Minutes

Maree Field (Lennox Head), Trish Barnes (Kingscliff), Brian Pool (Alstonville), Glenn Moriarty (Alstonville), Bernie Thompson (Alstonville), John Smits (Alstonville), Graham Canning (Masterstroke), David McLean (Casino), Sue Anderton (Mullumbimby), Graeme Condie (Mullumbimby), David Jupe (Ballina Indoor), Candy Power (Lismore), Hayley Youngberry (Lismore).

Margaret Harding, Gail Hunter (Twin Towns), Debbie Dalton (Grafton), Ken McDonald (Ballina Indoor), Ken Malcolm (Ballina Indoor), Graham Lees (Lennox Head).

The minutes from the previous meeting were presented by Trish Barnes
Moved Trish Barnes - Seconded Graham Canning
That the minutes be accepted as presented - Carried

A list of correspondence was read by Trish Barnes
Moved Trish Barnes - Seconded Graham Canning
That the Correspondence In be accepted - Carried

A list of Correspondence Out was read by Trish Barnes
Moved Trish Barnes - Seconded Brian Pool
That the Correspondence Out be accepted as read - Carried

As Gail Hunter is in Sydney attending the NSW Swimming AGM, there was no Treasurer’s Report, but it was noted that as not many transactions had occurred since the FNC AGM, the bank balance would be similar.

NSWSA State Relays: A letter was received from NSW Swimming asking each District to consider the current format of the State Relays and if we wanted them to continue, would we prefer a one day stand alone carnival and were we happy with the carnival. A discussion took place and the feeling of our District is that because of the distances that our members need to travel in order to attend any State Carnival that we would prefer the Relays to be held on the day of the State Carnival, not as a separate Carnival. It was also noted that not many teams from our District had taken part in the past. The numbers attending State Carnivals from the clubs in our District are small, therefore it would be difficult to form club relay teams, especially in age groups. It was suggested that we write to NSW Swimming suggesting that we form District teams in order to participate.

Grafton Winter Carnival: Grafton Swimming Club are proposing to hold a Winter Short Course Carnival and had suggested two dates, 2nd September (Father’s Day) or 9th September. As FNC Swimming has nothing planned for these dates, it was decided that Grafton could conduct their carnival on the date that suited them best. It was noted that NSWSA Short Course is the 16th September and the Goodwill Games are on the 2nd September so these events may influence Grafton’s decision.

NSWSA Country Visiting Coaches Program: A letter from NSWSA informed our District that the coach for our ‘program’ will be Angelo Basalo who is an Australian Team Coach and has a Level 2 Performance Accreditation. We are asked to liaison with Angelo on the details of the program. It was felt that we should not knock back this attempt by NSW Swimming to provide support to Country swimming, as they have often been criticised in the past for taking no interest, but it was felt that as we are lucky to already have at least three coaches with high performance experience in our District, namely Greg Salter, Stan Tilley and Cheryl Humphries, with many other coaches with level 2 accreditation, our District would not be gaining anything from Angelo holding a general clinic. It was suggested that we write to NSWSA stating that we are interested in being involved in a program, but that we would like to make changes to the format, that it could be a one day session, with a full morning for swimmers in the 9-12 age group, especially those who were State qualified, and an afternoon session for those 13 years and older who were State qualified. This ‘clinic’ would then take the place of our State Qualifiers clinic. September or October seemed to be the best time to hold the day.

RSL Youth Club, Zone 12: A letter has been received from Mrs Beverley Gow the Secretary of NSW RSL Youth Clubs. Mr Bob Smith who is the Deputy Chairman has moved into our District and is very keen to reform our Zone 12 to compete at the State Championships. In February a letter was sent to all clubs in our District regarding restarting Zone 12 and to date no club has replied to Bob. In the past our District was a strong supporter of the RSL State Championships, many swimmers and teams from our district have swam at the State Championships. Interest waned when the travel subsidy was cancelled. As the Championships are normally held on the first weekend in March it was also difficult for swimmers from our District to travel to Sydney or Dubbo in the middle of school swimming carnivals. Clubs are asked to discuss if they would like to reform Zone 12 and compete at the Championships and reply to Bob ASAP.

Applications for Officials: Bernie Thompson (ALEC Convenor) has received the Application forms to Officiate at NSWSA Winter meets, if anyone is interested could you please contact her at her home at 6 Easter Pde, Ballina. Clubs who would like to hold any courses (timekeepers, starter, etc.) need to send the ‘green’ form to Bernie and Bernie will then arrange to do the courses, with Keith Midgley (Grafton) and Bernie Dolan (Murwillumbah) to conduct the lectures.

Winter Carnivals: Chris Mills of Lismore asked if winter carnivals could be discussed. Apart from Grafton Short Course that is held in September, which is always well attended, there are no carnivals in winter in our District. Chris felt it would be good if we considered holding more winter carnivals. Until recently the only heated pools were at Grafton, Ballina Indoor and Tweed Heads. Tweed Heads have considered in the past holding a winter carnival, but it never eventuated. While everyone thought it was a good idea, it would need a club to volunteer to run a carnival. Clubs who are interested in conducting a winter carnival are asked to consider the idea seriously, as more swimmers are training through winter and are looking to compete.

