Attendees
Kirk Krack, Mandy Cruickshank, Tom Lightfoot, Ken McCallum. Perry Gladstone joined the meeting via phone.
Call to Order
This meeting was held at CAFA headquarters in Vancouver. The meeting was called to order at 7:30 pm.
Meeting Minutes
April meeting minutes were approved unanimously and will be posted to the website. There was no executive meeting in May.
Action Items
Kirk:
- Competition rules – Kirk is still waiting for the AIDA competiton rules to come out.
- Safety Protocols – Tom and/or Helen Lightfoot will proofread the safety protocols and Tom will post these to the website.
- Competition Manual – No progress has been made since the April meeting.
Tom:
- French translation of website – No progress has been made and Tom has not heard back from Jane about the first set of work sent. Kirk will give Jane a call. Perry considers this project a priority and would like to get a budget to hire a student to do the translation work. Tom will come up with a prioritized list of documents/pages to be translated.
- Website help – Tom has approached David Nesbit about becoming an assistant webmaster. David did not say no but was concerned about the amount of time that it would take up. Recruitment is ongoing.
- Freediver Survey – Additional questions still need to be added.
- 2002 financial report – No progress yet.
- Education schedule – Updated.
Mandy:
- Financials – Mandy reported that there is about $6,200 in the bank, with about $700 being owed for expenses related to the Nationals weekend, leaving $5,500 left. Mandy will not be able to have time to get the budget and financials ready for July 1 and will instead work on the end of year report. The end of year (June) financial reports will be ready by the end of August. Mandy will get Sandy to set us up with a spreadsheet for analyzing quarterly financial results.
- Lung Association Proposal – No progress since the last meeting.
- CAFA in Quebec – CAFA has abandoned any attempts to work with the FQAS. Kirk will attempt contact with some dive stores/clubs in Quebec when he is in Ottawa for the upcoming clinic and competition.
Perry:
- Perry was unable to secure funding for the TSN TV deal so it had to be abandoned. However, he was able to get Richard Wright, a producer at CBC, to commit to doing a piece on Mandy’s record attempt and the National’s for CBC’s Sports Journal. There is the additional possibility that footage may be recycled into other shows, such as the late night program, Zed.
Ken:
- Ken has lost the vote counts from the 2002 AGM.
2004 World Championships
Kirk has been talking recently with the AIDA board and participants at the Sony Freediver Classic about Vancouver hosting the 2004 World Championships. Kirk has done quite a bit of research into the feasibility of hosting the event and has found the following things:
- Probable total cost of hosting the event would be $75,000 Canadian.
- Cost would be taken up mostly by competitors paying around $350US each.
- Amphibico would be willing to provide all of the required video equipment.
- TDI would be willing to provide technical diving support
Kirk pointed out that lots of volunteers would be required in order to make the event happen. Many (20-30) local people would have to take a week away from work. Other volunteers would be brought in from the international freediving community.
Both Ken and Perry expressed concern that the local community lacked the willpower and organizational capability to make the event a success. After much discussion it was agreed that the board would re-convene immediately after Nationals, using it as a gauge to determine if Vancouver is ready to host the World Championships. In the mean time, Kirk will continue to research the feasibility of hosting the competition.
AIDA requires an indication of intent from all candidate cities by the end of June.
Nationals
- 6 competitors have signed up so far
- 8 volunteers have agreed to help
- Hamish and his crew from H2O Madness will provide diving services
- Mandy will be attempting a world record of >70m during the event
- A smaller boat will be used, due to the lower than expected number of competitors
- Amphibico will be sending underwater camera equipment
- About 20 tickets have been sold so far for the Bob Croft presentation. 44 tickets must be sold in order to break even.
There was some discussion about why the turnout for Nationals is so low. The board agreed that the problem was mostly due to timing:
- The competition is only one week after the ERC
- It is pretty much the Canada Day long weekend and many people have other plans
- Late June is still too early for people east of Vancouver to train.
CAFA in Quebec
Kirk has had no communications with David Rousseau of FQAS, despite several attempts.
Kirk and Perry will try to make contact with dive stores in Montreal in the week between the Ottawa clinic and the Eastern Regionals.
Team Canada Sponsorship
Mandy pointed out that now is the time to start working on raising funds for Team Canada at the 2004 World Championships. Perry felt that having the Worlds in Vancouver would help the case for sponsorship. However, he also said that the existing proposal is not ‘sexy’ enough. Perry will update the existing proposal again but will need additional material from Kirk.
Annual General Meeting
The Annual General Meeting must be held by the end of September. Last year the AGM was held in July and it was not possible to compile the year-end financial report in time.
This year’s AGM will be held in mid to late September.
Effectiveness of the Board
Perry expressed concern that important tasks were not getting done. After much discussion, the board agreed that all tasks would have due dates and there would be a backup plan if an important task was not completed.
Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 9:30 pm.