Annual Report 2011/2012 Season - revolutioniseSPORT€¦ · Report - Linda Collins, Cultural Champion 31 - 32 Report - 2012 State Squad, Coaches 33 - 37 Table - Australian Championships,

Annual Report

2011/2012 Season

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Editors

Melanie Cantwell

Linda Bowman

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Table of Contents

Index Page No DBNSW Official Sponsors and Partners 4

Report - Melanie Cantwell, Chief Operations Officer 5 - 10

Report - Daniel Kong, President 11 - 12

Report - Martin Hastings, Director Finance 13 - 14

Report - Trish Tinyow, Director HR and Communications 15 - 16

Report - Mal Wills, Director Boat and Equipment 17

Report - Martin Hirst, Director Legal and Governance 18

Report - Maureen O’Neill, Director Development 19

Report - Geoffrey Roberts Director 20

Report - Karen Kiely, Northern Region Coordinator 21

Report - Ernie Pannuci, Southern Region Coordinator 22

Report - Pearl Butcher, Western Region Coordinator 23

Report - Robert Turnbull, Head Sweep Coordinator 24

Report - Geoffrey Roberts, Sweep Administrator 25

Report - Peter Richardson, NR1 Sweep Coordinator 26

Report - Robin Smith, NR2 Sweep Coordinator 27

Report - Martin Thompson, NR3 Sweep Coordinator 28

Report - Sue Maloney, Southern Sweep Coordinator 29

Report - Simon Freke, Volunteer Coordinator 30

Report - Linda Collins, Cultural Champion 31 - 32

Report - 2012 State Squad, Coaches 33 - 37

Table - Australian Championships, Club Results 38

Results - Australian Championships, how NSW placed 39

Table - Coaches Statistics 2011/12 40

Table - Officials Statistics 2011/12 41

Table - DBNSW Club Membership Numbers 42 - 43

Results - 2012 State Championships 44 - 45

Table - 2011/2012 Season Regatta Calendar and 46

Volunteer Payments to Clubs 47

DBNSW Honour Roll 48– 50

Appendix A 2011/2012 Financial Reports 51

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Dragon Boat NSW would like to acknowledge the following sponsors

and partners

DBNSW would like to acknowledge and thank Calvin Ling for his

contribution in providing DBNSW with photos after each Regatta.

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Sitting down to write the annual report is always a time of reflection, looking

back over the last 12months on what DBNSW has achieved and yet to

achieve. It’s also an opportunity for personal reflection on the last 12 months

and what the next 12 months is to bring.

After serving 9 years on the AusDBF Board as Technical Director I resigned

from my position in April, it was one of the most difficult decisions I have had

to make and not a decision made lightly. However, it was time to move on

and fully concentrate my energies on continuing to grow and develop the

sport in NSW. I have been very fortunate to have had the opportunity to work

with AusDBF and build relationships over the years with all the State members and International mem-

bers all over the world. It has been a very rewarding experience to be able to contribute in a myriad of

ways to the growth and development of the sport throughout Australia. I shall always value the friend-

ships and support which the paddlers around Australia have given me.

Over the last 12 months whilst juggling the demands of DBNSW, it was good to have completed my

Cert IV in Governance and Cert IV in Training and Assessment, both of which I have no doubt will be of

benefit to DBNSW. The next to tackle on the horizon is a Post Grad Degree in Sports Business Admin-

istration.

Lastly to be appointed as a member on the IDBF Competition and Technical Commission, appointed as

the IDBF Level 1 assessor for the Oceania Region and the incredible opportunity to be appointed as

the co-Chief Official for the 2012 Club Crew World Championships in Hong Kong has been very hum-

bling and I am very honoured and proud to be recognised for my commitment since 2003 at an Interna-

tional level. It has been a fantastic experience and I would like to acknowledge and thank the wonderful

mentors I have had in Mike Thomas and Alan van Cauberg who have been very supportive, encourag-

ing and willing to pass on their knowledge and experience.

Back to the local scene, I would like to start off by acknowledging and thanking a very hard-working,

dedicated and professional Board who have spent many a Friday night at monthly board meetings and

hundreds of emails in between dealing with the running of Dragon Boats NSW. The last 12 months has

seen DBNSW achieve a great many things, and I feel very privileged to work with such a supportive

Board who are very passionate and caring about what they do. The current Board has been one of the

best Boards I have had the opportunity to work over the last 15 years.

It will be very sad to see Daniel go, but there comes a time when as Individuals we all have to move on

and decide what is right for us. Daniel was elected to the role of Finance Director at the AGM in 2007 a

position he held for 2 years. During that time, Daniel professionalised the way DBNSW accounting was

run. In 2009 Daniel took on the huge responsibility of Acting President as well as continuing as Finance

Director no mean feat. At the 2009 AGM Daniel was elected as President and was able to hand over

the Finance role into the very capable hands of Martin Hastings. In the 4 years Daniel has been a

Board Director he has contributed a great deal. He has been one of those people who will listen to all

points of view before making his own decision. Daniel has been a great support to me over the last 5

years and has been an integral part in seeing DBNSW go from a volunteer organisation to an organisa-

tion with staff, I would like to sincerely wish Daniel all the very best for the next phase in his life.

Melanie Cantwell - Chief Operations Officer

Annual Report 2011/2012 Season

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Trish, Martin Hastings and Maureen who are all re-standing for election. Trish – You have been a breath

of fresh air, with your direct approach. The amount of work you have achieved over the last 12 months

has been impressive, thank you for your support and guidance. Martin Hastings - Has managed a huge

workload with doing all the accounts for months until DBNSW was able to appoint an accounts person.

Martin has been very vigilant in ensuring DBNSW follows due process – thank you. Maureen – the quiet

one, who took on a great challenge over the last 12 months training for the Yukon and working 2 jobs. I’m

sure the Friday night Board meetings were the escape from all the training! Thank you for your support.

Mal (where would DBNSW be without you, and you thoroughly deserve the JT memorial Award from

AusDBF as recognition to your unselfish contribution to DBNSW. Geoff – your commitment to flying to

Sydney every month or more and contributing to the greater development of DBNSW whilst juggling the

Sweep Administrator role and standing in as Northern Region Coordinator has been commendable. Mar-

tin Hirst – you are the balance in DBNSW, your support and no nonsense approach has been great to

work with. You have all been a delight to work with and I have learnt a great deal from all of you.

Thank you to our Regional Coordinators – Karen Kiely (Northern region), Ernie Panucci (Southern region)

and Pearl Butcher (Western region) who cover many km’s and work very hard on behalf of the Board as

the conduit to their members.

Thank you to Rob Turnbull, Geoff Roberts, Darren Ma, Tim Jones, Sue Maloney, Peter Richardson, Rob-

in Smith and Martin Thompson – who do a great job in managing all the Steerers within NSW, running the

accreditations, updating sweep levels, keeping a log of all Steerers races after every regatta (a mountain

of work) our sweep standards have certainly improved over the years. I know they have many projects on

their agenda which to be implemented in the coming months.

Thank you to Simon Freke for assisting with the coordination of the volunteers for all the regional

regattas.

Many thanks to Linda Bowman, who has made my job infinitely easier. Has been fantastic to work with

and we manage to have a few laughs everyone now again. Linda has made a world difference to how

DBNSW manages the ever growing memberships and has been a valuable asset to DBNSW. Linda has

done a great job in editing the DBNSW Drum each month (whilst some months have been a struggle to

get articles in on time, the feedback has been very positive and well received by members). To Vic

Neskoski – who has only been with DBNSW since January, but has streamlined the accounts process

and taken over many tasks from me – so thank you!

The last 12 months has seen DBNSW taking another huge step forward with regards to growth, develop-

ment, processes and professionalism. DBNSW has accomplished and implanted numerous projects, pro-

grams, policies over the last 12 months and will continue to keep improving, developing and changing as

the needs of the sport continue to grow and change in the years ahead.

Administration

Completed DBNSW Board Induction manual

Completed DBNSW Office Staff manual

Completed the updated version of DBNSW Member Protection Policy

Completed the State Team Managers Manual

Planning and operations for the 2011/2012 regatta season

Planning for the 2012/2013 regatta season and beyond.

Planning and organising of various training courses and workshops.

Preliminary work has begun on the 2013 Australian Championships

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Attendance and preparation of papers for the DBNSW Board Meetings and Annual General Meeting,

Special General Meetings and Strategic Forums, Bank St Forum, Sweep meetings, State Coach and

other.

