At this meeting, copies of two background documents were provided for guidance of attendees

• MAAA Guidelines for the Organization of National Championships (1996)
• Organization of MAAA National Championships, Peter Harris (2000)

A general discussion was held to determine the minimum resources required to conduct a National Championship in Canberra. Special attention was drawn (by PVDW) to the mandatory requirement for a sufficient number of fields, including practice fields, all of a very high standard, and the specialised requirements for control line speed and racing. Attendees agreed to study the background documents, review the alternatives for fields and meet again in a month's time to further consider the proposal.

The second meeting (same venue, 29 July 2001) was attended by:

The reduced attendance at the second meeting was noted as significant in itself.

A number of opinions on how to proceed were discussed.

Given:

• the lack of interest in the proposal as judged by the limited attendance at this meeting and the First meeting
• the lack of an identified administrator to Chair the Organizing Committee (the one original expression of interest has withdrawn)
• the lack of the necessary flying fields (of high standard and within 30 Kms as required in the MAAA documentation)
• the limited experience of Canberra in running many events (limited to aerobatics and scale)
• the requirement to run up to 80 events including Free Flight and Control Line
• "the Committee needs to consist of members who have had past experience as competitors, contest directors and as Nationals Administrators"
• the requirement for ACTAA to underwrite the event (ACTAA, with current assets of $2000, does not have the funds to do so) and
• the real concern that a Canberra-based Nationals may be the largest Nationals ever staged (with its attendant resources and finance implications)

the meeting recommended to the ACTAA that ACT should not offer to host a Nationals at this time.

This report is to be distributed to all clubs and to those persons who attended the meetings.

Thanks to Peter van de Waterbeemd for submitting this report (Ed.)