DISCIPLINARY CASES

GAME MANAGEMENT REPORTS

NONE

PLEASE TAKE NOTE

Please take note so that this does not occur again M.F.

I've just received an email from the manager of the Brockenhurst team. He says that he informed the officials of two people who were helping him out on first aid and stats. Apparently there was no objection to this.

There is a problem here. Neither of the two is registered, hence have no insurance cover, little as it may be. Also under the new BAFA Child Protection any adults have to, not only register, but now have to submit a Self Declaration Form.

Can I ask that you make your members aware of this?

ELECTION OF DIRECTORS

You will notice that there is included in this weeks 'Newsflash' a voting form for the position of 'Director of Operations'. As well as a new voting form for the position of President. This is because an address was requested for the people standing for the position as many people will not know the two people involved. This therefore nulls the previous vote for President. There is no need to re-vote for John Slavin though. At the time of writing there is only one person standing for the position. As some people found difficulty in locating the closing date on the last form I have increased the font size and changed the colour to red. For those who missed it last time it is in exactly the same position though!

PRESIDENT'S ELECTION SPEECHES

BAFRA Elections Candidate for President - Phil Cottier

Officiating Experience

Joined BAFRA as an Official in 1990 as a result of watching the (then) Bedfordshire Lone Star Cowboys in the local park.

Since then I have worked games every season except the 1994/5 College and the 1995 Senior. In addition, I have also worked USAFE games on air force bases, High School games at Alconbury, Flag Tournaments and The UK and European Flag Bowl Competitions.

In addition I am a qualified coach and, as such, I am an Associate Member of BAFCA.

Administrative Experience

I spent some time 'guesting' at the old National Council before taking up the post of Director of Training. This totals some 8 years administrative experience. During that time I used the Canadian Grading System to rewrite the Grading Program for BAFRA and produced the original Grading Program Handbook.

In the past I have represented BAFRA at BAFA, BYAFA, BSAFL and BAFCA Conventions and Clinics and been a regular speaker at BAFCA Clinics. Earlier this year I was asked by The Claymores to visit Glasgow and talk to a group of Flag Football Coaches from Scotland with regard to rules and interpretations.

For 3 seasons I was the sideline officials' co-ordinator for the London/England Monarchs.

Future

After a slump in the number of Officials we are now seeing an increase in our membership and it is very important that this continues. We need to recruit more young people into officiating together with those who are finishing their playing careers.

I would like to see a much closer relationship with the other arms of British American Football, in particular the Coaches' Association as this can only benefit BAFRA members and we could get new members from this source.

Football at the grass roots level is flourishing in Scotland and it has its beginnings in England thanks to NFLE in those two countries. We need to forge closer links with these organisations in order to ensure the continuation of the sport in the UK. Already we have rumours of new teams starting up for next Senior Season in England and Scotland not to mention the 4 new teams in Ireland at Senior level. Add to these the Flag and Junior kitted teams who are already in being and there is an enormous potential for games over the coming years. These players will soon lose interest if BAFRA cannot get Officials to these games. The help with recruitment that we have had from BSL and BCL teams over the last couple of years must be continued. We cannot just communicate with these teams and leagues when we want something from them.

Phil Cottier
BAFRA Director of Training

BAFRA Elections Candidate for President - Keith Wickham

Many of you will know me from being 'temporary scheduler' for last season. I have been a member of BAFRA for over 15 years. I am a civil servant by profession and work for the Court Service as IT Service Manager.

Why should you vote for me as President? I am well known by many people in football and have the respect and confidence of the Senior League and Junior League and am working with the College League to strengthen our bonds. I have been around for a long time and have watched football develop and fade, and now start to expand again. I see the role of the President as to provide a public face for BAFRA to the rest of the world and to unite BAFRA internally. This is very similar to my 'real' job and the skills I have learnt from my profession can be harnessed to help BAFRA.

As I have been scheduling it has become clear that football is entering a period of growth. Of course, this in no way matches the boom of the early days of the sport in the UK, but it is the first time I can remember the Senior League, College League and Youth League all expanding at the same time since those early days.

The one organisation within BAFA that does not seem to be expanding naturally is ours. There are many reasons for this and it is easy to point the finger of blame. However, that solves nothing and is counter productive. I feel that the biggest problem facing BAFRA, and one we can all address, is the one of apathy.

There are several factors that have lead to this. The drop in the standard of football, the routines we have adopted over the years with which we are comfortable and the systems within BAFRA. All our current policies and rules where drawn up when membership was nearer to 300 than to the less than 100 members we have now. I believe that most of them are either unworkable or irrelevant to todays BAFRA.

If elected as President my first job will be to hold a directors meeting, something that has not been done for some while, to discuss what roles the directors should be playing in BAFRA 2003.

I will ask the Director of Training to reconsider the grading programme to see if it can be made simpler and if it would be possible for video tapes to be used to help develop officials.

I will ask the Director of Youth and Development to consider how we can promote BAFRA and to plan the best way to increase membership.

Another area that must be considered is how new members are greeted by our organisation and how we can make them feel welcome and want to stay. Can we attract retired members back into the fold?

Once we have decided on a sensible way forward we can then shake off some of the creeping malaise that has enveloped us as time has gone on.

In short, my intention, if elected, is to help BAFRA and it's members develop and improve so that we are in the forefront of British American Football again and not a potential millstone around BAFA's neck dragging football down.

I hope you all want to see our proud association again become one of the main stays of British American Football and if you do I hope you will vote for me.

FROM STEVE TONKINSON

Taken from Jane's Defence Weekly 24th July 2002

Turkish Navy names ship in honour of Referees' Association (or French give 69 to Turkish sailors?)

FRANCE TRANSFERS LAST A 69 CORVETTE TO TURKEY

TCG BAFRA (ex-Second Maitre Le Bihan), the last of six former French navy A 69 d'Estienne d'Orves-class avisos (corvettes) to be transferred to the Turkish Naval Forces Command (TNFC), sailed from Brest for its new home port of Izmir on 15th July following a formal handover on 26 June.

Turkey acquired the six 1,250-ton displacement A 69- class ships under a $60million contract signed with DCN International in November 2000 to provide an interim coastal patrol capability pending the much delayed introduction of up to eight projected MilGem Corvettes.

DCN Log has provided logistics support to the programme, while NAVFCO, the French navy's overseas training facilitator, was contracted by DCN International to provide operator and technical training for crews and dockyard personnel ( more than 650 people in total)

While BAFRA was a 'hot' transfer direct from the French navy, DCN overhauled the other five vessels' propulsion systems and other equipment before transfer

These comprise TCG Bozcaada (ex-commandant de Pimodan), TCG Bodrum (ex-Drogou) TCG Bandirma (ex-Quartier Maitre Anquetil) TCG Beykoz (ex-d'Estienne d'Orves) and TCG Bartin (ex-Amyot d'Inville)

Completion of the aviso programme brings to 11 the number of second-hand naval vessels transferred from France to Turkey over the past five years

Five Circe-class minehunters, acquired in September 1997, were handed over to the TNFC in 1998-99. In addition, the ocean-going tug Centaure was acquired from the French Navy in early 1999 and subsequently renamed Degirmendere.

Richard Scott
JDW Naval Editor
London