The Annual General Meeting is being held via Zoom this Sunday at 12:00.

All members are invited to attend and a reminder to all clubs to have their delegates registered, including their emails, with the General Manager by tomorrow (email – gm@nzaff.co.nz).

The Annual Report is now available here.  If you have any specific questions or areas you would like discussed it would be appreciated if you could respond to me with details of these prior to the meeting.

There are two remits that are being tabled for consideration at the AGM:

1. Allowing NZAFF accounts to be reviewed rather than audited.  Proposed by the Tamaki Lightning, seconded by Hawkes Bay Heat, as attached with the reasons for the changes. For details click here.
2. Allowing Member Regional Bodies to have the same status as Member Associations in being able to vote at the AGM.  Proposed through a Board resolution, as attached with the reasons for the changes. For details click here.

​If you want to see the AGM notice you can find that here.
If you want to review the new Board Members CV, Christopher Berry, you can find that here.

The procedure at the AGM will be:

• Priority for speaking will be given to the delegates.
• Other people who wish to speak do so with the approval of the Chairperson.
• At certain points in the agenda (after the receipt of the Financial Report and prior to the close of the meeting) delegates will be offered the opportunity to give feedback or ask questions.
• If anyone wishes to speak or ask a question outside of these times, then they do so by messaging in the Zoom chat.  The Chairperson will acknowledge and allow the speaker to proceed. This may either be immediately, or the question may be deferred to a later time in the AGM if more suitable.
• Voting will be by voice as in all in favour say “aye”, against “no”.  If there is any doubt a roll call of delegates will be held with each indicating their vote.

Here are the details for joining the Zoom conference:
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88556726832?pwd=MWNPbzFVWW1kaVRxKzJxditMaDRZQT09
Meeting ID: 885 5672 6832
Passcode: 140939
 
If you have any questions, please contact
Russell McConnochie
GM NZAFF
gm@nzaff.co.nz
09 973 4058

​To our member Regions and Clubs,

It's been several months since my last email, and it's crazy to think how much the world has changed over this time. There have been huge impacts on our country and communities and many people connected to our sport would have been impacted so I hope everyone has been staying safe and managing the best they can.

The NZAFF Board meetings have continued and despite a lot of uncertainty we are trying to plan against a range of scenarios, and to support our regions and clubs through the upcoming season in whatever form it may take. 

With us back into Govt alert levels there is still a lot of unknowns around the upcoming season, especially in Auckland, but more will be shared on this over the coming weeks. For now I thought I would update on a few matters. 

AGM Reminder & Board Member / Patron Nominations

Our Annual General Meeting will be held via Zoom on Sunday October 4th at 12pm and nominations for the following close this weekend (we originally advertised September 4th but will keep them open this weekend)
1) 2 Board Members (1 elected position and 1 appointed position)
2) Patron

More information can be found here and please ensure you are sharing amongst your clubs, peers and communities to get quality people nominated for these positions. It is hard to get volunteers putting their hands up, but they can be fulfilling roles which can really make a positive impact on our sport.

Appointment Of Seconded Board Position

As part of our strategy to grow women's participation in American Football we decided to appoint someone to focus specifically on this and bring in some new viewpoints, and help the NZAFF Board drive this forward.

We are please to announce Shernice Henry is taking up this position, with work underway planning for the season. Shernice has a long connection to the Papatoetoe Wildcats as a player, manager and administrator and we are excited to have her input.

Annual Member Survey - COVID Edition

As we have done in the past, we have created a member survey to get feedback on the state of our sport, key challenges and focus areas from members perspectives, and to get feedback on our performance as a Board.

This year, given COVID-19s impact on sport we have also added some questions to gauge feedback from our members on the impact the pandemic will have on the game we love. With gameday equipment sharing being prevalent within our sport given the lack of personally owned equipment and high costs, there are huge potential impacts around how we keep our players safe in the world of COVID-19.

Please take the time to complete the survey and share with your clubs / regions as it is valuable feedback to help us continue to strive to get better as a board.

2020 Club Flag Nationals

Growing the non-contact version of our sport was already a major priority for the board to help get new people into the sport, but given the potential impacts around shared equipment it could be even more relevant this season.

Whilst we know it is hard to plan ahead with uncertainty around public events etc we are at this stage pushing to hold the rescheduled 2020 Club Flag Nationals on October 24th and 25th in Auckland. 

We encourage our member Clubs to really get behind this and within Govt guidelines see if you can get your members training together with something to aim for in October. At this stage the plan is to still have this event live streamed via the Sky Sport NEXT platform which will be exciting for our sport. 

As always, please reply if you have any feedback or questions and Russell (gm@nzaff.co.nz) is a resource there to help in any way he can.

Regards,
Todd Wackrow
NZAFF Chairman 

​For the last three years we have asked members to help to define the way forward for the sport of American Football in New Zealand by responding to a survey.
 
The NZAFF Board then use that feedback to define the sports strategy going forward.
 
We are now inviting members to complete the survey again so that we can get feedback on how you feel the Sport is progressing, and also a revised sense of what is important to our members as our strategy will change and adjust over time.

Given the impact that Covid-19 is having on our sport and sport in general, we are keen to get some specific feedback on this as well.
The biggest are of concern is the sharing of equipment between players during a game and between games on game day.
Your feedback will help clarify options that might be considered going forward.
 
Any member of NZAFF can complete the form which will be open until Friday the 25th of September.
 
You can find the survey here.

​Earlier this year we cancelled the Club Flag Nationals that were to be held in Wellington in late March just prior to the Covid-19 lock down.
 
After much discussion we decided to reschedule the event and it is now going to be held in Auckland on Labour weekend in October.
The timing was set to be at the conclusion of the AFA Flag season which has been cancelled due to uncertainties around the Covid-19 lock down situation.
 
Date:                     24th & 25th October 2020
Venue:                 Unitec Mt Albert grounds
Fees:                     $50 per team
 
Details including Tournament rules and variations on playing rules can be found here.
Teams should read this document.
 
The entry fee is being subsidised 50% by NZAFF with the major costs being the provision of toilets facilities and ground preparation and marking.  The site is earmarked for development and is not an active playing field so power etc are not available.  Hence the requirement for toilets & ground work.
 
Entries are open now and close on the 4th October.
The entry form is here.
 
The number of teams entering may be limited to 8 so that we can complete the Championships in the two days.
 
If you have any questions please contact
Russell McConnochie.
General Manager, NZAFF
gm@nzaff.co.nz,
+64 9 9734058