CEO Report for February 2018

Dear DBNSW Members, Family and Friends. It has been a busy start to the 2018 year with NSW State Championships and Chinese New Year. On Saturday 10 February the board spent a full day reviewing the Member feedback from the survey and workshops in the second half of last year, and collaborating with the board and senior staff vision for the future. The result is a road map for the next 3 years that will be presented to you at the Road Shows from April to June 2018. We are very excited to share with you how we can best serve our community into the future. I would like to take this opportunity to wish all DBNSW competitors, coaches, officials and volunteers the very best for the upcoming Australian Championships at Lake Kawana, Sunshine Coast Queensland from 3-8 March. I hope to see you there.

From the February DBNSW Board Meeting:

February Board Meeting Outcomes/Updates

• DBNSW has been awarded a ‘Sport Development Funding Grant’ for $15k for the April to June 2018 Roadshows.
• DBNSW is investigating Old4New scheme to replace life jackets.
• Leaps & Bounds progressing with Paddlathon (25Mar18) with MoU for DBNSW to provide boats, insurance, promotion and support. All funds to go to charity. For further information contact Leaps and Bounds Ahead on email tanya@leapsandboundsahead.com.au or go to their Facebook page.
• DBNSW followed up clubs who did not attend states with survey to see if there is anything we can do to increase support for the event next year.
• A further meeting with Scouts NSW occurred on 23 Jan with the CEO and the Activities Manager. Scouts are investigating Member interest in the sport of Dragon Boating.
• DBNSW is looking into a potential sponsorship opportunity.
• Mosman Rowers requested a meeting to discuss potential support to start a Juniors Dragon Boating Club. Meeting went very well. Further approvals and grants for equipment in the pipeline. A target of 4 surrounding schools was discussed.
• DAA Festival meeting with DBNSW staff held on 7 Feb to discuss a MoU for the event in the 18/19 season. The DBNSW support the event and working together.
• Further technology investigation for our data platform with RevSport occurred on 8 Feb. In the offseason DBNSW hope to upgrade what we are utilising. DBNSW has also advised AusDBF if we can merge all State Member data bases then we can reduce the duplication of communications coming from dragon boating.
• The DBNSW Board had a facilitated all-day workshop to develop the Vision and 3 year road map for our Association, in conjunction with the Strategic Plan. The Member survey and workshop results from 2017 were utilised to confirm what our Members want, in addition to Board and Senior Staff feedback. We will share the results through the April to June 2018 Roadshows. Further information to come.
• DBNSW hosted an administrators meeting for all State/Territory Dragon Boat Associations to share information including successes and challenges with our sport. The meeting was received very well and invitees have asked to have the meeting more regularly. AusDBF will also have a representative on the next meeting.
• DBNSW CEO had a meeting with the Australian Canoeing CEO and Paddle Sport NSW CEO on 28 Feb to discuss working closer together.
• Yih Fye Freeman sadly passed from Pancreatic Cancer on 14 Feb. The Board has approved an annual award “Remembering Fye” for the CNY drummer of the winning mixed prem boat. We send our condolences to the family and friends of Fye who will be sadly missed.
• We had 2x incident/injury reported from our Members this month. DBNSW has a report on each and is investigating how to reduce risk of future occurrence and to provide a safe environment. DBNSW is working with RMS options.
• The finance reports for end January 18 were approved by the Board.

Next Board meeting is 6 April 2018.

Regards,

Lucy Warhurst

CEO