Hello
everyone,
Wow, it had
been longer than I thought since the last Regional Director’s digest. This edition is packed to the rafters with
adopted rule changes and proposed rule changes.
There are rule changes and proposals that will be of interest
particularly to the judges and participants, there are others that will likely
only affect club captains. Role through
everything here and keep up to date on changes within NAFA. I have indicated in brackets if these rule
changes are official or just at the proposal stage.
You will
find the usual list of upcoming tournaments and some comments about the
upcoming Christmas holiday period. Food for thought. You
will also find information about new NAFA lights, rulebook updates, NAFA News,
NAFA website and banking issues with Canadian Cheques. Please read carefully as this affects
everyone.
Good luck
to all the teams participating in the MAINEiacs
tournament in
Jules
1. NAFA
rules and policies
Reserved weekend (official)
In July, the NAFA Board approved
wording that implements a Reserved Weekend Policy. In the past some people have referred to
these weekends as "legacy weekends."
The approved wording for this policy has not changed since it was first
published in January 2005 on the NAFA website.
One of the most significant changes
to sanctioning is the way a specific weekend is defined. No longer is a weekend considered the 2nd
weekend of June, for instance, rather it is defined as a specific weekend
number. A listing of weekend numbers
from 1999-2042 and their corresponding dates are listed on the NAFA website.
Another significant change is the
number of weekends a club may hold as reserved.
A club may only reserve 2 weekends per NAFA year. Clubs historically holding more that 2
"legacy weekends" must indicate to the Sanctioning Secretary what
weekends they wish to reserve.
Clubs wishing to establish up to 2
reserved weekends in 2006 must contact the sanctioning secretary with the
following information:
·
Club
Number
·
Club
Name
·
The
weekend number being applied for
·
A
list of tournaments (include date, city of tournament site, weekend number)
held that qualify your club for a reserved weekend.
A worksheet has been created to
assist clubs in supplying the above mentioned information. It is available on the NAFA website as
well. The worksheet should be filled
out, saved, and emailed to NAFA at Flyball@Flyball.org or emailed directly to
the Sanctioning Secretary at FlyballSanc@yahoo.com.
Please note: The policy does not prohibit a club from
holding tournaments on more than 2 weekends per year. The policy does not force clubs to hold tournaments
on their reserved weekend.
For the exact wording of the rule as
it will appear in the new rulebook, visit the following NAFA link.
Jump height change (proposal)
NAFA is considering changing minimum and maximum jump heights. The proposal is divided in two parts, one for
the minimum jump height and one for the maximum jump height. They are shown below as separate items. These proposals will be sent out to delegate
for a vote after a three month comment period has passed.
A proposal has been made to change the minimum jump height from 8"
to 7". A vote for this proposal shall instruct the Board to make all
required changes in the rule book to change the minimum jump height allowed to
7" effective
A
proposal has been made to change the maximum jump height from 16" to
14". A vote for this proposal shall instruct the Board to make all
required changes in the rule book to change the maximum jump height allowed to
14" effective
Veteran’s class (official)
The draft of the proposed class
structure was distributed to the board prior to this discussion. The Rules
committee is divided in its support of the proposal. The belief is that there
are older dogs who would continue to play Flyball if the jump heights were
reduced to a minimum, if the false start was removed and the racing limited to
a discrete number of heats in keeping with the reduced abilities of the older
dogs. The possibility of a Regional Championship was originally proposed but
again the board was divided and on balance felt there was no requirement for a
regional championship at this time.
In discussion, several other issues
were discussed. What is the purpose of the class? Will there be a demand for
the class? How can we protect the abilities of the older dogs? Should we remove
the false start rule from Veteran’s? Will the points earned at the reduced
heights be deemed to be less difficult than in the Regular and Multi-breed
classes? Consensus was reached on the following points.
Minimum Jump height
Maximum 16 heats per day
No 5 of 5 format
No false start
Seeding list to be established
No Regional Champions
1 year trial basis until
Can run on Veterans one day and
Regular or Multi the next day in a two day tournament
The class can be offered effective
False Start Definition (official)
The Judges Committee reported that
there was a discrepancy in the way judges were handling restarted heats interrupted
for safety or outside interference when
there was a False Start pending. Some
judges were starting a new heat while others were retaining any earned False
Starts on the restarted heat. There was some discussion about the merits of
restarting a heat without penalty. After debate, the board unanimously agreed
that when a heat is “blown dead” and is to be rerun, that the new heat is
restarted anew. The false starts accumulated are not carried over to the rerun.
