Festival Update – Changes to the Schedule
A hugely successful trio of return to flyball competitions at the weekend presented a golden opportunity for the Committee to engage directly with the membership and gain feedback on the format and scheduling of this year’s Festivals. Problems of training, the uncertainty caused by the covid restrictions and the lockdown extension has meant that many clubs are not in a position to enter teams into open competition for a variety of reasons. In order to fulfil on our promise of making this year’s events as inclusive as possible, so as many people can enter as possible, and have as much fun as possible, we are going to have a re-think how the format and scheduling of these events can be reconfigured to increase accessibility to the members who currently feel unable to attend.
Provisionally we are considering holding more fun (non-sanctioned) events and training, and sanctioned racing may be over 2 days for Indoor instead of 3 and an option to opt out of ST round and declare for just the RR competition at Outdoors, meaning less time off work required. We are also looking at increasing the capacity for singles and pairs racing and the possibility of a Hybrid racing competition, where dogs from different primary clubs could race together (this would be a separate competition from open and be non-sanctioned) and held as normal RR on Sat; full details TBC.
It is important that these events are supported as strongly as possible by the membership and we are doing all we can to provide a solid base on which to build our return to flyball, so the BFA and all our normal expectations of flyball are here and available to you when everyone is fit and ready to come back – your BFA needs your support, so if you haven’t entered yet, please don’t lose the date in your diaries and watch this space for an update on the opportunities to come and race at what will undoubtedly be a couple of weekends to remember, a chance to re-connect with the flyball community and all of your friends, help assure the future of the Association, and take part in a unique flyball experience.
We would like to say a massive thank you to all the teams who have already shown their support and entered – your loyalty and commitment is thoroughly appreciated, your places are assured, just please bear with us for a short while as we reconfigure the running order of events over the 2 weekends.
If you have any other good ideas please email bfachamps@gmail.com before 5 July so we can take them under consideration.