Hosting an AFA Sanctioned Competition

Application for Purina sponsorship of Competition .xls

Guidelines for Competition Committee pdf

Guidelines for Hosting an AFA Sanctioned Competition.pdf  

Guideline for calculating Divisional Splits. pdf

Veteran - Handicap format pdf

AFA Matting –Procedure for control and use of matting

Guideline for setting up the official AFA Wickets - Sep 2010

Programming & Operating instructions for Signature Timing system

Guidelines for hosting Australian National Flyball Championships.pdf

Title Points Work Book -14 Jan 12 (excel) updated club & team registered names in drop down box

How to Calculate Title Points

List of registered team names -12 Dec 2011, to add a new team name, please email AFA webmaster webmaster@flyball.org.au your request.

Competition Results Form - 14 Jan 12 (excel) - Please fill out this form with the competition results and forward via email to the webmaster@flyball.org.au

1. Competion organisers are to tally competiton points for the event. Use the supplied work book at the top of the page. Please read the Timesheet points calculation information at the top of the page to assist you will completing the workbook. Email the completed workbook to the webmaster@flyball.org.au

The AFA can provide more information on any of these requirements, please don't hesitate to ask.   

Additional Information:
Elimination Racing Formats in pdf  (also available excel)

Round Robin Formats
Champion Trophy Challenge

Guidelines for Competition Committee

(a)       Competition Chairperson:
The Competition Chairperson has the overall responsibility for the proper planning management, conducting and reporting of the competition. The Competition Chairperson shall act as the liaison for the club/organisation. The Committee Chairperson shall ascertain the requirements such as insurance, rentals, schedules, concessions, protest etc.

(b) Entries;
The Entries Chairperson shall be responsible for entries and questions the entrants might have.

(c)Grounds:
The Grounds Chairperson shall be responsible for the proper layout of the competition ring, setting up and dismantling the equipment, traffic flow, crowd control, parking securing the necessary equipment, cleaning up during and following the competition.

(d)Trophies:
The Trophy Chairperson is responsible for acquiring trophies, ribbons and/or other prizes, setting up the trophy table and putting together a list of trophies and/or other prizes.

(e)Hospitality: The Hospitality Chairperson is responsible for the planning of any luncheons, transportation, lodging, refreshments, banquets, directions, local points of interest, camping and picnic facilities etc.

(f) Publicity: The Publicity Chairperson shall arrange and distribute all publicity, advertising, press releases etc.

(g)Judges, Stewards and Timekeepers: Judge and Steward selection, confirmations, travel arrangements and lodging shall be the responsibility of the Judge Chairperson.

(h)Admission:
If there is an admission charge to the event, an individual shall be responsible for advance ticket sale and/or distribution of free passes to competitors and gate admission.

(i)Public Address:
Flyball is a spectator sport. As such, it is important to announce races, explain the sport and announce times.

(j)Having a photographer available and raffles, catalogues and other special events that generate income or that add to the success of the competition that are not in any way prejudicial to the best interest of the sport of Flyball may be considered.

Guideline for Hosting an AFA Sanctioned Competition

1. Your club must be affiliated with the Australian Flyball Association Inc.
   
2. Check the AFA website (www.flyball.org.au) to download an “Application for Affiliation” (Form C9), if required. Affiliation expires at the end of June each year and must be updated annually.
   
3. Decide on a date, location, entry fee (includes AFA EJS levy $20.00 per team), competition organiser, competition name, Judges, AFA Representative and closing date for entries.
   
4. Inspect the location, making sure the ground is suitable in the following ways: ground space and condition, parking, crowd control, competitor space within sight of ring, shelter, nearby toilets, dog toileting area, access to water, access to power and the proximity of any attractions that might be a problem near flyball (eg horses, sideshows, fireworks).
   
5. We recommend that your club nominates a competition organiser/comp secretary.
   
6. Contact the Judges that you would like to Judge at your competition (all Judges, and their status levels, are listed on AFA web site (www.flyball.org.au). The AFA recommends that at least 1 Accredited 1 Judge officiate at your competition. An Accredited 1 Judge has completed the latest AFA training program for Judges.
   