Further discussion ensued discussing
the differences between “restarted” and “rerun” heats as the terms appear in
Rules 8.3(b) and (h). After discussion, the board agreed that, as a matter of
policy, a heat called stopped due to a safety hazard or outside interference
should be started from the beginning – “restarted” – with substitution of dogs
an option, whereas substitution did not make sense when a heat is stopped for a
false start and thus is “rerun” but not restarted from the beginning.
The wording of Rules of Racing,
8.3(b) and 8.3(h) was changed to provide that when a heat is stopped due to a
safety hazard or outside interference, the heat is restarted completely and a
team may change their line-up if necessary without penalty. This improvement
eliminated the need for a team to forfeit a heat when a dog is injured or to
run a dog that is creating an unsafe circumstance. A line-up change is not permitted, however,
in the event of a false start.
2. Upcoming
Tournament info:
|
Hosting
club |
Location |
Tournament
date |
Closing
date |
|
Pawplex
Flyball Canines |
Pawplex, |
November
12 and 13, 2005 |
October
27, 2005 |
|
|
Pawplex, |
December
3 and 4, 2005 |
November
14, 2005 |
3. Other
stuff….
Doing something different as
Christmas
Christmas
is coming soon and it’s a great time of the year to give to those who are less
fortunate. In the world of dogs, it’s shelters that are always needy. With Christmas coming up and the tournament
season winding down, it may be a good occasion to sit back and think about how
you can be of help to a shelter in your area.
I challenge you to discuss among yourselves to find a way of helping
those dogs in need. Just a short visit
to your local SPCA to walk dogs and donate a few items could make a whole world
of difference for those animals not to mention the warm feeling you get inside
from helping out.
Rulebook changes
The amendments to the Rules of
Racing have been published in the NAFA minutes and press releases throughout
the year. With the start of the racing year on Oct. 1, 2005, those amendments
have been collected into a new edition of the rule book by Glenn. There are
changes still being made to the forms. The final version of the forms will be
added as developed.
NAFA website improving
If you
haven’t been to the NAFA website lately, it has improved. The new full blown version of the website
isn’t ready yet but positive changes have been made lately and you should go
check it out. A new link consolidates
the "Rulebook, Forms" archive for ease of
use.
Signature Gear lights
NAFA has
received 9 sets of Signature Gear Lights and is waiting for delivery of the
last 2 sets. Cases are also currently
being made and will be shipped to NAFA shortly.
These new lights are really nice, really different, wireless,
include large displays that give the time for each dog and available to all
clubs who are interested in renting them for one of their tournaments. Just request a set when applying for
sanctioning but you must apply soon as they are not garanteed
for everyone.
NAFA News
A new
edition of NAFA News has been published.
It hasn’t been added to the website yet but check
back regularly, it should be there shortly.
Banking Issues with Canadian Cheques
NAFA’s bank has reported that Canadian cheques cannot be converted to US funds by merely writing
in the phrase “USD”. While this occurred in the past, computerized cheque clearing by banks has disabled this past practice. Cheques altered as such will be returned to the sender.
Online CRN applications cannot be made in Canadian funds. Canadian credit card
holders will have the fees converted from US Dollars at the prevailing exchange
rate by their credit card institution. Appendix A – Schedule of Fees of the
NAFA rulebook will be modified to reflect dual pricing of all products except
NAFA tournament fees which will be reported at the daily rate by clubs. Here are the basic ones.
·
Competition
Racing Numbers (CRN) - $15.00 USD or $18.00 CDN.
·
New
NAFA Club Registration - $25.00 USD or $30.00 CDN.
·
Height
Card Applications - $5.00 USD or $7.00 CDN.
·
Duplicate
Height Cards (due to loss) $5.00 USD or $7.00 CDN.
·
Replacement
Award Pins (due to loss) $5.00 USD or $7.00 CDN.
·
NAFA
Approved Patches $5.00 USD or $7.00 CDN.
·
Recording
Fee –$25.00 USD per team that competes in a NAFA sanctioned tournament (payable by the Host Club). $20.00 USD
per team for scored and sent via email. When submitting in Canadian funds, the host
club should report the exchange rate used on the NAFA Form C6.
·
Checks
returned for Non-Sufficient Funds - $25.00 USD or $30.00 CDN. If a check
received for a CRN is returned NSF, the team will not receive points for races
run by dogs without a valid CRN.