COVID-19 Information for Clubs

Dear Clubs,

I hope that you and your members are well and looking forward to the progressive return to sporting activities in Western Australia. As I am sure, you are aware the WA Government has announced new COVID-19 measures effective from Saturday 6th June 2020.

By allowing groups of up to 100 people in any one area and up to 300 at a venue, many clubs will be able to start training and hold restricted competitions.

To support the gradual restart of the equestrian activities, EWA has produced the following documents:

Clubs may also be required to complete a WA COVID-19 Safety Plan.

Please note that the documents listed above will be reviewed as WA Government COVID-19 restrictions are updated.

Clubs will be able to use these documents and modify them to meet their individual needs while adhering to State Government restrictions and health safety measures to ensure the safety to all participants.

Hopefully, a return to unrestricted competition is not too far away, and EWA is preparing a protocol document for this stage. In the post-COVID-19 world, the consistent message from the Government and Health Department is that social distancing and good hygiene practices will be required for the long term. One area that all Clubs should consider is the implementation of online entry and event scoring systems to assist their training and competitions in helping to meet compliance protocols, especially regarding contact tracing.

EWA advises the use of Nominate

Nominate is the EWA preferred online event management system. The reasons are as follows:

Entry checks, including memberships, horse registrations are integrated directly with the entry system which helps save time and resources of the event organiser and notifying the rider in real-time if there are any problems with their entries. One of the best tools for organisers that utilise Nominate is that they can set up their event, so it will not allow riders to enter if their membership or competition license is not current or if the horse is not registered.
The compliance rate from competitors’ has increased immensely since Nominate has been in use and saving the organiser chasing up competitors’ with incorrect entries.
It also decreases the risk involved with competitors competing uninsured, on a horse not eligible for a specific class or without a competition licence.
No additional fee per transaction, for example, refunds, class changes and scratchings as Nominate uses a flat fee for service.
Live score systems are available for Dressage (including paperless Dressage with electronic Dressage tests), Eventing and Jumping that is currently in use by many clubs around Australia and in WA.
Supplies QR codes for attendee Check-In report for contact tracing purposes.

When Nominate is not used, the EWA office is required to perform the following administration steps:

Obtaining draw from event organiser insufficient time to check pre-event.
Manually checking the entries for EWA Membership.
Manually checking the entries for horse registration.
Manually checking horse competition license.
Informing the event organiser of any non-compliant entries.
Event organiser follows up competitors.
Updated draw submitted to EWA for checking.
If required further follow up.

If a club uses Nominate live event scoring, the results upload is fully compatible with EA database and performance records again significantly reducing EWA administration.

The administration involved with manual checking as opposed to using Nominate is enormous, and the cost of this is reflected in EWA administration expenses. EWA hopes that clubs take this opportunity to review their event management and use Nominate if they are not already doing so. If you wish any further information, the team at Nominate and EWA can assist.

If your club requires any assistance or advice in returning to sport in the COVID-19 world, please contact us.

Kind regards,

Dwight Pedlow
Chief Executive Officer
Equestrian Western Australia