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MINUTES OF THE NEW ZEALAND MODEL POWER BOAT ASSOCIATION
COMMITTEE MEETING
HELD MONDAY 7th MAY 2012
VIA SKYPE CONFERENCE CALL

Meeting Opened 8.00pm

Present
Wayne Mowbray (WM) as Chair, Grahame Haines (GH), Matt Gay (MG), Matthew Bindon (MB), and Andrew Colquhoun (AC) Joined later. Steve Trott (ST) Bob Gutsell(BG) Kerry O’Reilly (KO)

Apologies Paul Bretherton ( Shifting house)

Minutes of last meeting:- Read and confirmed MG/WM

Matters arising:-
BG suggested, to save time in future, the minutes are sent to everyone prior to the meeting so they have an opportunity to read them. They are also published on the web site for committee to reads.

CORRESPONDENCE.

IN

OUT

FINANCES
GH reports we have 77 financial members so far

Working Bank A/C stands at $3635.61

Entry fee account at $497.99

ACCOUNTS FOR PAYMENT.
Badges and Medals Nationals mugs $108.00
GH Nationals dinner shortfall $ 52.50
Badges and Medals merchandise $172.50
Porta Loos for Nationals $242.25
Nationals security $138.00
Tauranga Model engineers Hall hire $ 50.00
Quality print Nats Place Cards $305.07
Viking Aluminium #Boards $121.80
BOPMBC # Boards $ 40.00
Internet Domain Rego $ 45.88
Moved GH/ST

GENERAL BUSINESS.

NAVIGA AFFILIATION and Tony Kockott Letter.

To Recap GH when doing the financial statement for 2011 noted that we had not paid NAVIGA fees as was done in 2009 50% and in 2010 100%. Under direction of the committee He wrote to Peter Schaft of NAVIGA, who he originally dealt with when the NZMPBA joined them in 2001 so that Tony Kockott could compete at the world Champs in Poland.

Mr Schaft replied they had not received our subs and advised that an invoice had been sent to the address they had. GH as secretary asked for the address and said that as he was now the current secretary that all correspondence should be addressed to him. He did not get a reply from Mr Schaft.

Shortly after Mr Kockott wrote a letter to the president of the NZMPBA ( as in his words”he will have no dealings with Grahame Haines”)
In that letter he stated he was contacted by Mr Schaft asking HIM, as the NZ representative to NAVIGA, to explain the ‘accusations and inconsistencies in the e-mail received from the NZMPBA.
The letter went on to basically accuse GH of lying to NAVIGA and that he was party to the NZMPBA not being financial to NAVIGA from 2004 to 2006 and hence the forming the NZ NAVIGA Association.

The letter then went on to explain Mr Kockotts version of how the NZNA came about.
Essentially that GH and the then President Grant Binns had “ made a unilateral decision together with the NZMPBA committee , that they saw no benefit in the NZMPBA being Part of NAVIGA so stopped paying the fees.”
He was informed by them “that if he wished to go to the world Championships it would have to be by his own means.”

Mr Kockott, then with the help of Mr Schaft, was able to attend the 2006 world Championships by forming the NZNA and back paying outstanding fees personally!

The rest of the letter went on to basically accuse GH personally of causing embarrassment to him and NAVIGA.

The New Committee have done a thorough investigation into the claims made by reviewing AGM Minutes and interviewing past committee members and have come to the conclusion that much of Mr Kockotts claims are un founded and inconsistent with what has actually transpired.

Firstly in the minutes of the 2006 AGM held 4th February at Karapiro (which GH is listed in the apologies) it is recorded in the last item of general business:-

NAVIGA. Raised by Tony Kockott.
He is happy to pay the fees but feel it should be part of the NZMPBA.
Grant Binns Then moved a motion, seconded by Tony Kockott: - The NZMPBA shall re-affiliate to NAVIGA. The cost of this affiliation shall be negotiated with those wishing to attend.
The motion was carried by those in attendance.

The Committee concluded that if Mr Kockott formed the NZNA prior to that AGM then he deliberately miss led that AGM. Conversely if he formed the NZNA after that AGM they he has deliberately contravened the mandate he was party to and agreed to at that AGM.
Secondly if he formed the NZNA, a new organisation why would you pay the back subs owed by the NZMPBA. Surely if you were willing to pay back subs there would be no need to form another organisation!