Continue to Work closely with the Board Directors with regards to policies, development squad, state

squad etc.

Changed email communication from Yahoo Groups to using the DBNSW address and set up sepa-

rate groups for each region.

Updated and coordinated the Regional Coordinator Job Descriptions

Updated and coordinated the Volunteer Coordinator Job Description

Updated and coordinated Cultural Coordinator Job Description

Created and coordinated the Junior Coordinator Job Description

DBNSW employed Joan McGowan as accounts person in September who stayed until December;

Joan unfortunately decided the job was not for her. In February 2012, DBNSW employed Vic Nesko-

ski to replace Joan as DBNSW accounts person, he has been great – very quick and has excellent

knowledge and skills.

Coordinated numerous team building activities for companies throughout the year – many thanks to

all the members who were able to assist with running them.

The DBNSW website and Facebook page have been a source of frustration, however has now been

launched so I encourage all members to “like” the page..

Coordination for the delivery of the State team uniforms.

Memberships

DBNSW goals for the 2011/2012 season were:

To hit 2,460 members and we achieved 3,229

Reach 53 clubs and DBNSW now has 57 registered clubs.

During the last season the following clubs joined the DBNSW family: - Nambucca River Dragons,

Forbes Dragon Boat Club, Pittwater DBR Club, Hunter River Dragons (Maitland), Wallis Spirit Drag-

ons (Coomba Park), Clarence Valley DA and Sydney Zodiacs (DBNSW first Junior/Youth Club).

Grants / Awards

NSW Sport and Recreation – Sport Development Funding - $15k

Received $3k from the Australian Sports Commission for juniors

Received $1k for third place from the NSW Sporting Injuries Committee – Sport safety awards for the

DBNSW Sweep Accreditation program.

Submitted nominations for the 2011 NSW Sports Awards

Relationship Management

Between May and July – I spent time catching up with and visiting many of our regional Clubs

throughout NSW.

Continuous relationship management with major stakeholders – NSW Maritime, BSA (Bank St), NSW

Sport and Recreation, NSW Sports Federation, Australian Sports Commission, NSW Communities,

suppliers and service providers.

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Development

Attended public meetings for all the new Clubs who have joined DBNSW including South West Rocks

and Armidale Dam Dragons (who are soon to become members).

Attended the open day and launch of Forbes Dragon Boat Club, Wallis Spirit Dragon Boat Club

Coordination with Kamini Jain for the paddling camp at Myuna Bay on the 15th/16th October 2011.

Feedback was very positive from all who attended.

I would like to acknowledge Sandy Point for the program they have been running with Odyssey

House which has been successful.

Regattas / Events / Volunteers

The really unique thing about the sport of dragon boat racing is the huge cross section of ages which

participate. The culture and dynamics has changed over the years and I have no doubt will continue

to change in the years to come. To be able to have members from 12 years right through to the over

60s male and female, families, partners and Individuals competing brings a real eclectic and diverse

atmosphere to our regattas.

Certainly 2011/2012 has been very challenging for DBNSW with regattas in terms of weather and

venues. DBNSW trialed Brooklyn as an alternate to Roseville, whilst big enough the currents and

speed boats certainly provided challenges, so it’s back to the drawing board to look for another ven-

ue. Tacoma has been a favourite for a few years; however DBNSW has now outgrown this venue

which is sad but positive for the sport so an alternate venue is now being looked into for January.

Refer to the calendar of events in the Annual report.

Many thanks to the hundreds of volunteers who gave their time to officiate and run the regattas with-

out the wonderful volunteers, regattas wouldn’t exist. A special mention should go to Justin Barrett

(a retired paddler) who does such a great job on the starts – where would we be without the “Are you

ready” ‘Attention’ ‘Go’ and the odd warning here and there for crews not getting to the start line as

quick as they should or travelling up the middle of the course instead of lane zero. Steve Winbank

has made a wonderful contribution to our sport for many years. DBNSW is very lucky to have scored

the services of Steve.

Thanks to all the North Coast volunteers who came down to Race 3 to officiate. It is really beneficial

for DBNSW to be able to offer this opportunity to allow the regional volunteers to gain more experi-

ence also provides the much needed volunteers at the Sydney regattas.

DBNSW biggest issue again for the 2011/2012 season is the lack of experienced volunteers putting

up their hand to volunteer at regattas. I truly understand people become involved with dragon boating

to paddle, however if the sport doesn’t have volunteers to officiate DBNSW can’t run regattas.

DBNSW is very lucky to have had the same small core group of people who have been officiating;

however DBNSW cannot rely on these same people all the time. All members need to step up and

start sharing the responsibility; otherwise DBNSW is going to find itself in a situation they don’t want

to be in with no volunteers or volunteers with no experience!

The twilight regatta which had been scheduled was cancelled due to lack of interest, will try again

next year.

DBNSW is trialing for the first time the ‘Indoor Championships’ in July using technology so paddlers

from all over NSW can be involved and watch each other.

Over the last few months DBNSW has worked with all the North clubs to restructure how the regattas

are run on the North Coast to maximise participation, reduce cost and travelling time. The North

Coast for the 2012/2013 season will be trialing a split competition with clubs being divided between

Upper Northern Zone and Lower Northern Zone. Each club will have the opportunity to host their own

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sanctioned regatta under the guidance of DBNSW. All the clubs will be attending a ‘How to run a re-

gatta workshop’ and be provided with templates so all regattas are run consistently and to the same

standard. This is another very exciting initiative and one I look forward to seeing roll out.

Worked through and finalised the ‘DBNSW Sanctioned Regatta’ document.

Juniors

How exciting it is to see the Junior Division taking off. It is inspiring to see how enthusiastic and taken

with the sport the Juniors are. Having the Juniors attend regattas really does bring a different atmos-

phere to the sport one in which I look forward to seeing develop.

I would like to acknowledge Wendy Irik and Mary Weaver for the program they ran for ‘Youth off the

Streets’ with the local police group.

I would like to acknowledge Mary Weaver and Tanya White for the work they are doing with Leaps

and Bounds Ahead to encourage more schools to become involved with dragon boating and for the

running of their successful School Holiday Program in January and April.

I would like to acknowledge Leanne and Martin Thompson for the work they have been doing not

only with the North Coast kids but all the regional kids who have been involved with the “Torpedos’.

I would like to acknowledge Sandy Point for the work they do with Danebank, Easts with Abbotsleigh,

Mavericks with MLC, Manning River for Taree High and St Claire’s High, Peal Dragons with Forster

High,

I would like to thank Mary Weaver and Steven Davidson for the program they ran for The Kings

School – 120 year 10 boys! Who loved it so much are coming back end of this year.

With the continuing push and growth of juniors, DBNSW decided the time is right to create a proper

structure to cater to the Junior and Youth Division. Whereby DBNSW has created the ‘Zodiac con-

cept’ and created ‘pods’ in each of the 4 regions which Juniors can belong to. The Zodiac means a

member can belong to Zodiacs for a maximum of 12 years (12 – 23 years) at which point in time they

need to move and join one of the established adult clubs. This is a very exciting initiative DBNSW

has taken on.

The Juniors/Youth are the future of DBNSW. DBNSW needs to look after this Division; they are our

future coaches, officials, committee members, DBNSW Board Directors and employees!

Regattas attended by Junior crews:

Orange – Kinross, Orange High, James Sheehan

CNY – Marist, Danebank, Abbotsleigh, North Coast Torpedo’s, Albion Park, James Sheehan

Shellharbour - Illawarra Christian School, St Mary’s, Edmund Rice, Albion Park High School, Smith

Hill High.

State Championships –Marist, Danebank, Abbotsleigh, St Scholastica, SMGS, James Sheehan,

North Coast Torpedos.

Schools Regatta – St Scholastica, Domremy, MLC, Scotts College

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Dragon Boats and equipment

Working closely with Mal Wills to keep the DBNSW fleet of dragon boats maintained and in working

order

Thanks to Chris Alexandrou for helping out on the occasion for picking up and dropping off boats.

Coordination and delivery of boats to new Clubs.

Maintenance and upkeep of all DBNSW equipment

Coordination and purchase of 6 new BuK boats

Coordination and selling of some of the old DBNSW fleet.

Coordinated the swap of the 20ft container for the 40ft container at Bank St to store all DBNSW re-

gatta equipment and moving equipment from the club container to the DBNSW container.

Organised delivery of waste management bin at Bank St with weekly service. And VIP lawn mowing

to mow the lawn at Bank St fortnightly.

