For those of you that follows the sport regularly and know when voting time comes around – you should be asking your Captain how many votes the team earned for the year and how are they going to be submitted. You pay into the system the same as everyone else and should have a voice on how YOUR club (the club you pay dues & tourney fees into) votes on NAFA matters!

As for the system in general – I fear these isn’t an easy solution. I think there are still many questions that would need to be answered, such as who exactly gets votes? Everyone with a NAFA registered dog? What about people who have registered their dog and never played? Should you only get a vote if your dog actually acrued points for the year? Should it be determined by how many tournaments your dog ran in or got points in? What about people like myself who, for the good of the team and to allow green dogs to run, list a seasoned dog but often never run him because the green dogs and handlers are holding their own? Is it fair to deny that ‘dog’s’ vote because I as the owner chose not to run him to allow green dogs to run which in turn promotes the sport to new players? OK, a little far fetched… but you get where I am going.

As for votes based upon how many dogs you own – again, some of the same questions from above come up. My personal opinion is that the number of dogs you own shouldn’t be a factor. Those of us with multiple dogs made the conscious decision to add more dogs into our families. No one forced me to adopt 3 dogs… I made the decision on my own and I also made the conscious decision to play flyball with all 3 and if that means emptying my wallet after every tournament – so be it – it was my choice. I know several single dog owners who would like nothing more than to get another dog or two, or three, but they can’t due to restrictions beyond their control (ie: where they live, financial constraints, etc.). I don’t feel as though my vote should count any more than theirs just because I pay 3 tourney fees to their one because I made that choice. Again, JMO.

I agree the system needs to be revamped – it’s getting a suitable alternative that’s going to be the tough part.

Larry – Great topic!

Overall, our team is very active and fairly competitive. We train hard, enjoy playing flyball with our dogs and the friends we have met on the flyball circuit. We will continue to play. Our goal is to run fast, run clean, and have fun. I just wish NAFA had a system in place that allowed everyone who played flyball to vote. I guess that’s not fair, since we don’t contribute monetarily to NAFA right now, and, the way things look, probably won’t in the near future.

Where do you compete in flyball? If you are willing to enter a NAFA Open Class, I have a 9″ height dog that I would be happy to lend to your team.

If you do not compete close enough to be practical for me to travel to a tournament near to you, there is a message board that I created and maintain just for the purpose of hooking up teams with dogs for Open, Vets and performance. You can look up your preference for class and it is sorted by Region.

And, you may not a vote but, NAFA is owned by the public. You ALWAYS have a voice. If there is a comment you would like to make to the Board on any topic that is on or not on the agenda, write to the NAFA Board at flyball@flyball.org and it will be forwarded to the proper committee and or the Chairman of the Board who will put it on the agenda.

Open/Vets/Performance message board is:
http://www.freewebs.com/chrisvanwert/nafaflyball.htm

Each participant is part of a team so just send the ballots to the team just like the titles are sent. Just have the name of the participant on the each of ballots. Alternatively, most people have computers now so something could be worked out online. Participants could say whether their ballots should be sent to the team or not.

I think this is a minor detail and I’m sure something could be worked out if everyone got their head’s together. It could be an evolutionary thing where ballots are sent to the participants via the team with the knowledge that in the future it would be over the Internet.

You make a very good point regarding the return of delegate votes that are issued. Shame on those that do not participate, denying their own club members the opportunity to be heard.

Funny how the 20% quoted in the post “NOTA” nearly mirrors presidential elections!

Clubs are challenged by this disparity of “one dog” vs “multiple dogs” within their ranks all the time. But, NAFA was founded by 8 obedience clubs that represented 12 “teams”. The one club that was so big it could enter 4 teams of dogs all by itself was given more “weight” by the rest of the founding clubs because they felt this club had more “vested” in this sport. The big club didn’t ask for that kind of influence. It was the little clubs that chose to defer.

What your post tells me is that you do not trust the “wisdom of the leadership”. That may be deserved in your view but, it is not necessarily the view of the majority, weighted or not.

If the cap is 3 per household(just using that number, even two would work), and I vote with my 3 one way, and the 12 apartment dwellers vote the same way, that is a 12 to 1 ratio. If a team is made of of 20 1 dog households and another team has 5 members 1 2 dog household(1 vote) and 2 6 plus household (4 votes), the team with more teammembers is clearly ahead.?

I think my position on alloting delegate votes to members in addition to clubs, is that more often than not, you have teammates that may be more politically active in the sport, than others, and sometimes even the captain.

From past results history, why are some results never turned in? Is it a Captain that just does not care? Loses them? Is not active in getting to know it’s choices? Would there be more turned in delegate votes if it was in the hands of participants?