WAFTA MEETINGS 17th June 2021

WAFTA OGM Minutes 17th June 2021
Present: J Johnson (Chair) Tondu. R. Beaugie (Secretary) Castleton. G. Robinson
(Treasurer) Quarry. P. Isaacs, Castleton. S. Evans, Lampeter. S. Poulter, Oaktree. H.
Lloyd, G. James, B/Gwent. B. Langford, Observer

Apologies for absence. John Lewis, Mark Bassett, Nelson
Minutes of last meeting & Matters arising
Lampeter queried the statement made in the previous minutes about trophies being
purchased for the Winter league 2020-21. Gwynne said that three sets of trophies were
purchased, so there should have been a set for the winter league, but then thought it may
have been the previous year that had been purchased. It was agreed that trophies should
have been purchased for this years Winter league and John J said he would sort
something out.
With no other matters arising, it was agreed that the minutes were a true and accurate
record of the AGM. Proposed by Castleton, seconded by B/Gwent. All in favour.
Officers Reports No Reports from the Officers
BFTA OGM. Discuss and agree on Agenda items
 The BFTA meeting has been postponed until the 24th July due to ongoing Covid
restrictions.
 With Weston park being unavailable for the BFTA Euro’s, there are 3 regions
offering to host a 2 day Euro’s event in its place: Nelson/WAFTA,
Redfearns/NEFTA and a new ground at Wellingborough/MFTA. Nelson has
indicated that if other regions wanted to host, then they would rather not. The
decision was to back the MFTA bid, but if that fell through, Nelson would host.
 The Showdown will not take place this year as there are no qualifying GP’s.
Instead, a proposal to host a competition by Blackbrook comprising of 2 x 30 shot
courses has been put forward. WAFTA indicated we would be in favour of this
proposal.
 Northern Ireland Field Target Association have applied to join the BFTA. The
laws covering Air Rifles are much stricter than in England and Wales, which
could cause issues if N.I. wished to host a BFTA event. Cost of travel was another
issue, but as N.I. is part of the UK, it was felt that we should back the application.
 There are a number of committee vacancies that need to be filled at the next
BFTA AGM and volunteers are being sought for Grading Officer, Treasurer,
Competition Secretary and Web Manager.
NSRA FT Coaching course. A good response for the course with 14 people booked
on the course which will take place on the 2nd and 3rd October at Sophia Gardens. WTSF
are providing the room for training and a 50 metre outdoor range
WAFTA Safeguarding Officer – volunteer required. After some discussion about
the requirements and duties of a Safeguarding Officer, Brian offered to take on the role.
Thank you Brian.
WTSF 2500 Youngsters “First shot to Top shot” project – to encourage young
people to take up target shooting – WAFTA Support required.
A discussion took place around the requirements to enable WAFTA to participate in this
project. Non animal shape targets would be needed and WTSF would provide a grant to
purchase these. A suitable venue would have space to have laser rifle, 10 meter air rifle
and laser shotgun as well as FT. Schools and youth organisations would be contacted and
invited to have a go. Blaenau Gwent offered to host such an event. WAFTA are also
looking for volunteers to go to other venues and promote Field Target, with all expenses
being met by WTSF.
Membership/ payment database. WTSF are funding a database for target shooting
in Wales. WAFTA would have access to this and also individual clubs at no cost. There
are many benefits to using this database and more details will be publicised soon.