7. Contact your Regional Representative to check the availability of the AFA lights for your state & organise arrangements for lights to be delivered to competition.
   
8. You must have an AFA Representative at your competition. We recommend that this person is an AFA committee member or AFA Judge who is not judging. There is a list of suitable people on the AFA Web site (www.flyball.org.au). If you have any problems please contact your Regional Representative for suggestions.
   
9. Contact the AFA Webmaster (webmaster@flyball.org.au) and organise for the preliminary details to be listed on the “Calendar of Events”. The details should include the name of the competition, host club, date, location, competition organiser contact details, closing date for entries, sponsors, Judges, AFA Representative, check-in times, racing start times plus an electronic copy of the entry form and any advertising material/ sponsors logos’.
   
10. Lodge an “Application for an AFA Sanctioned Competition” with the appropriate fee to the AFA. Form C3 is available on the AFA website, and must be lodged at least 60 days prior to the closing date for an unlimited competition and 120 days prior to the closing date for a limited entry competition. The AFA recommends that you lodge your application as early as possible to allow teams to organise holidays and accommodation if necessary. Applications must be approved by the AFA Committee at their regular meetings (usually first Monday of the month) and your Regional Representative will advise you of the outcome.
    
11. Once your competition is sanctioned, there are a number of things that need to be done.

 I have the entries – now what do I do?

1. Check all of the entry forms to ensure that they have all of the required information. If there is any information missing, contact the Team Captain.
   
2. Check all the CRN’s are current members by checking AFA points on the website (Only current members are published). If you have any queries about CRN’s that are not listed on the website, contact your Regional Representative, who will then forward them to the AFA to be checked.
   
3. The AFA has implemented a new seeding policy (effective 1 May 2006). The policy is as follows:
   
   AFA Seeding Policy Teams should be seeded based on the information supplied by the statistics coordinator. This information will be updated on a regular basis and listed on the AFA Seeding web page. Seeding times for a competition will be based on the fastest time recorded by a team during their last three sanctioned competitions and a seed list will be supplied from the latest available data on the 14th day before the competition.
   
    Any times recorded more than 4 months before this date are declared null and void. A declared time, to be used as a seeding time, may be submitted by the team captain at least 14 days prior to the competition, to be accompanied by a written justification for the change in the section of the competition entry form, which may be referred to the committee.
   
    A declared time may be submitted – if it is slower than the teams seeded time it must be at least 1 second slower than that time and is subject to the break-out rule.
   
   Check the AFA website (www.flyball.org.au) for seedtimes of the teams that have entered. If a team has declared a seedtime on the entry form, check it against the list of times that you have taken from the website. If it is a slower time, it must be at least one (1) second slower than the time listed on the website (eg. website time is 25.45 therefore the team must enter a seedtime of 26.45 or slower).
   
4. List the seedtimes from fastest to slowest. It is important not to write the names of the teams in at this stage as that can create bias when breaking the teams into racing divisions.
   
5. Guideline for calculating Divisional Splits. This guideline is designed to assist both Competition organisers and Regional representatives when considering competition Divisional splits. As in any Guideline the specific circumstances of each Competition need to be considered to see if there are any unusual seed time situations that may have an impact – for example an exceptionally wide gap in seed times between the second last and last teams may influence a decision to exclude the last team seed time when applying the Guideline.
   This Divisional Split calculation has been written using a Worked Example (see page 4) that shows sample team seed times. Begin with the seed times in a column (Column A), sorted top to bottom in order fastest to slowest.

• First identify any obvious gaps between seed times for the splits.
  
• Using obvious gaps, the Worked Example produces 5 divisions (see Col A).
  
• In Column B, calculate the difference between team times.
  
• Subtract the fastest time from the slowest time (Worked Example: 28.434 – 17.557 = 10.877).
  
• Divide the difference between the fastest time and the slowest time (Worked Example: 10.877) by the number of divisions you originally estimated – in this case 5. The result is the range (in seconds) of the seedtime for each divison: 10.877 / 5 = 2.1754 in the Worked Example.
  
