Carol,

1. I do not want to discourage newer countries from attending but when you look at the overall cost and placing an extra $500 into the entry fee to cover a few referees would not discourage them from attending. I would think this would actually benefit newer countries as they would not need to bring a ref to the tournament.
2. If New Zealand used the rules we would just pay the US$500 levy every time. This doesn’t help New Zealand’s development so we do not.
3. If a rule was OK with federations then there would be no submission to change.
4. If a federation is unhappy or has an improvement then the process would to provide the information to others via the process written in the rules manual and reach agreement at Worlds. In the case of the U19 rule, NZ was happy with the rule as it stood.
5. The problem I have is the version 9.2 has different rules from WAA version 1 that wasn't agreed at the meeting. These changes were made saying CMAS’s rules, not the Commission. The CMAS/ Commission stance is irrelevant.
6. I am not critiquing referees abilities (or flaming them) so funny stories can be left out of the discussion as we all have them.
7. NZ has provided examples of referees critique forms for grading Referees at a world level in 2004 and 2006. My understanding is that these were used to Grade referees for 2008.
8. This critique system in under development and hasn’t been applied in NZ to a point were its transparent and fair process. We have similar requests for feedback that Edwin and your good self have raised at a World level.
9. Rule Changes- The issue is that the changes occurred using similar tactics to CMAS. The rule changes from Version 9.2 and WAA Version 1 have occurred without agreement at the meeting held in Sheffield.
10. Your request for me to provide the changes is a rhetorical question to ask. As secretary of the commission can you please provide a list of the rule changes that Woody made due to the agreements reached in Sheffield and the changes due to compliance with CMAS statues? Normally, alterations to sporting rules are issued with a document detailing the rule changes as a quick reference to the changes. This would save me from having to read both documents.
I have used points so that you do not have to shout.

Regards

Tristan