.Further Investigations into bank statements showed on 10 Dec 2009 a cheque for $350 was presented and bank statement entry shows T Kockott NAVIGA fees. Then on 23 July 2010 $551.96 was direct credited to High Performance Models and the reference shows NAVIGA Fees.
Interviews with committee members at that time, who agreed to pay NAVIGA fees genuinely, believed they were approving continuing membership of the NZMPBA to NAVIGA not the NZNA. Had they known it was the latter organisation aligned with NAVIGA and not the NZMPBA they those fees would certainly not have been forwarded for NAVIGA affiliation.

It is this committee’s belief the NZNA is just a name Mr Kockott is using, to allow
Himself to compete as an individual which draws higher fees to compete at NAVIGA that if you represent a country.

It was unanimously agreed by this committee to write to Mr Kockott outlining their findings and advising that, the NZMPBA will not support membership to NAVIGA for an organisation that has no affiliation to the NZMPBA and where the NZMPBA gets no recognition of membership to NAVIGA.

Some members of committee felt both letters should be published in these minutes as Mr Kockott had sent copies, of his letter to the NZMPBA, to several members of the NZMPBA probably to drum up support for his cause.
The vote went against publishing those letters HOWEVER it was agreed that if any member wished to view the letters then copies would be made available by contacting the Secretary.

NATIONALS DEBRIEF

Those of committee that attended the nationals at Tauranga unanimously agreed is is the best racing venue in the country. Basically purpose built for model powerboat racing. Once dialled in drivers were able to race hard and fast with plenty of room all round. It is definitely a driver’s course.
ST advised we haven’t seen it all yet as the pond will eventually be made longer and a permanent cover is to be built over the drivers stand.

IRMS still has some issues that need refining as it shut down on several occasions for no apparent reason and also made a couple of strange heat draws that necessitated manually running the last 2 heats of some events.
Computer going to A Meek to get sorted.

The large TV Monitor was a worthwhile investment as the jetty marshal as well as competitors could check very easily heats and times etc

From a financial point we will make a small profit to be shared equally between the NZMPBA and the BOPMBC. Only engraving costs still to be paid then the profit can be distributed.

Improvements that can be made.

IRMS. Some discussion on wether we purchase a newer version of the programme that runs on windows 7 as the current on is only compatible with Vista which was not Microsoft’s best operating software programme.
Agreed to look into either bettering the current one or investing in another programme further down the track this year.

HOT PIT AREA
We all felt this was a bit tight and congested at times especially with sharp fins and spinning props.
ST advised that is already under review and mor room is being planned and a 6 meter container is being installed behind pit area instead of the event caravan being parked on the drivers stand. Also in future the land behind the drivers stand gets lowered to the level of the stand greatly increasing the area for competitors and the public alike.
BG advised we need to put some Health and Safety guidelines in place for hot pits at that venue as we were very lucky we did not have a serious incident with starting so close together.

It was agreed that we should adopt guidelines for all venues with minimum distances between starting tables etc

GH advised it was documented that we had the same issues at Blenheim last year and that we will be increasing distances when we host another Nationals.

All agreed it was one of the friendliest Nationals yet. Also the driving standards were great with only 1 competitor getting a reminder about his driving.
The rookies standard of driving was brilliant as the overall pace of boats has stepped up yet again from last year with hydros regularly clocking 115kmh on GPS and cats 106kmh. GH commented the venue had a lot to do with that.

BG suggested we look at the USA where it is mandatory to have the boat prop in a shroud or box arrangement whilst starting.

The public were well controlled and kept well back from the edge of the water.

The entry form needs to have the dinner request included on it.

Also a tick box to advise wether you will be attending the AGM or not. Give us a heads up on who will be attending. Re coffee bikkies etc

Open Oval on last day did not keep everyone there for the 4 days.

Separating nitro open oval from petrol open oval was suggested but all agreed not a good idea. Open means open.

We also need to police people running T1 boats in T2. They must run a modified engine

We may need to look at being more proactive with boat scruitineering. For safety reasons. ST Some motor sports now don’t do scruitineering they just make you sign a disclaimer that they conform to the rules and get tossed if caught out.

The 10 minute tune up before events consumed 4 Hrs 10 minutes of time over the regatta. It is too much. Agreed to go back to ½ hr each day or 2 hrs at the beginning of the nationals for tune up then that’s it. We did agree that dropping endurance from the Nationals will give us more time to run events.

SOUND SYSTEM
We need to look at a better system of letting the drivers hear the countdown. With 6 petrol’s running at close to the Maximum allowable noise level it was extremely hard to hear the countdown at times.
GH suggested that getting a louder speaker might not be the Ideal way to go as it can become a noise nuisance to nearby residents at venues close to housing.
Ideally a small speaker at each drivers position would be ideal.
MB said at Hydrofest they were under the canopy and were better but you could not hear them outside the pit area.
Camera on the start line?

