Fencing North Committee Meeting – 29^th June 2020

Meeting Opened: 7:11pm.

Present: David Elder, Amanda Hopkins, Sunnie Sun, Katie Logan, Maja Saran, Judit Fliszar, Rhys Greensill.

Apologies: Matthew Houtman.

Confirmation of the Previous Minutes: David moved that the minutes for May be accepted as correct. Rhys seconded. Motion carried.

Matters Arising: There were no matters arising.

Treasurer’s Report: Amanda gave the Treasurer’s Report. The deposit has been paid for the fabric pistes funded by our TTCF grant. Some money has also gone out for the new podium and the Bubble Ensemble shirts, which should be paid back by those who purchased them. Maja and Amanda agreed that fencers would not be allowed to enter competitions until they had paid what was owed.
After the final payment for the pistes, the bank account will be around $29,000.
Amanda moved that her report be accepted. David seconded. Motion carried.

Competitions:

Bubble Ensemble: Maja reported on the Bubble Ensemble that was held on the previous Saturday. The competition was very successful with 48 fencers in total. We brought in around $1387, including $242 in donations.
The event had to run to a tight timetable so that we could be out of the gym in time for an event at Trusts. The event successfully ran to time. Maja noted that the lack of referees was a factor in slowing down the event, as it limited the number of DE bouts that could be run at once. 
Maja reported that she was forced to limit entry sales in the lead up to the event. This is because we had only booked a single court at Trusts, and practically it would not have been possible to run to time with more than 50 competitors.
David organised dry fit t-shirts for the event, which sold well with only one left over.

Upcoming Tournaments: In the next two months, Fencing North is holding the Fenton Open, Secondary Schools Individuals and Secondary Schools Teams competitions.
Maja noted that the SS foil teams competition was on the same Saturday as an engineering event at Auckland University that might conflict for some fencers. We will consider holding the competition on one day only (the Sunday) to avoid the conflict. The format would need to be a direct elimination with a plate round, rather than the full poule and DE structure.

National Events: David announced that Fencing North has been pegged to host NZ open nationals on the 24^th-26^th of October. We are still planning to hold Oceanic U20s in December if it seems like the borders are going to open to the relevant countries. If not, we will hold the NZ U20s, probably on an earlier date to avoid conflicts with school exams.

Competition Enquiries: If anyone has questions or complaints about competitions, please bring them directly to Maja as Head of Tournaments, email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. On the day, they can also discuss any issues with David as President.
Fencing North would like to encourage people to consider how they can personally help to improve tournaments.

Health and Safety: There were no health and safety incidents this month. David agreed to collect any relevant forms until a health and safety officer can be found. 

Fundraising: Rhys reported that sporting trusts have now opened their funding pools again. To support upcoming funding applications, David moved the following resolutions:

• Fencing North resolves to apply to the Albert-Eden Local Board Quick Response Grant for the value of $2060, for the purpose of running a St Johns First Aid course for coaches, referees and other volunteers within the community.
• Fencing North resolves to apply to the Four Winds Foundation for the value of up to $17,500, for the purpose of buying four sectional metal pistes.
• Fencing North resolves to apply to the NZ Community Trust for the value of $15,420, for the purpose of running a coaching development course.
• Fencing North resolves to apply to the Trillian Trust for the value of 2,242.5, for the purpose of purchasing two trolleys for metal sectional pistes.

Judit seconded these resolutions. Motion carried with all in favour.

FeNZ News: David and Amanda reported the news from Fencing New Zealand.
Fencing New Zealand has confirmed the national event calendar for the rest of the year. The South Island and North Island Champs have been cancelled. Fencing Central will hold the President’s Cup in August. NZ Secondary Schools Champs will be held in Christchurch in September. Fencing North will hold NZ Open Nationals in October, and Oceanic or National U20s sometime in the latter part of the year.
Following discussion around the privacy of members’ data, as brought up in previous Fencing North meetings, FeNZ has decided to remove all public member data from the website. This can now only be accessed by administrators. David noted that there should no longer be any objections to clubs providing membership information to FeNZ.
Mark Rance is now the deputy chair of the Oceanic Fencing Committee. He has reported that if Fiji joins the fencing zone, we will have enough countries to run Oceanic Junior Olympic Qualifiers.

