Q: What is the club fundraising for?
The Waitaki Collie Club is holding the 2027 New Zealand Championships for the North Otago Centre. So we’re upgrading our trial grounds and facilities, just getting things ready and it’s quite an expense to run the event.
Q: How much of an upgrade is needed?
We had a South Island championships here in 2011 and we upgraded a few things but before that, it hadn’t been really upgraded for a very long time and a lot of the infrastructure is very old, so we will get everything up to scratch and hopefully it’ll last another 100 years.
Q: What are some of the the facilities to get a facelift?
The liberation wings, where you hold and release sheep from. There will be 1000 sheep going through each course, so it needs to run reasonably smoothly.
Q: Is the club up for the task?
Definitely. Omarama has run the past four New Zealand events for the North Otago Centre so no other club in North Otago has held a New Zealand for a very long time.
Q: How has your fundraising been going?
We’ve only just made a start. We had a raffle for a ute and it had very good support through the dog-trialling fraternity. We probably didn’t make as much as we would have liked but we did a bit of learning through that. It didn’t cost us any money anyway. We’ll probably hold another raffle again next year to keep things ticking along.
Q: What were the learnings from raffling a new Toyota Hilux ute?
The importance of getting somebody up to scratch with online marketing — that’s probably as big a thing as any, getting it out there to lots of people. There’s lots of people that want to support you but you’ve got to get the word out there.
Q: Will the club raffle another ute?
No, we’ll probably change from a ute and try something a little bit different. We’ve got a wee few plans in the pipeline but we’ll just keep them a little bit close to our chest while we’re trying to make sure it’s all going to work.
Q: Does the centre have a fundraising target?
Roughly you’re looking at around $100,000 to run a New Zealand champs, so that’s probably our target. If we can make that and make a little profit out of it, there’s always room to donate that money back to the community. We’re well aware that the community is needed to run an event of this size in our area so we’ve got to get as many people behind us as we can.
Q: How is the the health of the Waitaki Collie Dog Club?
Pretty strong really, numbers wise. A group of young local farmers are getting in behind dog trials, which is good. They are keen, but it can be a little bit imposing for the young people trying to get in. We try to welcome them as much as we can. People get a bit nervous doing things in front of other people for the first time.
Q: Are the dates locked and loaded for the New Zealand champs in 2027?
No but it will be in May.
Q: The club is looking for sponsors for the event. Why should businesses get behind your club’s effort to host the national event?
I think it’s for their benefit . About 300 competitors turn up for a week and it gets nationwide exposure. It’s quite a big thing and and it adds a lot to our community.
