President's AGM Report 2009

Welcome to the 2009 Annual General Meeting of The Bendigo Volleyball Association.

Once again the Association has continued with two men's divisions and two women's divisions. Again much of the credit must go to our Competition Director Tom Stevens. The mixed social division also continues as a successful competition. The end of the Autumn season saw two teams drop out of the Division 2 competition, however two new, one men's and one women's teams joined the Division Two competitions for the Spring Season. The Women's One and Men's One division also added new teams in the Spring Season.

At last year's AGM a forum to discuss the progress of volleyball in Bendigo was announced. This was held in November and a range of matters was raised. A number of these have been acted on, some successfully others not so successful.

Once again congratulations to Sarah Tarquinio and Scott Ross as coaches of the Women's Division 1, and Men's Division 1 teams at CC09.The Men's team won their division while the Women's team was runner up. To all the players who represented the association in these teams we also give our congratulations. Dave Chisholm and Adrian Pearson organised and coached the Division Two Men's and Women's teams respectively. The challenge now is to ensure that we are well represented next year in the La Trobe Valley at CC10. The board continued the practice of paying the expenses of the Coaches and the required Referee. The Board also funded training expenses for the teams. It should be noted that the BVA hosted this year's Country Championships which had been scheduled for the La Trobe Valley, but because of venue availability with renovations could not be held there. Murray Mansfield undertook the position of Tournament Director and he was well supported by a small but strong group of volunteers.

Once again to Tom Stevens my thanks as he continues to have the competition running well. We also pass on our best wishes to Maureen who has not enjoyed the best of health over the last several years. Alan Andrews again looked after the competition while Tom was on leave. Thank you to both Tom and Alan.

The Spikezone competition experimented with a change of time (a result from the Forum) but although initial indications suggested this would be successful, it did not come to fruition. The Spring Season has returned to its normal Sunday evening schedule and is as strong as it was last year. A Spikezone clinic involving a number of schools was conducted in June this year. Hopefully this will see some growth in Spikezone over the next few years. We are also hoping to have another one late this year. Spikezone continues under the direction of Narelle Waldron and Tom assists with refereeing on Sundays. Scott Ross and Bronwyn James organised and conducted a Primary Schools' Zone tournament and the winning teams in the various levels will progress to State Finals later in the year. This was also a great success thanks to the efforts of Scott and Bronwyn. A number of Junior players also participated as referees. I again encourage all senior teams to take an interest in both the Spikezone and the junior divisions.

Another outcome from the forum was the request for coaches clinics. A Level 1 clinic was held with 9 attendees. Unfortunately the Level 0 clinic did not attract enough participants to be conducted.

In two weeks we have our annual Dragon City Tournament, with numbers looking solid. The Second Junior Dragon City Tournament was held on September 13. Twenty eight teams entered including strong numbers from various Melbourne Schools and the Melbourne Academy. A number of teams (Seniors and Juniors) have competed at various competitions throughout Victoria this year. My congratulations to all concerned.

Again many of our juniors represented Victoria and several have represented various Australian teams during the year.

Unfortunately we have lost Janelle Carlier as Association Treasurer due to unfortunate family circumstances and as she has returned home to Canada. Her contributions will be missed.

It is my intention to not seek re-election as President this year and I wish my successor all the best.

My special thanks to Tom Stevens and Murray Mansfield for their on going support and the rest of the members of the Board, including Bronwyn James, Carol McKinstry, Janelle Carlier, Scott Ross, Michelle Mensforth, Taka Hirashima, Don McArthur and Jenny Brown.

Thank you for your support this year.
Geoff Adcock
President Bendigo Volleyball Association and on behalf of the BVA Board members.