Minutes of the Far North Coast Swimming Association Inc

Present:
Chris Mills (Lismore), Trish Barnes (Kingscliff), Gail Hunter (Twin Towns), Margaret Harding (Alstonville), Narelle Anderton (Mullumbimby), John Smits (Alstonville), Lin Johnson (Alstonville), David Jupe (Ballina Indoor), Graham Canning (Lismore), Vic Golle (Ballina Memorial), K Lisha (Casino), J Johnson (Mullumbimby)

Moved Trish Barnes - Seconded Graham Canning
That the Correspondence In be accepted as presented - Carried

Moved Trish Barnes - Seconded Graham Canning
That the Correspondence Out be accepted as presented - Carried

Development Squad: Letters regarding the Far North Coast Development Squad have been sent to all FNC Clubs. Entries for nominations to the squad close on the 6th September 2002. Graham Lees has contacted NSW Swimming regarding the visiting coach and times and days have been confirmed.

FNC Treasurer's position: David Bradwell of Casino club has nominated for the position of FNC Treasurer.
As there were no other nominations for this position, David's nomination was accepted and we congratulate David in his new position of Treasurer.

FNC Secretary: No nominations have been forthcoming for the position of FNC Secretary. FNCSA at present does not have a Secretary, and while Trish Barnes has continued to collect the mail and record the minutes, Trish will not be doing so from the next FNC meeting, so no minutes or information will be forwarded to clubs from the next meeting unless a new Secretary is found. Could all clubs please approach members of their club, as a Secretary is necessary for the running of FNCSA.

Disqualifications: Margaret Harding reported that clubs who hold point scores for their club nights or for their carnivals, must have disqualifications in all strokes and distances, regardless of age. This includes carnivals from District level upward, Championship and Non Championship. This started a large discussion on the merits/disadvantages of disqualifying swimmers, especially at club level, with many feeling it would only discourage younger swimmers. But Margaret reported that if point scores are to be included, then Disqualifications must occur for breaches.

Lane ropes: Margaret reported that all lane ropes must have a different coloured marker at both ends of the pool at the 15m mark, regardless of the length of the pool.

Disabilities contact: The contact number for Disabilities at NSW Sports is 97632455, Jane Buckley. Any children from FNCSA who need to be assessed for their disability can go to Queensland to be assessed, they do not need to go to Sydney.

Relays: The names of the members of any relay team competing at any Age or Open NSW Carnival or Australian Carnival or higher, must be recorded on the nomination form IN THE ORDER THEY WILL BE SWIMMING. If swimmers swim out of the order nominated, they will be disqualified. If different swimmers will be competing in heats and finals, all swimmers and reserves must be nominated, in the order they will be swimming. The only changes that can be made are for medical reasons, but changes must be notified before the race is swum.

FNC Carnivals: Casino notified FNCSA that they would like to hold a carnival on the 9th March, not the 14th December, Murwillumbah will be holding a carnival on the 9th November. The FNC Relay Carnival has been moved to the 14th December (not 21st Dec.) and Grafton are holding a carnival on the 8th September. Full dates are:

2002
September 8	Grafton
November 2-3	Twin Towns
November 9	Murwillumbah
November 16	Alstonville
November 23	FNC Non Championship No1
November 30	Lismore
December 8	Ballina Memorial
December 14	FNC Championship Relay Carnival
2003
February 8	FNC Championship Carnival No1
February 15	FNC Championship Carnival No2
February 21-23	NSWSA Country Cahmpionships
March 1	FNC Non Championship No2
March 9	Casino

As you can see, no venues have been allocated for the FNCSA Carnivals (Relay, Championship and Non Championship). On the roster, Byron Bay, Mid Richmond, Murwillumbah, Tweed Heads, Twin Towns then Yamba are the next clubs to host these carnivals. These clubs are to be contacted regarding hosting any of these carnivals.

