public statement by Karting NSW
The last few weeks have seen an unprecedented number of rumours and allegations surface in the karting community. These have done nothing but create unrest and mistrust. We’d rather be focusing on good news like the fantastic numbers for Lithgow this Sunday and the growing entry list for the city of Sydney Titles in 2 weeks. But we keep getting dragged into this horrible environment that is being created from outside our organisation and community.
We wish to move forward and start implementing the plans we have for 2023. We are having a meeting with Member Club Presidents on the 13th of February to give them a very thorough presentation of where we find ourselves now the lawsuits are behind us and what we’re looking forward to. The Presidents will then have time to consult with their members and the SKC will return for a face to face General Meeting on the 18th March to vote on all the initiatives we’ll be proposing.
But in the meantime we cannot keep up with the pace of the harmful storytelling happening at the moment. So in an attempt to correct the situation and restore some positivity back into the community we want to address the most harmful rumours.
RUMOUR – KNSW is financially unstable and clubs have only weeks to move to KA before they’ve got nowhere to go.
FACT – This is absolute rubbish and damaging in the utmost. In the last 4 years we have had to spend a very significant amount (many 100’s of thousands of dollars) in legal fees to defend our organisation. This cost was on legal cases other than the TDF (where fees were recovered) and has not been recovered.
Just think what else we could have done with that money?? Just think what we can do with that money going forward now we’re not spending it on legal fees?
All of the legal cases are now finished and we have one disputed bill to resolve. We have reviewed the finances rigorously and are in a strong position going forward. We plan to use future revenue that was previously lost to our sport on legal fees, to reduce costs to clubs, promote our sport, get more people karting and attract more officials.
At the meetings with Presidents and the General Meeting we will be
- Giving attendees a detailed review of the financial costs of the legal cases.
- Giving attendees a detailed review of finances and projected revenue.
- Discussing our plan to reduce costs to clubs.
- Detailing our marketing plan to get more competitors, volunteers and officials karting.
RUMOUR – KNSW does not care or wish for higher level competition racing.
FACT – We have developed a competition structure that provides for higher level competition whilst also ensuring 100% support of club level racing. The plan focusses our resources on providing this higher level of racing for a broad range of classes and engines. We will be discussing this plan with our Presidents and Clubs.
RUMOUR – KNSW has not delivered on its strategic plan.
FACT – The plan was written in 2019. Many of the deliverables have been delivered. Some are yet to be achieved but who could have predicted the impact COVID would have on the nation and the sport. However during this period KNSW helped the clubs navigate the fast changing health regulations and were one of the first sports to get back to competition during the period when restrictions were in place. Every business and sport worldwide had to adapt and karting was no different and KNSW is very proud of the way it navigated that period.
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Nor did we anticipate in 2019 the number and veracity of the law suits KA would launch against us. As well as draining our financial resources these also drained our human resources. With only 2 staff members and a volunteer board it is true that we could not deliver on everything. Given all this we are pleased that there has been significant growth in our sport. Together we all arrested the downward spiral prior to 2019 and increased participation by 14% (over 1000 entries) compared to 2018 (even with 4 less clubs). The plan is still current for 2023. With our new Board and committed clubs working alongside us we have every expectation of delivering on this plan and developing a new plan for the next period of time.
RUMOUR – KNSW are misusing the TDF
FACT – The money that was recovered in the TDF case has been paid to KNSW and is not being used to fund day to days costs.
The TDF is now called the Club Development Fund (CDF). A policy relating to the use of these funds and forms for clubs to apply for these funds have been on our website for more than 12 months.
The funds are not going to be used to fund a CEO. They will be used to fund the CDF so clubs can apply for funds to improve their facility.
We will be discussing this more with Presidents and Clubs.
RUMOUR – KNSW don’t have any plans to attract or train officials.
FACT – We have a plan for the training and development of officials. We have secured funding for this and set dates. We also have a marketing plan to attract more officials.
We will be discussing this more with Presidents and Clubs.
RUMOUR – KNSW don’t consult with anyone.
FACT – As well as the board KNSW has a volunteer panel of officials, two wonderful employees, technical advisors and competition managers that all have input into decisions made by KNSW. We have consulted the clubs widely on the 2023 calendar, had several meetings with Club Presidents, involved a representative from each zone in filling the vacant Competition Director position and many others. In 2023 we have already committed to more transparency, more collaboration and more communication. The purpose of the Member Club Presidents meeting is to communicate and discuss issues and future plans, then they will take that information back to the clubs for voting instructions. A hot topic is rule changes. We are now putting a consultative process in place. The process will be faster and all clubs will have a say on rule implementation before it happens.
We are sure there are more rumours and that they will continue. If they’re negative or serve to damage KNSW or your club then you can assume they’re not true.
From now on, as we sit on the cusp of the 2023 season we wish to focus on addressing the concerns of some clubs with them directly as well as encouraging positive collaborative discussion and great team work with all our community to put new and exciting plans and procedures into place.
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