How difficult/easy is it to obtain Provincial colours

[gkieser]

I did not say it happened, I was merely sketching a scenario. Like, if an angler from Prov A had 1000 points over 3 seasons but was not good enough to make his team (filled with great fisherman) and Pietie only had 500 points (but made the team due to the anglers in his province), do you think they would take the 1000-point angler over Pietie if the situation arose? Quite an interesting "moral" decision at the end of the day - or do you think it would be logical/clear cut?

The angler from province A has zero points in province B when he transfers. He is therefore 500 points behind Pietie. If he is really good he might be able to overtake Pietie if he can make it up, but if he has missed too many of the trials, it should be clear cut that the one with higher points goes through.

That is how it was when i was involved at WP. i cant speak for WP now or for other provinces. I dont know their selection processes.

I am proud of my WP colours because there was a lot of people competing for those spots when i fished for them - If i were in a smaller province with only 5 people competing for spots i would probably be less proud of it - this topic is too general - you have to ask about specific provinces, which it looks like is actually what Redhumpy initially wanted to do.

In my time we had people switch from WP to Boland - in fact there was a time when it was close to a mass exodus. Even then when that happened, there were formalities that happened between the two clubs to have it done. It wasnt just a case of Pietie-Se-Broer deciding he wanted to change provinces and off he went. If i remember correctly it was approved on both sides. Not sure if it is the same now or if it is the same between other provinces.

[Shamwari]

We will give you one, without competing.
Then it will look like you competed or attended a course.

I like that, then I will sommer become a guide to

[Gerrit Viljoen]

Pietie-Se-Broer

Always knew you could speak (and type) a bit of Afrikaans.

[pieterkriel]

I have been out of competative ff for years now, and in the beginning when I got involved probably a good 10 years plus back it was pretty much the case that if you could not find a place in a team you would start up a Province and fish. Like Andre said this was where it came from years back. The first team we established was Freestate and all the team members was from Johannesburg area. The team did well for a startup team and I managed 7th overall and had a chance in the trails for Protea team, which I did not make. But that did enspire me to get better. It also got me involved to a point where I tried to make a difference in the structure of competative ff in South Africa and would like to believe that even then we achieved some success in bringing structure to it.

Now fact is that in those days it was needed to be very informal, but then already it was starting to show that the structures needs to be in place to make SAFFA and competative FF better and lets call it a bit more fair. The fact that we have been sending teams to fish internationally for such long time, and we are not constantly fishing at the bottom of the logs says that something has been happening to make the quality of anglers achieving top spots better year on year. The SAFFA Leaders are being voted into SASSACC structure, must also be a indication that things are progressing in the right direction.

So this thread started with a straight forward question how do you become a provincial angler? Well if you want to seriously get involved there is only one way I think, contact SAFFA, find out which are the current Provinces in good standing with SAFFA, choose the province you want to fish for, it does not need to be in your area. Contact the province and find out if you need to join a club that is affiliated to them, if so join the club. Fish club comps. and provincial tryouts and get selected to go fish at one of the Nationals A or B whatever you can achieve. Learn from the experience, take the good and the bad. Make the best from the bad and enjoy and learn from the good. Stick to your chosen province and get beter.

If the province you chose happen to be loosly structured then get involved deeper and help them formalise their structures.

If competative FF gets a few good people fishing and organising this sport will keep on growing, if it can't it will stagnate or worse return to the beginning status.

Yes you can join the province that has too few anglers to fish and am happy to put you in and fish to your harts content, or you can join a strong province and work for your spot. Either way if you love the sport you will also put in time to grow it.

BUT, here is the disclaimer or possibly a statement that just appeals to common sense, if you do not like competative FF, withdraw and leave the people that does like it be to grow the sport. If you are lucky like I believe I have been, you will look back in a few years and see:
1. that the structures are constantly getting better
2. that the time you spent competatively FF you learned a lot
3. that if the good remains and keep pushing to make it better in a few years from now ZA may have placings in WFFC year on year.

My 2c

[Andre]

Good one Grant. As always you come with intelligent objective posts.
Yes, when someone moves from one province to another, their province must release them, and notify the national structure that they are released and available to compete in their new chosen Provinces selection process. If their province does not release them, they are free to resign from their province, and wait a year (or whetever it is now), to become eligible for a new Province. In WP, as I assume it is with others, there is a constitution that dictates these things. The Provinces have to have their constitutions accepted by the National body, to ensure conformance across the board, and conformance with the constitution of the National body. As far as I know, a competitor may not fish for two provinces in the same year. Im not talking about Nationals here, but in the Provincial league structure.
Provinces are encouraged to act democratically, and autonomously, but a weak selection process, will result in a weak National performance, and like all competitions in all sports, its about winning, and doing the best that you can.
The colours, particularly WP colours, are something of an achievement, and to be very proud of.