Meeting Closed: 9:05pm.

If you cannot view the results below, use this link.

Fencing North Committee Meeting – 25^th May 2020

Note: Two meetings were held this month in order to shift the meeting schedule from the beginning the month to the end of the month.

Meeting Opened: 7:06pm.

Present: David Elder, Katie Logan, Sunnie Sun, Maja Saran, Peter Butler, James Harwood, Judit Fliszar, Kyle Macdonald, Matthew Houtman, Vicky Fan, Neil Young, Mary Black, Rhys Greensill, Matt Stanley.  

Apologies: Amanda Hopkins, Ryan Yan.

Confirmation of the Previous Minutes: Katie moved that the minutes for the start-of-May meeting be accepted as correct. Sunnie seconded. Motion carried.

Matters Arising: The privacy inquiries discussed in the previous meeting are on the agenda for the next meeting of the FeNZ board.

Treasurer’s Report: Amanda was not present to give the Treasurer’s Report, but she had indicated that there were no changes in the accounts since last month.  

Covid19 Update/Current Status: Since New Zealand dropped down to Alert Level 2, FeNZ has published guidelines for clubs and tournaments operating. The guidelines will be further revised on Friday following the government’s announcement that gatherings of up to 100 people would be permitted. However, only the number would be changed; all other guidelines must still be followed.

Clubs Reopening: Clubs are required to fill in a checklist describing how they will comply with all of the requirements for operating under Level 2. Kyle and Neil reported that Auckland Swords had successfully reopened, as well as some school clubs.

Competitions Reopening: With the 100 person limit, Fencing North and Trusts should be able to begin regional competitions again in the next month. Health and safety guidelines must still be followed (e.g. all competitions fully ticketed, sanitisation). National will not begin until at least Level 1.

Competitions: The committee discussed the new competition calendar. We decided that we should begin by holding a fun social tournament at the end of June and encouraging everyone to come along. We also agreed that Secondary School competitions should begin in school term 3 to allow school clubs to open again and creating a lead up to National Secondary Schools (should it go ahead).

David and Maja would complete the new competition calendar for the rest of the year. The updated calendar can be found here.

Fundraising: Rhys reported on the current status of our fundraising efforts. Most of our applications have been put on hold for a few months as funding bodies recover their income sources.

Rhys and David reported that there is a new sporting resilience fund being distributed by Sport NZ. However, Sport NZ only works with approved partners, which does not include FeNZ. Therefore, at this stage the money is not available for fencing clubs. Sport NZ is not taking applications for partnership until a later date. Rhys noted that this supports the idea that fencing needs a national funding strategy.

FeNZ News: David and Amanda reported the news from Fencing New Zealand. Nicola Shackleton has resigned from the Officiating Commission. Hamish Clarke has been asked to act as chair of the commission for the moment.

Other Business:

Rex Hefferen: Fencing North is sad to report that Rex Hefferen passed away in the previous week. Rex was a prior president of Fencing North and Auckland Swords. The committee paid tribute to the great contribution that Rex has offered to the sport over the years.  

Coaching Development: Judit reported on the current state of coaching development. The Oceania Fencing Committee has announced that they want to standardise coaching registration throughout the region. This will be recognised by FIE, but may take more time to establish.

At this stage, it is likely that coaching registration (for New Zealand) will be established shortly, there will be a first aid course (for Fencing North) in July or August, and coaching courses will begin in September.

Matt Stanley mentioned that there are plans to bring Judit to Whangarei to run a course with the coaches there.

Mediaeval Madness: Matt Stanley mentioned that there is a yearly ‘Mediaeval Madness’ event in Whangarei, and that his club is hoping to have a fencing exhibit at the event in 2021. He expressed a desire to borrow fencing gear for demonstrations.

Meeting Locations: Since online meetings have been so successful recently, Katie suggested that we continue to hold meetings by videoconference for a while. This means that in general more people will be able to attend, although conversation is a bit more difficult. Judit offered to run the meeting with her Zoom subscription next month.

Meeting Closed: 8:54pm.

Hiya folks,

Woohoohoohoo!

