After reading the post on the wave Nationals it seems like we have an issue with the future of organised events.

I can only congratualte the volounteers that run AKSA on running events like the nationals. It is the concept of volunteers that i believe is the problem with the future of the sport.

How can we expect the sport to flourish if it is run by volounteers who have to do it after their day job in their spare time. If you have ever read any info on running a business there is a saying that if run a business in your spare time or on a part time basis YOU WILL ALWAYS HAVE A PART TIME BUSINESS. The same can be said for kitesurfing. The sport cannot progress if we have part time people running it.

My concern when the Aksa sarted being diluted to state level associations was that Aksa would lose the direction and the drive of a focussed organisation.

It now seems like the funds generated from memebrship are spread thinly across the country.

A possible solution .....get a subsatantial chunk on the AKSA income to fun some full time professionals who can promote and manage the sport full time.

It took surfing( and other sprts)a while to adopt this strategy of actually employing to develop the sport.

Why not learn from those successful models and get our sport on track to the level it should be....

Any way my thoughts on this for today

Do you think our sport is suffering from a lack of direction and promotion.

Chers Bruce Exton - Its extreme Cairns

Bruce,

Not speaking as a part of WAKSA. I do agree, the difficulty is that despite all the funding state based clubs and AKSA receives, it is very difficult to fund a full time individual. After all you are talking something like $60k per annum (incl overheads and expenses). Although as the sport grew it would start to generate income and events would generate further income.

I know of a couple of events coming up in the next 1-2 years that could generate cash and would require a Manager probably close to full time for 6 months but they are not exactly lucrative.

We are seeing this move happening though with judges being paid. At the same time volunteer numbers on committees are very tight and under pressure. Some incentives will have to come out for volunteers in the next 1-2 years IMHO as the profile of the sport increases. In addition sponsors, insurers, government bodies and competitors are alll expecting more and more which is killing the volunteers as it requires too much work.

I don't think everybody realises just how much work happens before the event to get it off the ground. I would say WAKSA spent in the order of 500 man hours preparing for Kitestock, not including the time up there.

Good thread though!

I do a lot of work for the Surfing Association of PNG we just recently ran our first ever national titles. it took a team of volunteers nearly a year to make it the success that it was. The amount of work the event generated (the amount of time it took away from our paid jobs and families) has made us realise that if we want to continue to build the sport and to develop the infrastructure while maintaining the high standards we have set, we need a paid secretariat.

The roll of the secretariat is not to make decisions but to simply manage the day to day work created by the national association. paying bills, looking after all the correspondence, helping out surfing tourists stuck at the airport etc.

Fortunately for us we have an existing business model and very good corperate sponsors that will allow the national association to fund the a full time secretarait. Not to mention our wages wont be as big as you would pay in australia.

With a full time position our clubs, their members, the tourists and the business that rely on those tourists will benifit as national association will be more capable of attending to all their needs.

Once established we believe that we will have greater credibility within the broader business community which will open up many more opportunities for us.

There are so many benifits, just have to work out how you would fund the position and the specific role it would play within the AKSA.

I thinks its great that the kitestock is so successful but how long does one stay enthusiastic for when donating theri time for free.
After running 4 years of kiteweek my enthusiasm has run out and yes there is no kiteweek this year.

As one of the posts says that the future of competitions is based on sponsorship ....my point is that to get the sponsorship rquire a lot of co - ordination and effort - a full time sport dveloper type person could chase that down.

wouldnt the role of the national body be to organise things at a national level? National titles, National rankings, National judging standards, National teaching standards, insurance for all its members etc

Wouldnt Beach access and local comps be more siuted to local level organisations like state associations and regional clubs? where they are able to deal directly with the council and their specific laws.

quote:

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Originally posted by kitesuffer


I don't give a rat's fundament about competitions. I am no longer an AKSA member because I believe they should be spending the money generated in membership dues on fighting for access to beaches, safety(like signs)/insurance of their members and promoting social events to instill a sense of community.

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well thats a bit stupid, seeing as WAKSA spends pretty much all their time and money on beach access and events for members at a social level.

the sport is growing due to its fun and addictive nature! what interest do current kiters have in promoting the sport to the masses - there are already enough kiters at Perths main kiting beaches and while there is no reason that we couldn't share it with more users - why put effort into promoting it to them?

WAKSA's AGM is scheduled for 16 March. At the AGM the budget and accounts are available. Any member wishing to attend a meeting and seeing how we spend our $ is welcome. Please contact [email protected] and we will advise of a meeting time/location.

I will speak to the committee about posting last years accounts somewhere so members can see where WAKSA does spend it money as I believe this is a good transparent thing. However we are not interested in displaying our accounts to non-members.

As a committee member of WAKSA I can assure you very little of the budget goes to exclusive competitions. WAKSA does fund the state titles though, which are open to anyone/everyone.

WAKSA shall post a reply about our spending, but you'll have to be patient as many of us are taking a break post Kitestock.

brooksy

quote:

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Originally posted by Bigwavedave
Most of the $65 AKSA membership goes to the state associations to fund the promotion of safe kiting, competitions and maintain access to beaches. What remains pays the insurance premiums and the operating costs of websites, advertising etc.

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$30 out of $65 goes to AKSA, that's 46% of the fee.

In 2004/2005, 30% of expenditure (approx $10,000) was paid to individual AKSA "volunteers", to run the organisation, organise the nationals and develop competition.

http://www.aksa.com.au/docs/AnnualReport0405.pdf

WAKSA's reason for existing is insurance brokering and social-butterfly party-planning.
Other duties include being an Industry tool and paper-tiger stuff.
It's probably a thankless job.