2012 State Squad

A thank you to all the coaches who put in hours of time and effort and worked well with each other

without the leadership of Head Coach. To all the team managers for being there to assist the coach-

es and paddlers throughout the campaign. Congratulations to everyone who took up the challenge to

be part of the 2012 State Squad. I have no doubt some of you may feel empty without having

achieved your goal, however all the hard work was not wasted as you all no doubt became better

fitter paddlers and made new friends along the way. DBNSW paid $20,410.00 in entry fees for the

State Squad.

IDBF CCWC - Hong Kong 2012

I would like to end, by acknowledging and congratulating all the clubs from NSW (Pacific Dragons,

City Dragons, DSA, Pendragons, DASzlers, Nowra, Danebank, Torpedo’s) who competed at the

CCWC Hong Kong. With 25 clubs from Australia competing in the 20’s and 10s, Australia was the

largest country represented outside of Hong Kong. There were many outstanding achievements from

many of the clubs. NSW was very fortunate to have several members officiating at the Champion-

ships as well – Sylvia Wong, Belinda Chung, Steven Davidson and Michael O’Donnell. In total there

was 13 International Officials from Australia in Hong Kong.

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No person or body of persons can ever truly accept any credit for their

achievements without first acknowledging the significant works of their

forebears. As I reflect on 5 years involvement with Dragon Boats NSW I

must pay tribute to the visions laid before us by our predecessor Boards

and their directors. In these visions lay the foundations that truly saw our

sport progress from an amateur, volunteer based sport to today’s wholly

professionally run organisation that we are all proud to be associated

with today.

Today, at least in NSW circles, the words “fully paid administrator” and

“fully funded head office” are taken for granted; 5 years ago they repre-

sented challenges that had to be faced before Dragon boating had any

chance of progressing beyond a “niche” fringe sport. The challenges that

we faced presented themselves to us through several and arguably more

challenging facets. Not only did we require funding but we required sound business plans that would ena-

ble us to operate sustainably whilst at the same time allowing for continued growth in the sport. In turn this

would also require us to develop appropriate corporate governance policies that would empower the Board

and allow it to carry out its visions whilst still giving the membership assurance that its sport was being

governed in a responsible and diligent fashion.

In 2007 with a membership just breaching 1,900 members and 32 clubs such tasks were never going to be

easy to achieve; especially facing a membership that was, at the time, not totally convinced of the need for

full time staff let alone a fully funded head office.

The first objective was to ensure that financially we were able to meet our new financial commitments.

Funding for our sport is essentially sourced from three areas: members, new members and sponsorship.

In those initial days, the sponsorship component proved, as it does today, frustratingly elusive and accord-

ingly our new overheads costs had to be absorbed by our members; at least in the short term. The corre-

sponding budgetary measures prescribed at the time were by no means an easy request to have ap-

proved by the then Executive Committee.

Fortunately though the Executive Committee became convinced of the Board’s longer term strategy and

the membership essentially funded growth for the first two years. Today our membership stands at 3,229

members with 57 clubs; an unparalleled 70% increase in membership over 5 years, an emphatic affirma-

tion that the Board’s original policy had been successful.

Whilst these vital initiatives were being played out and being cemented, a very long standing and emotive

issue lurked in the background; the Constitution of Dragon Boats NSW.

The sport of Dragon Boating in New South Wales in the late 1980’s grew out of a series of unfortunate

events that forged the emergence of DBNSW as we know it today. Those events that occurred had nega-

tive repercussions for many years and profoundly affected the drafting of DBNSW’s initial Constitution. In

that Constitution the management of the Organisation was split into 2 groups; the Executive Committee (at

the time a body comprising over 84 members) being responsible for the Strategic Direction of the sport in

NSW and the Board who was responsible for the implementation of that strategy. Not surprisingly many

difficult issues arose and relations between the two bodies were at best difficult to manage. Added to this

was the fact that the Constitution was out of date and out of touch with other sports and certainly incon-

sistent with Corporate Governance principles as they stood at the time. The sport furthermore faced the

real possibility that it could lose or at least experience heavy delays in governmental funding if its Constitu-

tion were not radically overhauled.

Through the outstanding efforts of a number of EC and Board members led by then President Steven Da-

vidson working over a period of many months, the team finally came up with a thoroughly modern Consti-

tution that was endorsed by the Association in January 2011. The adoption of this new Constitution for me

represented an enormous achievement and signified the Membership’s confidence in the Board of Direc-

Daniel Kong - President


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tors which was a significant breakthrough given the difficulties of the relationship in previous years. The

Board had made particular efforts to enhance reporting, transparency over decision making to demonstrate

to its members how a modern Constitution could and would work and I was delighted for the Board to have

received our members’ endorsement.

There have been many other initiatives that I am proud to have been involved with or supported; they in-

clude :

The significant success of the school’s and junior programme;

Inception of the Great Grand Dragons division;

Substantial and continued increase in membership in the regional areas; particularly in our west.

As I bid farewell to you all after an eventful 5 years, I would like to acknowledge several pioneers of our

sport in New South Wales;

Melanie Cantwell – the first lady of Dragon Boating in NSW and arguably Australia;

Christopher Alexandrou – the unassuming, peculiarly dressed gentleman whose humility knows no

bounds J; I have never ever forgotten and have always abided by your initial advice to me

“whatever decision you make; always do what is best for the sport”;

Steven Davidson – a true gentleman of our sport; your counsel and support to me over the years

has been invaluable;

All those that work tirelessly with our juniors to bring us to the forefront in junior development in

Australia; Martin and Leanne Thompson, Brenda Thomson, Peter and Bev Arnold, Tanya White

and Mary Weaver;

Trish Tinyow – has significantly improved the process of administration and management in our

sport to the next level; your energy, enthusiasm and commitment to principles are without parallel;

Eva Kessler – former board member who took the reigns of DBNSW at a time of great difficulty and

uncertainty. Doing so at any time during a directorship is a mammoth task but Eva did so very early

into her appointment. Eva’s cool and calm head helped stabilise DBNSW and the much of the blue-

print that she created during her term is still being used today

Nigel Bedford – during his all too brief time with the DBNSW Board was a fundamental driving force

and source of invaluable strategic support to me during the last few months as we pushed to mod-

ernise our Constitution;

Pearl Butcher, Chris Cheung and Karen Kiely: is it no wonder that our regions are so strong with

such outstandingly committed individuals such as these?

Jon Taylor – although illness robbed us from you from passing onto us your enormous experience

and historical knowledge, the long lasting legacy that you achieved so early in DBNSW’s history

will see that you are never forgotten;

Mal Wills – the original BP “Silent Achiever”;

The current and previous Boards of Dragon Boats NSW that I have

had the opportunity to work with; and of course

My family; Kim, Fred, Amy, Carine, Alexa and Ziggy the Samoyed.

Each of whom have suffered some degree of deprivation in their

lives through my absence from home or in the adoption of the Ty-

phoon8 business. The support and counsel I have received from

each of you in one form or another has been phenomenal.

Thank you for all your support to me over the years. It certainly has been

an overwhelming privilege to represent you. After taking a short “holiday”

from the sport I shall return to supporting my family’s Typhoon8 business

and no doubt will see you in the not too distant future; however in the

meantime…

Paddles UP !

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Martin Hastings - Director Finance


Recently, while preparing the accounts for the Audit, I had to go back and pull

out all the Board papers and Minutes for the last year. I was shocked to see that

the total of all the papers stacked over 30 cm high. To me this represented a

huge amount of work, most of it done voluntarily by a team of people from all

over the state from sweep, volunteer and regional co-ordinators to the tireless

efforts of our staff. Sometimes we need to be reminded of the effort that is put in

by many people so that we as paddlers enjoy the benefits of safe training and

healthy competition.

DBNSW is a busy place – you will have seen that we now have well over 50

clubs and over 3,000 members. Last year, including where we manage funds

for events owned by others (e.g. CNY), we had around $750k in billings over the

year and continue to look after your assets which total around $500k. As a

Board, we attempt to keep on top of the challenges of an increasingly litigious world and one where govern-

ments have more of a say in what we can and can’t do. While the Board has a varied professional back-

ground, we recognise that we need outside help from time to time. Some examples of that help include a

specific training day for the Board on the legalities surrounding Corporate Governance, and we tendered and

then commissioned Rob Barnes to do an Administration Review. His report will be dealt with by the incoming

Board.