Well done everyone for staying in your bubbles and fighting this thing!

As a result Level 2 rules have now changed, and FeNZ has published new guidelines – see https://www.fencing.org.nz/news/170-fencing-in-covid-19-alert-level-2-update-29th-may-2020 for details.

While we have to continue being cautious, with the change to the size of gatherings allowed and Clubs opening up as a result, we’ve now also really happy to announce our new Fencing North calendar for the remainder of the year has been published. You can see this at: https://www.fencingnorth.com/calendar2/year.listevents/2020/05/31/-

It all kicks off in four weeks’ time on Saturday 27^th June with our “Bubble Ensemble” tournament at Trusts Arena. This is designed to be a fun tournament to get everyone together to celebrate our super cool sport and is designed for everyone at all levels. All precautions will be taken regarding hygiene and social distancing, and numbers will be limited to ensure we keep within the 100-person limit at all times. I encourage everyone of all ages who can lift a weapon to enter if you can.

Secondary School Tournaments are then planned to start again at the beginning of Term 3 and run from the end of July and through August. 

National Tournaments however are still on hold until the country reduces to Alert Level 1.
Hopefully this will be fairly soon, but until that happens you will see there are four weekends simply marked as “National Event TBA”.

Which tournaments end up being run will depend on when that move is made.

Here we go folks – you’ve got four weeks to prepare for battle – get into it!!!!

David

David

el Presidente'

For those of you wishing to join us virtually for Rex's funeral tomorrow, here is the live stream link https://admin.oneroomstreaming.com/email/view/b1812b6419

It is with great sadness that Fencing North has to advise that last night Tuesday 19th May 2020, Rex Hefferen,  past President and long time stalwart of the Auckland Amateur Fencing Association (now Fencing North), passed away.❤️

Rex was without a doubt a good man and a good friend to Fencing and will be sadly missed. 

Please see the tribute to Rex from Auckland Swords at https://www.facebook.com/auckswordsclub/photos/a.708122112698190/1573358806174512/?type=3&theater

David 

Congrats - we are officially in Level 2, and I know there’s a lot of people been waiting patiently to find out when Fencing can restart.

 As you may be aware from the News though, after the official guidelines were first put out last Friday by the Govt, there have had several amendments – particularly related to Sport.

As a result FeNZ has had to redraft our own guidelines several times, but these are now complete.

Please see the link below to the FeNZ website where they’ve just been published.

 https://www.fencing.org.nz/news/169-fencing-in-covid-19-alert-level-2

It is important that you read these thoroughly and make sure you work with your clubs to help them keep everyone safe.

Our intent is to restart local tournaments as soon as possible – hopefully in June – however its clearly impractical when your limited to ten people as per the current rules.

We will of course be revisiting these guidelines as the Govt reviews the Levels.

Watch this space for more details.

In the mean time – go forth and stab people – just do it carefully and kindly.

David

el Presidente'

Fencing North Committee Meeting – 4^th May 2020

Meeting Opened: 7:10pm

Present: David Elder, Amanda Hopkins, Sunnie Sun, Katie Logan, Maja Saran, Judit Fliszar, Mary Black, Matthew Houtman, Rhys Greensill, James Harwood, Kyle Macdonald.

Apologies: Peter Butler.

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

Matters Arising: Katie noted that she had not posted any refereeing videos to the Fencing North Facebook page as promised.

Treasurer’s Report: Amanda gave the Treasurer’s Report. There have been no payments made or received since the previous meeting.
Amanda moved that her report be accepted. Maja seconded. Motion carried.

Coronavirus Update/Current Status: David reported that the Fencing New Zealand COVID19 Committee would be meeting soon to decide on which levels clubs and competitions could be reopened. This would be based on the revised Level 2 guidelines to be reported by the Government and Sport New Zealand on Thursday. Check the Fencing New Zealand website for updated information.

Fencing New Zealand has now cancelled both the South Island Champs and the President’s Cup. FIE has cancelled all tournaments in April, May and June, and postponed the Olympic Qualifiers.

