Katie Logan
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Sponsor through the Community Resilience Fund (from Sport NZ)
September 2020
Sponsor through the Regional Sport and Recreation Grants Programme
August 2020
Sponsor through the Quick Response Fund
September 2020
Fencing North Committee Meeting – 28th September 2020
Meeting Opened: 7:05pm
Present: David Elder, Sunnie Sun, Amanda Hopkins, Katie Logan, Rhys Greensill, Maja Saran, Neil Young, Vicky Fan, James Harwood, Matt Houtman, Matt Stanley.
Apologies: Rory Ogg
Confirmation of the Previous Minutes: Katie moved that the minutes for August be accepted as correct. Rhys seconded. Motion carried.
Treasurer’s Report: Amanda gave the Treasurer’s Report. The Society has around $40,000 in the account and $6,800 currently owing.
She reported that we have not yet received our grant money from Auckland Council, which is subject to Rhys sending in the final agreed outputs for the grant.
Amanda moved that her report be accepted. Sunnie seconded. Motion carried.
Competitions: There are two regional tournaments in the upcoming month: the Secondary School Sabre and Epee Teams (17th October) and the Fencing North Open Championship (24th October).
Health and Safety at Events: Under Covid Alert Level 2, Fencing North can still hold competitions. We are following the regulations required by Trusts, which include: registration of all entrants, volunteers and spectators for contact tracing; social distancing of non-competitors; reserved toilets and entries for this event; sanitiser and masks available if required; and ensuring that anyone who is symptomatic does not attend.
National Events: Earlier this month, Fencing New Zealand announced that all remaining National events this year would be cancelled, as the situation was too uncertain to guarantee that they could be held. Instead, each region will hold their regional open event on Labour weekend.
Fundraising: Rhys reported that we have received $1000 from the Albert Edent board to go towards a first aid course for developing coaches. This is roughly enough to cover 10 people, but we will likely put in additional funds to increase that number.
We have received $4,700 from Aktive Auckland from the Sport NZ funding round. This can be spent on any expenses that are required. Rhys has also put in an application to Aktive Auckland for $23,000 to purchase aluminium pistes and fund coaching/promotional events at schools to increase participation.
He has also put in an application to Four Winds of $18,000 for four aluminium pistes. An application for funds for the coaching development course went into the Lion Foundation 6 weeks ago.
Rhys noted that there is still a lot of funding available, and perhaps fewer organisations are applying for it. Since the National event has been cancelled, it is no longer a funding priority for this year. David will work on providing a new list of funding priorities for applications.
FeNZ News: David and Amanda reported the news from Fencing New Zealand.
Anya Kamynina has been appointed to the FIE Referee Master List as a second reserve for foil refereeing. Congratulations to Anya for this impressive achievement.
FeNZ has decided that all members who fully affiliated this year would receive a $20 discount for affiliating in 2021.
It was decided that national rankings would take into account the previous two years of results, since some regions have not held many tournaments this year.
The FIE has announced that there will not be any more international tournaments held until 2021.
Other Business:
Mediaeval Madness: Matt Stanley discussed the Mediaeval Madness event which is held in Whangarei each year. He requested Fencing North’s help to create a demonstration as a recruitment event.
Administration: There was some discussion about whether it would be feasible for Fencing North to hire a part-time administrator. Rhys noted that it might be possible to apply for funding to employ an administrator, which would free up volunteer time to grow the sport further. The administrator’s time could also be offered to FeNZ to improve the administration of the sport in general.
Permanent Venue: Rhys reported that, together with Peter Butler from Auckland Swords, he has begun looking at options for a permanent venue for fencing. There are two main options: venues that are available immediately, which are largely commercial leases, and longer term Council-funded options. The latter would require a long-term strategic plan for the sport, which will take time and money to create. At the moment, Rhys and Peter will focus on short-term opportunities which are available within the shared budget of Fencing North and Auckland Swords.
Auckland Special Needs Christmas Party: David discussed this event, which will be held on 5th December at the Greenlane Events Centre. He would like bring the plastic equipment and a few fencers to do a demonstration. The committee agreed that this would be a good thing to do, even though it does clash with our planned Christmas tournament.
Meeting Closed: 8:37pm.
Fencing North Committee Meeting – 31st August 2020
Meeting Opened: 7:00pm
Present: David Elder, Amanda Hopkins, Rhys Greensill, Sunnie Sun, Peter Butler, James Harwood.
Apologies: Maja Saran, Ryan Yan.
Confirmation of the Previous Minutes: Sunnie moved that the minutes for July be accepted as correct. Amanda seconded. Motion carried.
Matters Arising: David reported that we have now received both fabric pistes from Daniel Chan. The full invoice is still pending.
Following the decision from last month, the senior referees selected Felix, Ewa and Charlie to attend the referee development course at the national secondary schools. However, that event has since been cancelled. Only Felix had purchased flights and been refunded by Fencing North. He has received credit for the flights, which Fencing North can use to send him to another course in the future.