A lot of what I wanted to say on a financial front is dealt with in the letter that set the fees for the upcoming

season. DBNSW remains on a strong financial footing, and the accounts came in basically on budget. We

have taken the decision to purchase six new boats and we are also totally restoring all the other race boats in

our fleet over the winter season. This is an expensive exercise of course, but having a good fleet is some-

thing we pride ourselves in.

You may be interested in seeing “where the money goes”. I have attempted to do this in the accompanying

graphs, and while you could probably argue some of the allocations, I think in the main the numbers are valid.

We have basically three separate streams of income and I have attempted to allocate some of the expenses

against each stream. The streams are:

1. Membership fees: Total Income $234k but showing where each $85 contributes

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2. Club Fees: Total Income of $32.4k

3.

DBNSW “Business” – ie Regattas, Corporate training, retail sales and Grants etc. (The numbers are net of

direct costs against the income – regatta expenses for example) Total Income of $197.5k

I am taking the approach that membership fees, be they from individuals or clubs are to be spent on

the costs of membership and that any “profit” that we garner from our business is used to further the

development of all the members.

I will finish by repeating what I mentioned in this report last year. While we are building up good cash re-

serves, as a sport we need to keep looking for ways to help with that development. We haven’t seen many

projects come to us in the year from clubs or regions looking for specific help, but there was one project

that we have recently done for the Northern region. Here DBNSW purchased a trailer that will be left in the

region and be used for regattas all over the region and store all the regatta equipment. So if you have a

project that you think will help develop the sport in your area, then bring it to our attention.

And last but not least, I was also the Director nominated for Safety during the year. While I can’t pretend to

have done anywhere near as much work as my predecessor Nigel Bedford in this area, we have put a few

additional safety guidelines on the website. The safety of paddlers continues to be a major focus for us.

15

After over a decade of being involved in our great sport via paddling, compet-

ing and committee work it was a great honor to have been granted a place on

the board at the 2011 AGM.

As promised, no time was wasted in working with the team to understand

what we were already working on, and what else needed to be done in my

portfolio of HR and Communications. Within a matter of weeks we produced a

working paper which eventually became the blueprint for change

for the office staffing structure. We formalized Linda Bowman’s role into that

of being purely Member Admin. centric which provided greater clarity to her of

her roles objectives, and the membership a designated point person for

member administration.

Melanie Cantwell’s role of business manager was also re-defined. This role stretched everywhere, across

all facets of our business, being the governance principal one minute to the technical director of regattas,

to the boat loader, to the trainer, to the office manager, to the events coordinator. We are in the process of

a complete restructure of Melanie’s role into one that covers the big ticket items more reflective of her

position and experience providing her with a logical step up into a strategic management and governance

post. Over the year we have been slowly adjusting priorities: by making these changes we will effectively

remove a lot of the “running around” type of work which take up Melanie’s valuable strategic development

time. Thus a new part time role has been developed: being the Operations Manager. This role was

presented at the strategic forum held earlier in 2012, and has been approved for the forthcoming season.

During the year we had also had a change book keeper when Joan McGowan decided to return to the

charity sector. This gave us the opportunity to refresh this role and we were able to re-write some of these

objectives and change the role into the Finance Officer, which is now being so well managed by Vic

Neskoski.

All roles were accordingly re-defined and new titles bestowed. Fresh objectives were set and documented

and an updated performance management program has been established.

In terms of strategy for the office over the course of the year we engaged Rob Barnes of Dangerous Minds

consulting to provide a review of what we have already done and some suggestions for the future. His

report is now complete and is being assessed.

Other staff related initiatives which we have completed (in addition to those mentioned in Mel’s report) in-

clude implementation of several new procedures and policies, some being the addition of a new Time in

Liu policy, a review of the Occupational Health and Safety Policy and implantation of an annual checklist

for OH+S issues with plans for this to extend into our volunteer and officials family in the new season. As I

write this report we are finalizing our staff travel and travel related expense policy.

As a board I was pleased to contribute towards our refreshed DBNSW Strategy which is most certainly

addressed at each and every board meeting and in its new 2 page format is much easier to navigate. We

Trish Tinyow - Director H.R. & Communications


16

were grateful to Daniel’s leadership in bringing us together with John Peacock at Associations Fo-

rum to help develop this.

One of my larger pieces of work has been in the juniors sector, where we have worked with the reg-

ulators and sporting partners to develop a robust governance program. It has thus far been well

received and has been shared with the other states and the national sporting body AusDBF.

At DBNSW we are so blessed to have a fantastic staff and I am very grateful to them all for their

valued support and dedication beyond their terms. Melanie for her relentless passion and dedica-

tion to the sport and her contributions to strategic discussions which have produced some great

outcomes e.g. the Junior Pods, all so very much appreciated. Linda – for your unfailing patience

and constant enthusiasm which is so valued. I promise if I am back for another year I will try to

make an editorial deadline!..…..and to Vic, for taking on the accounts and settling in (in light speed),

and for putting up with rowdy board members on occasion when we take over the office one Friday

evening a month

From a communications perspective we have endeavored to communicate a sense of what the

board is working on in each month’s newsletter ( the DB Drum) and have plans to explore expand-

ing our other channels ( e.g. the website) going forward. It’s a challenge to respond to everything

personally and it’s only a failing of mine and not the board if any member is feeling that their sub-

missions are not being responded to, there is more work to do in this portfolio in the coming season

to develop more structured avenue’s for members to bring their concerns to the table and for us to

appropriately respond. I have lots of idea’s which provided I am given the opportunity to remain on

the board will be addressed.

I would also like to thank our Bank St clubs who embraced the idea of the Bank Street forum and

have since it’s inaugural event on Nov 2011 have made the bi annual meeting a great success. Out

of this initiative we have expanded our coordinator network to now have a coordinator role for every

region across the state, to allow collective clubs by location have an opportunity for a common

voice.

I’d like to thank my fellow Board directors, Daniel, Martin, Martin, Mal, Geoff and Maureen for being

a wonderful, dedicated, passionate team of professionals to work with, who have wholly over-

whelmed me with their experience, advice, enthusiasm and generosity. I hold each of you in the

highest regard and thank you for your unwavering loyalty to this sport and state…….not to mention

your patience with me and taking calls at odd hours to work around my crazy life and for making

long Friday meetings (mostly) a joy!

Daniel – thank you for your time and your mentoring, best of luck and blessings for the next chapter

in your life.

A final note of thanks to “he who suffers most”, my wonderful “not so” patient husband Ken Tinyow.

Who knew when I jumped into a dragon boat 12 years ago and met the head coach I would end up

with a husband (and 2 gorgeous children), and after staying on shore holding the babies whilst he

took the crew out, who would have guessed that he would end up doing the babysitting now !!

Thanks also to my children, Cassie and Rhys, future race starters in training!

Thank-you all from the bottom of my heart.

17

Another season of racing over and nowhere as much carnage as the

season before.

Congratulations to the teams who competed at the Australian Champion-

ships and the World Club Crew Championships and came home with

those elusive medals.

We have sold some of our current Buk Boats and are in the process of

purchasing six new boats, the rest of the fleet are being renovated.

The problem now is to keep them in good condition till the Australian

Championship in April 2013. A big thank you to all the paddlers who help load and unload boats at Bank

Street, we could not operate without your help, also thanks to Christopher (Zeus) for transporting the two

boats back from Canberra and delivering to Kings school.

Regattas this year were not the best we have had due to the conditions, Brooklyn was a new course

which turned out to be a nightmare with two boats holed and damage to others. Tacoma was a wash out

and race two at SIRC was bedlam, with strong winds for most of the day - heads and tails were broken

and a seat completely ripped out of a boat because of a sweep not paying attention.

I would like to say thank you to Daniel for all the work he has put in to DBNSW over the years he has

been on the board.

To the rest of the board thank you for all the fun times.

Mal Wills - Director Boats and Equipment


18

Martin Hirst - Director Legal and Governance Annual Report 2011/2012 Season

It has been a busy first 12 months of my tenure as a director of DBNSW.

Apart from the constant flow of emails relating to the operational matters

of DBNSW I have been involved in the following:

Reviewing DBNSW policy and other documents including:

Supply Agreement – review and rewrite

State Coach contract - review and rewrite

Staff Manual – review – along with all other Board members

Member Protection Policy - review – along with all other Board members

Boat hire contract

Preliminary review of OAMPS insurance policy

Reviewing policies in relation to Juniors - along with all other Board members

Review of consultancy agreement with Dangerous Minds

Review matters ad hoc on a daily basis including sweep & coach guidelines, State team issues,

Zodiacs

Creation of Election Procedures regulations (with the invaluable assistance of Christopher Alexan-

drou).

