Month: November 2020

Alex is a proven leader and has held leadership positions in Business Strategy, Information Technology Management, and Program/Portfolio Management.  He is a lawyer by training and currently serves on multiple boards including co-chair of the HRC fund raising committee and an active member of the Fair Oaks City Council in his community.  For NAFA, Alex is currently on the Communications Committee. 

He comes from a strong management consulting background, having worked for the top 5 professional services and consulting organizations and currently works with a Silicon Valley startup in CA to help drive program management processes and implement best practices.  This background to driving engagement and transparency to constituents is an asset that he can bring to NAFA. 

Alex is running for NAFA Board as a new member to bring a much-needed injection of insight and execution to help the Board fulfil its vision and further the flyball sport within the dog sports community.  Alex brings awareness and understanding of new members that have joined the flyball community, seeking a fun and energetic activity for their dogs.  With this comes the socialization aspect of flyball events and an opportunity to meet others who share these interests.  A Board that understands and reflects these values and interests of ALL their members is key to a successful growth of flyball and NAFA.  To this end, Alex will be running on 3 key components that he will bring to NAFA: Transparency, Fairness, and Modernization. 

As we grow as an organization, change is inevitable, and Alex will bring the sharpness of his ability to solve problems and targeted execution to help NAFA move forward into its next phase.  We must, as an organization, re engage flyballers and do so in a systematic approach that will drive those key engagement interests from ALL our members.  A NAFA future with a strong structure to provide members with transparency and use of technology to modernize how we play the game will be the key to our success as an organization.  This way of thinking and commitment to our members will keep all of us competing with our dogs in NAFA and make our time with NAFA a top notch flyball experience.

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My name is Jayne McQuillen and I am running for the NAFA Board of Directors.  

I was introduced to flyball in the fall of 1998, when a flyball competitor adopted one of my foster dogs.  She invited us to a practice and a few short months later, our dog was in the ring!  A year later, we needed a second dog for my husband to play with.  We eat, breathe, sleep flyball now!  I never would have imagined that 20 years later we would still be enamored with the sport.  As a bonus, we are sharing that love with our eight year old daughter.  The big attraction for us is just having fun with our dogs, however, we found a second family with our club and supportive community of fellow dog lovers.  

I am currently the club owner of Skidmarkz Flyball Club, Regional Director for Region 21, a volunteer with the NAFA Communications Committee and the new Special Measuring Committee (SMC).  I volunteered to draft the first version of the new Regional Director’s manual.  Which is a great help for new & existing Regional Directors, as often the responsibilities of the position were passed by word of mouth.  It also helps provide uniformity across regions and well as transparency to competitors about the role of Regional Director.  I am very excited to be involved with the (SMC), the new measuring device looks very promising.  We are working to make sure the measuring process is easy for competitors and clearly communicated.  As the Regional Director of an active and growing region, I have tried very hard to help new people find clubs to play on and helped new clubs develop from scratch.  Having the opportunity to fill these volunteer roles with NAFA has given a great insight into the complexity of issues facing the NAFA BOD.

In my real life, I work part time as an Administrative Assistant, which allows me time to delve into lots of other interests.  I spent 18 years involved in Australian Shepherd Breed Rescue organizations.  Helping first with a large national group, ARPH, as a foster home, Regional Representative for Iowa and a BOD member.  I was the founder of a smaller Midwest based rescue group, Protégé Canine Rescue where I also served for ten years as President.  Working in non-profit animal welfare organizations required a great deal of people skills, compromise and flexibility.  I currently run a business teaching dog training focused on performance skills.  COVID-19 has added new challenges to that.  Thankfully out of the box thinking has enabled me to find new ways to teach in these difficult times.

 My primary reason for running for the NAFA BOD is to utilize my diverse experience to grow the sport of flyball by creating a competitive environment that is accessible to everyone.  I have trained a broad array of dogs, some slow, some fast, some steady and some unreliable, and have dogs who fit in every category.  My club once could barely field 2 lineups, and barely ran under 24 seconds.  We have grown to a much larger team, with a wider variety of dogs.  Currently, I have one of the fastest dogs on the team, as well as one of the slowest which provides a great contrast in training and competing.  I believe whether it is a dog, team, or club that everyone deserves equal treatment and to have their interests represented in a fair way.  So many times those pet owners do go on to become the fiercest of competitors.  Many times they just find what I did, a fun outlet for their dogs and a fun group of dog lovers.  I really want NAFA to focus on making sure the bread & butter competitors are not taken for granted. 

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READY?!! It’s one of the best sounds on Earth, as the teams watch the lights for racing to begin…I’ve been playing flyball for eighteen years, and STILL find the sights and sounds thrilling.

