NAFA Height Card applications are available by contacting Sue Rogers at:

Judy Hagan
PO Box 171
Olin, IA 52320

By Alan Weiner

With the untimely passing of NAFA's Executive Director, Clyde Moore, the flyball community lost a leader that was very instrumental in shaping flyball into the great sport we enjoy so much. Clyde was a major force behind many innovations and improvements and his dedication of time, energy and vision will be missed. Those fortunate enough to have been his friend will feel the loss for a long time to come.

Clyde loved the things that are flyball; the individual people, his teammates, competing with other teams but most importantly; he derived tremendous joy from the dogs.

We now look to the future of flyball. As more people are exposed to the sport, we are growing at an exponential rate. Many teams have done a great job promoting the sport. Millions saw flyball on television when teams got coverage on David Letterman, ESPN, Animal Planet as well as local news features. This growth illustrates how flyball has developed into a world class dog sport.

While it's great that there are more people and dogs playing flyball, more tournaments are needed to facilitate and realize the benefits of this growth. NAFA's continued improvement as an organization will be fueled by more tournaments via more entry fees. Plans for utilizing technology such as additional state of the art Electronic Judging Systems and modern software as well as the outstanding plaques, pins and titles that are earned are quite costly.

I urge more teams to host tournaments. It's a great way to contribute to the sport. Smaller teams can band together; there always seems to be people willing to help from many teams. Regional Directors can offer a lot of help with the planning as well.

If you have any ideas that you would to share, such as incentives that could be offered to host teams, please contact myself or any board member about it. So many changes and improvements were the direct result of a letter, a phone call or dialog on the internet flyball list.

Flyball lost a true friend with the untimely passing of Mr. Clyde Moore. Melanie and myself have also had to deal with the loss of a good and caring friend. Those of us that had the pleasure of a personal relationship with Clyde and his wife Char got to see the real Clyde as both a loving husband and wonderful grandfather. Also close to Clyde was his passion for flyball, his love for animals and his dedication to NAFA. Clyde truly loved the game of flyball, be it competing, judging or in his capacity as Executive Director he always had the best interest of the sport at heart. One thing you could always count on with Clyde, you always knew what he thought although you may not have wanted to hear it. With his passing NAFA needed another Executive Director and the Executive Committee of the NAFA Board of Directors bestowed that honor on me. Because Clyde had just been re-elected to a new 3 year term, everyone on the board including myself thought it best that I fill the position until the end of this year at which time an election could be held in conjunction with the election of the new board positions. The election will be for a new 3 year term, please note the address of the nominating committee in this issue and submit your resumes. In choosing me to succeed Clyde the board felt as I do that Clyde and I shared the same vision for flyball, be it a team that just set a new world record or a team competing in their first tournament they should be able to compete against teams of the same caliber for placements and points but most of all have fun doing so. When I accepted the appointment as Executive Director my position as Chairman needed to be filled. The Board of Directors elected Alan Weiner to the position and Val Culpin to Alan's previous position as Vice Chairman. Please join me in supporting both Alan and Val in their new positions. They are both very dedicated, hard working individuals who love and promote the sport of flyball. Even after these positions were filled there was still the board position left vacant to fill, Kevin Hughes was chosen with the approval of the NAFA Board. Kevin who hails from Winnipeg, Manitoba will fill the position until the end of the year. Because Clyde wore so many hats, I felt it best to delegate some of the responsibilities to other people. First, Annette Tindall was appointed with NAFA’s approval to the position of Regional Director for Michigan and Ohio. Katy Kaylor of Las Vegas is now sanctioning tournaments and Dale Smith of Omaha is in charge of EJS shipments in the US. Chris Knowlton remains the Canadian EJS co-ordinator. My personal thanks goes to all these individuals for volunteering their time and efforts to NAFA and helping to make this transition go smoothly. After reading the abridged minutes in this issue of the NAFA News if you have any questions please feel free to call me, if I am not home leave a message and I will return your call as soon as possible.

Thank you to all of you that have supported me in my new position, it has meant more to mean than you realize.

Sincerely..Steve McAvoy, NAFA E.D.

Members Present: Alan Weiner, Val Culpin, Katy Kaylor, Marion Brinkman, Judy Hagan, Bob Long, Sue Rogers, Dale Smith & Kevin Hughes - also present acting Executive Director: Steve McAvoy

The meeting was called to order by Alan Weiner at 8:10 a.m.

The Board unanimously elected Alan Weiner as Chairman of the Board. Steve McAvoy was unanimously re-affirmed as the Executive Director. Both terms will expire at the end of this year.

Reports were made by the Executive Director, the Chairman and the Treasurer. Most Committees had items on the agenda.

Delegate vote; height cards, 6" & 14" jump heights (Section 8.4 For the motion to pass, the motion must be supported by 2/3 of the delegates voting) Sue reported the ballot counts as follows: 447 ballots sent out; 334 ballots returned (74.72%).