‘Mopping up’ the remnants of some historical complaints from members.

Addressing complaints made by members.

Reviewing and addressing complaints arising out of Australian Championships (and otherwise)

Reviewing AusDBF Members Protection Policy and its application

Attending meetings with AusDBF in Sydney and Melbourne in relation to:

Mid year meeting;

Issues arising out of the 2012 Australian Championships;

Issues in relation to the 2013 Australian Championships and the proposed restructure.

The next 12 months promises to be as interesting and challenging as the last. I look forward to attacking

the issues as they arise with the new board.

.

19

Maureen O’Neill - Director Development


This year has been a great year for the development of Dragon Boating.

We've had a lot of new clubs start up and the new processes in place to

help our juniors develop are fantastic.

Junior Zodiac Pods are in the North, South, West and the greater Sydney

area. This will help our juniors to train with paddlers their own age while

maintaining their membership with a DBNSW club (This means they can

still paddle with mum or dad)

DBNSW now has co-ordinator roles for various positions - not only does

this spread the workload but gives our members a chance to contribute to

the development of dragon boating.

Some regional clubs are now running their own regattas, this is great for the sport and shows how the clubs

are growing and wanting to take the next step.

I think one big area that has developed is the DBNSW Board. With new people coming in every couple of

years and bringing their different talents, the board has grown and streamlined its processes. We are con-

stantly revising our procedures and regulations to ensure they are current and in line with all governing bod-

ies.

I've learnt a lot and I've really enjoyed my two years on the board and hope to return for another two.

Abbotsleigh, James Sheehan and Danebank - State Championships

20

My first year on the Board of DBNSW has been an interesting and chal-

lenging one as one would expect in a dynamic organisation that is grow-

ing so quickly.

It is the case in all similar organisations to ours that much of the work of

the Board goes unnoticed and unseen and this has included a complete

internal audit of our internal processes undertaken this year – “progress

is always reflected and measured in the success of the organisation it-

self.”

I would like to thank all of my fellow Directors for their support and en-

couragement throughout the year. Indeed, having previously sat on many

‘commercial’ Boards I am delighted to report that working with my pre-

sent set of colleagues has been an eye-opener as to what can be achieved when a group of people

work unselfishly for the common goals of their organisation

The ongoing demands for the improvement of governance within volunteer organisations has taken

much of our time but I believe we have risen to that challenge by simplifying our corporate objectives

and by sticking to them thus implementing a large amount of much needed reform in this vital area. We

are aware that this will need to continue to reflect the demands placed upon us by ongoing governance

reform.

From a purely personal point of view and being somewhat parochial:

We have organised the North Coast clubs into 2 groups who will now hold their own sanctioned regattas

within their own overall competition this year. This requires them to develop the officials and the experi-

ence necessary for this and I’m very encouraged by their commitment and progress. I’m sure it will be a

big success and my thanks go out to all the clubs for their input and to Mel for helping it all along with 2

very successful regatta courses held recently.

Furthering our Web presence and our venture into social media has been a frustrating experience this

past year. However, I’m very glad to report that the web site has, and will continue to be updated on a

regular basis and that our new Facebook site is up and running now. So if you haven’t befriended us yet

on Facebook, it’s time you did!

In addition to that we have been scoping 2 new mobile apps. One to report all regatta race results in real

time to our web site and the other to streamline sweep results at all regattas so that our database is up-

dated for review, also in real time. Both of these applications when completed will fill a notable gap in

our information requirements.

I’d like to acknowledge the hard work of our DBNSW staff Linda, Vic and in particular Melanie and to

thank the North Coast clubs for their support this past year. Congratulations to our new North Coast co-

ordinators, Maureen Shaw and Sandra Eadie who are already getting on with the job of coordinating

activities and regional news and to Karen Kiely for her help over the past year.

My tasks this next year will be to visit all the clubs on the North coast in a more ‘official’, capacity to try

and help where I can bearing in mind I see most of the paddlers as I compete at our regional regattas. I

also want to see DBNSW hold the most successful National Championships ever (in what ever format

they may be decided) and to ensure we keep abreast of our phenomenal growth so that our organisa-

tion is as efficient as it can be in supporting all our clubs and paddlers going forward over the next 12

months.

Geoffrey Roberts - Director Social Media


21

Karen Kiely - Northern Region Coordinator Annual Report 2011/2012 Season

This season on the North Coast has once again been fulI of action and

growth, with regattas up and down the coast and another new club for

the region – Wallis Spirit Dragons. There are now 12 clubs on the North

Coast and in terms of paddler numbers we make up just over 20% of the

state total.

Although it was disappointing that we did not have a Northern Regional

squad for this year’s Australian Championships, there were many high-

lights this season, both for individual clubs and the region as a whole.

In a very exciting development for the North Coast, all clubs have agreed

to trial a points system for our regattas for the coming season. There has been much discussion and

negotiation for many months to get this to a workable format and all clubs are looking forward to the

season ahead. Given the huge distance between the two clubs at either end of the Northern Region,

we have split the region into two ‘pods’. The North Pod includes Rainbow Region, Clarence Coast,

Grafton, Coffs Coast, Titivators and Nambucca clubs, while the South Pod is made up of Kempsey,

Flamin Dragons, Camden Haven, Taree, Great Lakes and Wallis Spirit Dragons.

Once again this year a contingent of NC paddlers made a road trip to Sydney to volunteer at a Penrith

regatta – again this was a great success and provided a wonderful opportunity for North Coast officials

to develop and hone their skills.

After a break of several months away from the dragon boating scene I was recently reminded of all that

is great about our fabulous sport – the camaraderie within clubs, the camaraderie between clubs, the

competitiveness and striving to be the best that you can be and the associated fitness and health bene-

fits that go hand in hand with all of the above.

This is my final report as Northern Region Coordinator and I would like to take this opportunity to thank

everyone in the region for their support and contribution to the growth of dragon boating in our area. I

am very pleased to be handing over the reins to Maureen Shaw from Titivators, along with Sandra

Eadie from Flamin Dragons Port Macquarie and wish them both well in their new roles.

22

Ernie Pannuci - Southern Region Coordinator


2012 was a great year for southern NSW regional clubs. The southern

clubs featured in the medal counts at Chinese New Year, the State Titles,

the National Titles (Nowra best placed NSW club at regatta) and the Club

Crew World Championships held in Hong Kong (Nowra Waterdragons - 6

bronze medals,

1 silver and 1 gold from 8 events entered).

DBNSW organized a coaching course at Narooma which was well attend-

ed by southern clubs as well as some clubs from Canberra. Gavin God-

frey ran the course which was well received by all those who attended.

The annual Wallagoot Lake regatta was held on the far south coast which was supported by the southern

regional clubs and clubs from Canberra. The lack of metropolitan clubs was telling and hopefully we will

see some metropolitan clubs support their regional cousins in the same spirit that regional clubs support

metropolitan run regattas.

Lake Illawarra ran it's annual regatta organized by the Shellharbour City Council as part of it's Autumn Fes-

tival. The Lake Illawarra Club is looking to run the next regatta based on the Nowra Waterdragons Com-

munity regatta model.

This year's Nowra Waterdragons Community based regatta will be its 5th and hopefully bigger and better

than the previous 4! The Nowra Waterdragons Community based regatta is held on the 3rd Sunday in

September of each year and this year it will be on the 16th. For those Sydney clubs that would like to pad-

dle in pristine water in a beautiful location only 2 hours away from Sydney the Nowra Waterdragons invite

you one and all.

2012 also saw one of the biggest contingent of paddlers travel to the Nationals to represent regional NSW.

Paddlers from the western region, northern region and southern region formed the regional NSW team.

Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond their control they were not able to compete. To all the regional

paddlers that made the trip to Melbourne to compete and cheer on their paddling buddies your efforts and

commitment to our sport have been noted. The time away from family, the personal sacrifices made, the

number of kilometres clocked up including the costs involved by those paddlers in attending compulsory

training weekends as well as travelling to Melbourne pales into insignificance when you consider the ca-

maraderie experienced within the team and teams as well as participating in and experiencing the journey.

A further bonus and a driving force to the success of the team was having the guiding hand of coach Chris

Cheung who brought out the best in all the regional paddlers representing NSW.