Congratulations: Glenn Moriarty moved a vote of thanks to Graham Canning regarding the wonderful job he has done on setting up and maintaining the Web site. Glenn wanted to officially thank Graham for his work. Everyone agreed.

A suggestion was made that the minutes from FNC meetings could be posted on the site. It was agreed that this would be good, as long as we did not include any personal information. Graham and Trish to look at the possibility.

Web site: Graham Canning wanted to thank Northern Rivers Gateway, who host our Web site and had made up a certificate of thanks to give to them, to be signed by the President and Secretary. Graham bought a frame for the certificate and will present it to Northern Rivers Gateway on our behalf.

FNC Overall Records: Graham Canning has worked through all school results, State and Nationals as well as National Age to update the FNC Overall records. Graham is concerned that he may have missed some records and if he had he apologised. Graham asked that anyone who felt that they had a time for a record could they please apply, Graham pointed out that he could only check on results if they had been posted on the Web. Everyone at the meeting felt that Graham had done a marvellous job, that there would have been a lot of work to look up all the results and to search for FNC swimmers. It was also felt that it was a lot to expect Graham to do this, that swimmers should apply for any records. Clubs are asked to inform all their club swimmers of the FNC Overall records and maybe provide a list at the club for swimmers to check. As records are constantly being updated, all swimmers should be informed of the FNC Web site address so that they can access it for themselves. (http://www.fncswim.org.au/ ).

Graham also informed the meeting that he had set up a new way of applying for a record, there is a form on the Web site that you can fill in on line, just fill in the blanks and hit the send button. This form can only be used if the results from the carnival are on line and can be accessed otherwise the application must be filled in and sent manually with a copy of the results.

Graham informed us that there had been 20 FNC Records broken at National Age. There had been 79 FNC Championship Carnival Records broken and 173 FNC Overall Records broken, that means 252 new records this season.

Academy of Sport: Brian Pool informed us that the Executive Director of the North Coast Academy of Sport, Tony Clarke along with the Chairman of the Board met with representatives of Mid North Coast Swimming to discuss joining the North Coast Academy of Sport. Mid North Coast have now formed a three person committee, as we have, and Tony Clarke now wants to get the two groups together. This will happen in the next few weeks. NSWSA will probably still give a grant of $3000 and the Academy will ask the two District Associations to input funds. Clubs in each District will also be asked to input. The Academy will also go to local businesses for sponsorship. The Academy is looking to raise around $15000, as a best case scenario, to run the program, Tony thinks he can generate those funds. There would be minimum standards set to qualify for the program, starting with a National Qualifying Time. The swimmers selected would be asked to pay around $200. The program would involve 4 or 5 weekends in camp with all swimmers receiving a full ‘kit’ including swimmers, t-shirt, tracksuit etc. A trip away to compete against other District Academies is also part of the program. Details are to be worked out between the Academy and the two District committees. The program that Tony is setting up in our District is to become the blue print for all the Country Academies.

FNC Carnival dates: As the Alphabetical Roster system was introduced two seasons ago, clubs who were next in line to host carnivals have been written to. These clubs are Byron Bay, Casino, Lennox Head Swimtech, Lower Clarence and Masterstroke Aquatic. These clubs have been asked to host the FNC Championship and Non Championship carnivals. Dates were then decided on as follows:

Twin Towns Mini/Maxi	3rd and 4th November	at Twin Towns
Murwillumbah Sprint	10th November	at Murwillumbah
Alstonville	17th November	at Alstonville
FNC Relay Carnival	24th November	at Mullumbimby
Lismore	1st December	at Lismore
Ballina Memorial Xmas	9th December	Ballina Memorial
Non Championship No 1	15th December	to be decided
Championship No 1	2nd February	to be decided
Championship No 2	16th February	to be decided
Non Championship No 2	2nd March	to be decided
Casino Mini	10th March	Casino

NSW Seminar on FNC: All those who attended said they found it interesting and informative. Brian informed us that NSW Swimming still require clubs to seek clearances to compete out of NSW including Queensland Carnivals. A fee of $5 is required per club when seeking clearance to swim at carnivals that are held when there is no NSW State Carnival on at the same time, but a fee of $25 is required if seeking clearance to swim when a NSW Carnival is on. Clubs can apply for a ‘bulk’ clearance at the beginning of the season, towns on the NSW/Victoria border do this, its called a border agreement, but clubs need to apply. Brian also informed the meeting that those club members who are under 5 years of age or are over 70 years of age ARE NOT COVERED BY NSW SWIMMING INSURANCE. This issue is being looked at by NSW Swimming, and will hopefully be addressed. People who are doing voluntary work for clubs, whether its timekeeping or fundraising, need to appear in the clubs minutes as doing such work to be covered by insurance. All members of club committees should pay their NSWSA and FNC registration fee to be covered by insurance, as should all ‘helpers’.

The next meeting of the FNC Swimming is to be on Sunday 29th July 2001 at the Alstonville Bowling Club commencing at 10am. All clubs are invited to attend.