The GFA Sports Committee has jurisdiction over the rules of National Competition. These rules are set by the National Competition Committee, which consists of a Chairperson (currently me) and elected representatives from the pilots meetings of the three National Championships - Multiclass, Juniors and Club. The only member of NCC that is not a directly elected pilot representative is me.
In general, the NCC decides the detailed rules, with overall policy direction and endorsement by Sports Committee. It is rare for Sports Committee to overturn or intervene in the setting of the detailed rules. In the conduct of National Championships, the organising committee submits local rules for approval by the NCC. While in theory the local rules can override any of the general rules, the NCC only approves local rules that have local significance - for example radio frequences and other local operational matters. NCC would not permit Local Rules to fundamentally change the nature of National competition. The example given by Robert (important though it was) did not affect the conduct of the competition in a sporting sense. State Associations set their own rules for gliding competition. The GFA and Sports Committee has neither right not duty to interfere with the conduct of these events. There has been a trend in recent years for States to adopt the basic Nationals rules (I believe for example that NSWGA does this as a matter of course), modifying only minor areas such as eligibility rules and prizes. While this is increasingly done, there is no requirement to do it - States can make any rules they wish. The only area of intervention is the insurance question previously discussed - if States want the insurance protection afforded under the endorsed competition process, then they have to adopt those requirements. It is still optional, however - a State Association is not compelled to have their event endorsed. Mind you, I would not personally be willing to be an official at any event that expected me to risk my house to do it. Cheers Tim -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Robert Hart Sent: Wednesday, 31 January 2007 8:07 To: Discussion of issues relating to Soaring in Australia. Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] Horsham Week / VIC State Comps David Lawley wrote: > One thing I have never been able to fathom is how States are allowed to > modify the nationals rules at will, it seems to me they should be decided > Nationally, and states should not be able to tack on their own extras, such > as mandatory FLARM without National body approval of a rule change. > > It seems crazy to allow this to me, and I can think of no other sport that > does this sort of thing. National comp rules should be a matter for national > consideration, not the whim of a state body. > GQ decided that it wanted to mandate FLARM for all Qld comps. As the FAI multi class nationals were to be held in Qld in Oct 2006, discussions occurred between the GQ and the Sports c'tee. It was agreed that provided a mutually acceptable local rule could be drawn up, FLARM would be mandatory at that comp. After discussion locally to make sure that I understood exactly what GQ wanted, Tim Shirley and I then worked out a local rule that was included in the rules for the Kingaroy comps last October. The National rules are not changed at "the whim of a state body" - and specifically that was not the case for mandatory FLARM at Kingaroy. I anticipate however that the club class nationals to be held at Kingaroy this October will include a similar local rule for FLARM (unless of course FLARM is nationally mandated for GFA competitions - which is what I believe is going to happen - it's just a case of "when"). -- Robert Hart [EMAIL PROTECTED] +61 (0)438 385 533 http://www.hart.wattle.id.au _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring _______________________________________________ Aus-soaring mailing list [email protected] To check or change subscription details, visit: http://lists.internode.on.net/mailman/listinfo/aus-soaring
