Dragon Boat NSW Inc
Annual General Meeting – Wednesday 30th July, 2003
Attendees:
Will Deusien
Dianne Nguyen
Tony Chan
Alison Badger
Justin Barrett
Chris Frawley
Khuong Lac
Nancy Sue
Jacqueline Li
Julie Soon
Hoang Dang
William Kwok
Hana Vong
Leon Paap
Jay McNeill
Jackie Yen
Gloria Ma
Nigel Chung
Tanya White
George Louie
Anne Gates
Lynn Flanagan
Grant Billen
Charlotte Osmen
Rob Turnbull
Stephen Dawes
Steve Davidson
Melanie Cantwell
Pendragon Panthers
Corvu
Corvu
Tsunami
Sloths
Sloths
CCA
CCA
ACCA
ACCA
VSA
VSA
VSA
Mavericks
Mavericks
CYL
CYL
CYL
DSA
DSA
Sydney DA
NHDBC
PD’s
SDB
SDB
NHDBC
Snatch
PDs
Presidents Report
I thought 2001/2002 Season was good, but the 2002/2003 season was awesome.
The sport of Dragon Boats is really starting to come into its own now both in New South
Wales and Australia. I am very proud to be associated with this sport, It’s amazing to think
through hard work and having the support of all the members to look back at where we have
come from and what we have been able to achieve today. And I look forward to being of an
exciting future over the next 4 years.
I will start out by thanking all the Board members for their tireless work and for putting up
with all my demands and nagging. I will make a special mention of Steve Dawes who without
fail never misses a meeting and drives down for Newcastle on top of his commitment to the
Australian team training.
I would like to make mention and thank the following people for their contributions during
the season:
 Steve Davidson and Gavin Godfrey for taking on the sweeping accreditation duties.
 Steve Davidson for assisting me with all the insurance matters
 Karen Chan and Anthony Mak for upgrading the website and keeping it updated
 Anne Weber for co-ordinating all the sweeps for CNY and Corp Games
 Chris Moran and Kit Chan for taking turns to coach Glebe High School during school
sport.
 To the guys at PDs for improving the boat ramp
 Stephanie Jacques and Tanya White for organising the NSW State Uniforms
 To my family for being my never-ending support and sounding board when I needed.
Especially my dad who I continually have running errands for me or fixing up things
at the office. There are so many things my family does painting the heads and tails,
race officials etc, there seems to be a time when they are not there.
 I would like to thank Samantha Tong for agreeing to finalise the books and prepare
the books for the audit for the AGM.
I would also like to thank the Deputy Principal at Sydney Secondary College, Blackwattle
Bay Campus, and Mr Hywell Lewis-Jones for finally giving our sport a home and being
very supportive and encouraging.
DBNSW has a great relationship with all the suppliers we currently use, and this makes
everybody’s job a whole easier.
1. Clubs/Development
I am totally blown away by the fact that we managed to get 6 new clubs start up in
one season: - Hunters Hill, Illawarra Dragons Abreast Ladies, Vietnamese Student
Association, Central Coast Seadragons, Sydney Dragons Abreast and Village Vikings
(Sydney University Village). Admittedly it has stretched our resources, but it is
fantastic to see the sport growing.
2. NSW State Crews / Nationals
I have to say after watching QLD clean up in 2002, I was so very proud of the
way all the NSW crews performed in Adelaide. Yes it was fantastic to win and
see NSW back on top, but more than that was the camaraderie and goodwill I
witnessed between the 5 clubs and others who were in Adelaide. We may all paddles
for different clubs in Sydney, but it was refreshing to see all the clubs supporting and
cheering each other on during the 3 days.
The NSW crews finished in the top 4 places in the men’s, women’s, and mixed.
500m Mixed, - Sloth’s, PDs, Gold Coast, DSA
Open – Snatch, Heatherbrae, Sloths
Women’s – Gold Coast, Sloths
250m Mixed – Gold Coast, PDs, DSA, Sloths
Open - Snatch, Heatherbrae, Gold Coast, Sloths
Women’s – Gold Coast, Sloths
Oops I had better not forget the 1000m races in those torrid conditions, which was
won by another NSW crew – PDs.
And of course with NSW taking out the State Series in Open, Women’s and mixed.
But better than NSW 2nd team finished 3rd and got a medal which was awesome. And
the 2nd open team narrowly missed winning the minor final
Now all we need to work on is getting a masters and dragons abreast team to
Nationals to make it a clean sweep.
NSW certainly made all the other States sit up and take notice, I had a never-ending
array of compliments over the weekend at the standard of crews coming from NSW.
And that goes simply to YOU ALL. The standard of racing in NSW has increased ten
fold in all categories, and that showed through at the Nationals.
NSW is very lucky in that we have lots of competition, so it never gets boring, and
you guys always want to knock each other off.
The individual selection of paddlers, I have to say worked extremely well. Over the
12 months I think all those that were involved would say they enjoyed having the
opportunity to mix with other paddlers from other clubs, and it provided NSW with
the best opportunity to field the strongest crews in all categories. Whilst it would have
been nice to have more people try out, the paddlers that did were/are very committed
and that showed through.
I would like to encourage as many clubs to get over to Perth for April 2004, but I also
know with the Nationals in Canberra in 2005, I believe every single club in NSW
should be going to that.
I would like to thank Gavin Godfrey, Linda Ng, Will Deusien and Chris Frawley
Who put a lot of time and energy into the State Crews, and their efforts were certainly
rewarded. I would also like to thank George Louie and Carlos Ung who were able to
help the coaches out by taking on the 2nd mixed and open crews.
I should just mention the following clubs are represented in the Australian Team:
PDs, Sloths, DSA, CYL, Corvu, SDB, NHDBC, Snatch, Port Hacking, Pendragons,
Sydney Tsunami, Mavericks. (I look forward to seeing more paddlers involved in
future years to come).
All in all it was a fantastic effort by everyone in this state.
3. Boats/Equipment
 We managed to buy 5 sets of training paddles to use for training corporate





