Sorry, I must have been asleep at the helm, it finally sunk in, or I just woke up. I was driving home from my daughter’s house and listening to loud Hard Rock on my XM radio, I know, I know, I’m 53 and that stuff rots your brain and gives you hearing loss, and it hit me. Did I read somewhere that one single BOD member prevented the Open Class from being run with the other divisions like in U-FLI? I did, and I must have glanced right over it. Here is a quote from a comment I received on my post, Open Class Pros and Cons, which were all Cons by the way:
My understanding (from a BOD member) is that basically a single BOD member prevented the Open Class from being more open based on the opinion that NAFA should not be too much like U-FLI.
This sucks with a capital S. I am just a little upset by this, can you tell? Is this in the best interest of Flyball? I don’t think so not in any way, shape, or form. I would like to know why, how can this be, is this true? If every Flyballer out there is not just a little ticked off by this, there is something wrong.
This is from another comment by Eli that says it much better than I could:
Instituting an Open class, instead of adopting a model that appears to be working, created a number of issues.
Pickup teams definitely should be entered along side Regular teams, if for no other reason than to keep the competition fun and to help fill Regular divisions. Right?
This goes right back to what I first said in my post, Open Class and Performance Teams after reading about how they screwed up the Open Class. Now I find that it came down to one person.
If anyone knows something out there, can you explain it to me, or disprove this so I can go back to sleep.
Larry
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6 comments ↓
” My understanding (from a BOD member) is that basically a single BOD member prevented the Open Class from being more open based on the opinion that NAFA should not be too much like U-Fli.”
Larry, I think you should STOP losing sleep over this one.
For one thing, this comment is the definition of “hearsay”. When I first started reading your blog, I came across a policy statement that said you wouldn’t allow “hearsay” to be posted in comments. I can’t find that “policy” now but, I think you’ll agree that someone repeating what someone else says that a THIRD person said is hearsay.
Second, I attended the meeting where the Rules for Open Class and Performance Teams were drafted and then approved to be added as an Appendix. At NO time during the discussion did I hear any Board member make a statement even resembling “…the opinion that NAFA should not be too much like U-FLI.”
It’s NOT in the minutes and I was there and never heard anything like that. I don’t give credibilty to people who desire to spread rumors based on hearsay.
If anyone has a criticsm of the Rules for Open Class and Performance Teams then state your criticsm based on principle and merit. Leave the juicy gossip in the crating area.
The NAFA Board isn’t perfect. The Rules of Racing in NAFA aren’t perfect either. …but, they work VERY hard to improve this sport for NAFA competitors and we should treat them fairly and with respect. We have free elections and if any Board member is NOT working in the best interests of NAFA flyball, then the delegates can replace that Board member.
“If anyone knows something out there, can you explain it to me, or disprove this so I can go back to sleep.”
If you say it didn’t happen at that meeting then I believe you, and I know that it’s not in the minutes. However, who drafted the rules for Open Class? Obviously. there must have been some discussion during the drafting of the rule before the meeting. Who decided to create a new Class for this? Was this discussed at the meeting? I would like to know why it was done this way.
For some mild clarification on how the Open Class rules were made, one should look at attachments G and H from the board minutes on the NAFA website from August 25th. Note that G is the draft pick-up team rules made by the rules committee and that attachment H are Sam Fords proposed Open class rules. Note it is Attachment H that is now in the 2008 rule book as the Open class rules. Note too that there are many similarities to the thoughts in the two attachments.
People can read into that how ever they wish, but the point of a board is that it must be majority rules. I’ve never been to a board meeting and I’m not sure how it goes, and I’ve only met two of the current board in person, but in case of one member causing something to happen, if that is the case, it would be because either that one person debated the remainder of the board to see their way and vote as such, or the remainder of the board either A) had no solid opinion, so followed a solid voice, or B) Chose to not go against the solid opinion ahead of them, either way, majority would still rule. At least that’s my understanding. So One member could not enact policy unless the remainder of the board allowed it. But I generally leave politics to my brother, but no telling what the future could hold.
The controversy over how open class is run really is 100% dependent on what a person wants to get out of running under said class. It’s going to make some of us happy and some of us not. What would concern me the most is that open may end up only being a Friday offering with few races and heats, diminishing it’s want for me because, The most important thing to me personally is how open class gives my wife and I an opportunity to travel to a tournament out of region and met up with friends there (We travel alone to Iowa often and have friends who remain) and will have opportunities to pick up at local tournaments should we be short, or to farm out our semi-retired border collie to teams in need. Of course when it comes to my wife and I we tend to compete more against ourselves than the team in the other lane, if our dogs run well and we keep it together as a team, the win is seldom important to us. Though even I can admit, it always feels good to win, but it’s just a bonus, not why I’m there. I’m there to exercise my dogs and get NAFA Points.
So I personally think that open as written can work and it’s addition grows NAFA. How I interpret it personaly is, Regular is there for the competition, 4-breed (Which you have to love owning a Field English Setter as I do) is there to see how the sport isn’t just about Border Collies, and Open is there for people who just want to see their dog run (and get points doing it).
My, less than well though out take.
You have both given some excellent arguments but just as in any political situation, concessions and deals are made behind the scene. That is how it works in politics. Sometimes in order to accomplishes things there are talks that are held behind closed doors. Do you actually think that the senators accomplish things on the senate floor?
Sadly, for now, I must stand by my post and the comment that I quoted. Believe what you may. Sometimes things are not as they seem. I am wide-awake now.
There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything or to doubt everything; both ways save us from thinking. - Alfred Korzybski
I love America where we are both free to believe what we may
I still say one person can’t do something on the board without the rest of the boards support so if this was truly one person’s thought, they brought a majority of the board to their way of thinking.
I think you are on to something!
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