In 2001, I told my friend that we were getting a miniature poodle puppy, and she said–Oh, you should do flyball with him!–we need height dogs. We went out to a practice and I’d never seen anything like it. It was fascinating to see dogs put the sequence of moves together. I couldn’t wait to see if Jonah could learn it. After about a year, we were in the lanes and Jonah was absolutely loving it…he would actually glance over at the dog in the other lane and try to beat it back.

Since then my family of people and dogs has grown significantly: Gord and I now have four kids and five dogs, most of whom participate in various ways in flyball. We are members of SpringLoaded, which is based in Niagara region, Ontario. Our club hosts multiple tournaments a year, where we have themes and encourage people to unleash their weirdness and dress-up–and maybe even dance a bit to our awesome tunes. I’ve been a Tournament Director and/or Secretary for most of our events. Hosting can be exhausting for a club, but it’s also SO much fun, especially when your teammates like to be creative and put their own special spin on the events.

We all know flyball is the best dog sport: it’s the only team sport and this means you get a whole new group of people to care about—your team, and beyond that, your ‘flyball family’ from all over North America. Over the years I’ve done work maintaining the NAFA database and it gave me some insight into the NAFA board work and committees. I’ve volunteered time on Election, Rules and Technology Committees to give back to the flyball community that’s brought me so much. I finally got up the nerve to run for the board in 2018.

I’m now the NAFA Vice Chairman, and chair of the Rules Committee and NAFAblog Committee. In my first term, one of my favourite accomplishments has been working with volunteers, Dede Crough and
Jayne McQuillen, to get the NAFAblog started as a way to engage the flyball community, and feature clubs looking for new members. My current main focus is as co-chair of the Special Measuring Committee (SMC), with Cindy Henderson. We are a nine-member team tasked with providing the board with a fully realized plan, by December 31st, 2020, for implementing a new measuring system that accomplishes three goals:

1. Making measuring easier for competitors, Judges and RDs.
2. Making sure measuring is consistent across regions.
3. Ensuring for checks and balances in the overall process.

As the SMC works on the rest of the full plan, we’re keeping the feedback we’ve received from competitors, RDs, and judges front and centre. We know that competitors want to move on from the measuring issues of the past, and we’re determined to get it done.

Thanks for taking the time to read this to get to know me better. I hope you’ll consider supporting me in a second term as a board member. Wishing you all the best and look forward to seeing you in the lanes once flyball resumes. Stay safe!

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Hello fellow flyball fanatics, 

I am running for a second term on the NAFA board because I am passionate about flyball.  When I started out, I never expected it would come to this!  I was just looking to get my dog into agility so we could have an activity to do over the winter months when it was cold and wet outside when I got home from work every day. 

The agility class was full so I enrolled my Weimaraner in flyball lessons.  It seemed like a fine sport to me but my dog was crazy about it so I continued on and joined the flyball and agility club.  Then we started competing and I saw that competitors spent their entire weekend running flyball.  That seemed extreme to me but before long, I was spending my weekends at tournaments,  helping with club lessons, working on the board of the club and planning all my vacations around tournaments. 

That was 20 years ago!  As with most hobbies you get into, there is so much more than at first meets the eye.

I have run on fast teams and slower teams; open and regular.  I’ve enjoyed travelling to other provinces and states, and while each region definitely has its own flavour, one thing that is constant is that teams crate together, delight in camaraderie, share food, love their dogs and have a great time in the lanes. 

I am a member of Run Free Flyball Club in Aldergrove, BC in Region 7; British Columbia, Oregon, Washington.  We host a tournament every year and I have been tournament secretary since joining the club.  We always add a little extra fun to the tournament by making up games, contests and awards. 

I realize that people have different reasons they love flyball and I understand the rewards available for dogs and competitors in all divisions.  Flyball matters for all people and all dogs. 

As my involvement in the sport grew, I became very interested in anything to do with organizing and working at tournaments which evolved into my interest in serving on the NAFA board. 

My experience in my worklife has been largely managerial.  I have served on numerous industry and community boards. 

My duties on the board have included the Disciplinary Committee, Judges Committee, Executive Committee in my capacity as secretary and Chair of the Marketing Committee.  I’ve attended CanAm every year that I have been on the board, working and supporting the tournament. 

Being on the board has brought an understanding of the magnitude of work and sacrifices that board members undertake to make flyball fair for all regions.  I feel very privileged to be working on behalf of NAFA competitors. 

I am currently on the Special Measuring Committee to review the entire measuring process from the device through to the actual measuring of dogs at tournaments and recommend to the NAFA BoD a new comprehensive program and process for measuring.  It will be great to finally get this resolved and roll out the plan.  NAFA needs to keep moving ahead to stay relevant in the dog sport world. 

I miss flyball so much and am anxiously waiting to get back in the lanes.  We have a great flyball community.  I’m really looking forward to seeing all the people and dogs again! 

Thanks for reading.  I hope you will consider voting for me in this election. 

Lynda Mantler

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