After a lot of infighting and discontent Australian petanque is charting a new course. -Tom

01 May 2009

Dear Members,

I have the pleasure to announce the new members of the PFA board of directors:

Sylvio Jolicoeur - President

Jean Paul Boudan - Secretary 

Cyril Peroumal - Treasurer

Mathieu Boudan - Sport Director

Statement of Duties 

Sylvio Jolicoeur – Liaise with various Petanque bodies within and outside Australia, help other directors whenever the need arises. To promote the sport with government bodies and other bowling codes.

Jean Paul Boudan - In addition to his secretarial duties Paul ( being a specialist ) will put packages for sponsorship and look after fund raising. He has a couple of very important projects in the pipeline already.

Cyril Peroumal - A tax agent, will look at the finance situation. He will be concentrating on various ways to keep the company solvent and budgeting for 2010. Mathieu Boudan – The benjamin of the board has been selected to reflect youth. He will be looking after the development of the sport, coaching, youth development and liaising with the umpiring commission.

Vision for the next 12 months

• To keep cost as low as possible.

• To reduce the reliance on membership fee

• To simplify dealings with members and leagues

• To increase membership

• To work with Petanque Victoria in forming a federation

• To improve communication with members and leagues

• To review the membership fees

• To simplify licencing and licencing laws

As an immediate measure your board after various discussions with members and players around the land has the pleasure to announce that as from the 1st July 2009 the following measures will be implemented( these changes have been done within the ambit of the constitution):

Fees

• Juniors > than 16 yrs $5.00

• Open age to 60 $35.00

• Over 60 $25

Licences

• Licences will be restricted to permanent residents of Australia

• Abolition of day licences

• Abolition of club licences

• One type of licence only at the above prices

State Leagues State leagues will be the agent for the PFA. As such,they will have full powers to conduct business on behalf of the PFA. This will include coaching, formation of umpires , promoting the sport , organizing PFA and Leagues sponsored tournaments and managing licences.

Non licence players All restrictions regarding games where non licence players are playing next to licence players will be lifted. Games can be organized in wineries, parks etc however, the organising club will have to inform the State league of its intention so that the latter can notify our insurer and local authorities that the game is not a league sanctioned tournament and as such not covered by insurance. Failure to notify the league will incur a penalty

We would like to remind the organisers of non sanctioned games that it is in their interest to get an insurance as they can be personally liable for negligence and injuries.

Special Circumstances Just like other bowls codes there will be provision for three trial games for a newcomer. The member club has to notify the State league who will issue a special pass to that effect.

Non residents Non resident upon production of a valid foreign licence can participate in PFA sponsored competition and two leagues games. However, the member club can approach the league if there are special circumstances.

Our survey with clubs around the country has revealed various reasons for either not belonging to PFA or grumbling about the use of the membership fee. At the moment 80% to 85% of members are playing for fun and have no ambition to represent Australia, yet the majority of the fees or other funds are spent on 15% of players and officials. Accordingly, your board for the year to end in 2011 will impose restrictions on officials’ and coaches’ movements within and outside of Australia. We expect (with your help) to finish the year with a solid balance sheet. We will devote a lot of importance to the grassroots as they are our bread and butter.

Sponsorship and annexation with Bowls Australia We will pursue intensively for new sponsors and amalgamation with Bowls Australia. If successful, it will allow us to proceed to the second phase of our programme which is to push hard for the recognition of the sport by the Federal and State Governments. Finally this will generate more funds for the sport, for those members who treat the game as a sport, for more participation to international tournaments and for more intensive coaching. If the foregoing comes to pass then prospects will be unlimited.

Your committee will seek the co operation of members to help them in their endeavour to take the sport to a different level for both amateurs and semi-professionals. To achieve those goals we need all the advice and encouragement from the Petanque community. We want to remind everyone that we are only human and volunteers, as such we will expect mutual courtesy.

Yours in Petanque Sylvio Jolicoeur