WCF Management Committee Meetings 5th and 10th March 2006
Notes
These notes are the agreed final notes from two meetings during the World GC championships in NZ and amended by subsequent email discussion to fully involve those committee members not present.
First Meeting Sunday 5th March. Angus Hotel, Hastings, New Zealand.
Wild cards Gary and Charles paper: Main points accepted with these changes.
WCF will select 6 wild cards not 4 and be solely responsible for the choice
Qualifying event to remain as 4 places. Other places that become available will be allocated to countries or become extra WCF wild cards.
Residential status: any changes also to be agreed with Mac Countries so that status is same for all events.
Championship schedule.
AC 2009 US, 2011 Australia, 2012 England
GC 2008 South Africa now need final bid. 2010 Egypt (provisional)
Women’s GC 2007/8 Ireland , Scotland and Jersey asked if interested
Women’s AC Only Australia interested, seems best players generally do not want to play. Charles to survey NZ players. Further contact with Australia via Max Murray. No one on WCF MC very keen on this event.
GC event
Agreed for future WCF fully responsible for event format and seeding.
Amir stated important for the event to attract a strong entry. All agreed with this. Actions to be decided.
Further discussion on format to be held.
Relationship with FEC
Kevin Garrad joined the meeting. We agreed to ensure any development work in Europe was coordinated between the two organisations.
The above notes were circulated by email to those committee members not present on Tuesday 7th March.
Feedback from these members of the Committee by email was in agreement.
Further Discussions
The following notes record further discussions which took place at the first meeting. These will be subject to comments by Committee members not present . Only after such comments have been received and taken account of will a final set of agreed decisions be circulated.
Other points discussed at the Sunday meeting
Wild card paper from Charles and Gary:.
There was wide ranging discussion on the question of member countries nominating all players in ‘good standing’.
Agreed that good standing should be more closely defined.
Proposed that the words ‘good standing’ be more closely defined as follows;.
‘To be considered for a wild card or qualifying place a player must be in good standing with his member association. This means that the player must not be under suspension or be disaffiliated by a member association or one of its affiliated members or have been advised in writing that he/she is not eligible by a member association or one of its affiliated members’
How to determine the number of places to be offered to Observer Members for our championships.
This will depend on the total number of entries.
For AC this is 80. Agreed this should be around 16-20 places for Observer members. Brian to be asked to summarise how the 80 will now be broken down for the 2008 Championships.
For GC we need to reflect after the current event the total entry level, the format and how places are to be allocated. Small committee to be formed.
2nd Meeting held Friday 10th March at Te Mata Croquet Club, New Zealand
Total entries for Women’s GC event.
There was discussion on the quality of entry (rather low in some cases) and on the impact the number of entries has on the number of lawns required and hence which countries/clubs can hold the event.
Agreed that 32 would be a lower limit to the number of entries and that potential holders of the event should be informed.
World wide development of croquet
Agreed that the following would be responsible for looking for opportunities for development in the following countries.
Charles Jones: India, Sri Lanka
Max Murray: Malaysia, Dubai(in conjunction with Amir Ramsis), and Singapore
Amir Ramsis; Middle East
Japan: Brian to write to the Japan Croquet Association asking how we can help. Tim King (Eng) and Blaise Northey (Australia) have contacts and may be able to help in some way.
Europe: Through existing European players Brian to stimulate interest to travelling to play and to conduct coaching etc. All development in Europe should be co-ordinated with FEC (Chairman Peter Payne). Charles Jones will visit Austria in the Northern Summer also possibly Czech Republic.
Bermuda: what is current situation? (Brian/ Rhys to find out.)
Africa: Need someone to surf the net to see if any croquet played. Any suggestions as to who can help.
Hong Kong Peter Payne had contact in 2002 this needs to be followed up. Peter to forward contact to Charles Jones for action.
South America Tony Hall had visited a few years ago. Jonathan Lamb now lives in Uraguay. Need a volunteer to follow up in this area.
Translation of the Rules into other languages. This should be undertaken and should include garden crqoeut rules. At first we should translate simplified versions. These should be on our website so that we have pages for non English speakers.
Garden Croquet Rules
Set of rules for Garden/Backyard/Hotel Croquet to be finalised in conjunction with similar project by CA . David O responsible.
Friends
Must have communication electronically with friends three times per year. (Can Brian do this?)
We should ask them for help in looking at opportunities for world wide expansion.
Events Manager
The Events Manager had incurred expenses in liasing with the organisers of the 2006 GC event . Agreed to make a contribution of 500 NZ dollars (188 GBP).
Budget for President
Agreed that the President should have a budget of 250GBP for expenditure on WCF matters. For example to cover cost of inviting guests to the Friends Dinner.
Membership of the Management Committee.
We agreed that on being proposed for election any person should nominate his member association relevant to Rule 105.9 They would retain this affiliation throughout their period of office.
Format of Future GC events: Agreed to wait for feedback from players. They have been asked to email comments to Brian.
Doping Control
No strong feeling for a particular direction on this difficult subject. David to discuss with Brian the next moves in this area.
GC Rules
Committee should be reconvened following one years experience. Agreed by all that it was important to have one set of rules which were used by all countries. Currently both Egypt and England use some different rules.
We need to confirm Peters position as representing the smaller nations or ask them if there is someone else that they want to nominate (Brian to action)
Work of Officers
Chris Williams conducting a review of the AC grading system should report in about two months.
Alan Pidcock (Equipment) He is happy for the honorarium to be £100. He is continuing to provide a service of testing equipment from around the world.
David to met with David Drazin to ascertain his exact role as historian of the WCF.
Financial Position
David reported that the financial position for 2005 would be good with income greater than expenditure. As we work on development programmes our expenditure would and should increase. Our income is now fairly easy to forecast and quite reliable. Our expenditure can increase. We need to agree a budget for 2006 and 2007. (Andrew to prepare.)
Promotion of Croquet at a Club level
At a club level Croquet is expanding at certain clubs but as a general rule many clubs around the world are short of members. Much of the expansion is related to a growth in Golf Croquet players but there are also examples of strong growth in AC. The meeting felt it was appropriate for the WCF to co-ordinate details of how clubs have increased their membership. The aim is to pass on examples of successful growth to all member associations.
How to increase club membership is a world wide problem and everyone needs to be aware of what is working. We felt it is particularly important to recognise the social aspect of joining a club. GC tends to satisfy the social aspects in a better way. But AC can also satisfy these needs.
Max Murray to co-ordinate Australian experience particularly on AC.
(Who did we agree would co-ordinate the whole project my notes do not tell me?)
Additional Item not from Meeting.
GC Seniors Event
The day following this meeting a number of players asked us to consider holding a Seniors GC world Championship. David discussed informally with the other committee members present and there was general agreement that this was worth considering. Amir stated that Egypt would want to participate. Interest had been expressed from English and US players. Not all in favour of this. Further discussion needed.