Welsh Shooting Gala. Is an event being planned for later in the year and WAFTA has
been invited to take part, promoting Field Target. More information will be shared as it
becomes available.
Grand Slam.
With only 16 out of an expected 30 turning up for the Grand Slam. A lengthy discussion
took place on whether to continue the competition. The current discipline vs nondiscipline and no Open class format was questioned.
A suggestion was put forward that we have 16 PCP/Piston qualifiers and 8 Open
qualifiers and add an “Opt in” box to the booking in sheet. It was further proposed that
the trophies for this would be 1st, 2nd and 2 runners up for PCP/Piston and 1st and 2 nd for
Open class. A figure of £100 was suggested as a payment to be paid to the hosting club. It
was decided that this proposal be put to the membership and vote via email, then Ratify at
the next meeting which would include an EGM.
WFTC and EFTC team selection process for 2022 Italy are going to use the same
formula as used in the last 3 World championships- beginning with team places to each
country, then offering extra places as they become available. This means that we will
initially be offered 10 places, 6 PCP and 4 Piston. Team selection is the best 4 from 7
scores in this summer series. With any top ten placed shooter from the previous Worlds
getting automatic qualification.
John was asked if he would push for a junior place to be made available in the selection
process in WFTF , as currently there was little chance of a junior gaining a place through
the team selection, but the WFTF should be promoting the Championships to the younger
shooters.
The 2023 World Championships was also discussed as there are some people who have
already paid and it was thought that they should have priority. The meeting broadly
disagreed with this, as it was felt that there would be sufficient places available to any
who had pre-paid.
Welsh Open date and venue. It was decided that with no major shoot planned in
Wales this year, the Welsh Open would be postponed until 2022.
For next year’s GP, B/Gwent has offered to host the 2022 GP, but would need help from
other clubs to put out the course. B/Gwent requested a later date for the GP, so WAFTA
will ask for GP 9 which should be August 28th
WAFTA/SWEFTA Challenge. The first round is at Oaktree on July 4th and the second round is Mendip on September 12th. We need to locate the Challenge shield, which is being held by one of our members. 8 trophies were awarded to the 8 highest scoring competitors from either team at the last challenge shoot. It was suggested that we make contact with Air Arms through Jack or Doz, to try and get sponsorship for trophies for this year ’ s challenge.
2021-22 Winter Series shoot dates and venues.
October 17th 2021 Lampeter
October 31st 2021 Tondu
November 14th 2021 Castleton
November 28th 2021 Quarry
December 12th 2021 Nelson
January 10th 2022 Blaenau Gwent
January 24th 2022 Oaktree
February 7th 2022 Grand Slam – Tondu
We will continue with no money being paid to WAFTA from entries and for badges for
the Winter series.
AOB Caps and badges for the Inters team are being sourced by Jack (we believe)
The subject of C class being integrated with B was raised by B/Gwent and discussed. It
has caused upset amongst some members who believe it is detrimental to the sport and
putting new shooters off. It was pointed out that the reason for integrating C and B class
was because we were getting so few C class attending. The change was made for a 1 year
trial and would be reviewed at the next AGM.
Date of next Meeting ( EGM followed by OGM) will be 2nd November 2021 Meeting ended 20.57 Richard Beaugie WAFTA Sec. 21/06/21

