NAFA Flyball… and the nominees are…

The candidates for the three open NAFA Director positions are:

• Zachary Chernik (nomination letter)
• Alisa Romaine (nomination letter)
• Dale Smith (nomination letter)
• Scott Stein (nomination letter)
• Chris VanWert (nomination letter)

The Executive Director is running unopposed:

• Sam Ford (nomination letter)

If you have not done so, I encourage everyone to read the nominees nomination letters. Additionally, you should try to find out where each of these people stands on the issues that are important to you. I have personally met three people on this list, but I do not know how they stand on things that I find important.

When elected, these people will be on the board for three years, which in flyball time is a long time because things are changing so rapidly. Just look back at what happened over the last three years. U-FLI did not exist three years ago, jump heights have changed, the four-month rule changed to 90 days and is now 87 days, there were breed specific legislation issues, region assignment rule changes, the veterans class was introduced, the pick-up team concept will be put into practice on October 1st, and on and on and on. You can do the research and you will find that many things were voted on by the board over the last three years, and some things are still just as much of a problem as they were three years ago.

I have addressed some of the things that I see as still being a problem and you can read about them on this blog.

• Measuring - Do the nominees even see measuring as a problem? I think that measuring will be addressed in the not too distant future. The people that are voted to the board this term will more than likely be dealing with measuring in one form or fashion during their terms.
• Bureaucracy at its best - Height Cards go hand in hand with measuring. As long as measuring stays the way it is this issue with the height card and challenging will be an ongoing issue in my opinion.
• Flyball, a four letter word? - NAFA is starting to think more about image but a lot more can be and should be done. In some segments of the dog world, flyball continues to be a bad word and more needs to be done to educate people that do other dog sports. We need someone to champion the sport and publicize it more to the general public if we want continual growth in our sport.
• Focus on the Championships – Divisional championships have been addressed by U-FLI with their championship system and this should be addressed in NAFA. I know that Chris VanWert has put forth a proposal to the board about this issue but nothing has been done by the current board. Recognizing the rest of the flyball community that does not run in Division 1 is long overdue and needs to be addressed.

I have just listed four things that I find important to me but I know there are probably many other issues that you find important that I have not thought of. Please let your thoughts and questions be known, and make sure these nominees address them before casting your vote.

If you are anything like me, politics is not your favorite subject. However, everyone with a delegate vote should take notice, get informed about these nominees, and send in your vote. The future of NAFA flyball depends on it.

Thanks and Happy Racing,

Larry

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