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President’s Report
Good day everyone,
I hope you have had a great festive season and wishing you a great 2019!
At our last general meeting in December we talked about and voted on the MOU! While I’ll talk about the MOU itself a bit later on, it was really disappointing to see that many on the night were surprised we were even talking about the MOU let alone voting on it! In a nutshell, the committee use these Committee Reports (website version this season and the PDF season prior) to keep you informed of the WACUA’s important news, issues and announcements. This is our critical communication channel to you so it’s vitally important that those who want to have their say come prepared with the information already shared.
If you do have a spare hour and you haven’t read these reports, I highly recommend that you read not only this one but the ones prior as I’m sure they will answer a question you probably have! A great example of this is those wanting to know about pay rates for this season or how to collect the merchandise you haven’t got yet!
On a completely different topic, I want to just call out that during our ‘break’ we had our Social T20 match. From the verbal feedback I’ve received I believe this event was a great success and I thank everyone who came down and played or watched. Also thank you to my old man Val and the East Fremantle Cricket Club for hosting the event. I believe this will be a regular event on our calendar. If you were there and have some suggestions to make the day better, let us know at secretary@wacua.asn.au.
Here is the latest news and announcements:
- Back to base drinks 2.0: We’re having another back to base Saturday drinks which is where we put on a bar tab after a days play on Saturday. We’ll announce it at our next general meeting (January 15th) so make sure you’re there to find out more about this!
- Collection of Merchandise: A friendly reminder that those who haven’t got their shirt(s), jacket or bag yet can get these at our General Meetings. Earlier this season (October and November) we offered pick up arrangements elsewhere (my place in Melville) but for the sake of simplicity, and avoiding unnecessary confusion where I was wasting evenings waiting for people who didn’t show we’re now only offering the general meetings as a collection point. If this does not work for you, please contact me at president@wacua.asn.au. If you do plan to email me because you cannot make it to any of the meetings for the rest of the season, as a courtesy to me please don’t make the arrangement for collection/drop off on your own… This has sadly happened a couple of times now and it’s not only rude (well I think it is anyway) but I tend to disappoint when someone expects me to be there with their merchandise and I’m at my in-laws having dinner (this happened last month)!
- Memorandum of Understanding:
As mentioned earlier, we’ve got the Memorandum of Understanding with the WACA up for debate at the moment. The committee last season and this season has worked really hard to get this document together with the WACA as we strongly believe it safe guards some of the key arrangements we have with them that have currently been implemented with no more than a handshake deal. Examples being our ability to negotiate pay rates, the WACA membership incentive program, the WACA supporting the Olly Cooley Medal night, our subsidies for Olly Cooley Medal night tickets, our lump sum payment from the WACA for a WACA hosted event (Grand Final Breakfast), the WACUA membership fee deduction process and our ability to wear WACUA merchandise to grounds on the weekend. All of these at present are not written or signed upon so we’re really lucky that there is a level of trust and more importantly faith that each party does the right thing by each other.
The MOU is there to put in black and white those ‘handshake’ deals and also provide some very important benefits to members. To list a few:
- Increase from $1000 lump sum contribution from the WACA to $1500 for the WACA hosted event.
- Ability for umpires to ‘pause’ their years of service criteria requirement for WACA membership. I.e. Umpires can have a season off due to circumstances like illness, family issues, pregnancy and so on without losing their WACA membership during that period.
- Guaranteed ability for the WACUA committee each season to negotiate better pay rates for the following season.
- Guaranteed payments for games abandoned on the morning of a match but also the ability to retain the better pay-rate if you’re reappointed elsewhere.
- More control to members to pick on-field merchandise they want. E.g. Obtain a white jacket instead of a shirt if you have one already.
- Ability for the WACUA committee to contribute on matters like the Umpires Handbook, Premier Cricket Policies and Procedures.
- Support members in potential grievances with the WACA having proper procedures and guidance to raise such matters with them.
The last aspect I want to touch on is the WA Premier Cricket Registration fee. First and foremost the feedback from last general meeting was there were some that were unhappy with the word ‘consult’ and wanted that to be ‘agree’ when it comes to both parties setting the registration fee figure. I’m happy to report that both parties talked about this and the word has now been changed. Rest assured it was always going to be a mutual agreement between both parties on what that figure would be. Secondly for those who seem to be really worried about this, the registration fee should be seen as nothing more than combining all the current outlying costs you pay to umpire into one fee. I.e. Payments for the Seminar Weekend, your WACUA membership as well as other training and development opportunities like guest speakers, more umpire observers and credit available to buy merchandise would be part of the registration fee. This fee is based off of returning the investment to you!
The fee would be in the range of approximately $90 to $150, confirmed at our AGM meeting each season. That figure includes the current $55 WACUA membership fee. Both parties will obviously meet before this time and flesh out in full what the fee will be and will clearly state what you get from this fee so there are no surprises what you’re expected to pay to officiate in Season 2019-20. Obviously we cannot share this all with you right now as Daniel needs a few more weeks in his new role to flesh out what he would like to do with umpiring next season.
The WACUA committee wholeheartedly support the MOU and the introduction of the WA Premier Cricket Registration Fee as we see this only benefiting our members. That being said we fully appreciate that some may not be convinced of this so for the January meeting we’ll only debate the item (obtain more feedback) and vote on it at a later meeting, depending on the feedback received.
For the latest MOU, see the link below.
For a WA sports comparison, Football West referees are expected to pay $400 to officiate in the State League competition.
That’s it from me. Hope the second half of the season is a great one for you!
Cheers,
Trent Steenholdt
WACUA President
Secretary’s Report
Hope everyone had a lovely break over Christmas and New Year!
If you haven’t already done so, please make sure you have completed a membership form at www.wacua.asn.au/register. This form must be completed in order for your membership to be approved. If you are unsure about your membership status, please ask me and I can confirm whether we have received your form.
Correspondence out (since last general meeting):
- Email to Daniel Gibbons regarding MOU.
- Email to Daniel Gibbons and Alan Johanson with proposed Season 19-20 pay rates.
- Email to members whose membership fee is still owing.
Correspondence in (since last general meeting):
- Email from Daniel Gibbons regarding MOU.
- Email from Roy Boyd with feedback on MOU.
Ashlee Gibbons
WACUA Secretary
Treasurer’s Report
Hi everyone, I hope you’ve all had a chance to enjoy the time off over Christmas and New Year. I started off my umpiring in 2019 with Wayne Barron in his 200th game! We were able to ease in to this year with a one-day game that only lasted 41 overs!
The main expenses for the last month were the December general meeting (bar tab/raffle prizes/BBQ) and the T20 game ($550 for bar tab and BBQ). In terms of money coming in, we’ve now received payment from the WACA for everyone who opted in to having their WACUA membership fee deducted from their match payments. I’ve noticed that three people have paid twice – I’ll be getting in touch to try and organise a refund. There are also several people who have not yet umpired, so the WACA was unable to pay their membership fees for them. Likewise, we’ll be in touch with these people.
Here are our current balances (correct at time of writing):
Cheque account: $5632.62
Savings account: $13993.69
Cash: $0.00 (yay, I got to the bank!)
Total: $19,626.31
Happy 2019!
Andrew Micenko
WACUA Treasurer