From britdisc-owner@csv.warwick.ac.uk Thu May 15 13:44:49 1997 Received: by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk id NAA16346; Thu, 15 May 1997 13:27:37 +0100 (BST) Received: from [137.205.222.1] by pansy.csv.warwick.ac.uk with ESMTP id NAA16330; Thu, 15 May 1997 13:27:22 +0100 (BST) X-Sender: serai@mail.csv.warwick.ac.uk Message-Id: <l03102807afa0a4967839@[137.205.222.1]> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 13:29:19 +0100 To: britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk From: Dave Neilson <D.P.Neilson@csv.warwick.ac.uk> Subject: Sports Council BALLS! Sender: owner-britdisc@csv.warwick.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Dear BD'ers, Open a window, loosen your collar and put down any sharp objects ... I have just finished talking to Kevin Moore, the Sports Council (SC) contact regarding the NON recognition of disc sports on the grounds of: "lack of uniqueness of the activity" I asked him to clarify the statement and he explained that there was nothing in the skills and physical exercise etc. required to play disc sports which are not already catered for within the collection of sports already recognised. He gave as an example, if you replaced the ball in American Football with a disc, then you would have Ultimate. He and his committee members felt, therefore that there was nothing unique to disc sports which warranted the SC associating itself with them. I pointed out that what could be more unique than the fact that disc sports use a flying disc, to which he suggested that anyone could invent a new sport based upon an existing sport by, say, replacing the ball with a paper cup and then argue the merits of the skill required to throw a paper cup! I could not believe my ears! This Chair of the Recognition Panel and associated committees was likening disc skills to paper aeroplane throwing! I pointed out that disc sports had been played for 40 years [i.e. Guts, which is much older than Ultimate!] and that our international organisation, the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), had become full members of both GAISF and IWGA. Surely this indicates that disc sports are not something I had made up during an idle moment and are bona fide sports. He then trotted out his standard line about the SC does not decide which activities are sports and which are not. I asked if maybe there was some confusion in the material that I had provided for him and his committees, was there something lacking in our application which we needed to revise and then re-apply? He said (in so many words) that he did not think that the SC would EVER recognise disc sports no matter how we improved our application, he said we had "No chance". He then came out with his standard line that it is the SC's responsibility to decide which sports should receive the (publicly funded) grant aid, services and support and they already recognised 100 and odd sports. Quizzing this Kevin Moore character on the phone is not going to get us anywhere. I believe that to gain the SC recognition which we richly deserve, we will have to mount our own campaign. This will have to involve a fair bit of person power and I am more than a little concerned about diverting our limited resources (i.e. people and money for telephone call and letters) from other projects which need to be pursued whether or not we are recognised members of the SC. My proposals to this group (and beyond, once this can be communicated more widely) are these: A) Establish a bank of information about our approaches to the SC to date - a good start would be to put all of my electronic records at a web site, (BUF's Scott?); B) Appoint someone to lead the campaign - the Board of the BFDF could do this, all we need are willing volunteers; C) Agree a strategy and draw up letters of approach (e.g. to local MPs); D) Maintain regular reporting to this group (and beyond) about progress. I will end there and look forward to the stream of constructive ideas to continue - some people have already volunteered their time and resouces. Are you fired up enough about this to get involved too? ... taking a Valium, Sam Neilson National Director of the BFDF.