23

Camel races, Harley Davidson motor bike rides and Farmers Markets – were

just some of the tools used by the newly established Forbes Club, the Bidgee

Dragons and Bathurst’s Pan Dragons respectively, to promote dragon boating

in their towns. All clubs in the region have received heaps of positive publicity,

including extensive TV and print media coverage of the Western Region Re-

gatta, the departure of five Colour City Juniors heading to Hong Kong with the

Torpedoes, the huge crowd attending Bidgee Dragon’s Blessing of Boats and

that momentous community event in January, the Dragon Boat Challenge.

Run under the auspices of “Taste Orange”. It was just one event in a week

long program encouraging the community to get out and active. Not only did

about 150 people get a taste of dragon boating but perhaps more significantly,

it highlighted just what can be achieved when dragon boaters get together. Nearly 50 members from the

region’s clubs descended on Lake Canobolas, providing equipment, expertise and a lot laughter - all of

which contributed to what the media (and Taste Orange) reported as a hugely successful event.

Other headline grabbers have been -

Outback Dragons participation in the Port Macquarie Marathon and Colour City Dragons (with one

Pan Dragon) doing the Ord River Marathon. (Preparation for these events prompted those clubs to

get in some long distance paddling while exploring interesting waterways in the region.)

Colour City Dragons were featured on ABCTV 24 Weekend Breakfast on June 09th and again on

ABC 24 Open program on June 22nd.

Interaction and cooperation have been a highlight of 2011/2012 season with all clubs being represent-

ed at the Governance Training Workshops in Orange last July.

Combined clubs sweep training/social paddling took place at Forbes, Orange and Bathurst.

The formation of the region’s first Development Squad saw five clubs participating, with training being

alternated between Dubbo, Lithgow, Bathurst and Orange. This evolved, with encouragement from

Chris Chueng into a W/Region State squad, linking up with those of the Southern Region.

Juniors from Colour City and Pan Dragons almost had a regional team competing at CNY, a little help

from couple of Sydney clubs helped make participation possible.

Bidgee Dragons competed at CNY (Saturday) for first time, thanks to cooperation and combining with

Forbes, Lithgow and Bathurst clubs.

Four regional clubs plus two Victorian Clubs were represented at the Kamini Jain paddling camp held

at Lake Burrendong.

Colour City Junior members helped with a Come and Try Day for juniors.

Two Orange schools (one being a special needs school) added dragon boating to the curriculum re-

sulting in, for the first time a W/Region school team at CNY and State Championships. Mid week, mid

day training sessions were introduced by Colour City Dragons.

Training for Forbes, Outback and Bidgee Dragons was severely interrupted by extensive flooding ear-

ly 2012 - the previous year it was lack of water and blue green algae that disrupted Bidgee Dragons

training.

All Clubs in Western Region are planning and looking forward to a successful and exciting season with

sights set firmly on the 2012/2013 State and National Championships.

Pearl Butcher - Western Region Coordinator


24

Rob Turnbull - Sweep Coordinator


As the 2011-2012 Season unfolded, the growth of the sport and launch of new

clubs paved the way for sweep team enhancement. The DBNSW Sweep Co-

ordinator ‘gang of four’ - Robert Turnbull, Peter Richardson, Sue Maloney and

Geoff Roberts - doubled in size.

With continued activity and growth in the north, the region was divided into

three manageable divisions, labelled NR1 (Brooklyn to Forster), NR2 (Taree to

Nambucca) and NR3 (Urunga to Lennox Head) to cater better to the needs of

clubs within those geographic areas. This led to the appointment of two new

regional sweep coordinators - Martin Thompson for NR3 and Robin Smith for

NR2 (both from Grafton). While assisting Martin and Robin to ease into their

new roles, Peter Richardson can now focus his attention on NR1.

At the same time, Darren Ma (Pacific Dragons) and Tim Jones (Mavericks) joined the team. Based at Bank

St, Pyrmont, their considerable knowledge and practical experiences will benefit those in the Greater Syd-

ney Metropolitan Region and the rest of the state. As we redefine our sweep coordinator role(s), we’ve

adopted a new title ... the DBNSW Sweep Coordinator Group (SCG).

During the 2011-2012 Season, nine (9) group test sessions were conducted, with three (3) in Sydney, three

(3) in the Northern Region and three (3) across the Southern & Western Regions combined. A total of seven

(7) ‘special’ (ad-hoc) in-club assessments also took place to assist clubs when it was necessary. The table

below provides some insights.

Region and Gender Breakdown Type SYD NR SR WR M F Totals

In Season In-Club Tests (Special) 7 3 6 0 0 6 3 9

In Season Regional Assessments 9 20 17 17 2 24 32 56

TOTAL CANDIDATES 16 23 23 17 2 30 35 65

Assisted by regatta marshals and other race officials, the observations and logging of Sweep Activity at

DBNSW sanctioned events continues to provide a good record of seasonal sweep activity. With an aim to

improve and automate the current system, the SCG and DBNSW are looking to develop a more interactive

and automated database and reporting system.

The DBNSW DVD “Guide to Dragon Boat Sweeping” has been uploaded to YouTube. It can be viewed

online at the DBNSW YouTube channel or Facebook page.

The SCG will introduce new policies, procedures and resources as the 2012/13 season gets underway.

Apart from Sweep Assessment sessions planned throughout the season, the SCG are scheduling Sweep

Training Clinics / Workshops as part of a broader education and training approach. With the aim of providing

worthwhile practical advice and reference material, we are looking to develop a Frequently Asked Questions

(FAQ) section within the DBNSW Sweeps page.

As head coordinator, I wish to sincerely thank my SCG colleagues for their time, effort and the thoughtful

input they have contributed to the development of sweeping in NSW.

25

The year has seen our four new sweep coordinators share the load of an

expanding base of clubs and hence sweeps. The sweep is the boat master

and as such has the safety of all on board in their hands, thus the mission

and vision for coming years is to ensure that the ability and quality of sweeps

is of the highest standard.

Darren Ma And Tim Jones in the Sydney Metro Region, Robin Smith and

Martin Thompson in the Northern Region of our state are now tasked with

the development of their respective regions in so far as sweep training and

assessment is concerned. In future, our coordinators will not just turn up for

assessment sessions but have a hand in the ongoing training and development of club sweeps. The sweep

assessments for the future will be recorded on video so that each candidate will have the opportunity to

view and asses their own handling of the boat. Other developments in the pipeline include a project for real

time update of sweep records at regattas and a just developed on line registration system for new sweeps

so that all coordinators are aware of new sweeps and can guide them through their education process. In

addition, the new sweep guidelines are now complete and will be released to all clubs very shortly....and

they have some significant changes with amendments to sweep levels and qualifications together with a

penalty points system for those sweeps who ignore safety or are judged reckless or incompetent in a race

situation. The changes also include club recommendation with documentation for sweep upgrade together

with recommendation from the relevant sweep coordinator to ensure our organisation achieves the highest

level of sweep proficiency.

All in all, your sweep coordinators are working hard to ensure

that the quality of our sweeps continues to improve, assess-

ments sessions are regular and as often as required and that

all paddlers can be assured of their safety in our fast growing

sport.

Geoffrey Roberts - Sweep Administrator


26

All goals have been achieved, although many challenges to sweep coordina-

tion development opportunities are still to be overcome.

It is with the close working relationship of NR 1, NR 2 , NR 3 and sweep ad-

minister and S C G that has assisted through valued support that above goals

have been achieved.

Continual flexibility in availability to undertake individual sweep

accreditation assessments on a as need basis during regular and winter regat-

ta seasons has born fruit.

Valued assistance of CCDBC is also highlighted and acknowledged.

It is envisaged that moving forward, development of particular packaged information (sorely needed)

will assist across all areas including alignment of information and relevant documentation to all re-

quired BOM appointed offices in advance and or upon undertaking duties at regattas.

Peter Richardson - NR1 Sweep Coordinator


Urunga Regatta 2011

27

I was appointed to the position of Sweep Coordinator North Coast (NR2) Region on the

16th December 2011 which encompasses an area from Taree to Macksville, Macksville

is a two hour drive south of my residence and Taree is a four hour which means I will

have quite a bit of travelling to do to assist clubs in getting their trainee sweeps as-

sessed ready for regattas.

I have been fortunate enough to have Peter Richardson as a mentor after being ap-

pointed a coordinator, Peter assisted Martin Thompson and I to do our first sweep as-

sessment in Grafton, this was a valuable experience. I then assessed two trainee

sweeps from Haven Dragons at Macksville who successfully passed the assessment

and then they completed two races towards their Level 3 accreditation at the Port

Macquarie Regatta in June 2012.