Treasurer’s Report: Amanda gave the Treasurer’s Report. Fencing North currently has a surplus of approx. $7000, but pending expenses of approx. $7500 (with some costs and profits not yet accounted for). Some of the overall loss is due to the fact that we have not been able to hold most of the profitable secondary schools tournaments this year; however, this has been offset by the success of the other tournaments. She emphasised that we need to create a budget for tournaments to rationalise our costs and ensure that we do not continue to lose money. Amanda will work on this with Maja.
Amanda moved that her report be accepted. Katie seconded. Motion carried.
Approval of Payments: The Larsen Open tournament brought in $729 of profit, which we had agreed to pass on to Waikato Swords club to support their operations. David moved that Fencing North pay this money to Waikato Swords Club. Katie seconded. All in favour.
The committee discussed whether in future we would continue to pass on all of the profits of a tournament to the club running it. Opinion was divided: on the one hand, clubs would prefer to see the benefit of running tournaments come entirely to them; on the other, Fencing North has considerable fixed costs and relies on tournaments as its only source of income. It was agreed to shelve the issue for a full discussion at a later point.
Covid19 – Current Status: Since the last meeting, Auckland has been at Alert Level 3 for three weeks and the rest of the country was at Level 2. As of the meeting, the whole country was at Level 2, but Auckland had additional restrictions limiting gatherings to 10 people.
Maja had noted that we could hold competitions at Level 2, with the appropriate limitations on numbers and implementation of distancing and hygiene. However, it would be impossible to hold tournaments at ‘Level 2.5’ with the additional gathering limitations. David will draft an announcement to this effect for the members of Fencing North.
Due to the change in alert levels, both the President’s Cup and NZ Secondary School Champs have been nominally postponed. The FeNZ board is considering whether either of these competitions will go ahead later in the year or next year. Currently the first weekend of February is pencilled in for the National U20s tournament.
Fencing North has begun organising the NZ National Senior/Veteran Champs, with a committee of David, Maja, Heather Claydon, Katie, Pete and Angus MacMorland. However, at this stage it is unclear whether the competition will be able to go ahead, as it cannot be held unless the entire country is at Level 1. Next week, or following any government announcements, the FeNZ Covid Committee will decide whether the competition should be opened for registrations.
Competitions: In the previous month, the Larsen competition in Hamilton was very successful, with a large number of Auckland fencers travelling to participate. It is likely that Waikato Swords will propose holding the tournament again next year, although it may also be moved the Whangarei.
The move to Level 3 forced us to postpone the Secondary School Sabre/Epee Teams event. This has been moved to later in the year in a newly revised Fencing North calendar. Note that the calendar is still subject to change, and fencers should always check the most up-to-date version on our website.
The next competitions upcoming are North age group events on the 19th-20th of September. At this stage it is not clear whether these tournaments will be able to go ahead, but the committee agreed that Fencing North could begin advertising and refund fencers if the competition was cancelled.
Fundraising: Rhys reported the current fundraising status. Fencing North has been successful in its application to the Auckland Council for funding for fabric pistes, with a grant of $13,500. This is complicated by the fact that we have already purchased two fabric pistes with other funding. When we receive our funding agreement, he will confirm what we are required to spend the money on.
Rhys has sent an application to the Lion Foundation for the coaching development course. In addition, an application to Four Winds for sectional pistes is almost ready to be submitted, waiting only for updated quotes. We should soon receive an update on our application to the Albert Eden local board for the first aid course.
The next funding priority is the NZ Nationals event. Should that go ahead, it is expected to cost approx. $14,000.
The committee discussed a new funding opportunity from Sport NZ, that is open to almost any sporting organisation which has been impacted by Covid19. Rhys agreed to apply to this fund on behalf of Fencing North, as we have not been able to hold our most profitable competitions this year but we still have fixed costs and depreciation to cover. Fencing North encourages our clubs to apply via the Aktive website here.
FeNZ News: David and Amanda reported the news from Fencing New Zealand.
Alice Boyd has been appointed to the role of Health and Safety Officer for FeNZ. In addition, Hamish Bulmer has been appointed to the FeNZ Officiating Commission, and Richard Johnson has become the FeNZ Privacy Officer.
The World University Games is being held in Chengu, China in August 2021. University fencers are encouraged to apply to attend.
David reported that FeNZ now has a transgender fencer policy. Katie will update Fencing North’s transgender policy to reflect the FeNZ one.
There was further discussion about how the national school team competitions should be handled in future. Hamish Clarke is to put together a subcommittee to sort out the issue.
Other Business: The committee discussed the Fencing North Christmas party for this year. We pencilled in the location of Amanda’s house and a date of the 29th of November.
Meeting Closed: 8:46pm.
Hi all, with the annoucement that Auckland will be at Level 3 until (at least) the 26th of August, the SS Sabre/Epee teams event next weekend has been POSTPONED. We fully intend to hold this competition later in the year, so watch this space - we'll make an annoucement about calendar changes as soon as the dust has settled.