• In a new Column C, list the seed times again, sorted top to bottom, from fastest to slowest.
• Begin a new Column D, to record the Division Minimums and Maximums as follows:
  
  Adding 2.174 to the fastest time 17.557 = 19.732.  Every seed time under 19.732 falls into Division One.
  
  Adding 2.174 to 20.519 (the lowest seed time after 19.732) = 22.694. Every seed time between 19.732 and 22.694 falls into Division Two.
  
  Adding 2.174 to 23.600 (the lowest seed time after 22.694 = 25.775.  Every seed time between 23.600 and 24.762 falls into Division Three.
  
  Adding 2.174 to 25.826 (the lowest seed time after 25.775) = 28.001.  Every seed time between 25.826 and 28.001 falls into Division Four (25.826 to 27.000). In the worked example, there is only one team with a seed time slower than 28.001 – add this team to Division Four.

Using Division Minimums and Maximums, the result is four divisions, rather than five.  Every division will be racing the same range of times and no division has any advantage over another.  The only exception is the slowest team, which logically should race in the slowest division.

Worked Example:

1. Now that you have the racing divisions, you need to decide a racing format. You should aim for each team to race a minimum of 20 heats up to a maximum of around 30 heats each day of competition. The format will depend on the number of teams in each division and the time available for racing.
   
   The race format may be round robin, single elimination, double elimination or a combination of round robin and elimination / Champion Trophy race format. You also need to determine the number of heats per race (eg. 3 heats, Best 3 of 5 heats or 5 heats). The AFA recommends Best 3 of 5 heat format, especially for events held in the public arena (eg. Nationals, Canberra Royal etc.) Each division can be different, but it is advisable to get the number of heats per team as close as possible. Each team has paid the same entry fee so it is fair that they should expect a similar amount of racing.
   
   Using the Worked Example, the race format could be:
   
   Div 1:                      4 teams => Double Round Robin = 12 races per division = 6 races @ Best 3 of 5 heats = 18-30 heats per team
   
   Div 2, 3 & 4:           5 teams => Double Round Robin = 20 races per division = 8 races @ 3 heats = 24 heats per team
   
2. The proposed racing divisions and formats need to be approved by the AFA no later than 7 days before the competition - contact your Regional Representative – contact details are available on the AFA website.
   
3. Once the AFA has approved the racing divisions and format, it is time to prepare the race schedule. This may look scary, but can be an easy process if you follow a couple of steps.
   
   a) Using the race schedules in the back of the AFA Rule Book, determine how the races for each division will block together. For alternate rounds, the lanes should be switched (eg. In the first round, Team A are in the left lane and Team B are in the right lane, but this would be swapped for the second round to ensure fairness in the racing).
   
   In the Worked Example:
   
   Divisions 1 has double round robin format. Therefore, their races would be as follows:
   
   Round 1                 4v1, 2v3, 1v3, 4v2, 3v4, 1v2
   Round 2                 1v4, 3v2, 3v1, 2v4, 4v3, 2v1 (lanes have been swapped)
   
   
   b) Prepare the race schedule for each division, following the format set in the AFA Rule Book. Using Excel, it is easy to complete using numbers and then when finalized, use “Find and Replace” to replace the numbers with the team names (this saves you having to continually type the names). Colour each of the divisions a separate colour, to assist with the next step.
   
   c) Shuffle together all of the divisions, trying to allow equal spacing throughout the race schedule. For example, if there are 3 teams in a division there needs to be another division race between them as a team cannot race back-to-back.
   
   d) Where possible, block as many races of a particular division together (eg. in a 4 team round robin you can run 2 races in a block, in a 5 team round robin you can run 2 races in a block (with 1 team on a “bye” for that round) and in a 6 team round robin you can run a block of 3 races etc.) as this will assist the Judge and provide fairness in the spacing of the races.
   
   Make any adjustments that will assist with the flow of the competition (eg. avoid a club having to race back-to-back).
   
4. The proposed race schedule must be approved by the AFA your Regional Representative – contact details are available on the AFA website.
   