There has been an increase in clubs on the North Coast and with all the clubs agreeing to run DBNSW sanctioned

regattas on the North Coast the Sweep Coordinators will have a busy time ahead in the 2012/2013 season.

I would like to work with the NR1 and NR3 Sweep Coordinators to hold a sweep training day on the North Coast.

I would envisage that Level 2 sweeps and higher would benefit from this training day. I see this day as a day where

sweeps can interact with other sweeps, exchange ideas without the pressure of races and competing against each

other.

I would like to thank the board for allowing sweeps at the Port Macquarie Regatta which is a non-sanctioned event

the chance of gaining races towards their sweep accreditation.

I’m enjoying the challengers of being a Sweep Coordinator and working with a team of dedicated DBNSW

volunteers.

Robin Smith - NR2 Sweep Coordinator


Coffs Coast Mylestom Regatta 2011

28

Since becoming NR3 Sweep Coordinator in December 2011, I have

hosted a combined Sweep Accreditation day with Robin Smith from

NR2, in Grafton, attended by 5 candidates.

This was the 1st accreditation testing for both Robin and me in our new

roles, so Peter Richardson come along to give us some helpful hints and

guidance. All 5 candidates passed and are well on their way to becom-

ing Level 3 sweeps.

After sweeping in Hong Kong in early July, I have a new appreciation on

how sweeping at different locations can make one a much better and focussed sweep. No matter

how prepared I thought I was, I didn’t expect it to be as challenging. Before we left, I even had fellow

sweeps tell me about their experiences sweeping in Victoria Harbour, Hong Kong and thought she

will be right. How tough could it be? Well believe me it was tough.

So since my international sweep debut I now realise that we need more mentoring days, where

sweeps of all levels can come along and learn more from those who have been there and can pass

on their knowledge. I plan to have one of these days in NR3 area in the near future so stay tuned. I

believe it is vitally important for the ongoing safety of our sport to ensure our sweeps gain as much

knowledge and experience as possible, in a wide variety of conditions.

I have enjoyed the Sweep Coordinator Position of NR3 and will be always available for any sweep

related matters.

Martin Thompson - NR3 Sweep Coordinator


Torpedos - Australian Championships 2012

29

How this year has flown, it’s been very busy but so enjoyable, I would like to

thanks Rob and Geoff for all of their help and input this pass season.

A big welcome to Tim, Darren, Robin and Martin.

We have had approximately 25 sweeps in the South Coast Region (Jindabyne,

Nowra & Lake Wallagoot) gain their level 2.5 & L3 in 2011-2012 .

After attending most regattas I feel the standard of sweeps are high with the

NSW sweeps doing exceptional at State and Australian Championships.

Sweeping at Hong Kong last month, now that was an experience! - and most Australian club’s were

Incident free, so we have very high standard across all states.

A big thanks to Geoff for your quick responses to my emails and your reminders of the up coming dates

to keep us all on track, or try too!

I would like to wish the board all the best for the coming season and look forward to working with you all

again this season.

Sue Maloney - Southern Sweep Coordinator


Chinese New Year 2011

30

Thank you to all of those that wore the sky blue official’s shirts during the

2011-2012 season. We value the contribution you all make to allow the

paddlers to compete.

We had challenges again this season making sure that we had the

necessary number of volunteers at events so that they were fair and safe.

For those that did help out, generally the experience for both serial volun-

teers and “first-timers” was a good one. The regional trips again were

characterised by a great interaction of helpers from different clubs. The

hardworking pool of core volunteers again willingly shared their site and role

experience to newer officials. The continuity of having these core officials helps events run more effi-

ciently and consistently, including all the additional activities such as packing and unpacking.

The biggest events were again the Darling Harbour DAA event, Chinese New Year and Corporate

Games.

Recruiting and coordinating volunteers for Sydney regattas continues to be problematic. We understand

that it’s difficult for clubs to make an early commitment about who will be their volunteer(s), but this

meant that sometimes we did not know till the last minute if we would have sufficient volunteers to safely

run the event. We still had surprises on race days when unexpected (but welcome!) people presented

themselves to sign in. We continue to try to encourage clubs to promote being an official as an additional

skill to offer their members.

We saw a further involvement of the Northern region members in their local events and welcome the

growth in skills in this region. We are reviewing regional regattas to refine how many officials from Syd-

ney are required in the future. Thanks to the regional members assisted again at Penrith and also at

Dobroyd. Thanks also to the Central Coast and other volunteers at the Tacoma regatta, where, when

everyone else went home, they stayed to pack up the site in the rain.

Volunteering provides a great opportunity for everyone to see behind the scenes, have fun, and meet lots

of people. The Melbourne Nationals also highlighted the serious responsibilities associated with

officiating. Additional safety aspects have been added to our event and volunteer management in light of

the lessons learnt from Melbourne.

We also encourage members with a desire to extend their skills to attend one of the Officials Courses

held each season, and to sign up early to help at regattas so they can put all that theory to practice.

Finally, I am very excited to have been selected to be the DBNSW Volunteer Coordinator for the next two

years. I look forward to nagging many more of you to help us support our paddlers when they race.

You know you want to say yes!

Simon Freke

Simon Freke - Volunteer Coordinator


31

The Dragon Boat NSW 2011-2012 season had many highlights that

celebrated the history and culture of our wonderful sport!

They are listed as follows:

“OPENING OF THE SEASON” CEREMONY – SIRC Penrith, Sunday 9 Octo-

ber 2011

As in previous years, the first sanctioned Regatta of the DBNSW season

opened with a cultural ceremony. Before racing

began, Chris (Zeus) set the tone by reading “The

Paddlers Oath”. At mid morning a beautiful

“Blessing Ceremony” was performed by Monks La-

ma Tsering and Lama Phuntsok from Sakya Trinley

Ling (Blue Mountains). Their chanting brought a

quiet calm over the race site as they wished us

good luck for the season. Guests of honour Local

MP’s Stuart Ayres (Member for Penrith) and Sena-

tor Marise Payne were invited, along with DBNSW

Board members: Daniel Kong, Martin Hastings, Martin Hirst and Mal Wills, to participate in the “Awakening

of the Dragon” ceremony. They had the special privilege of “Dotting the Eyes” to give the Dragons sight

and awaken them for the season.

Linda Collins - Cultural Champion


32

“BOAT BLESSING” – Twilight Paddle at Bayview, Saturday 10 December 2011

Paddlers received a “light showering” from the

informal “Boat Blessing” to wish them good

luck for the race. They paddled out to the

sound of a beating drum, with the fragrance of

spring onions in the air as they began the 8km

race around Scotland Island and in the

beautiful waters of the Pittwater.

CHINESE NEW YEAR is such a culturally rich event, and a highlight of the season! The City of Sydney

organised many activities and parades, with our Dragon Boat Races rounding them off on Saturday &

Sunday, 4-5 February 2012. In keeping with tradition, an “Eye Dotting” Ceremony was performed on

the waters of Cockle Bay. During the day, Lion Dancing and Chinese drumming entertained the crowds

on the foreshores.

This “Lunar” year celebrates the Year of the (water)

“Dragon”, which holds special significance to me as I

myself am a Dragon and my first Grandchild due to be

born now will be a Dragon! With this theme in mind I

set up a “Chinese Zodiac” tent where people could

discover which character they were. Close to 300 peo-

ple ventured through and left with some information

about their “Zodiac”. A special guest appearance was

made by Chinese Calligrapher & Author Di Wu (“Love &

Friendship in the Chinese Zodiac” & kids’ book: “Are

You a Dragon?”). The next CNY in 2013 will celebrate

the year of the “Snake”!

“GRATITUDE” CLOSING OF THE SEASON CEREMONY - Sunday 11 March 2012

To round off the 2011-2012 season, a representative

from each club was invited to be a part of the Gratitude

Closing Ceremony at the State Championships, SIRC

Penrith. Incense was lit and an offerings table was set

up to thank the Guardian Spirits for a good season.

As a bonus, Alice (CD’s) performed a drum solo!

It is lovely to see that we show respect for the

traditions and culture from which our sport originated,

so a big THANK YOU for this! A special thanks also to

all the wonderful people who helped set up the events

during the season, along with my supportive club Bei Loon.

33

Junior Division - Mary Weaver, Tanya White Leanne Thompson, Martin Thompson

Key Elements of the Campaign

2x Junior women’s teams (Sydney Metro), 2x Junior Opens

teams (1 Regional, 1 Sydney metro), 2x Junior mixed teams

(Northern & Southern regions)

Activity calendar distributed to schools / parents well in ad-

vance with required dates for training, half day camps and trials.

