to achieve with a DVD is to
provide a platform that can be used to develop experience across the
spectrum. Scott Tennahill is in the driving seat for this one and we
look forward to a well produced and balanced DVD that will be a
treasured coaching item into the future.
It is timely to re-evaluate our sponsorship portfolio and outcomes to
see how it is travelling and where we may need to pay some attention or
bring about any change. To this end we have invited the President or
State Coordinator from each State rowing group to join us this weekend
for our May conference. This is a good opportunity to discuss a wide
range of topics and with the involvement of officials from SLSA in
attendance it will provide us the platform to help develop surfboats in
harmony with the sports governing body.
Again anyone reading this on the website and not directly via your email
should take it as read that we don’t have your correct contact details.
If you want to receive correspondence directly into your email you need
to immediately contact
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who will be able to sort
out the problem for you. It is only available to financial members of
the ASRL so if you want the ability to vote electronically and believe
you are a member please contact the Secretary.
Finally SLSA have released it’s terms of reference for the upcoming
independent inquiry of Kurrawa 2010. It is attached for our members to
see.
Select from the attachments below to download a printable pdf document:
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