Suggested we look at doing something like that in the future to save disputes on jumped starts.
ST to talk with A Meek on feasibility of wiring it in with IRMS

POSTING RESULTS FOR PROTEST PURPOSES AFTER EVENTS
ST It can be done but the other issues with IRMS this year put that on the back burner
MG also linked with that getting results on the web site straight after the events.

FINALISE ACCOUNTS FOR NATIONALS
GH reports only need to pay for engraving of trophies then profits can be divied up.

Transponder system for Lap counting.

Agreed Tauranga is ideally suited for this method of lap counting.
ST already looking at a system to trial.

INSURANCE
We are covered whilst boating at a sanctioned regatta or club days. We do not provide cover for individuals testing on their own.
We have $1m for damage to property, $1m for personal injury and $50,000 for fire and rural
Runs from 1 Dec to 1 Dec each year.

This discussion lead onto liabilities of organisations organising events as there has been litigation in the past for incidents at events and organisers were held accountable for not outlining all possible hazards.
WM. We need to look at some sort of risk assessment document like Australian clubs does for the AMPBA.
MG do what Wellington do and have competitors sign a check sheet that goes over what is normally covered at a drivers briefing and by signing it puts the responsibility on the competitor.
Suggested we do some more research and work on this for future meetings.

WM agreed to take it on board and gather required information for future meetings.

AGM
Poor attendance as usual.

With remits etc ST briefed us on how BOP kart club do things. They send out remits via e-mail with a reply voting form for your vote and you do that before the AGM so that all you are doing at the AGM is ratifying the result. The other thing they do is hold the AGM before racing at one of their rounds just to make surer everything is dealt with thick and fast as everyone wants to go racing. You have to go to the AGM to go racing.

Food for thought.

Venue for 2013 Nationals.

GH we would be keen to hold them in Blenheim again but we want to get away from the classic fighters Weekend which puts a strain on accommodation.
We need another club to do them for 2013 then we would do 2014 and every second year after if need be because then the classic fighters are in Wanaka.

WM put up his hand for Wairarapa to host next nationals with agreement from the Wellington Club to co host.
All agreed.

WEBSITE
We still need to do more work on getting stuff on the site and some tutoring on using it.
Only Paul seems to know the inns and outs and we need him to train some of us on using it more efficiently.

BG we need 3 extra pages for Hydrofest points standings Offshore points standings and one for rest of events

MG only needs 1 page with sub pages for results.

DROPBOX
PB sent an email to GH to say we needed to start our own Dropbox as the one we are using is Dales and he needs the space to build websites for other clients.
GH has tried but is above his heat so need to get PB to sort it.
Will put on agenda for next meeting.

RULE BOOK UPDATES

ST has done the changes and GH has spell checked and proof read

GH to arrange to have the updated one put on the web site.

ASSOCIATION BANNER
ST we need to get a big banner done with our new logo on it. Do we have a good copy of our new logo.
BG and AC agreed we need this to help promote us at regattas.
Wm/AC moved we go ahead with it and all agreed.
Need a EPS or vector art file as well as a Jpeg file to do it.
MG asked who had a copy of logo as his partner could probably do what was needed as she works in the industry.
GH has copy and fwded to MG and needs to be hi res. Lisa will check it out to see if we can enlarge with out distortion.

PRESIDENTS CUP POINTS
GH has received grumblings re P Cup points and boats that constitute an event.
Seems some were upset they did not get credited with P Cup points when there was only 2 boats in the event at Hydrofest.
GH the rule book is clear and as the NZMPBA is sanctioning events for P cup points then the rule book has to be adhered too.
There was prolonged discussion on how to award points if there is not enough support to make an event. Some of the committee felt some were trying to manipulate the system to score points just to win the cup. It was an obsession to get points for the P Cup rather than go racing and have fun.
GH commented in the endiIf people are unhappy with the current situation then they have to live with it this year and make changes at the next AGM.
We just need to make sure that the rule is fair across the board. The emphasis on our hobby should be to have fun racing rather than just to try and score points to win 1 trophy.

NZ 1 2 3

GH noted that it is listed in the rule book for King of the Nationals but the last 2 years it is awarded for Presidents cup.

ST Seems that it is a typo error in the rulebook probably on my part as when it was voted in it was intended to be for the Presidents Cup

Agreed GH change that when he puts the new rule book on the web site.

There being no further business meeting closed 10.30pm.