The angler from province A has zero points in province B when he transfers. He is therefore 500 points behind Pietie. If he is really good he might be able to overtake Pietie if he can make it up, but if he has missed too many of the trials, it should be clear cut that the one with higher points goes through.

That is how it was when i was involved at WP. i cant speak for WP now or for other provinces. I dont know their selection processes.

I am proud of my WP colours because there was a lot of people competing for those spots when i fished for them - If i were in a smaller province with only 5 people competing for spots i would probably be less proud of it - this topic is too general - you have to ask about specific provinces, which it looks like is actually what Redhumpy initially wanted to do.

In my time we had people switch from WP to Boland - in fact there was a time when it was close to a mass exodus. Even then when that happened, there were formalities that happened between the two clubs to have it done. It wasnt just a case of Pietie-Se-Broer deciding he wanted to change provinces and off he went. If i remember correctly it was approved on both sides. Not sure if it is the same now or if it is the same between other provinces.

[redhumpy]

Thanks for the insight.

Are Provincial Teams 100% self funded or do they also get funds from their Provincial governments or SASCOC or wherever?
Same with SAFFA - Lotto money etc?
Can one obtain the latest Minutes of the Annual General meeting of SAFFA anywhere?
Can this thread be permanently linked to the SAFFA website for clarity?

Before I posted this thread I was looking for the information on the SAFFA website but unfortunately it seems to have been updated a very very long time ago - Shouldn't all provincial AGM meetings also be hosted on the SAFFA website? It will make things so much more easier and competitive fly-fishing so much more accessible if all the information is available online and updated regularly.

[Korrie]

You can apply for provincial funding
You have to do a submission, fill in tons of paperwork
They look at your development structures, the amount of kids, the amount of females
The past performances, etc etc
Depending on your score etc, that you get from the criteria, you can get up to R80 000.00
This money is used for hosting the Nationals, helping pay for junior clinics, to help kids, that are not so financailly well off to go to the Nationals, Buy drift boats for the juniors etc. Rent minibusses for the kids on provincial outings etc.
You then have to give full account of the how the money was spent
I am sure SAFFA will post this on the website, as it gives clarity for lot of people on FAQ

[Andre]

The things you ask are all very good, and should happen, but remember that SAffa is run by people who give up their time to do it, and very often things are very time consuming.
If you are a member of a Provincial structure, you will have all the information through your province, and if you speak to your province, you will get all the clarity that you need.. I don't think you can expect to have access to the information if you aren't a member of a province.
Funding is largely through the efforts of the provinces, as with any sporting code. Lotto funding has been applied for in the past, but I don't know how that materialised. Funding has always been a difficult thing ever since I can remember. Boland and WP have in the past received a limited amount from the Western Province Sports Council, but only when there was a need to fund a Nationals in the Western cape, and the funding went a long way to make the event as affordable as possible for the competitors, and to pay towards some competitors who genuinely were financially challenged. I doubt that this thread would be linked to SAFFAS site, because it has nothing to do with them, and would serve no productive purpose. Your best bet, is find out who in your area can give you the info that you need.
Provincial AGM's are not posted on the site, but should be obtainable from the provinces concerned. There is nothing done in secret, and the SAFFA AGM minutes, are a key component of the individual provinces AGM's, so join a province, and you will have access to the AGM minutes.

Thanks for the insight.

Are Provincial Teams 100% self funded or do they also get funds from their Provincial governments or SASCOC or wherever?
Same with SAFFA - Lotto money etc?
Can one obtain the latest Minutes of the Annual General meeting of SAFFA anywhere?
Can this thread be permanently linked to the SAFFA website for clarity?

Before I posted this thread I was looking for the information on the SAFFA website but unfortunately it seems to have been updated a very very long time ago - Shouldn't all provincial AGM meetings also be hosted on the SAFFA website? It will make things so much more easier and competitive fly-fishing so much more accessible if all the information is available online and updated regularly.

[Korrie]

In the competitive fishing community, SAFFA is considered one of the best run and administered codes.
SAFFA is held in high esteem by the other codes. As proof of this....

Congratulations to our SAFFA President, Cheryl Heyns, on her appointment today as VICE PRESIDENT of SASACC (South African Sports Angling and Casting Confederation). We look forward to much support from the South Afican Fly Fishing fraternity for Cheryl to ensure solid representation in fly fishing at top level.

[smallstreams.co.za]

The angler from province A has zero points in province B when he transfers. He is therefore 500 points behind Pietie. If he is really good he might be able to overtake Pietie if he can make it up, but if he has missed too many of the trials, it should be clear cut that the one with higher points goes through.

Excellent, thanks Grant - it is great to know this and that there are "policies" in place that make provision for this.