Hoping that you are all keeping well, and managing to do at least a little bit of training so your return to the gym isn’t too much of a shock!!
Following Wednesday evenings QWA Management Committee meeting via Teleconference we wish to advise:
Return to Sport Update
The QWA office/Management Committee is very much involved with information sharing and pre planning with State peak bodies regarding the return of play for sport in Queensland. Restrictions being lifted as of 15th May are only intended to apply to LEISURE ACTIVITIES. Not organised return to training. Our first opportunity to recommence training within our clubs will be the 12th June. In the period from now until the June date the QWA will be finalising our draft COVID – Safe document to go to the QLD Government for approval so that we are up and ready to roll come June 12th. This can then be adopted by our affiliated clubs whilst taking into consideration their own unique differences – size of each facility, membership numbers etc. The workload of the Chief Health Officer and team is already significant so please do not lodge individual plans for your club with them. More prescriptive infomration is expected from the Department of Sport in the next few days.
Who, What, When, Where…
Items you could start thinking about are the sizes of your floor space, access to hand washing facilities or hand sanitiser, scheduling training sessions to specific times and duration, supplies you will need for gym equipment to be cleaned between use by different members, how you are going to educate members on a standard cleaning regime, removal of bench seating and adding in single seating per platform, removal of chalk bowls, gym signage that reminds members about healthy community guidelines, where possible one designated entry point with another used for exit, and how to keep data on every individual gym member who uses your facility during this period re contact details, training time, platform number – in a contact-free manner, environmental cleaning of your gym and in particular high touch areas including shared bathrooms.
Member Engagement
We have had two Teleconference meetings with Club Representatives during the shut- down period, and plan to continue these into the future on a monthly basis – circulating through different regions with small groups of up to 5 clubs invited to specific meetings.
Thank you to Tara Noonan for her series of Social Media Posts featuring our Olympic hopefuls.
You have a chance of winning one of three prize packs of a pair of QWA socks and a QWA lanyard by logging into your QWA account and doing your Online Referee training – you can redo a level or choose to complete a new level. Remember we are aiming for all active QWA Technical Officials to complete online referee training yearly. Promotion concludes 12 June 2020.
Competitions
Taking into account Queensland Government restrictions on the organisation of mass gatherings and the earliest date for the relaxation of restrictions on the size of gatherings set as the 10th July we wish to provide some advice about up and coming events on the existing QWA calendar.
The Club Challenge will be the first competition back – July 24-26. This will also align with the Eleiko Email Tournament dates.
Formal postponement of the Youth & U15 States at Toowoomba in light of return to mass gathering predicted dates falling only 1 week prior to the scheduled competition date was agreed on. This will assist with any changes to the proposed 10th July date by QLD Government, and also allow for an appropriate lead time for organising a State Championship Competition.
We will also have more information to share once we hear AWF plans for the resumption of National Championships. Our existing calendar will then be updated.
Other items to consider may be that as there is no qualifying standard required for competition in the U15 Nationals, and to work through limits to size of gatherings, there may be no State U15 Championships in 2020, just an Under 17 Championships. All going well U15’s will have the All Schools to look forward to in November.
Lets all make sure we do the right thing so that we can return to some level of business as usual. Remember restrictions are set by the State Government and can be changed with little or no prior notice responding to the state of the communities health at large.
Active QWA Coaches
The QWA is pleased to introduce a policy of decreased membership fee rate for QWA Coaches with 5 or more registered QWA member lifters. These eligible QWA coaches will be able to take out Competition Official Non Lifter/Non Coach membership and still be fully covered for competing/lifting themselves. A small thank you for the vital role they play in our sport.
Other
Reminder to support the AWF iSO LIFT Virtual Tournament. Find more information here: https://olift.awf.com.au/olift/entry/
This will replace the existing document currently on the QWA Website. Remember that when you sign up as a QWA member you are agreeing to abide by all of the policy’s of the QWA.
The QWA now has its very own QWA lanyards. QWA members with a Blue Card will be eligible for a free lanyard – to be collected at specified competitions on presentation of your Blue Card, or you will be able to purchase them from our Merchandise store: https://queensland-weightlifting.myshopify.com/
Blue Cards can be applied for during this period – just use 15 Barrie Road, Araluen, Q 4570 as the postal address rather than the usual QWA address. Applications can also be emailed in at any time to qwa@qwa.org or officiating@qwa.org
Any questions regarding any of the above please email qwa@qwa.org
Have an awesome weekend!
Deb:)