WAFTA AGM 2020 Minutes
Venue: Hafodyrynys Sports & Social Club, NP11 5BE
Date: 18thDecember 2020 Time: 19.15 Meeting called by: John Johnston

Present: John Johnston – Tondu. Richard Beaugie – Castleton. Gwynne Robinson – Quarry. Howard Lloyd,
Gareth James, Jack Harris – Blaenau Gwent. Simon Evans, Simon Poulter – Oaktree.

Apologies – Steve Chubb, Dorian Falconer – Nelson. Pat Isaacs – Castleton.
Jason Davies – Lampeter.
Minutes of OGM held on the 1st September 2020 It was agreed that the minutes were a true and accurate record. Proposed B/Gwent, Seconded Quarry.
Matters arising from OGM
Constitution & Byelaws- These had been agreed at the OGM, but needed to be Ratified at the
AGM.
The Safeguarding policy was accepted for inclusion into the Constitution Proposed by B/Gwent,
Seconded Quarry. The Secretary will add the policy to the Constitution and date the
Ratification of the Constitution and Byelaws as 18thDecember 2020
Officers Reports.
The Chairman read out his report of 2020 and a copy is attached. Included was some informationabout the recent BFTA meeting.
John also reported that a grant of £2000 had been received from WTSF
The Secretary had no report prepared, but mentioned the booking systems that were tried over the winter series. The Facebook booking didn’t really work, but by the final round, it looks like we have
a workable system in place that can be used for future competitions where we still have to control numbers entering, but some firm rules will need to be put in place to stop the last minute cancellations from preventing others from entering.
The Treasurer gave his report and a copy of the accounts is attached. Gwynne explained that the closing balance looks very healthy only because of the grant from WTSF. There were some debits,
especially for the purchase of trophies that have not been balanced up with income from the shoots. Also there are 3 of the winter series shoots whose monies didn’t reach Gwynne in time to be included in this year’s accounts and they will be carried forward to next year. A question was
asked about how the grant can be used and John explained it was to improve training and improve
certain aspects of WAFTA. It can also be used to support up and coming shooters. Some of it can also be used for team clothing.
A question was asked about the trophies purchased and whether there were trophies for the current winter series or for the Summer series that didn’t take place. Gwynne answered that he thought three lots of trophies were purchased by Steve Chubb, but will ask for confirmation.
Election of officers
Current Officers are:
Chairman – John Johnston – Re-elected
Vice Chairman – Steve Chubb– Re-elected
Secretary – Richard Beaugie– Re-elected
Treasurer – Gwynne Robinson– Re-elected
Competitions Secretary – Jack Harris– Re-elected
Web Manager – Richard Beaugie Joint with John Johnston– Re-elected
Grading Officer – John Johnston– Re-elected
A New Member request from Lampeter Air Rifle Club was received. Unfortunately Jason Davies was unable to attend, but Simon was able to answer all questions raised.
They have grounds ideally suited to FT and despite not having a covered range or shelter yet are still getting a good
number of members and visitors to their ground including younger shooters, which is very encouraging. The club has met all the criteria needed for acceptance by WAFTA. Proposed by
Castleton, Seconded Oaktree and all in favour.
Training for Coaching, Marshalling etc. We are receiving grants to help us achieve any training requirements for coaches and marshals, but each club and WAFTA should also have a Safeguarding
Officer to satisfy NSRA insurance and if there is anyone who would be prepared to carry out this role for WAFTA, please get in touch.
John has offered to speak to WTSF regarding coaching training. Any funding requests for training should be put to John. A question was asked if WAFTA shoot marshals had to have a marshalling
qualification. There is no requirement for this.
2500 Junior WTSF project. John spoke about the ongoing project which is designed to encourage young people into the sport. Some of the initiatives include setting up laser target ranges at schools, scouts and guides groups as well as “have a go” days at clubs and game & country fairs.
John asked if there were any clubs interested in helping with this?
Summer series dates
16th May – Quarry.
13th June – Castleton
27th June – Tondu
11th July – Nelson
25th July – Lampeter
8th August – Blaenau Gwent
12th September – Oaktree
In Addition to the Summer series. The following dates were agreed:
21st February- Winter Series Grand Slam. & Winter trophy presentation Nelson??
2nd May- Not the NEFTA
29th August- Oaktree 60
26th September- Welsh Masters
Winter Series 2021 proposed dates from Oaktree Oct 10th/24th
. Nov 7th/21st
. Dec 5th/19th
.Jan 2nd
These will be discussed further at the next meeting
Grades and Grading. John has been looking at the current grading percentages and how it was affecting the numbers in each grade. After a long discussion it was decided to:
Move AA grade to from >80% to >85%. A, 70-85% B <70% C<60% Proposed by Lampeter, Seconded
by Oaktree and agreed by all.
A further discussion resulted in a vote to combine B and C grades for a trial period of one year The
vote was 5 in favour and B/Gwent against. The motion was carried.
Any other business
a. A queries were raised about when a competitors score could be withheld by Stats and also the issue of competitors who are taking too much time to complete a lane. For both queries, the answer was that we follow BFTA shoot rules which gives clear guidance on when a competitor can leave the shoot line and also the timing allowed for each lane. All competitors taking part in WAFTA competitions should be familiar with the current rules and agree to abide by them.
b. When Tondu Target club left WAFTA, we changed the number of qualifying scores from any 5 from 7 to any 4 from 6. Now that we are back to 7 clubs, we will revert back to the previous best 5 from 7 for summer series shoots which are also used for team selection.
Meeting was closed at 21.00. No date has been set for the next OGM