Fencing North Meeting - July 2019

Fencing North Meeting – 29th July 2019

 

Meeting Opened: 7:04pm.

Present: David Elder, Katie Logan, Amanda Hopkins, Mary Black, Murray McGuire-Barnes, Ainslie McGuire-Barnes, Sunny Sun, Ryan Yan, Kyle Nankivell.

Confirmation of the Previous Minutes: Katie moved that the minutes from June be accepted. David seconded. Motion carried.

Matters Arising: The Fencing North survey requires only a final review before it is circulated. It was agreed that it should be sent to previous fencers as well as those affiliated this year so that we can capture the opinions of those who have dropped out.
  The waiving of entry fees for out-of-towners was very well-received at the Pickworth Open, with several entrants from outside of Auckland.
  The tracksuit specifications are ready to be publicised to fencers.

Health and Safety: There are no incidents or safety issues to report this month.

Treasurer’s Report: Amanda gave her report. Fencing North is still showing a loss to date, due mainly to increased hall hire and decreased entries in competitions. However, we still have one more North Secondary School competition, North Islands and the National Secondary School Championships. With plenty of entries, we should be in positive territory by the end of the financial year. The committee discussed how to increase revenue this year and in following years, and the need to fund new equipment such as pistes.
  Katie seconded Amanda’s report. All in favour.

Competitions: The upcoming competitions this month are Secondary School Individuals #4 (4th August) and the North Island Championships (17th-18th August).

Referee Fees: There was some confusion following the previous schools competition about what constituted a ‘full day’ and ‘half day’ for the purposes of paying referees. David will contact FeNZ to ensure that Fencing North conforms with FeNZ rules.

Pistes: Trusts Arena has expressed concern about the use of tape for fabric pistes on their international-quality netball courts. David has designed a new piste layout that keeps fabric pistes off the main court, and is looking into acquiring more metal pistes (potentially second-hand from another region).

North Islands: In the past month there has been a lot of activity organising operations for the upcoming North Islands Championships. The committee various aspects of the organisation of this competition, including assignment of organisational roles.

NZ Secondary Schools: Fencing North is hosting the NZSS competition on September 6th-8th. There had been some hold-ups in the organisation of the competition (in particular the venue and timetable), and the committee discussed some key aspects of the event and created an action plan for getting the details finalised as soon as possible.

NZ Secondary School Teams: This year FeNZ has decided that the NZSS Teams event will again be run with two teams allowed per region, and both school and composite teams permitted (following the resolution from the FeNZ meeting in August 2018, although without the extra Men’s Foil teams permitted in that resolution). The committee discussed how best to select teams for the North region. Katie proposed that Fencing North use the same system that was agreed on last year (see the minutes from August 2018): School teams would be selected on the basis of the school-level national rankings of individual fencers. Murray seconded. Motion carried.
  Katie will spearhead the selection process, including: ensuring that the national rankings are up-to-date; calculating school team rankings; contacting schools for expressions of interest; and accepting final team entries.

FeNZ News: David reported that FeNZ has launched its new website.
  FeNZ has solicited expressions of interest for the NZ Olympic long list in preparation for the upcoming 2020 Olympics.
  The national insurance policy has been renewed, now including cheap travel insurance for international travel. The details will be circulated soon.
  FeNZ has finalised a privacy policy for protecting the data of affiliated members. This will be circulated soon.
  There is some concern in FeNZ about decreasing National competition numbers. It has been suggested that Auckland fencers (the largest group in NZ) are reluctant to travel to other regions for events, leaving numbers low.

Other Business:

Sponsoring Residency: A foreign national who is currently fencing and coaching in Auckland has asked Fencing North to sponsor their New Zealand residency. David proposed that we agree to sponsor their residency. Katie seconded. Motion carried.

Meeting Closed: 9:15pm.

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