The committee discussed whether we would be comfortable opening our clubs at Alert Level 2. Without knowing the updated guidelines, most agreed that it should be possible for clubs to start opening at Level 2. This would require appropriate rules for sanitising, equipment usage, distancing and contact tracing. It might be safer to allow clubs to open for footwork and drills only, since it is impossibly to guarantee physical distancing during a bout.  Clubs should only open if they are confident that they can comply with these requirements.

Competitions: Fencing North’s tournament organisers continue to monitor the situation together with Trusts to confirm which competition bookings we will be using in the following months.

The committee discussed whether we would be comfortable beginning to run tournaments at Level 2. In general, it was agreed that it might be possible but would need careful handling. Maja noted that she could use RegisterNow to require that all competition attendees (including spectators and volunteers) have a ticket, which would help with contact tracing and the size limit of gatherings at Level 2. However, younger fencers are required to have caregivers, which might cause difficulties with numbers.

David reported that the COVID19 committee has discussed each region having a big tournament to celebrate the end of restrictions. The aim would be to encourage as many people as possible to participate, for example by running a Sharks and Minnows tournament.

Katie suggested that it might be better to wait a few weeks after the Alert Level drops and clubs reopen to allow people enough time to feel comfortable and get back into condition.

Among the committee, some people would be comfortable attending a competition at Alert Level 2, while others would prefer to wait until Level 1. David promised to bring Fencing North’s views to the FeNZ COVID19 committee.

Fundraising: Rhys reported that the fundraising situation has changed dramatically: since many trusts do not currently have any income, they will be revising funding rounds. In general it will be very unlikely for us to succeed in applying for our big equipment and operations goals. He suggested that we apply for small grants around $1000-2000. Amanda suggested that he apply for funding for the coaching course that Judit is developing; David added the suggestion of funding first aid courses for coaches and volunteers.

Last month the committee agreed that the TTCF funding would go towards fabric pistes. However, it may be that the Auckland Council grants us funding for the same items. For now we agreed to wait until we heard back from the Council about our application.

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

Fencing New Zealand has announced that nominations for postponed international events will be re-opened with emended selection criteria.

Bryan (Baz) Clark has resigned at the head of the Officiating Commission. There is no candidate for the role as of yet. Fencing New Zealand and Fencing North would like to recognise Baz’s contributions to the commission.

Other Business:

Help for Clubs: Although neither Fencing New Zealand or Fencing North can offer monetary assistance, there is some help available for clubs (e.g. legal advice, HR services). David invited any clubs having problems to email him at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Privacy Enquiries: Following discussions in a previous meeting, Matt contacted the Privacy Commission with several key questions regarding Fencing New Zealand and Fencing North’s handling of fencer personal information. The key summary is that when we ask for personal information we have to make it clear what the information will be used for and who will have access to it. He recommended that the following information be added to statement that members will be required to agree to when they affiliate:

• When you sign up, you are becoming a member of both Fencing New Zealand and the relevant regional child organisation (e.g. Fencing North).
• The information will be stored in an online database accessible only to authorised people from those organisations.
• Authorised people may use this information to contact you as required.
• Some limited personal information (e.g. name, weapon and club) will be displayed publicly on the Fencing New Zealand website.
• If you enter a regional or national competition, the information you submit to the competition organisers will be used to publish tournament entries and results online.

Amanda agreed to bring these to FeNZ.

Matt noted with regards to the latter point that this can be covered by an initial consent upon affiliation and does not need to be repeated for each competition. There is no difference in how minors’ personal information is treated.

Coaching Commission: Judit reported on the activities of the Coaching Commission. They have completed a registration standard for coaches in New Zealand, which will soon go out to the regions for distribution. This includes requirements for a police check and first aid certificate, although there will be leeway for coaches who cannot complete these during lockdown restrictions.

There are still plans to do four training courses, but these will probably have to wait until the end of Level 2. There is no need to complete all of the courses this year.

Meeting Closed: 8:36pm.

Hiya folks,

Well you have to admit it’s been a bit of an interesting start to the 2020 Fencing year!

The safety of all of our Fencing family is of course our biggest concern at Fencing North, so I hope you are all still buckled in and enjoying (as much as you can) a touch of self-isolation.

That said, I also hope that, like me, you’re itching to get back to cutting and thrusting as fast as you can!