I have to admit I tend to agree with many of kitesuffers sentiments. I was actually a cofounder of AKSA, myself and others formed it to help maintain access to beaches, particularly Melb and Syd at the time.
Over time we raised quite a bit of money, at the time I stood down there was approx $45k in the bank. Most of that money was spent on the State assocs and comps I beleive, and has included paying some people to help those things happen.

I disagree strongly that we need "traditional one person is the champ for the year" type competitions at all!
I disagree strongly that this sort of comp does anything really good for the sport in terms of sustainable promotion or growth, or that the marginal growth and promotion created by traditional comps is desirable anyway.

Every kiter promotes this sport, it is the common everyday kiter that kites in places where they are seen by others that has contributed massively (way more than all comps worldwide) to the growth of the sport.

AKSA's focus should be on the sustainable, credible marketing of the sport, and to procure worthwhile PL insurance for the States and members. All local issues should be dealt with by the States.

Someone from AKSA could verify what the actual numbers of competitors for the Wavenats was, but I would guess no more than 40 combined.???

How much did it cost to do it? How many members of AKSA are there?
What percentage of revenue of AKSA is spent on comps for what percentage of AKSA members??

Its an interesting question, and needs a public answer I think.

Do we really need to follow other sports and name someone "the best" for one year?

Would we be better off with AKSA spending funds on lots of fun local events, like big air comps, freestyle, etc (like I see WAKSA doing) where kiters will socialise and messages about safety and access can be spread???

I think so.

Cya and

Goodwinds

Steve

My two cents worth,
Events are for fun.....well, that's how I see them now. I'm not interested in big business getting involved for the future growth of the sport, it's just not needed. Screw that, that's just all about money. What's needed is people to start "giving back" to the sport just because they want to rather than expecting and just taking. That takes maturity in the individual and will come with time for some for others you will just die a 14 year old spoilt brat in a 70yr old's body.[}:)]

Sounds like we are trying to prove that kitings cool or something. Kiting is fun! and people will see that and get involved in it because it's fun. We don't have to prove how "extreme" it is, because if you want extreme then it has no limits. That element is already there. Anyone seen the kite skiing stuff down mountains with only apparent wind?.

I had a vision for my last event and thought up kitestock at Pt Gregory for one purpose and that was to bring everyone together that kites, get them insured and just enjoy the fact that we all think kiting is fun because I'm not doing it anymore; I wanted to share that experince and see it go on.

Kitestock is a success because it's underlying philosophy was "come all and just enjoy". It was then up to industry itself to realise that "hey, here's an opportunity to peddle our wares to a hundred Kiters!" and you see as a result, ALL benefit rather than an exclusive rich few who have been able to finance their progress through kiting because they can simply afford more water time than others. Again, sadly, money, money, money.

Let's face it they have all they need already so lets get the gifts from industry down the food chain and tell industry what kiting wants rather than it being the other way around. Enough on my hot air on elitist 5 liners

Kitestock was just awesome (so I heard) I reckon It's a success because the people involved in at are volunteers and believe the sport is fun and like sharing that experience with others. Not to mention, bloody good organisational skills to boot. THEY should be the fully sponsored crew for their gear and get priority right of way in the waves!. All free gear, black kites and cool helmets for all committee members I say!.

I love events for catching up with everyone and just enjoying the beach, the waves, the wind with others that are like minded.

When the focus shifts too much to competition it becomes a bit elitist and shy's away the majority of people who are in it for fun from events. Let's face it, we have enough entertainment value out there in the world, kiting should be interactive rather than simply spectator value as surfing events are now. That won't get people into it as much as seeing a hundred half experts smiling and enjoying the fact that it's just fun. That's how a sport grows - through participation.

Anyway, volunteerings the stuff, and I thoroughly encourage all of you to just put your hand up once, just once and give a hand. Even if you only want to butter the bread at the sausage sizzle. That's one less job for the event organiser to stress about. You WILL be appreciated!.

For all those that know my history in events, I'm still scheming something new up here, just having a break to re-focus on family and what all this kiting thing is really about for me.

FUN.

Stay tuned, 2009/2010 Something big a happening up north for ALL to enjoy (If wife, son and WAKSA let me).

Keep it real, it's about keeping the sport open on beaches, safe and fun for all.

quote:

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Originally posted by waveslave
lol.
Volunteers can often be real good value.
But sometimes it pays off getting the experts on the job.
Take WAKSA's official webpage for example....
hahaha

Did the el cheapo web-designer get the letterhead wrong ??
Oh my.

Or maybe the club is called 'West' Australian Kitesurfing Association on purpose ?
Maybe the omission of 'Western' was intentional......
so as to portray a more trendyish corporate identity,
rather than the nerdy image of a not-for-profit amateur sporting group ?

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Bit below the belt "Wave" considering you know nothing about the person who did the website?

Maybe the ommission of 'Western' was intentional, like West Australian Symphony Orchestra
www.waso.com.au/ or West Australian Newspapers
www.thewest.com.au/ or West Australian Opera Company
www.waopera.asn.au/

Try and keep the thread on track with constructive comments rather than resorting to personal insults.

Thank you.

get that profit happening, i say more members nights at the bistros!

it's a silly little watersport!

lets have some fun clubwise! beers, fishermans baskets, horizontal bungee jumping.

enjoy.

It's a simple question.
I put it to WAKSA.

Why is it called 'West' instead of 'Western' ?
Was the webpage letterhead purposely sexed-up or was it a genuine mistake??
If it was a volunteers mistake....then so be it.

If the name was sexed-up intentionally for some corporate reason....
then the club needs to be reminded that its status is not-for-profit association.

Anyhow,
seabreeze.com.au needs to know.
The forum refers to WAKSA as the 'Western' Australian Kitesurfing Association.

Kiterdan,
You crack me up.
lol.
By the way, I like your avatar.
Are you changing your tampon in that photo ?
hahahah