Hope everyone is doing well in your bubbles - let's nip this thing in the bud so we can get back into it.
Fencing North Committee Meeting – 3rd August 2020
(Note: The July meeting was held in ealy August due to an administrative error.)
Meeting Opened: 7:04pm
Present: Sunnie Sun, Katie Logan, Amanda Hopkins, Rhys Greensill, Mary Black, Maja Saran, Matt Stanley, Matt Houtman.
Apologies: David Elder, Kyle Nankivell, Neil Young.
Confirmation of the Previous Minutes: Katie moved that the minutes for June be accepted as correct. Rhys seconded. Motion carried.
Matters Arising: The two fabric pistes that were ordered have arrived in the country, but one of them was damaged in transit. We have paid for the undamaged one and requested a replacement for the damaged one.
Treasurer’s Report: Amanda gave the Treasurer’s Report. Fencing North is currently up c. $6500 for the year, but we still owe some money for the fabric pistes and hall hire. Amanda thanked the competition organisers for doing such a good job of increasing the turnout at competitions so we can continue to break even or make a profit.
We still do not have payment details from Oliver for our website fees. We need to transfer the website hosting costs to Fencing North.
Amanda moved that her report be accepted. Sunnie seconded. Motion carried.
Competitions:
SS Individuals and Foil Teams: Maja reported that the competitions were very successful. She is working on a report for the executive and will send Katie the details of team entries for invoicing.
Larsen Open: The Larsen Open will be held in Hamilton on the 8th of August. Nicole Martin is coming up from Wellington to DT the tournament. We plan to run this tournament in Whangarei next year and continue moving it around the region. Maja noted that next time it would be better to create clear expectations for who is doing what, as currently it is a bit confusing.
SS Sabre/Epee Teams: This tournament is coming up on the 23rd of August. This time Maja will use a late fee to encourage people to enter teams earlier, as in the previous competition there were entries coming in the night before.
North Opens: This is currently scheduled for the 18th of October, but this is only a week before the weekend of National Opens. Maja suggested moving the competition earlier in October, or later to the start of December. The committee agreed in principle that the tournament should be moved; the tournament team will work out the details and communicate this with Fencing North members.
Oceanic/National U20s: The Oceanic Fencing Commission has decided that Oceanic U20s will not be held this year, as there is no guarantee that the borders will be open. FeNZ has also decided that the end of this year is too busy to hold the NZ U20s competitions, so the competition may be moved to early next year. Fencers who qualified for the tournament in 2020 would be permitted to enter this event. Katie will communicate with our members about these changes.
Regional Teams at NZSS: Fencing North has again been invited to select and send teams to the NZ Secondary Schools championship. Following resolutions from previous years (see the minutes from August 2018 and July 2019), we initially invited schools only to nominate teams. However, many club representatives wished to change the policy so that composite teams (from more than one school) would be allowed.
Following discussion, Katie proposed the following: That Fencing North will allow nominations of both school and composite teams. Students will be expected to join a school team if that is possible, and may form a composite team only if they cannot create a school team. If selection is required, the A teams of each school will be preferred in the selection. If there are more team slots available, then composite teams and any additional school teams may be selected to fill them.
Maja seconded. Motion carried.
More information about our team selection policy is available here.
Referee Development at NZSS: The committee went over a proposal from David to send development referees to the NZSS competition. This is a valuable opportunity, as it gives referees the chance to become ‘qualified’ as national level referees, which is beneficial for running national competitions in the North region. However, Amanda was concerned about going over budget by sending too many referees.
Rhys proposed that Fencing North send three referees for development, and take advice from our senior referees (Anya, Neil and Laura) about who those should be. Amanda seconded. Motion carried.
Health and Safety: This month there were no reported incidents at Fencing North competitions. Maja noted that we still do not have a health and safety officer. For now, Maja is keeping any incident forms that are filled out.
Fundraising: Rhys reported that he has put through and application to the Albert-Eden board for money to run a first aid course, and that he has prepared applications for aluminium pistes (to Four Winds) and the coaching course (to the Lion Foundation). He needs new quotes to complete these applications.
FeNZ News: Amanda reported the news from Fencing New Zealand. FeNZ has received some money from Sport NZ and the FIE, which will go towards covering operating costs such as insurance and website fees. There may be some additional funding available to the regions. FeNZ will also receive the regular equipment grant from the FIE, which will go towards a top end scoring box and new reels.
Although the national body has received money from Sport NZ, we are still not officially partnered with them, so there is no money available to clubs through them currently.
FeNZ is still looking for nominations for the Officiating Commission and a Health and Safety Officer.
Other Business:
Officers: Maja suggested that Fencing North should look for a Welfare Officer: the first point of contact for anyone who is in distress, with a protocol to follow when members have personal issues.
Katie suggested that she might put a ‘Volunteers Wanted’ page on the website.
Meeting Closed: 9:05pm.
If you cannot view the results below, use this link.