Prong Collar Policy - Upon the conclusion of its investigation with other dog associations, it has been decided that NAFA will not permit exceptions to the prong collar ruling. Also in order to clarify Section 6.15(d) should read - Competitors are forbidden to use electronic, electronic dummy collars and pinch/prong collars on the tournament grounds. Tournament & Regional Directors cannot be held responsible for non-competitors.

World Flyball Association A WFA proposal asking for permission to use NAFA rules to help countries, new to flyball, get started. Several issues should be clarified and then we will proceed with the discussions

Total Recall delegate/championship award issue following individual careful review of all letters in the preassembled package sent out to all board members by the Executive Director, plus a letter from Melanie McAvoy (NAFA Statistician) received at the meeting, and following lengthy discussions:

Letter - Sam Ford re: forfeiting races When an "A" and a "B" team are in the same division and cannot race each other due to a shortage of handlers, the NAFA policy is the "faster" team runs and the "slower" team forfeits. Alan will respond.

Judges: Annette Tindall has been approved as a Supervising Head Judge

EJS specification proposal Dale presented the proposal that the Technology Committee worked on. · EJS used in NAFA sanctioned tournaments prior to June 1, 1998 are grandfathered until Jan/99 and then must be re-approved by the technology committee.

For individuals wishing to design their own EJS, a copy of the spec's may be obtained from Dale Smith.

Policy/protocol on providing EJS to host clubs re: the way lights are distributed

Policy on renting to and from clubs - With regard to renting private EJS, NAFA will pay $200 as a rental fee and will repair any damage to the EJS incurred during the actual tournament subject to the approval of the Regional Director. There was also a discussion of allowing clubs to order an EJS from NAFA's supplier - clubs are welcome and encouraged to buy our EJS - a $50 fee to be paid to NAFA for use of the software.

Purchase of additional EJS We need another set of EJS as soon as the money becomes available.

EJS available for Demo's - EJS will be available for demo's (if they are not required elsewhere) for $200 plus the shipping one way. Clubs using the EJS for demo's are liable for damages which occur during the demo and the return shipping.

Rule/policy clarifications: Dogs entered on multiple teams in regular class is not covered in the new rulebook

The sequence of re-running flagged dogs is done differently in various regions. For consistency sake, clarification of Rule 6.16(b) - If more than one dog gets a flag, the dogs must re-run in the order in which they received the flags. Line Judges should assist the Head Judge in keeping track of re-running dogs.

Letter - Maximum Overdrive again asking us to consider a third type of tournament format - "unlimited with a cap" The Board feels that Maximum Overdrive & Instant Replay have tried all of the Board's suggestions to make their tournament a manageable size.

There is also a problem with limited tournaments filling before the tournaments are actually posted in the NAFA News. There is no great way to solve this problem but all teams must be given an equal chance to enter tournaments.

Policy on handicapped dogs competing NAFA will not permit any handicapped dogs to compete. Judges currently have this discretion.

Letter - Debbie Davis (Need for Speed) re: tournament formats and breakout policy. Val to respond

Letter - Mindy Lamont - proposing a change in the 4-month policy (changing teams) received no second. Val to respond

Mandatory posting of times at tournaments The Board feels that posting these results should be a mandatory part of all tournaments. To be added to the rulebook on page 24: Section 6.20 - Posting Race Results Host Clubs must post race results (heat times and wins/losses) for competitors as soon as possible following the running of each race.

Letter - Al Champlain re: confusion over NAFA Secretary vs NAFA Statistician Dale will respond.

Letter - Kathryn Hogg re: delegate voting policy

Nominating Committee - The nominating committee will consist of Val Scott (Can) and Jim Sova (US). Jim will again this year assemble the nominations. Board nominations must be submitted to Jim by 1 September. Notification to be included in this NAFA News. Ballots to be sent to delegates at the beginning of October and returned by 15 November. Ballots may be returned by mail to either Jim Sova at PO Box 171, Olin IA, 52320 or Val Scott at 2109 Melrick PL, RR #3, Sooke, BC, V0N 1N5 or hand delivered at the annual meeting.

Letter - Kim Eashoo Kim Eashoo's request for change of breed status is tabled until the next meeting. Steve will respond

NAFA Wickets (measuring devices) Steve requests approval to buy 6 more and again house them with the regional directors

Judges Guidelines/ Reinstatement policy - For judges who for some reason did not manage to get the required number of assignments. (Committee meeting Sunday morning)

Letter - Jim Sova re: box dimensions (Committee meeting Sunday Morning)

Hall of Fame - Proposal to name award in Clyde's memory

Letter - Betty Carroll re: livestock arena policy. Steve will write to Betty Carroll and answer the questions.

Letter - Pat Hunt (Kingston Canine Lightning) - suggestions to improve NAFA data collection. Marion to respond

The next Board Meeting is scheduled for 4 Dec. 1998 – The Annual General Meeting will be held the evening of 5 December in the Vancouver B. C. area. Exact location and time will follow in a subsequent NAFA News.

A motion was made by Val to adjourn the meeting - seconded by Judy The meeting adjourned at 12:30 a.m.

The Board of Directors meeting reconvened at 10:00 a.m. The Executive Director and all board members were present.