CNZ Newsletter – July 2023

In this update:

Updates for the new season (2023/24) – Event Changes.
Updates for the new season – Club Membership and Event Entry Fees.
IFSC World Championships are on in Bern, Switzerland.

Updates for the new season (2023/24)

We have some changes to share for the new season.

We have taken the decision to change some of events this season to help us make events more sustainable, address logistical issues and create additional climbing opportunities.

1. La Sportiva Open Bouldering Championships (Sept 16th, Northern Rocks, Auckland). This event will run to the traditional IFSC format with one qualification round (5 problems, 5mins on, 5mins off) and a finals round of 4 problems (6 climbers). We are also looking to introduce a Open B and Youth B Boulder Jam that will run between rounds. The Boulder Jam will use some of the qualification boulders (6-8 with or without modification). Exact number of boulders included will be determined on the day. The Boulder Jam will occur across a 90 minute to 2 hour period (depending on scheduling and entry numbers). There are no finals for the Open B and Youth B categories.
2. La Sportiva Youth and Masters Bouldering Championships (venue and date TBC) will be organised and run to the same format at last year following the IFSC rules for Youth Bouldering. No change on last season.
3. La Sportiva Speed Championships. (Blake Park, Mount Maunganui, date TBC)
4. La Sportiva Youth and Masters Lead Championships (venue and date TBC). This event will run separate to an Open Lead event. The schedule for the event will change with all qualifications occurring on the Saturday and all finals occurring on the Sunday. This change is to reduce the pressures on the route setters and make the overall event more manageable. We expect that the event will be completed by early afternoon on the Sunday.
5. La Sportiva Open Lead Championships and Selection event. This is a new event for Open Championships. In additional to this event crowning our Open Lead Champions, it will also double as a selection event for athletes seeking selection into the New Zealand Team for the IFSC Youth World Championships. Junior and Youth A athletes will be expected to compete in Opens. Youth B athletes will also compete on some of the lead routes as a trial and selection event. More details on how the selection event will be organised will be shared once the Selection Policy has been reviewed and updated.

In May 2023 we undertook a review of club membership costs and event registration fees in response to feedback from the clubs.

New club membership model

To simply the model and reduce the administrative burden on clubs the previous variable fee attached the membership has been removed and this fee will be added to the entry fee for each event. The per event levy will be $30 per athlete per event, the same as what was previously levied against the clubs.

To support the principles defined above we propose the following membership and fees structure:

Club membership will be simplified to the following:

1. Each club is charged a fix fee with a two tiered model to support the smaller clubs and support entry of new clubs.

This model will make it easier for new clubs to join CNZ and have athletes compete for their clubs.

How the model works:

• All established clubs with greater than 5 competition climbers are charged $500 per year.
• Clubs with 5 or less competition climbers are charged $200 per year.
• A new club would be charged $100 in the first full year, and then graduate to either $200 or $500 in the second full year depending the number of competitors from the club in the previous year. If a club joins during the calendar year this initial part year will be charged at $100.
• Clubs can opted to be billed once or twice a year, first billing will occur in April after the AGM.
• Club membership fees are set at the AGM each year so are reviewed annually.

Implementation

While the fees are fixed each year at the AGM we can make some adjustments to members and fees as a Management Committee, as we did in 2020 when we reduced the club costs by 50% due to Covid-19.

The new model will apply for the second payment period in 2023, aligning with the new event fee structure for the 2023/24 season.

Event Fees

The previous $30 levy per competition entry against the clubs will now be charged direct to the athlete at the time of event registration (as documented above).

Should a club wish to subsidise any part of the event fee, they can do this by submitting all their club entries via a spreadsheet and become responsible for any recovery from the athletes.

The following event entry fees are confirmed for the 2023 /24 season, based on the revised model

IFSC World Championships, Bern, Switzerland, August 1st to 12th of August.

We have our speed team (Julian, Flynn, Sarah, Abby, Jorja) and Para-athlete Rachel Maia in action at this event. The speed team have had a great build up with multi NZ records from Julian, Sarah and Abby (Junior records) in the last two World Cup events.

Track the updates to NZ records here

Follow the World Championships schedule at this link:

https://www.ifsc-climbing.org/index.php/news/archives/2-uncategorised/874-bern-2023-schedule