Money or Medals for FNC Championship Carnivals: Competitors who are 13 years or older may accept money instead of medals for placing 1st ($5), 2nd ($3) or 3rd ($2) at the FNC Championship Carnivals. It has always been difficult to determine exactly how much swimmers are to be paid, mainly because of inaccurate recording and some swimmers not collecting medals until late on the carnival day. Narelle Anderton has suggested that those swimmers who will be taking the money instead of the medals record this information on the original nomination form. Lin Johnson will look at a way of recording this beside a swimmer's name on the race results, hopefully this will delete the problems that have arisen in the past.

Medals for Non Championship Carnivals: As FNCSA is now charging a nomination fee for the Championship and Non Championship Carnivals, it is felt that a medal for the Non Championship Carnivals should be looked at being introduced. It was suggested that the medal might be a smaller version of the FNC Championship medal. Chris Mills offered to look at the costs involved and will talk to Brian Pool, maybe Brian has a medal in stock that would be appropriate.

Meet Manager Program: FNCSA has purchased the Windows version of the Meet Manager Program. Lin Johnson currently has the program and has reported to the meeting that because of copyright, the program can only be loaded onto FNCSA computers. We can not load it onto computers owned by the clubs of FNCSA. Lin is to look at the FNC computer to see if it can be loaded as the computer had crashed at the last Non Championship Carnival. Lin suggested that FNCSA may need to purchase a lap top computer for use at carnivals. As FNCSA will need more than one computer in order to run carnivals, FNCSA may need to look at purchasing more than one. As FNCSA cannot load the new program onto club computers, clubs may need to look at purchasing the program themselves. It has been suggested that FNCSA might be able to subsidise the purchase to clubs, this will also be looked at. Chris Mills suggested that there may be a multi-user program available and will contact Ron Jordan and Helen Wood, from whom we bought the program, to see if there is a program or a way we can load it on all of the FNC club computers. Graham Canning and Lin Johnson are to look at costings for laptops.

New Club: David Jupe brought a letter that he had received from the Emmanuel College at Ballina, that was addressed to FNC Swimming, complaining that FNC Swimming had not supported their application to form a club. As FNC Swimming had received no application, and had no information or knowledge about anyone wanting to start a new club, it was felt that the context of the letter was rather accusing and full of misinformation. NSWSA had contacted Trish Barnes by phone only days earlier to ask FNCSA opinion of the name of the new club, that being Ballina Emmanuel Club(?), but as this was the first that Trish had heard of any new club being formed, she felt she was unable to comment on any name or anything to do with the new club's application until an application had been received and that it would have to be discussed at a FNC meeting. NSWSA did state that they were concerned that the name may be confused with the two clubs already in Ballina, with both having Ballina at the beginning of their club name. It was suggested that maybe the club could be called the Emmanuel College Club, Ballina. NSWSA also stated they were concerned that there would be three clubs in Ballina, and that they wondered could a town the size of Ballina support three clubs? NSWSA informed Trish that no formal application had been received at NSWSA, that at this stage they were only seeking information on starting a new club and how they could get the new club package information. As FNCSA has still not received any information/application regarding the formation of any new clubs, and that the letter that was sent to David Jupe was addressed to him, it was felt that FNCSA could not respond at present to Emmanuel College until such time that they contacted FNCSA. David asked if he could respond to the letter from Emmanuel College and it was agreed that as the letter was addressed and sent to him, at Ballina Indoor, it would be right for David to respond to the letter.

Outstanding fees: It was noted that three FNC Clubs have outstanding fees to FNCSA, they being Grafton $35 for the Meet Manager Course, Lower Clarence $110 ($35 Meet Manager Course and $75 Education Seminar) and Tweed Heads $110 (Meet Manger Course and Education Seminar). These clubs to be contacted and asked for their fees to be paid.

Next meeting Sunday 11th August 2002 at the Alstonville Bowling Club commencing at 10am. All clubs invited to attend.