OKDIA - Strategic Roadmap - 2015-2024

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Hopefully by now all financial members of our Australian Association have received notice of this document circulated by the OKDIA Secretary on 29 May 2014. This is a very positive step from OKDIA formalising a policy document covering matters that have been discussed at the AGMs over the past couple of years or so.

A committee of four of the OKDIA executive have spent much of their valuable professional time summarising this data and preparing the document for distribution to member countries for subsequent feedback. Each member country has been requested to initiate discussion from their members and to submit a summary of comments for a Special General Meeting that is to be held at the European Championships in Germany next month. Approval in principle is to be sought by the OKDIA executive to proceed with further processing of the Strategic Roadmap for formal presentation of the document to the 2014 Melbourne AGM.

NSW Association members will have the opportunity of discussing the matter at our AGM next Saturday 7 June at Wangi and all members are encouraged to attend. No doubt our Victorian and South Australian Associations will also make suitable arrangements to initiate discussion with their members. The GBR Association has already posted the details of the Strategic Roadmap on their website and has invited comments to be posted from members on their forum.

This posting will provide the opportunity for Australian Association members to submit comments and this may assist our National Committee with their response to OKDIA for the July Special General Meeting..

There is much detail in the OKDIA proposals and all Australian Association members should take the necessary time to read the document and consider the matters covered.

In an association such as ours, a group of people enjoying our sport sailing one of the best boats ever, we tend to take many things for granted. The contributions of our committee members over many years have been enormous. We have been very fortunate to have many professional people offer their services freely to our amateur associations over the past 50 years or so. It is now timely to initiate changes to the way we operate. Please give this some serious thought!

My thoughts are that much of the policy detail has been developed from the operations of the very successful International Finn Association. Have a look at how the Finn Association works via their great website; www.finnclass.org

The Finn class now has a membership of around 50 member countries with around 1800 personal members. The current member fee is Euro 25 per person.

[Deleted]

Jun 3, 2014 18:09:09 GMT 10 @aus692 said:

Hopefully by now all financial members of our Australian Association have received notice of this document circulated by the OKDIA Secretary on 29 May 2014. This is a very positive step from OKDIA formalising a policy document covering matters that have been discussed at the AGMs over the past couple of years or so.

A committee of four of the OKDIA executive have spent much of their valuable professional time summarising this data and preparing the document for distribution to member countries for subsequent feedback. Each member country has been requested to initiate discussion from their members and to submit a summary of comments for a Special General Meeting that is to be held at the European Championships in Germany next month. Approval in principle is to be sought by the OKDIA executive to proceed with further processing of the Strategic Roadmap for formal presentation of the document to the 2014 Melbourne AGM.

NSW Association members will have the opportunity of discussing the matter at our AGM next Saturday 7 June at Wangi and all members are encouraged to attend. No doubt our Victorian and South Australian Associations will also make suitable arrangements to initiate discussion with their members. The GBR Association has already posted the details of the Strategic Roadmap on their website and has invited comments to be posted from members on their forum.

This posting will provide the opportunity for Australian Association members to submit comments and this may assist our National Committee with their response to OKDIA for the July Special General Meeting..

There is much detail in the OKDIA proposals and all Australian Association members should take the necessary time to read the document and consider the matters covered.

In an association such as ours, a group of people enjoying our sport sailing one of the best boats ever, we tend to take many things for granted. The contributions of our committee members over many years have been enormous. We have been very fortunate to have many professional people offer their services freely to our amateur associations over the past 50 years or so. It is now timely to initiate changes to the way we operate. Please give this some serious thought!

My thoughts are that much of the policy detail has been developed from the operations of the very successful International Finn Association. Have a look at how the Finn Association works via their great website; www.finnclass.org

The Finn class now has a membership of around 50 member countries with around 1800 personal members. The current member fee is Euro 25 per person.

Bill, thats all great BUT the "road map" has not been circulated very wide in Australia.
Is it possible to get put it up on the web, with comments from the Aust Committee as to what we can do here in Australia and where we, the Australian members can send our comments too

[Deleted]

This matter was discussed at our NSW Association AGM on 7 June. I've not seen any feedback from other members since then so it seems that everyone must be happy with everything as proposed in the document. This may or may not be so but nevertheless our AGM did indicate that those present were in favour of the general principles outlined in the Strategic Roadmap.

The meeting accepted that none of the proposals outlined in the roadmap can be implemented without sufficient funding. It was agreed that the plan to increase member countries affiliation fees payable to OKDIA each year needs to be approved before any positive outcomes can be achieved from policies suggested in the roadmap.

It is my personal view that the suggested figure of GBP15 per individual member from member countries is a good place to start so hopefully this initial hurdle can be cleared so that the OKDIA committee can get on with the job. The other proposals for possible income streams can be pursued further if considered appropriate as time and circumstances allow. There is just no point in getting bogged down with specific pros and cons at this time.

I also agree that the plan to move towards a paid Class Manager has considerable merit. Hopefully this objective can be achieved within the 10 year time frame if member countries can accept the overall objectives of OKDIA's endeavours. Over the next few years it would seem appropriate to adopt a "pay as we go" policy for the necessary professional skills required to achieve our various short term objectives.

Most members seem to agree that better promotion of our class activities is of major importance. An upgrade of our OKDIA website and an OK dinghy class magazine are worthwhile projects. The OKDIA committee obviously has the people skills available to proceed with these tasks so members need to understand that it does cost money to pay for the necessary professional services needed to get what we want.

Our technical overhaul tasks face similar time and skills requirements. Again, we have the people skills available to rewrite the Constitution and to proceed with a rewrite of the Class Rules to be ERS compliant but these will both be extremely time consuming exercises. There is no way that OKDIA could afford to pay anyone their professional worth to do these jobs but the establishment of acceptable honorariums for certain tasks might be considered appropriate if this could help to achieve the desired results.

There is always a risk that this kind of thinking could get some older members "offside". Many of us have already given much voluntary time and skills in service to our various associations over the past 50 years or so whilst also working in full time jobs. However, times have changed so maybe we just have to get over this!

As I have previously mentioned there is much for members to consider in this document. It is quite clear that it will mean many different things to many different people. For the time being we need to put first things first and ensure that we can progress the matter through to the next level.

As an Honorary Life Member of the International OK Association of Australia I encourage our association executive to support the general principles of the OKDIA Strategic Roadmap 2015-2024.

Cheers, Bill.

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Well put Bill

It is hard to argue against paying a little more if there is value given. As you say, we have had great service for free for a long time but we are now moving in new times. And we really only get what we pay for! I have only been in the class for 25 years, but would love to see it continue to grow and would love to see it rival the Finn class in terms of presentation and recognition.
We have a great product and I think that the Strategic Roadmap provides a positive direction for ensuring our continued prominence as a world class dinghy association.