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.