G at Australian Seachange Newsletter - Southern Freedivers

QLD REPORT
Retirement of a great bloke from Qld Chair- Thanks Dave
Dear Qld exec, clubs and members
As indicated at the recent AGM I wish to stand down as the Qld chair, but agreed to stay on in the
interim since there were no nominations and felt I may be able to help the new committee “settle in”.
Due to work and personal commitments I will be standing down from the Chairperson position
immediately. I will still make myself available to the SC committee of Shane, Craig, Anthony, and
Chad if needed but only in an advisory type role.
When I stepped in to the position over 5 years ago there really wasn’t a lot of guidance as to what the
role was, apart from a very broad duties statement. That statement has since become more detailed
(attached) as I have taken on tasks I felt were appropriate to those duties, and tasks I felt were
needed. In that time we were fortunate to have risk management training so as to develop a risk
assessment (attached) for spearfishing in Queensland. This risk assessment served to ensure me
that the tasks I was carrying out were the right ones, and also identified areas where the spearfishing
commission should be paying attention to. Many of these include: better communication with
members, education of non-spearfishers (and spearfishers), changing public perception, and
engaging with decision-makers better. This helped me in developing a strategic plan (attached) for
spearfishing in Qld, which I sought input from club contacts. A strategic plan is simply a plan of what
we want to achieve within certain time frames to help ensure the tasks and actions that are needed
are clearly identified, and that they are actually carried out. These tasks were what guided me in
setting up a committee based on types of tasks (eg communication), however the roles of each of the
committee members will probably evolve a little.
In the past 5 years I have written numerous articles, given many public talks and displays, spoken to
all types of media, met and worked with other stakeholder groups and representatives, met and
worked with environmental and fisheries managers from Qld and NSW, attended and chaired many
meetings – AUF and others, organized an annual Qld competition schedule, met and worked with
many other spearos from around Australia, collated and maintained state and club contact lists, have
been an integral member of the Great Australian Shark Watch project, promoted our activities at
every opportunity, assisted Qld members in representative duties where possible (eg. grants, team
shirts), created AUFQ links with research, as well as the many administrative developments
mentioned. I have had deputies during most of this period in Shane Morrison (Assistant – Nth) and
Kevin Chard (Assistant – Sth), who have been great to work with. However, many of these tasks are
now spread among the committee to make the load easier, to spread the knowledge of the
commission among several, and hopefully make being a part of the Spearfishing Commission more
enjoyable. I have also worked with the national AUF spearfishing executive over the years and with
the current professional leadership through Adam Smith, my job has benefited through learning and
adopting national approaches and initiatives.
I therefore would like to encourage somebody to nominate for the Spearfishing Chair position. If you
love spearfishing and working with others, have some basic computing skills and access to email,
have some political awareness, have a professional attitude, and feel you can devote 2-3 hours a
week to the role then you are ideal. I can honestly say that I have personally gained a lot from being
in the role: new friends, training, many new skills, travel, a sense of achievement and in helping make
a difference.
Please contact me if you wish to discuss or Judy Breeze (judyaufq@bigpond.net.au) if you wish to
nominate.
Emerging future needs:
AUF Mission: Bring Sport, Conservation and Awareness to the Underwater World