teams and community events (4 sets are in Sydney and the 5th the Illawarra
Ladies are borrowing)
We bought another 4 life jackets (bringing our total to 10)
We hired another boat from Trevor Brown to alleviate the burden on the boats at
Glebe
We have put in an order to build another 3 new Race 1 boats, which will be ready for
the beginning of next season (bringing the total to 6 race boats)
We purchased 3 carbon fibre paddles for the State/Australian team to try out.
We purchased a Cox Vox System (same as what rowers use) for the State/Australian
team to use overseas. This will belong to DBNSW so the State teams will be able to
use it at National Titles.
4. Events
Again we had a huge season as far as this goes, kicking off with the Ryde Aquatic
Festival in Sept, which saw a record number of teams enter. Followed closely by
The Dobroyd Derby (hosted by DSA), the Concord event (hosted by Corvu),
Roseville (hosted by Mav’s) then Newcastle Maritime Festival (which also had
record number of teams).
Then on to CNY, which again had record number of teams, and I think for me the
highlight was seeing 100 pink ladies on the water, something I would like to see
happen again. I would like to thank everybody for the co-operation from all the clubs
for this event, this a huge event logistically to organise.
Then it was on to Shellharbour Festival, which was a great success, And I believe all
the teams that went to the Canberra Festival had a great time as well.
And lastly was the State Titles, whilst a long day, saw some great competition.
This was backed up by all those paddlers helping out at the NSW Corporate Games
(hangovers and all). And lastly whilst some of us were still in Adelaide I hear
everyone enjoyed Dragon Festival as well.
5. Administration
 Thank you to Tanya White for taking over from Linda Dowdall who had to
sadly resign after not being well.
 We have just purchased a database software so all the membership will be
much more streamlined and efficient than has been (labour intensive in the past).
This should cut down the amount of time required to keep the membership up to
date. (I’m very excited about this, as we will be able to run lots of reports from
this).
6. Grants /funding
 NSW Dept of Sport and Rec have given DBNSW a grant to assist with the
building of the boat racks at Glebe High School. (they pay up to 50%).
Steve Dawes has been looking after this and the racks will be installed on
Saturday 09th August 2003. The racks will accommodate up to 12 boats.
 We sent in submissions for the 2003 NSW Sports Awards but didn’t get any
nominations (although fingers crossed we should this year).
 I am also about to send in submissions for the National Community link Awards
 And the NSW Sports Injury Awards
 I have also submitted another grant for $5000 from the government to buy 6 walkie
talkies
7. NSW/Australian team
 DBNSW did buy caps for all State team reps
 and organised State organised Rep certificates through each local council area.
I know some people feel DBNSW should have done more, but it all costs money.
However what we can do is budget the entry fees for the State team into the overall
budget, so that they will be included for future teams.
On the Australian front, DBNSW has been able to support the team as follows
 Buying the trial carbon fibre paddles to trial, organising and getting them shipped out.
 Taken 2 boats out to Penrith for the team to use and do trial races in every month
 Bought a Cox Vox System (same as what the European, Canadian and US teams all
use), helps save the drummers and sweeps voices.
 A box of wax
 A roll of bubble wrap for packing the paddles up to take overseas
 Borrowing 2 EDBF boats from Ray Leung to practise in.
8. Goals/Objectives
 looking back all the objectives we set out we have just about achieved them all.
aside from the sport gaining ASC recognition and Sydney winning the 2007 bid.
 Other than the sport gaining ASC recognition and Sydney winning the 2007 World
Champs, I can’t think of any other objectives for 2003/2004 other than to keep going
forward.
9. World Championships 2007
Briefly this was to be announced at the 5th World Championships which is Shanghai
(now Oct 2004) and the World Nations Championships are still in August, Poznan
2003. IDBF have decided to hold their Council meeting in
Shanghai in October 2003, which is when they will decide who gets 2007.
Jon Taylor, Ray Leung and myself will all be going to Shanghai to do the
presentation. (so fingers crossed).
I would like to thank everyone for making the 2002/2003 season such a success and
Look forward to an even better 2003/2004 season, and would like to wish the
Australian Premier Squad all the very best to bring home the gold!
And to those clubs who earned the spots for the World Clubs Crews in Capetown
(Snatch, Sloths, DSA and PDs, all the best of luck).
If I have forgotten to thank anybody, please accept my apologies, whilst the last 12 months
have gone really quickly, a lot seems to have happened as well, particularly when I have to
sit down and write this and have to try and remember everything over the last 12 months.
I look forward to seeing you all on the water (and I know some of you are already)
in the coming months).
Melanie Cantwell
Administration Report