COVID-19

Seemingly a long time ago (is it really only seven weeks?) Fencing New Zealand formed a Covid 19 sub-committee to manage the situation, and we made the decision to suspend all fencing activity just before the nationwide lockdown was imposed.

Now, like everybody else, we wait to see this week’s Government revelations on the new rules around Level 2, so we can figure out what the impact is going to be.

Our aim is to get clubs and tournaments rolling again as soon as possible, but only when the time is right and it’s safe to start. Check out https://fencing.org.nz/ for updates. In the background we’ve got plans in the works and are working with Trusts Stadium to be ready.

COACHING DEVELOPMENT

We’ve also been working with Judit Fliszar and FeNZ to begin running new Coaching Development Courses  – an exciting new initiative that we’ll be looking for coaches at all levels to join. All clubs will be invited to nominate coaches to attend in the near future.

READY, STEADY ..............

While we “hurry up and wait” for the new announcements though, I encourage you all to stay in touch with your clubs and coaches and to start getting ready.

I would hope you’ve all been getting your fitness and flexibility levels up while in lockdown so you’re raring to go too. If not – there’s no better time to start than right now!

You’ve also probably got a bit of spare time to see what’s been going on in the world of Fencing at the FIE website www.fie.org and maybe get a few ideas on lockdown training at https://fie.org/articles/958, or maybe you could learn about the history of fencing, or watch some refereeing videos to keep your eye in."

I’ll be posting more info as it comes to hand, but in the meantime, stay safe, be kind, and  get into it!

Lastly – if you haven’t seen it already - here’s a little food for the soul. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nw5KQMXDiM4

David

el Presidente'

Fencing North Committee Meeting – 6^th April 2020

This committee meeting was held virtually over Skype call, directly following the SGM.

Meeting Opened: 7:18pm.

Present: David Elder, Sunnie Sun, Amanda Hopkins, Katie Logan, Ryan Yan, Maja Saran, Judit Fliszar, James Harwood, Matthew Houtman.

Apologies: Peter Butler, Mary Black.

Confirmation of the Previous Minutes: Katie mentioned to the committee that she had made a small addition to the meeting records following the previous meeting. During the meeting a major topic of discussion was the status of Fencing North competitions during the Covid19 crisis. In between the meeting and the completion of the minutes, much of the discussion on that topic was made obsolete by announcements from Fencing New Zealand and the New Zealand Government, and Katie added a post facto note to that effect in the minutes.
  Katie moved that the minutes for March be accepted as correct. David seconded. Motion carried.

Matters Arising: Matt reported on his progress in investigating Fencing North and Fencing New Zealand’s privacy obligations. He has applied to the Privacy Commission for advice on some key questions, and is awaiting a response from them.

Treasurer’s Report: Amanda gave the Treasurer’s Report. She reported that Fencing North made a decent profit at the very succesful Ongley Open competition. Fencing North currently has c. $40,000 in the bank, including the funding received from TTCF. There is still a payment to Oliver Agnew for website upkeep outstanding.
  Amanda moved that her report be accepted. Maja seconded. Motion carried.

Covid19: Current Status and Future Assessment: The committee discussed in depth the current situation with the Covid19 crisis and how Fencing North will continue to handle the situation.The main points are outlined below:

• On the 21^st of March, Fencing New Zealand annouced that all clubs and competitions in the country would be suspended until further notice. This followed the NZ Government’s announcement that the country was at Covid19 Alert Level 2. Fencing North and local clubs are complying with FeNZ’s decision.
• National and international events have been postponed, including Oceanic U20s. Fencing North has cancelled our booking with Diocesan for this event. For now, we have pencilled in two potential dates for holding the tournament at Trusts this year, in September and October. However, travel restrictions may remain in place for a long time, so it may not be possible to hold the tournament this year.
• Currently David and Maja are working with Trusts Arena to maintain our competition schedule: at the start of each month, all scheduled events for the following month will be evaluated and the booking cancelled or maintained as necessary.
• Katie has unpublished all events from the Fencing North website.
• FeNZ has not yet made it clear when club and competitions will be allowed to reopen (for example, which Alert Level may be acceptable). Judit noted that private lessons may be safe to restart before clubs. David and Amanda will bring up the question with FeNZ.
• We noted that most Fencing North competitions would have fewer than 100 people, with the exception of the Secondary School competitions. Even if there are fewer than 100 participants, spectators put these competitions well over the 100 person limit required by Alert Level 2.
• Katie raised a question: if we only have the opportunity to run a few competitions at the end of the year, which ones should they be? Possibly one for each age group, although we may be required to run national/internation competitions instead of local ones.

