For most of this year especially since the end of March, when my tenure as Chair of the Rotorua/Ngongotaha Rail Trust ended, the Trust has given Dog Sports Rotorua a pretty hard time.
It appeared to mostly be aimed at me, as apparently I make masses of money working with Dog Sports. This lead to a man by the name of Jim Ross, who asked me to be on the Trust seven years ago, telling me he would see me off the grounds that Dog Sports call home. All of this was very unfortunate and for one reason or another the Rail Trust tore up the Memorandum of Understanding between the Executive of the Trust and the Dog Sports Committee. Then without any meeting or previous correspondence, the Rail Trust decided that $300 per month would be a suitable rent for Dog Sports to be paying, plus $50 whenever we held an event. Well every Saturday and many Sundays are Dog Events so how this is to be levied is unknown. However I believe the bill is mounting and Dog Sports certainly do not have the wherewithall to pay it.
So Dog Sports set off to find a new home that is affordable and where there will not be any unnecessary stress for the Committee. So far we have held an event at the Stock Car Raceway at Paradise Valley and their Committee seems to be happy with the next steps being taken to move our Club to their Carpark area. This is a good space very quiet, no traffic noise and a lovely vastness to it compared with our current site. There is a lovely Clubroom for our events days and all in all it looks like it will suit the Club's purposes.
So last Monday, just when we had the good news from the Stock Car Club, we received the news that Jim Ross had died suddenly. I believe he was born in 1927 so at 85 he had actually done remarkably well. He had lead the charge to keep rail iron on the ground in Rotorua for many years, but he was a very tough man, it was Jim's way or the Highway and over the years a lot of alienation of good people slowed progress. However on the basis that he did what he believed was right for a Project he was Passionate about R.I.P Jim Ross.
So it is probably timely that Dog Sports vacate the Ngongotaha Space in the near future.
Training today was just great. We are starting a new program for the summer on Wednesday nights for those people who want to advance in Agility. We have a great bunch of people all of whom are Club members and all of whom will be competing within the 2013 year at a National Level if they wish. So the Wednesday night program consists of a separate pod of weaves and contacts and a course work of NZKC Elementary courses. These are the real courses that get chosen at Ribbon Days for new folk to compete on. The course tonight was quite simple but everyone made mistakes, everyone mishandled bits and I could only find I ribbon achievement between the lot and that was Janina with Jay who went out and stunned us all. Wendy's Abby who is always in top gear on a Wednesday night, went flat out and flattened hurdles, but it was still very good work. Outstanding beginners were Kelly with Jake. After six weeks training he is jumping his full midi height and doing a pretty passable Elementary course. Kelly and Jake will definitely be ready for Ribbon Competition in the New Year. Janina's Poppy trained really well last night but tonight was a bit ho hum, however I think she was getting the hang of the size of the course towards the end. Chris ran Bootz, he was terrific, Hilary ran Jay and was close to being impressive. We had Ann and Gem and they had some very exciting sequences, followed by some odd 'Gemma' moments which are not out of the ordinary. So it felt very different for me today. No classes for troubled dogs, just Club work which was terrific and a couple of our new people with puppies came to socialise as well. It had a very summery feel to it and guess what we didn't even have to turn the light on in the container to pack up it was still light at the end...
Raewyn
