The answer from NAFA CoB has been received regarding the issues and concerns discussed in the previous two blog articles:
What Would You Do For Flyball’s Sake
and For Flyball’s Sake – Part 2.

The topic is regarding the ability of a person to (continue to) play flyball and participate in tournaments after having been convicted of animal abuse and/or neglect related to their participation in a flyball event.

Based on local flyballers comments and a quote they received from NAFA that said basically ‘nothing could be done’ whereby the person was allowed to play flyball after the conviction, I sent a formal request to the Chairman of the Board, dated October 5, 2011. Below are excerpts:

> I request the BoD review the following and determine appropriate action according to NAFA Rules of Racing, Corporate Policy and Procedures and By Laws (stated in combination below as ‘Rules’).

…was convicted…in September 2011; an article was published in the local newspaper whereby other flyballers and the general public were made aware of the conviction and details. The newspaper article stated the abuse and/or neglect occurred during the person’s participation at a flyball tournament.

To many flyballers as well as the public, this is inappropriate and brings discredit to the sport of flyball.

Local flyballers have stated publically that…the Executive Director has spoken with the person convicted…and…that nothing can be done.

To many flyballers this is inappropriate as well as inaccurate and again brings discredit to the sport of flyball as well as NAFA.

Applicable sections in the Rules:

- Chapter 5, Code of Conduct, Section 5.1 a-d

- Article IV, Section 1. Powers (of the Board)

- Article VI, Section 4. Executive Director

Requested action by the BoD:

Review (and) resolution of appropriate action and response to the author herein as well as the NAFA flyball community. >

Here is the answer I received from the Chairman of the Board today:

“Linda:

I just wanted to follow up and let you know that our ED has responded to this issue in what I consider to be an appropriate fashion, pursuant to our rules and bylaws. For reasons that would include potential civil litigation, it would be inappropriate to discuss details with anyone other the the party directly involved. Additional and appropriate details, also pursuant to our rules, will be forthcoming in future minutes. Thanks again for your concern, patience, and understanding.

Sincerely…”

At this point, it appears we all must wait to read future minutes for a possibly-definitive answer. On a personal level, I would like to thank the concerned flyballers who brought this issue to light. Also, in deference to the limited amount of time between when U-FLI became aware of the same issue and subsequently responded to me that my inquiry is presently with the U-FLI Board, I will update this blog when their answer is also received.

v/r, Linda

It could be either fact or fiction, conjecture or possibly a prediction.

Flyball is for any dog, but a purebred is worth more according to the latest restructuring of titles and points in the racing classes. If you can, for a moment, imagine a flyball world with 100% purebred dogs or maybe 75% purebred dogs and 25% mix breeds. I wonder what that would look like. I wonder if it would be a better flyball world than it is today.

The Breed Challenge Process and the just announced Multibreed Class points restructure appear to be related. A few blog articles have previously discussed these topics; but, I’m not yet able to fully connect the dots and I have these random thoughts rummaging around.

The following random thoughts are based solely on my own perception as well as loosely based on previously known and/or published facts. I say ‘loosely based facts’ because I do not intend to use exact quotes; however, they will be facts to the best of my knowledge or recollection.

- NAFA BoD has stated that purebreds are at a disadvantage performance-wise in flyball.

- NAFA BoD proposes that purebreds be awarded more points for racing than most mix breed dogs via the restructure of Multibreed racing points.

- Flyball used to be one of the best priced dog sports around; however, if you run in Multibreed your dog may be subject to a breed challenge process that may cost you more money if you choose to defend your dog’s status.

- If you run Multibreed you may want to or need to purchase an ILP/PAL from AKC or another breed registry organization in order to defend your dog’s status.

- NAFA has for the past few years had association with or sponsorship from the AKC Canine Partners.

- NAFA participants may register their dog with AKC Canine Partners for a reduced fee.

- It was recently announced that NAFA has been invited to (demo at) the AKC 2011 Championships in Florida this coming December.

- Recently announced on NAFANews Yahoo, with regard to the Multibreed racing point restructure, 2/3 votes ‘for’ will result in binding the proposal and it will be adopted into the Rules of Racing. However, if 51% votes ‘for’, the BoD has (sole) discretion to make the decision.

- The choice will be up to the NAFA flyball community. They have 3 months to decide before placing their vote. I mean the NAFA delegate vote holders have 3 months to decide (i.e., club owner, judge, regional director, bod member, officer, other contributor as assigned by NAFA). Or, it could be the BoD will end up using their discretion to pass their own proposal.

Random thoughts. v/r, Linda

Announced on the NAFA Website:

October 6th, 2011 – Multibreed point proposal for a binding delegate vote

Introduction: In an effort to revitalize the Multibreed class, the Board is presenting a proposal for consideration by the delegates that would increase the NAFA title points earned in the Multibreed class. If adopted, the following change would become effective October 1, 2012.

Question for delegate vote: Should NAFA amend the point-count rules for the multibreed class so that each dog on a team that runs with a recorded time less than 24 seconds earns 30 points; from 24 to 27.999 seconds earns 7 points; and from 28 to 31.999 seconds earns 2 points?

Pros: This increase is designed to recognize and reward the comparative difficulty of assembling a multibreed team where every dog running is of a different breed, counting a mix as a single breed. Of all the classes, multibreed perhaps does the most to stimulate interest in flyball because people who have dogs at home can identify with the variety of breeds running and visualize doing so with their own dog.

Cons: This proposal cheapens the points earned by dogs who run with clubs not able to field multibreed teams and makes titles too easy to get. There should be one point system for all.

This is news and the first opportunity for the flyball public to discuss it.

My opinion is that it would have been nice to have some kind of “heads up” before the NAFA Board finalized the wording of the proposal. In the past, the NAFA Board has been presented with proposals to reform the title point system for ALL classes because the times posted by teams today do not even come close to the average times that were posted when the title point system was first adopted by NAFA in the year 1987. Back then, relatively few teams posted under 24 seconds and so it was quite an achievement to do so. Since then, there have several technical developments that totally revolutionized flyball racing. Some of these developments include the EJS (lights), internalized catapult system of box design and the swimmer’s turn. The Board has always rejected proposals that would change the title point system, even proposals that requested the delegates be given the opportunity to vote on them.

So, would it make more sense to reform and rethink the entire title point system FIRST and then look at the Multi-breed class and see if we want to increase points earned in that class?

What other questions and issues or concerns should we be looking at?

…..Chris