Fundraising: In Rhys’ absence, David went over the current Fencing North funding priorities:

• Permanent Venue
• Material Pistes
• Sectional Pistes
• Video Refereeing Equipment
• Operational Costs (e.g. hall hire)
• Operational Costs for National/International Tournaments
• Coaching Development
• First Aid Courses
• Uniforms (especially breeches)

Rhys and David are working on applying to specific trusts for these items depending on what these trusts typically support. However, Amanda noted that there may not be a lot of funding available this year, as most sports charity funding comes from gambling establishments which are currently not allowed to open.

TTCF Grant Money: Fencing North currently has $10,000 from TTCF, which is available to spend on tournament running costs, pistes or a Favero scoring box. FeNZ has requested a Favero box from the FIE, so Fencing North should not purchase one yet. We currently do not have any tournament costs and we cannot predict when tournaments will begin again. Maja mentioned that we may be able to raise tournament fees to better cover operational costs.
  Therefore David moved that the funds from TTCF be put towards two fabric pistes. James seconded. Motion carried.

Coaching Development Course: Judit discussed the current plans for a coaching development programme. She has been working with the FeNZ Coaching Commission to plan a course of four camps across this year and next year, as well as technical criteria for coaches. Judit will soon be contacting coaches to invite them to register with FeNZ, as well as discussing any requirements for registering.

Maintaining Engagement: The committee discussed how clubs, coaches and Fencing North could maintain engagement with fencers while clubs and competitions are closed. Some suggestions that were discussed:

• Some clubs and coaches have been sending out training and exercise programmes to their fencers and schools.
• Judit suggested maintaining social ties with fencers by building online groups.
• David suggested that Fencing North could run a fencing trivia quiz.
• Katie suggested posting refereeing tutorials and similar videos to the Fencing North Facebook page.

Meeting Closed: 8:35pm.

Fencing North Special General Meeting
April 2020

The Special General Meeting was held on Monday the 6^th of April 2020 via conference call (Skype).

Meeting Opened: 7:10pm.

Present:

• David Elder (President)
• Sunnie Sun (Vice President)
• Amanda Hopkins (Treasurer)
• Katie Logan (Secretary)
• Ryan Yan
• Maja Saran
• Judit Fliszar
• James Harwood
• Matthew Houtman

Apologies:

• Mary Black
• Peter Butler

Amendments to the Constitution:

David Elder proposed that three articles (17.4, 18.3, and 19.3) be added to the Fencing North Constitution. The full text of the proposed additions is attached overleaf. The purpose of these amendments is to ensure that Fencing North stands as a tax exempt/non-profit organisation, at the recommendation of the IRD.

David moved that the proposed additions be accepted and added to the constitution. Katie seconded. The motion was carried with all in favour.

Meeting Closed: 7:17pm.

Proposed Amendments to Fencing North Constitution

David Elder (second: Katie Logan) has proposed that the Constitution of Fencing North be amended as follows:

Addition of Article 17.4:
Proposed Text: No part of the funds of the Society shall be used or be available to be used for the private pecuniary profit of any Member, beneficiary or associate of any of the aforementioned.

Addition of Article 18.3:
Proposed Text: Notwithstanding the above, no addition to or alteration of the aims, personal benefit clause or the winding up clause shall be made which affect the tax exempt/non profit body status of the Society. The provisions and effect of this clause shall not be removed from this document and shall be included and implied in any document replacing this document.

Addition of Article 19.3:
Proposed Text: If upon winding up or dissolution of the organisation there remains after the satisfaction of all its debts and liabilities any property whatsoever the same shall not be paid or distributed among the members of the organisation but shall be given or transferred to some other organisation or body with similar objects to the first organisation or for some other charitable purpose, within New Zealand.