Clear written & verbal communication of the new trials process including elements for selection.

Execution of erg trials for the first time within Sydney Junior women’s category during the campaign.

Designed to encourage individuals to complete as many trials as they desired to achieve their best result

thereby diffusing the pressure associated with trial process.

Structured training program with weekly communication of session goals and objectives.

Video footage analysis to assist in boat line up and crew selection.

Regular communication with regional groups.

Challenges

Managing communications between schools, parents and athletes

Implementation and management of new trials system for A and B crews

Bridging relationships with regional youth crews and management teams

Management of race day disappointment

Understanding communication barriers at school / family level.

Understanding and management of school commitments impacting on training and preparation.

Recommendations for Development

Better communication path to Schools, Parents and athletes via a central message posting area

e.g. Facebook / Google group etc.

Initial selection open to all students from all schools / clubs via trial process managed by State Coaching

Team.

Invitation for representation distributed to all schools / clubs with Juniors mid November outlining the

opportunity, selection process, activity calendar, training & financial commitment. Stated expectations for

participation.

Development of systems & processes for DBNSW/coach & parental/athlete contact, agreements regarding

expectations, code of conduct and other formal waivers.

Opportunity for all NSW Youth Crews to race at NSW State Titles.

2012 State Squad

Annual Reports 2011/12 Season

34

Premier Division - Steve Jack, Wendy Irik and Tony D’Andreti - Coaches

The Melbourne campaign Trials started well with an increase in the number of paddler’s from previous

years. The premier division had a solid number of Premiers trying out which led to 2 full Women’s and 2 full

Opens teams. There were 44 men initially selected for the Opens from erg results. (Keg was responsible

for the men) while the women had 47.(Wendy was responsible for women) The decision to keep the squad

numbers high was to ensure the best team was selected on the fairest criteria. Not just an erg result. This

was communicated to the squad. After water trials and further team fit examinations the final number would

be decided.

Over the duration of the campaign due to injuries and withdrawals the men dropped to 42 and the women

to 45. Due to unforeseen circumstances last minute inclusions were made for 2 extra male paddlers to

keep numbers at 42. This year also saw the return of single craft water trials. This led to initial anxiety for

some, but overall the concept delivered a similar result to previous years dragon boat water trials and the

feeling was that it was well received. At this time I would like to thank the Pacific Dragons Outrigger and

Dragon boat club for lending us their boats and timing equipment.

During December and January every Saturday and Sunday a number of people made single crafts

available to the NSW Premier division for practice. This ultimately led to more paddlers spending more time

on the water and increased the calibre of the elite paddlers of the premier ranks in NSW.

The State training sessions were held for 3 hours on Sunday afternoons with Saturday morning sessions

starting in February. At most sessions there were 4 full boats.

The training plan was derived and written by the three coaches during the weekly meetings. All three

coaches are accredited Level 1 coaches and are also at least L3 sweeps with some holding the L4 qualifi-

cation. Training was based around bringing the team together. There was an active initiative to focus not

on a single uniform stroke as was previously sought after but to develop the best stroke for the team. The

emphasis was on a strong clean catch, power through the water and a sharp exit. The leg drive and hip

set up were taught to a number of paddlers, perhaps for the first time.

The sweeps were auditioned as per the same protocols from the previous year. The key concepts of voice,

ability and experience allowed us to name the people listed below as sweeps:

Sweep Applicants

Carmen Calcara, Isabelle Rodd (Izzy), Murray Pellicciaro, Wendy Irik

The Drummers were chosen on a similar model:

Drummer Applicants

Jessica Dent, Jessica Tsai, Kristine Pascual, Pauly Chu (P)

We are confident that we would have not only won Gold in each of the divisions but we feel that the Mixed

B team was also a very good chance of Silver. Although we readily accept the decision not to race and we

totally agree that it was the correct decision, it does not quench the strong feeling we have to win back the

Gold medals that we feel this team could have achieved. We thank DBNSW for the opportunity to coach the

Elite paddlers of NSW and look forward to having the opportunity again shortly.

35

Masters Division - George Louie, Coach

The trials for the NSW State team were relatively well run. However, considering we have over 3,500

paddlers in NSW, it is alarming to see that only 37 Masters trialed for the division. I managed to recruit the

last 8 paddlers with much persuasion to enable us to enter a full team of men and women for this year. A

further complication to the selection process was the high number of Masters qualifying for the Premier

division -10 masters qualified and decided to paddle for the Premier division which left me no choice but to

select 8 paddlers from the GD division whose results achieved on the erg qualified them to paddle for the

masters.

I am unsure what the future will hold for the masters division if the lack of numbers for participation is not

addressed. I am hoping there will be plans to address the issue in future. I would like to see for future

campaigns coordination between divisions to address paddling technique, training programs and address

paddlers crossing over into different divisions.

It has also been noticed that the number of first season paddlers trying out for the state team is high. In the

Masters division this year, 25% of the squad was a first season paddler. Although I do encourage people of

any level of paddling experience to participate, too much time is spent teaching the basic paddling technique

to new members joining the team, leaving little time to focus on coaching the team for state level competi-

tion. It’s another issue that needs to be addressed.

Despite the hurdles, I am happy to report to the board that I believe I was successful in molding the 2012

NSW Masters squad into a very competitive team, and I was confident of a clean sweep of the trophies.

It was unfortunate that we didn’t have the opportunity to support this claim.

More needs to be done to promote the state campaign and have a large pool of strong paddlers to select

from. I have noticed the top 3 ranked clubs in NSW do not promote the campaign amongst their member

base. They should, as these clubs have some of this state’s top ranked paddlers.

We are great at expanding clubs in NSW, and it is great to see the push behind establishing junior crews

as well. Not much has been done however in the area of encouraging more elite paddlers for the State

team. It would be nice to have a true reflection of NSW’s top paddlers in the state squad and give our

junior paddlers something to aspire to.

In addition to this, having quality coaches with experience and respect behind them is important and will

bring out the best in our state crews. Although it is a requirement to hold a level 1 coaching certification for

safe practice and insurance purposes, coaching is so much more than just a piece of paper. Being a suc-

cessful coach requires experience and good interaction with the paddlers. At this point in time, I am not

convinced that selecting first time coaches for the NSW state teams is in the best interest of the squad.

36

Grand Masters and Great Grand Dragons Division - Carol Fentoulis, Coach

Assistant Coaches - Craig “Shine” Summerfield, Rosie O’Donnell, Peter White and Ray Bennie

The Grand Master and Great Grand Dragon divisions were made of an amazing group of dedicated and

enthusiastic paddlers. Every person gave 100% in co-operating and working to their limit to ensure NSW

would be proud of their efforts as individuals and ultimately in their respective teams. Our motto was to do

what was needed together as one… to “do the best and do it together”. The co-operation and teamwork

demonstrated from the very start and following at each training session was extremely positive for the

coaches. It was a pleasure to work with such a hard-working and positive group who bonded well from the

outset.

The number of paddlers in the GGD/GM division was very pleasing. GGD: 36 women and 20 men.

GM: 30 women and 13 men. A special thank you to the paddlers who travelled long distances on a weekly

basis for their outstanding level of commitment. Paddlers coming from as far as Newcastle, Hunter,

Camden Haven, Batemans Bay, Nowra, Charlestown, Bomaderry, Kinchella etc. Following some concen-

trated effort in recruiting, by the assistant coaches, we had increased numbers for the men’s crews. With a

couple of drop outs towards the end, for various reasons, our division included a final count of 100 paddlers

in total for the GGD/GM divisions. GGD: 34 women, 20 men, GM: 29 women, 17 men.

The support and sponsorship by DBNSW meant a number of guest speakers including a dietician, physio-

therapist, muscle therapist and motivational speaker were afforded. These talks as well as the video

assessment of paddling techniques provided an ideal preparation and focussed on the total well-being of

our paddlers. They were all well received and much appreciated.

I congratulate the committed and capable coaching team (Rosie, Shine, Peter and Ray); our Team Manager

(Julie); and our Team Captains (Denise, Yvonne, Gil and Joe) all for their efforts in completing their jobs to

such a high standard. Their ability to lead and motivate was outstanding. I believe the experiences gained

and time given, by coaches and paddlers; in preparing as State crews for this campaign was both enjoy

Documents

Annual Report 2011/2012 Season - revolutioniseSPORT€¦ · Report - Linda Collins, Cultural Champion 31 - 32 Report - 2012 State Squad, Coaches 33 - 37 Table - Australian Championships,