5. Timesheets: need to print on WHITE Paper only, to make your job easier for your timekeepers we recommend you print time sheets each teams racing schedule, race number and Lane, take care when doing this. There is a page on how to correctly fill in timesheets correctly on the AFA Web site (www.flyball.org.au). To communicate to the Timekeepers which dogs are racing a second timesheet copy can be provided to the Team Captains. To distinguish the difference between the official timesheet and the team timesheet use colour paper for team timesheet copy only.
   
   
6. Stewards: need to contact all your teams and ask for volunteers for Stewarding and timekeeping, Stewards must be over the age of 14 years to be a box or inbound steward & over 16 years of age to be a line steward. For insurance purposes, stewards who are not AFA members must become an honorary member by signing the form C12 (located on AFA website under Forms or supplied by the AFA representative for the day).
   
   We recommend that you try to arrange some stewards from your own Club who are not running dogs.
   
   a) once you have a list of stewards you can make a stewards roster up, using both the volunteers and teams. Try to roster teams on at least 2 races prior to their own races.
   
   b) Timekeepers should read a small page on HOW TO TIMEKEEP, also available on the AFA web site (www.flyball.org.au). We recommend that you have at least one experienced timekeeper. All hand writing must be done clearly and in Blue or Black ink ONLY.
   
7. Measuring & vetting: you must provide an assistant to the Judge/s during measuring with the official AFA Wicket that is provided with every AFA Lights. Find a suitable flat level surface, preferably concrete. If there is no suitable flat surface you must provide a stable flat board. Please make rubber gloves & tissues available to the Judges for vetting.
   
8. First Aid Kit: A first aid kit is supplied with every set of AFA lights for use as required.  Please that a qualified first aider carries out any necessary first aid. At the end of your competition advise your regional rep if any supplies were used so they can arrange replacements.
   
9. Light set up & Spare Parts: the Signature and EJS lights are the most valuable equipment in the AFA. These can only be transported in a vehicle. Set up of the lights must be done by a Judge or persons who have full knowledge of the system.
   
   a) If you are using the Signature Lights you must purchase 40 x AA quality alkaline batteries & 1 X 9 Volt batteries. You will also require 240volts main power for the timing display board.
   
   b) The night before the competition you must charge the 2 x Signature Tree lights (left & right lane) using the 240 volt charger available in the cases. Make sure the light trees are set to “off” before starting to charge. You know it is charging when the green light flashes. Don’t charge for more than 8 hours.
   
   c) Ensure that a qualified person (preferably the person who set them up) supervises the packing of the lights at the end of a competition. This will ensure all the parts are returned correctly and the light trees are turned off.
   
   d) The lights are supplied with basic spare parts. If any of the spare parts are used at a competition please advise your AFA Rep so they can replace used parts.
   
   e) All the lights come with tag and tested electrical equipment, and a surge breaker.  Do not use any other equipment with the AFA owned lights. If you require further equipment contact your Regional Rep. When setting up all electrical leads at a competition please comply with the OH&S policy within your state.
   
10. Ring Set up: the full requirements are listed on the AFA web site (www.flyball.org.au). Your Judge(s) are required to assist and supervise the ring set up as well as check the ring set up to ensure it is correct prior to racing.
    
    a) the markings inside the ring must be clear We recommend white line marking paint be used. The position of each jump, box, start line must be marked.
    
    b) distance tapes must be then placed on the right hand side of each lane, a reasonable safe distance, and must be anchored at least every 3 – 5 foot.
    
11. The end of your competition: Now you have successfully run a competition it is vital that you collect all timesheets, and reports. Ensure your AFA rep and Judges & team captains have signed these.
    
    

    • Your Judges reports must be returned to the AFA within 48hrs after your competition and it is the Judges responsibility to do this.
      
      
    • Send the results including placing, seed times and fastest times to the webmaster, along with any photos of the day within 48 hrs of competition completion. This is vital to assist the seed times for the following competitions. (See No 3 on now I have entries what do I do?)
      