The 2003 Season welcomed 6 new clubs to DBNSW. These were:
- Hunters Hill
- Illawarra Dragons Abreast
- Vietnamese Students Association
- Central Coast Sea Dragons
- Sydney Dragons Abreast
- Village Vikings (Sydney University)

There were a total 5 DBNSW Inc sanctioned races in 2003, these were:
- Dobroyd
- Concord
- Roseville Bridge
- CNY Darling Harbour
- State Titles, Penrith

The fee structure for the 2003 season was as follows. Please note the previous
and upcoming season structures for comparison
Annual Fees
Membership
Club – Sports
Club – Uni
Club – Dragons Abreast
Individual – Sports
Individual – Uni
Individual – DA
Insurance – All paddlers
Boat Hire – Sports / DA
Boat Hire – Uni
2001/02
550
550
6.00
550.00
330.00
2002/03
550
330
550
22
22
22
6.00
660.00
440.00
2003/04
550
330
330
22
22
22
6.00
660.00
440.00
2001/02
11
22
2002/03
11
22
2003/04
11
22
22
33
22
33
22
33
16.50
16.50
Race Fees
Race Category
Inc races DBNSW member
Inc races - Non DBNSW
member
States – DBNSW Member
States – Non DBNSW
member

The 2004 Season will see the introduction of a new database management
system for DBNSW. Implementation of this system will have the following
benefits:
- Generation of individual paddler ID numbers
- Report generation for points allocation updates throughout the season
- Statistics on paddler demographics
- Income and Expenditure Reports
- Race day participation of individual members and teams
- Historical data going forward
- Suppliers database
Board of Management Elections
The Board of Management for the 2003 / 2004 Season will be as follows:
President - Melanie Cantwell
Admin/Registrar - Tanya White (DSA)
Ordinary Director - Steve Dawes (NHDBC)
Boats/Equipment
Ordinary Director - Diane Nguyen (Corvu)
Communications
Ordinary Director - Thomas Cribbs (Mav's)
Events
Two positions remain open and the Board. If you or someone in your club is
interested in fulfilling the following roles please contact Mel Cantwell or Tanya
White:
Ordinary Director – Coaching
Finance Director
Minutes















Thanks to Steve and all other members who assisted with the cleaning and
repairing of the boats at Glebe
Three more boats have been ordered and should be delivered in October.
Larry resigned in March as Finance Director. Auditors have been in reconcile
the books and we are awaiting final approval
The accounts are now running through MYOB and with the introduction of the
new database software in September all member history will be available.
Sam of Mav’s was suggested as a possible Finance Director. To be confirmed
Selections for Shanghai 2004 will be at the Nationals in Perth, 2004
State Teams should be in place by February 2004
Chris and Wil both very supportive of the Poland campaign and encouraging
other paddlers to try out for team selection in the next Worlds Campaign
JT, Ray Leung and Mel will fly to Shanghai to finalise the Sydney bid for the
2007 Worlds.
The 2007 National titles have been confirmed for Sydney
Nationals will be held in the following states in the upcoming years”
2004 – WA
2005 – ACT
2006 – VIC
2007 – NSW
Rob Turnbull suggested a dragon boat be entered into a Fundraiser for
Wheelchairs in October. It is a 50km up the Nepean River (25km each way).
Mel mentioned issues of insurance and paddler fitness associated with above
Steve Davidson thanked Mel for ongoing dedication and commitment. Echoed
by other attendees – thanks Mel!!
Lyne Flanagan of NHDBC has offered to put together a Level 1 coaching
course specific to Dragon Boating
Meeting Closed