Fencing North Meeting - March 2020

Fencing North Committee Meeting – 9th March 2020

 

Meeting Opened: 7:08pm

Present: David Elder, Amanda Hopkins, Sunnie Sun, Katie Logan, Maja Saran, Peter Butler, Rhys Greensill, Vicky Fan, Neil Young, Matthew Houtman, Ryan Yan.

Apologies: Mary Black.

Confirmation of the Previous Minutes: Katie moved that the minutes for February be accepted as correct. Maja seconded. Motion carried.

Matters Arising: Katie noted that the Treasurer’s Report was skipped in the previous meeting and that it should be approved this month.

Treasurer’s Report: Amanda gave the Treasurer’s Report for February and March.  Amanda moved that her report be accepted. David seconded. Motion carried.

Competitions:

W Dawn: Maja reported that the W Dawn was a reasonably successful tournament, and was run on the basis of maximising fencing for all participants. The RegisterNow system was very successful and made collecting entries and payments a lot smoother.

Refund Policy: There was a minor issue surrounding a refund requested by an entrant pulled out of the competition. The committee agreed that in future entrants would be advised to email the tournament organiser for all questions of refunds and that it would be entirely at their discretion.

Ongley Open: The Ongley Open is coming up on the 14th of March. It is expected to be a larger than usual competition due to increased advertising and to pay respects to Gaylene Ongley.

Secondary Schools Beginners: The Secondary School Beginners competition will require either a change of date or a change of venue due to rebookings at Trusts. Maja and David will look into the options for this.

Oceanic U20s: Maja, Peter, David and Katie reported that the organisation for Oceanic U20s is on track; however, some parts of the organisation had been held back due to concerns that COVID19 restrictions would require the tournament to be postponed. The venue has been confirmed at Diocesan, with enough space for 9 pistes, and a number of volunteers have been found for key positions. Invitations have circulated to referees, who have been advised to purchase ‘flexi’ tickets, allowing them to secure refunds if necessary.

As of this meeting, committee agreed that the tournament organisation would go ahead, but that the situation would be reviewed at the next committee meeting. However, please note that by the time of writing the tournament has been indefinitely postponed due to travel restrictions which arose later in the week.

Local Event Cancellation Policy: At the time of the meeting (and as of writing), the Ministry of Health is not yet advising the cancellation of small events; as such the committee agreed that regional tournaments should not be affected. Maja suggested that the event entry cutoff be increased to a week in advance of each competition, so that the booking with Trusts might be cancelled with no liability if the competition is unlikely to go ahead.

Health and Safety: This month there was 1 reported incident at a Fencing North competition: at the W Dawn a female fencer suffered a shock and potential for injury due to an aggressive action by a male fencer. Maja suggested that the best way to reduce the chance of these incidents was to separate genders whenever possible at tournaments, and by briefing referees on how to officiate safe fencing (at competitions where there are referees).

Fundraising: Rhys explained to the committee his strategy for fundraising. This is not just based on Fencing North’s immediate priorities, but also on the timetables and priorities of the various funding bodies who might support us. David mentioned that Rhys might also seek funding for Oceanics, President’s Cup, First Aid Courses for volunteers, referee/coaching development and Secondary School competitions, alongside the priorities mentioned in previous meetings.

TTCF Funding Success: Through the efforts of Rhys, Fencing North has been offered $10,000 from TTCF to partially cover fabric pistes, a Favero scoring box and operational costs. David suggested that we purchase two new fabric pistes with some of the funds, and put the rest towards operational costs.

Four Winds Funding: David moved that Fencing North apply to the Four Winds Foundation for a grant of $19,000 for the purpose of purchasing four aluminium pistes. Katie seconded. All in favour.

Fencing North resolved to apply to the Four Winds Foundation for the amount of $19,000, in order to purchase four new aluminium pistes.

Applications to the Regional Grant: Rhys has submitted an application to the Auckland Regional Fund for the purchase of fabric pistes.

Funding for First Aid at Oceanics: David proposed that Fencing North apply for $2935 to cover the cost of St Johns first aid at Oceanic U20s. Katie seconded. Motion carried.

FeNZ News: David and Amanda reported the news from Fencing New Zealand.

COVID19 (Coronavirus) Situation: Following recommendations from the FeNZ Health Officer, FeNZ has stated the following:

  • All fencers, clubs and regions should follow Ministry of Health Guidelines
  • Anyone returning from affected countries should stay away from club or competition for at least 14 days
  • Fencers should avoid sharing equipment, and club equipment should be sanitised
  • The rule that fencers must shake hands at the end of a bout has been temporarily suspended
  • Fencers may attend local and national tournaments; they may attend international tournaments by individual choice and at their own risk only
  • A number of international tournaments overseas have already been cancelled

FIE Equipment: This year FeNZ is requesting high level tournament equipment from the FIE, which reduces some of Fencing North’s obligations to acquire this equipment for itself.

Other Business:

FeNZ Membership Privacy Policy: Members of Fencing North last month raised an issue related to the privacy of FeNZ membership information, in particular that some information is publicly available on the website. David pointed out that the available information is very basic. Amanda suggested that FeNZ add a consent box to the membership form instructing people that their information would be available in this way. Matt offered to call the Privacy Commissioner to get their recommendations on the situation.

Fencing New Zealand Meeting: The FeNZ AGM will be held on the 15th of March over Skype. Members of Fencing North may attend at either David’s or Maja’s houses.

Other Business:

Gaylene Ongley: Fencing North sincerely pays its respects to Gaylene Ongley and our condolences to her family. Gaylene was a powerhouse of the Fencing North community and shall be sorely missed.

Delegates: Following some email discussion among the committee, as a reminder Katie read the constitutional ruling on club delegate numbers:

10.4. Each Club and District Council shall be entitled by notice in writing to the Secretary to appoint one person to be its Delegate at meetings of the Executive, PROVIDED THAT any Club or District Council which has more than 25 members who are Individual Members of the Council shall be entitled to appoint an additional Delegate to the Council. Notwithstanding the foregoing, any Club of which three-fifths of the members are primary, intermediate or secondary school pupils, shall only be entitled to appoint one person to be its Delegate, regardless of the number of its members.

Katie will review the number of enrolled fencers in each club and inform clubs on their entitlements and responsibilities in terms of the Fencing North executive.

Meeting Closed: 9:05pm.

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