      
    • Use the AFA Title Points Workbook to add up AFA title points from the timesheets. This will sort the points and add them up for the individual dogs. The workbook can be found on the AFA web site (www.flyball.org.au). Please download a new version of the workbook after each competition to ensure you are using the current version, as it is updated on a regular basis. The workbook is based on an excel spreadsheet, and comes with instructions on how to fill it out correctly. If you are having trouble with it, contact the AFA webmaster for assistance.
      
      
    • Return the workbook via email to the AFA webmaster within 14 days of your competition.
      
      
    • Your EJS levy, original timesheets and the C6 Honorary members form must also be sent to the AFA via mail to the AFA PO Box within 14 days of your competition, or penalty fees will apply.
      
      FINAL CHECKLIST
      

• EJS / Signature Lights – must be charged the night before for 6 to 8 hours.
• Batteries for lights – purchase 40 x AA quality batteries & 1 x 9 volt for remote control.
• Extension cord x 2  & 2 x power boards are currently provided by the AFA (The AFA recommends that you do NOT run power cords down the centre of the ring & speaker to be on timing table facing competitors in line up).
• Metal tape measures (50-100ft) are supplied by the AFA and are kept in the bag with leads etc.
• EJS box Spare fuses in box
• Fencing, Pickets and caps, Rope, & cable ties
• 3 x Cabana for timekeepers table Timing Table and 2 for the dogs waiting to enter the ring
• Lamp for timekeepers table if twilight comp
• 5 x Umbrella’s for the Stewards
• Marker Paint for ground
• Dog Pools
• Bucket of water near ring
• Backing boards
• Signage for sponsors
• Jumps & Jump pads (optional)
• Stewards flags x 5 & Stop watches x 2 (spare)
• AFA Official Wicket kept with the AFA lights, rubber gloves & tissues for vetting
• P.A. & speaker
• Pooper scooper, bucket & poo bags
• 2 x distance tapes, pegs (should be pegged every 7 ft)
• Judges Peg stand & flag for indicating next teams may enter ring
• Microphone for Judge, if available with spare 9v battery
• Folders and official timesheets
• Pens, tape, scissors, markers etc.
• Lollies and drinks for timing table

Forms:

• Blank Honorary member form
• Blank Timesheet form
• Blank Height Card forms
• Copies of AFA Flyer available from web.
• Blank Judges Report form
• Record Run Forms

Before:

• Confirm EJS/Signature arrangement with previous host club comp.
• Prepare Official Timesheets,  folders and timesheets for teams use
• Prepare Catalogue
• Notify clubs about parking & distribute entry passes etc. A map can be placed on the AFA website
• Locate nearest Vet & find out opening hours
• Organise lunch & refreshments for Judges & officials
• Organise publicity (local papers, flyers etc).
• Organise gifts for Judges & officials
• Pick up prizes from sponsors & organise prizes for handlers and boxloaders
• Package raffles prizes

Day Before:

• Charge the Signature Light – Left & right part of the Light tree using chargers available in each case and charge between 6-8 hours no more then 12 hours, over night is sufficient.

  On the Day:

• Set up ring & timing gear (test it)
• Set up signage for sponsors on inside of ring.
• Organise a helper with official timesheets for the Judges when measuring & vetting dogs.
• Organise speaker for P.A. to communicate Flyball to the public.
• Organise official’s lunches and refreshment
• Thank Judges, Timekeepers & AFA Rep
• Esky of drinks located at timekeepers table plus lolly box
• Sell raffle tickets
• Organise prize table
• Clean up site at the end of the day

Afterwards:

• Email results within 48 hours including placing, fastest & seed times to the AFA webmaster plus photos if available.
• Download the latest version of the Points workbook from AFA website.
• Complete Points workbook as per official timesheets and then email to AFA webmaster.
• Complete competition results form C6
• Forward competition results form C6, original timesheets, any other incident report, Honorary
• Member form and EJS levy to the AFA PO Box within 14 days.
• Send post event news releases
• Thank you letter to sponsor

Guidelines for hosting Australian National Flyball Championships - pdf document

Welcome to making your submission for hosting the Australian National Flyball Championship, we are offering you some guidelines to follow to help with your submission.