NL finals dinner

[Ben]

Saturday night, 5 June, 6.30-9pm, $15 per person.

A fundrasing dinner is being held at QEII on the Saturday night of NL finals. It will be similar to last year with the BBQ going, salads, pasta bakes, roast vegetables and dessert, some sort of liquid refreshments will also be available.

Both grades run late into Saturday night so be aware it may be the best opportunity to get a good meal that night. The dinner runs over 2 1/2 hours so your digestion doesn't mess with your games.

It is limited to 100 tickets so please respond asap, you MUST confirm by end of Thursday, 3rd of June. Money will be exchanged for tickets on the Saturday. To confirm email b.leith@phys.canterbury.ac.nz (b.leith@phys.canterbury.ac.nz) or call (03) 3481001 and tell the answer machine.

Money raised will help fund the Christchurch-based National Team members who will be travelling to Japan in July to compete in the World Championships.

[vish]

Why isn't it an opportunity for all national squad members to get some financial assistance? This is the National League we are talking about here, with a bunch of both representative and non-representative athletes who are struggling financially. We all understand the struggle that our athletes face in going overseas.

I personally find it irritating enough that the National league finals are being held in Christchurch for the third time in a row, without a fundraising dinner being held solely for the benefit of Christchurch National Squad members. If there's an opportunity to see money going towards all squad members, I would rather support that initiative.

[Ben]

It was agreed by the NZ Squad at one of the training camps to split all player-initiated fundraising into the various regions. This decision was made to help motivate players to fundraise more as the results can be seen more directly and it is easier to organise.

The dinner, as I understand it, is not an official part of NL finals. We simply asked if, as part of our fundraising, we could run a dinner. There is nothing to stop players from other regions running similar fundraising ventures at NL finals as far as I know. Obviously it is easier for us to organise the dinner as we are based in Christchurch but that is just the way it worked out, we certainly had no say in that decision, I assume it was made by NZCPA. Hopefully the travel equalisation takes some of the sting out.

Last year the agreement amongst the players was to fundraise on a national basis (team based perhaps, can't remember...) and the chch players ran the dinner for the benefit of all the national team members. We are more limited down here in our ability to run fundraising tournaments, etc, due to the limited number of teams in the sth island and nth islanders understandable unwillingness to travel down here to often. Therefore we thought this was a good opportunity to run a fundraiser.

[becks.c]

You raise a good point Vashti, and I agree in theory.

However I regret to inform you experience has shown us that collective fundraising just isn't as effective. It pretty much ends up being the same people doing most of the work, with a few helpers plus a few complete bludgers. And this sort of situation just isn't good for squad morale.

Good on the ChCh people for taking the initiative and organising a dinner - for $15 for desert and dinner - and the convienience, you can't really beat it!

- And really, at $15 per ticket with only 100 tickets - even if they could make $10 a ticket (which I seriously doubt - more like $5) divided across the whole squad that would be $1000 divided by around 20 people. Unfortunately not much incentive for those bludgers to help out - and even less for those who would be doing most of the work!!

On another note, after the fantastic barbeque at Atahua - which was value for money in the extreme - the ChCh people have big boots to fill!

[JenniG]

Don't forget - Inter-regionals is in Auckland this year, giving Auckland players a chance to do the same thing.

[JenniG]

Hi National League Players,

Tickets for the dinner are selling fast so get in quickly to be guaranteed a meal!!

Jenni